24

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‌CHAPTER 24

13 September 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Deva means divine and vishwa means the universe the divine universe. And that’s exactly how it is. God is not separate. It is not a separate reality. The whole world is divine. The creation and the creator are not two things. They are one, a single unity.

So remember it, and start looking for God everywhere. Once you do, you will start feeling peace there. Looking in the trees, in the birds, in the animals, in the man, in the friend, in the enemy, in success, in failure, just go on looking for Him. And you will find Him everywhere.

In pleasure He is, and in pain also. In life, in death also. The whole universe, the whole existence, is divine. Imbibe that spirit as deeply as possible.

Anand means bliss and hansa means a swan – swan of bliss. The swan is very symbolic in the East, mm? – the whiteness of it, the purity, the innocence of it, and the capacity to fly to the very peaks of the Himalayas. The land of the swan is just beyond the Himalayas. The most pure lake in the world is just beyond the Himalayas – Mansorovar – and the swans live there. They come in certain seasons and then they go back.

So the word swan has become symbolic. We are in this world, but not of it. We come here but we have to go. Our home is beyond the Himalayas. Our home is the pure innocence of Mansorovar. Maybe for the time being we are here, but we don’t belong here. So remember this: that this world – the so-called world of desires, ambitions, power, money – is not the real world, and we don’t belong to it. Maybe an overnight stay, but in the morning we go. That is the meaning of the word hansa.

And keep your eyes to the purest virgin peaks of the Himalayas – untouched, unviolated. The highest plenitude should always be remembered. One may live in the valley – one should not forget

the peak. One may live in darkness – one should not forget the morning. Even in the darkest night, remember the dawn is coming closer, closer.

[Osho suggested he do the Tathata group – a group to help one break the conditionings of the mind.]

The mind is a by-product of the society. It is a trick of the society. The society has put it inside you to control you. It is like electrodes, and it can be manipulated from the outside.

[Osho spoke about the experiment that Delgado did with a bull. By placing electrodes in the brain of the bull, Delgado was able to control the actions of the bull.

He would press one button and the bull would immediately become angry and charge towards Delgado. When the bull was just a breathtaking foot away from him, Delgado would then push another button, bringing the bull to an abrupt halt.]

The same has been the trick of the society. Sooner or later, at least in Russia or in China, they will try the electrode with the human brain – and the person will never know. When a child is born, with a small operation the electrode can be put there. The child will never come to know; he will think that he is doing certain things.

But the same has been done in a very primitive way already. The society has told you to do this. When you do whatsoever the society says you should do, it appreciates you, applauds, awards. And when the society says not to do this, and you do it, it punishes you, throws you into the jail or threatens you with hell and hellfire and eternal torture. This is the same thing but in a very primitive way.

It takes a long time to train the child – years – but once the child is trained, the mind is created. Then that mind goes on controlling you. You don’t know who you are then. The mind always comes in. It won’t allow you to be free. It won’t allow you to be yourself. It won’t allow you to have your own life. It goes on interfering in everything, whatsoever you do. Unless you follow it, you will feel guilty. Unless you follow it, you will start repenting. And if you follow it, you go against the very nature. Then too you don’t feel fulfilled.

This is the dilemma that humanity is in. If you follow the mind, you remain unfulfilled because then you are not following your intrinsic nature. You are going against your own tao, against your own dharma, against your own reality. Then you feel unfulfilled, frustrated. If you don’t follow this mind, you feel guilty. That’s why whenever you are happy, you always find, side by side, a certain guilt arising, as if you are doing something wrong. When you are unhappy, everything is okay. When you are happy, you are doing something wrong. Suddenly the mind starts creating trouble for you.

[A sannyasin says: I was in the Enlightenment Intensive group, and I just discovered that I make people feel guilty because I try too hard.

When things were too overpowering in the room, I stop, I freeze. If somebody is screaming, I can’t talk; I’m concerned with their screaming.]

It is good. We are not aware of many things that we go on doing. This is a good insight. By our attitudes we go on interfering with people – sometimes so unconsciously that you may not be aware;

even the person who has been interfered with may not be aware. But just by our gestures, our face, just by our vibes, we go on interfering.

By and by one should relax and stop that, because to interfere in somebody’s life is to interfere in his freedom. If somebody is screaming, that’s his thing. You neither have to be disturbed nor have to make him feel guilty that you cannot talk when he screams. You are not distracted by his screaming – you are distracted by your interpretation of it. So if you simply listen to the scream, there is no problem; it is not a distraction. It will be there but you can continue.

That’s why I have made this ashram in a city. I could have gone to the Himalayas. There meditation comes very easily, but then it is lost easily also. When you move back to the plains, it is lost. I am sitting just amidst a town, a city with all the distractions of the trains passing by, the aeroplanes, the rickshaws and the cars; every sort of disturbance is there.

I would like you to relax in this disturbance, because in fact you will be living in this disturbance for your whole life. People cannot live in the Himalayas forever, and not everyone can live there. It will be an ugly world if everybody goes to the Himalayas, and it will be a danger to the Himalayas also; it will be destroyed.

People have to live normal lives. Where all sorts of disturbances are, one has to accept them. One has to remain calm and quiet amidst them. So remember, my meditation is not a method of concentration. [See Nothing To Lose But Your Head, Tuesday February 17th, 1976, where Osho talks about concentration as opposed to meditation. ]

Concentration is very narrow. It excludes the whole world and includes only a small part of it – for example, a dot on the wall. You concentrate on it, so in your consciousness only the dot on the wall is included and everything else is excluded. This is unnatural. Consciousness should be open and flowing everywhere in all directions.

Meditation is all-inclusive. It does not exclude anything. It absorbs everything. So if a train passes by, a meditator will simply absorb it. He will simply listen to it. It is beautiful; there is nothing wrong with it. Your mind is open... the train, the noise – then it goes. The noise vibrates for a while, it echoes for a while, and then it goes. There is nothing to be worried about. But if you are trying to concentrate, the very noise takes you away from your concentration. We are not trying to concentrate at all, so nothing can be a distraction. Everything has to be included, absorbed. Just try it – and you will feel very beautiful.

A great benediction comes to a person who becomes all-inclusive. You listen to me and a bird starts screeching – you listen to that too. The train passes[a sound of a loud horn in the background] this

horn – you listen to that too. You are simply open from every side. You are a circle of consciousness, not a narrow mind. You are all-dimensional, not one-dimensional.

Concentration is one-dimensional, a very poor thing. Meditation is all-dimensional. But in the West thousands of books have been written which say that meditation is concentration – which is absolutely wrong. Nothing can be more wrong than that statement. They are opposites.

So just be all-inclusive. In the next group, go on doing your thing and let the whole world do its own thing. Just relax and do it. Don’t do it with a tension. If you do it with a tension, you concentrate. If you do it in a let-go, there is no problem in it.

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