27

< Previous | Contents | Next >

‌CHAPTER 27

28 January 1978 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Anand means blissful, nataraj means a god of dance – blissful god of dance; that will be the meaning of the whole name. And let dancing be your meditation here: dance as much as you can and get lost in dancing. The whole point is to get lost, and this is the right age to dance and to get lost. The more grown up one is, the more difficult it becomes to dance, because one becomes more and more serious. And life is fun – it is not seriousness.

Veet means beyond, vidhau means structure, discipline, methodology. Truth is beyond structure. It comes only when you are in an unstructured state of consciousness. It comes only when there is no expectation for it, not even preparation for it, because all preparation is expectation. Truth comes unawares, truth comes as a surprise. You cannot manage and manufacture it; it comes when it comes.

There is no way to truth. This is one of the most fundamental things to understand, that there are no ways to truth. All ways lead astray, because having a way means that you have already decided what truth is. You have decided the direction, the dimension, you have decided how to approach it, what discipline to follow, what doctrine to adopt. Wherever you reach will just be a projection of your own mind. Not that you will not reach anywhere; you will reach somewhere, but that will be just your own mind playing a game with itself. There is no way to truth, because the mind is the barrier and it is the mind that creates the ways. The mind has to go. The mind has to cease for truth to be. The mind is structure.

Truth is not a discipline either, because truth is freedom. Truth is a bird on the wing, not a bird in the cage. The cage may be of gold, may be studded with diamonds, but a cage is a cage and it cannot contain freedom. Truth can never become a prisoner, its intrinsic quality is freedom, so only those who are capable of being free attain to it.

People go on changing their slaveries – from one slavery to another slavery, from one prison to another prison. The moment they are out of one they get into another. They don’t lose even a single moment; one chain broken and they have already prepared another. So one goes on from one discipline to another, one school to another, one method to another. That is just postponing, this is not the way to truth. One has to understand that there is no way to become worthy of truth; that one has to be utterly humble, unworthy, that one has to know: ‘On my own nothing is possible.’ In that helplessness, in that utter hopelessness when the mind knows no movement and everything has stopped, truth comes.

Jesus has said ‘Truth liberates’, because truth is liberation; it is freedom and it frees you. But the people who discipline themselves are the prisoners and they themselves are their prison. Immorality creates one kind of prison, morality creates another kind. There are secular prisons and there are religious prisons, but prisons all the same. Truth comes to a consciousness which is neither moral nor immoral, which is neither good nor bad, which is neither religious nor irreligious... a consciousness which has no prejudice, no ideology, no doctrine. In that utter silence when ideologies have disappeared, disciplines have been dropped, methods are no more meaningful, truth comes.

Man cannot reach truth, he can only wait for truth to come. So don’t be a seeker; that is my message in your name. Seekers never find. If you want to find, drop seeking. Just be, enjoy being. Don’t hanker for any goal, spiritual or otherwise; forget about the future. Live the moment as totally as possible, as joyously as possible, and wait. Let this word ‘wait’ become your prayer. Keep it in your consciousness that one has to learn waiting, patience, infinite patience, and then one day the benediction! It comes suddenly, it comes without warning. One moment it is not there and another moment it is there and you are transformed. It is not something that you can grab. The seeker is a grabber, the seeker is greedy; so I say ‘Seek not and find.’

[A visitor says he is confused about the master-disciple relationship. He doesn’t know if he is ready for the spiritual path.]

Mm mm. A few things.… First: there is no purpose in life. All search for purpose is bound to fail. To live purposelessly is the way of being religious; religion is not a purpose. Politics is a purpose, business is a purpose; religion is not a purpose. What is the purpose of a rose flower? What is the purpose of a song? So is the case with religion: it has no goal. Life is not goal-oriented. Logic is goal oriented. Your problem is not that you don’t have a purpose in life; your problem is that you want to have a purpose in life.

That is your problem: you cannot allow this non-purposiveness of life; you want to enforce some purpose on it. You can’t allow this directionless flow. You are a coward! Cowards always want to narrow things down into a certain purpose, into a certain direction, into a certain goal, then they are at ease. It needs great bravery to live without purpose, it needs great heart to live without any direction, just to live for no reason at all, to live without any motivation, for the sheer joy of living!

If you search for purpose then this is not the place for you. But one thing you should keep in mind: there are many people around the world who will say ‘We will give you purpose’, but you will be deceived again and again.

