14

< Previous | Contents | Next >

‌CHAPTER 14

14 November 1978 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Veet means beyond, santap means anguish – beyond anguish. Anguish is one of the most fundamental problems of the human mind. Man exists in anguish, man is anguish, a constant anxiety, a constant feeling of falling apart, a constant fear of being torn. No other animal in existence lives in such anguish. All other animals are at peace with themselves, except for man.

It is the agony of man but it is also the possibility of a great ecstasy. It depends how we use it: we can be destroyed by it if we remain in it; we can be very creative about it if we go beyond it. And it cannot be solved; one can only go beyond it. There is no solution. The more you try to solve it, the more puzzling it becomes, because it is something very fundamental to human existence itself. It is not an accidental problem; it is not something from the outside, it is something inside. And this is the problem: man has a past and also a future. No animal has any past, any future, they simply live in the present. Hence they are not tom apart. Although they are utterly unconscious – they don’t know where they are – they are exactly where Buddhas are, unconsciously there.

Man has become conscious. Consciousness means self-consciousness. Now he can look back. He is a Janus: he can look back, he can look ahead. He can see the past and the pull of the past. He can imagine the future and the pull of the future. And between these two pulls arises anguish: to be this or to be that, to remain confined to the past – that is comfortable, convenient but without any adventure, without any thrill – or to go into the future and forget all about the past. It is tremendously thrilling, sensational, but it has no security, no convenience, no comfort; it is risky. And man wants both together: adventure without any risk. That is not possible, adventure ss with risk; it comes in the same package. And convenience has no risk, but then life is boredom. Man has been trying somehow to manage both together, adventure and security, and it fails, it always fails and it is always going to fail. This is the anguish. How to solve it?

The majority solves it by becoming conventional, orthodox, traditional, belonging to a religion, church, political party, this and that, remaining in a clear-cut defined world, never going beyond

the boundaries, never taking the risk of being alone, never doing anything that is non-conventional, non-conformist, remaining part of the crowd, never becoming individual. But it is boring, utterly boring. That’s why you see so many people totally bored, doing all kinds of things but with a tremendous boredom, moving like robots, with no love, no romance, with no poetry, no music. They have forgotten how to dance. They don’t see anything worth dancing about, they can’t sing because they are missing significance in life and only significance can become a song. So they have settled for security, but security means death, security means boredom and security means staleness.

Very few choose the other path – the artists, the poets, the musicians, the mystics, but that is a very small minority. And they are also always in trouble because they are always in a kind of rebellion, continuously fighting against the society, troubled by the society, tortured by the society, rejected, condemned by the society. Even people like Socrates are treated as if proved by the society to be criminals – the greatest and the highest! Even Jesus is thought to be only worth crucifying! But these few people have joy. Each moment their life is a new beginning, a new sunrise. They are continuously renewing themselves. These are the real people, far and few between, but they are the real people.

One has to go beyond the security, beyond the comfort and the convenience, that the society can provide. Of course it provides it at a great cost: it takes your soul away and it gives you comfort and convenience. It gives you the warmth of the crowd but destroys your individuality. That is now way to go beyond anguish.

The artist, the musician, the poet, they also remain in anxiety and anguish; they also cannot go beyond. They have chosen the other part, the other polarity, but they are constantly worried about whether what they are doing is right.

Only the mystic knows how to go beyond.

So these are the three types of people in the world: the conventional, the anti-conventional and the transcendental. And that is the meaning of your name: the third, the transcendental, Veet Santap, going beyond the duality, going beyond past and future, going beyond all kinds of divisions, going beyond schizophrenia. Then again man is back in the world of animals and birds and trees. That is the meaning of the parable of the Garden of Eden: one is back in the garden but with something immensely new, very much enriched. Adam came out of the Garden of Eden almost like an animal. When Jesus goes back into the Garden of Eden he is a Buddha; he has attained. He goes back tremendously conscious; when he came, he came unconscious.

The whole wandering on the earth is between these two people, Adam and Christ. Everyone is an Adam and everybody needs to be a Christ and unless everybody becomes a Christ, anxiety persists, anguish remains. To be beyond anguish is to be a Christ. That is the meaning of Christ- consciousness and that is the meaning of sannyas.

Deva means divine, madhur means sweet – divine sweetness. Religion has become very bitter. It has been poisoned by the priests. It has become bitter because it has become life-negative: it denies life, it rejects life. It is bitter because deep down it is suicidal. Man has urges in him: one is eros, a love for life, the other is thanatos, a love for death. Both are there, and one can choose one’s life either as eros or as thanatos. If you choose your life as eros you will have a tremendously

CHAPTER 14.

ecstatic journey; it ends at the apex of joy, god. If you choose thanatos then you will only shrink and die and slowly slowly your life will become more and more close to death.

But that’s how it has happened in the past. The saints were worshipped if they were almost dead; the more dead a saint was, the more saintly he was thought to be. If life has no value then of course, the person who has renounced all life, an joys of life, all beautiful experiences of life, certainly he is a saint. In fact he is nothing but a psychological case. He has chosen death against life, although he calls his, death religion, god, renunciation... beautiful words, just to act as a camouflage; behind the words there is nothing but a corpse. The man has chosen not to live. And why do people sometimes choose not to live? Because living is risky and dying has no risk.

Living is always risky, because living means to live with the unknown. Dying is very very secure. In fact a man is never so secure as when he is in the grave. Nothing can happen to the person who is in the grave. Nothing can ever happen: no accident, no mistake, no misfortune. That’s the security of the grave. And people have longed so much for security that they are even ready to die for it.

Long for insecurity because that is the longing of life. Search for insecurity and the untrodden paths and go into uncharted seas, because that is the way of god. And then religion is no more bitter. It is as sweet as honey, it is as sweet as nectar.

I teach a life-affirmative religion. I am tremendously in love with life and I would like every sannyasin to be in absolute love with life. Let it be a love-affair with life and you will find immeasurable treasures.

Deva means divine, sandipa means a lamp – a divine lamp, a divine light. The lamp is inborn, it is another name for our heart. It is already there, burning bright, but we have not looked for it. A turn-about is needed. We are looking outside, we are standing on the windows of our senses and looking outside. And the world is beautiful outside, no doubt about it. It is tremendously beautiful, but nothing compared to the inner world. In comparison to the inner it is just pale, just a reflection, just an echo, but those who have not seen the inner, for them this is the only world and there is no comparison.

[He tells the lovely story of the two Sufi saints, Rabiya-al-Adabia and Hassen. Hassen, enjoying the beauty of an early morning, birds and flowers and their fragrance, called to Rabiya to come out and see.

‘You come in’ she called. You are seeing the beauty of the creation – I am seeing the creator himself!’]

A simple anecdote but Rabiya turned it into a tremendously beautiful parable. All that is needed is a turn-about, a coming-in, and great light is already there, great life is already there, great love is already there. All that one ever needs is there. Let sannyas be your turn-about!

Deva means divine, madir means intoxicated – intoxicated by the divine. God is the greatest intoxicant there is, the ultimate in drugs. In fact man has been searching for drugs not knowing why. He has been searching for drugs as a substitute for god. He is tired of his ego, he wants to drop it but he does not know how to. Drugs help a little bit. At least for a few hours he can forget it if he cannot drop it, and that forgetfulness gives him joy.

God is the ultimate drug. It does not help you to forget the ego; it simply helps you to drop it. It disappears. As god enters one’s life the ego disappears, is never found again, and with the ego go all the anxieties, all the problems, all the worries, all the nightmares. And when all these nightmares and worries and anxieties have disappeared, so much energy is released in one’s being that one is simply turned on by that energy. That is intoxication. One is simply always high – one is flying! Even if one walks on the earth, one’s feet no more touch the earth. One remains in the world and yet one is far, far away from it.

Seek god, not as the idea of some theologian, not as the idea of some religion, but seek god as your deepest thirst for intoxication... seek god so that you can dissolve into it. God is not an idea, is not a person either: god is the totality of all that is. And god is available. All that is needed is an insight into reality, into the totality, of all that is. And once you start penetrating god in different ways... Looking at a rose flower become intoxicated; let the rose relate something to you, be in a communion. Watching stars in the sky, be in tune with them. Seeing trees dance in the wind become a tree and dance, or seeing a river move, be moved. Remain available to beauty, to music, to poetry. Remain available to all that is available, and much is available.

We are not in a poor world; the world is immensely rich. If we cannot see the richness of it, it is something to do with our own deadness, blindness, insensitivity, but it has nothing to do with the world. The world is really psychedelic: there are rainbows and rainbows all around; it is very colourful. So start connecting with the world in a poetic way. The way a lover approaches his beloved, approach the world, and you will find god.

There is no need to go to the churches or to the temples or to the mosque. All that is needed is to go closer and closer to nature, to trees, animals, people, stars, rocks, rivers, and suddenly doors start opening.

And one door opens and immediately a thousand more open. The first door is the thing. Something clicks and you are available, and god starts pouring into you, as wine. Then life has a totally different quality to it... it is pure ecstasy.…

I would like you to become pure ecstasy – madir – utterly intoxicated, in such love with life that the ego disappears.

[Osho gives a sannyasin a name for a new centre.]

Svagat. It means welcome. And the world of my sannyas welcomes everyone, with no barriers – barriers of caste. religion, nationality, sex. Sannyas believes in one earth and one humanity. All the religions belong to us but we don’t belong to any particular religion. So let that be the name for your centre: Svagat.

< Previous | Contents | Next >