... Because what can they do? They are promising something which is against life. Not that they are deceiving; they may just be trying to help you. They may be good people, they may not be cheats, charlatans; I am not saying that. They may be do-gooders, but they do harm... not that they intend to but they do, because they keep on helping your illusions. This is a place where we destroy illusions. I don’t give you any hope, because there is no hope possible. I can only make you alert enough to live without any hope and then there is great joy, because with hope comes future. with future comes anxiety. With hope you start losing the present and you start postponing life. And this whole idea that there has to be a purpose is utterly meaningless. Even if somebody says ‘This is the purpose,’ then again the problem will arise, ‘What is the purpose of this?’ Somebody says ‘To attain to god is the purpose’; but why? What is the purpose of attaining to god? The question remains the same; ad infinitum. A thousand and one answers can be given but the question is not solved. You simply go on pushing the question a little further away, but it is there and sooner or later you will be encountering it. Why not encounter it right now? Why waste time? There is no purpose in life, and that’s why life is beautiful. If there were purpose, life would be American and would not be beautiful at all! (some laughter) It would be a business.

So one thing: if you want to be here, within seven days you will get into trouble. So if you want to be here, be alert that this is a place where we destroy purposes. We don’t give any consolations, we don’t give any securities. We are not helping people to improve, no, not at all; I am the last person to help you to improve. Those improvers have poisoned you so much. I simply make you alert to enjoy whosoever you are. There is no condemnation, there is no evaluation, there is no judgement. Good or bad are not the words that we use here in this place. Open and closed are the words that we use instead of good and bad. Alive and dead are the words that we use instead of good and bad. We don’t divide humanity into saints and sinners. We only divide humanity into people who are aware and who are not aware.

The second thing: I am not a perfect man. Nobody can ever be perfect, nobody has ever been perfect. Life does not allow anybody to be perfect, because in -imperfection there is growth, and life is a growing phenomenon – it is evolution. Perfection is a dead-end, there is no going beyond it; then you commit suicide.

You have some idea of perfection and if you look at me with that idea, you will be puzzled. I am not a perfect man; nobody has ever been, nobody will ever be. Life is not an opportunity to become perfect. Perfection is foreign to life. Again, we use the word totality here, not perfection. One can be total, each moment one can be total, but totality is not perfection. Totality is wholeness and holiness. If you are loving somebody, love totally. I am not going to say to love perfectly; that is stupid. How can you love perfectly? That is goal-oriented. Then you have an idea ‘This is perfection and this should be fulfilled. If it is fulfilled, then love is right.’ Then you put something higher than love – perfection. I simply say be total in it, be utterly lost into it. While you are in love, why not be total? Why go half-heartedly? If you are eating, then eat totally; drinking, drink totally. If you are angry then be totally angry. Do things totally.

There is a very famous anecdote about Mulla Nasrudin; Mulla Nasrudin is a sufi device. When he was old he was made justice of peace. The first day he was in court a man was brought to him. He was crying and weeping and he said, ‘I have been robbed! All my clothes have been taken, my money has been taken. And this has happened just on the boundary of this town, so the thieves must belong to your town. You have to look, sir, and you have to find those thieves.’ The man was

only wearing a pair of underpants, and Mulla said, ‘But you are wearing this underwear?’ So he said, ‘Yes, they have left only this.’ He said, ‘Then they cannot belong to this town; things are done totally here. (laughter) Go somewhere else!’

And that’s what we do in this place: we do things totally. If you are here even underwear will be gone!

So, so it is very natural that you are feeling puzzled, disturbed, divided, confused. I can understand that in five days you must have gone through many trips. That is consciously, deliberately managed here. The whole process is to confuse you utterly, because only in that confusion can you drop your mind; otherwise you go on clinging. My statements are contradictory and I am a very absurd man; I’m not trying to hide it, this is how things are. But if you decide to be here... Be here totally!

[A visitor says: I feel you are my friend and my teacher but I feel sannyas is not for me right now.]

That is just defending yourself but those defences won’t work! They won’t work. You can wait for a few days, but if you are really dancing it is going to happen.

It is not something external, as people think. It is something very internal, it is something very intimate; it is a love affair. The outer symbols are just a declaration to the world that you have gone mad, that’s all. But it is something very very inner, and once a person becomes a sannyasin then he starts feeling my closeness, intimacy, because then there is no reason to defend. You can remain a non-sannyasin and do things here and it is perfectly good, but the difference will be great if you are a sannyasin and do the same things. Immense is the difference, incalculable is the difference, because without being a sannyasin you remain a visitor, an outsider. Once you are a sannyasin you become part of the family; things start flowing in a different way. And sometimes small things help so much. That is part of the mystery of life... very small things.

Somebody in deep love gives you a handkerchief. Now, it costs only four annas; nobody else can see that it is in any way significant – an ordinary handkerchief, but to you it is significant. It has no price, it is so valuable that it cannot be reduced to value – it is beyond value, but that is only to you. To anybody looking from the outside it is an ordinary handkerchief, but there is a subjective value in it.

When I give the mala there is a subjective value in it; something has been bridged. Dance for a few days and it is going to happen, mm? Good!

[A visitor has brought her reluctant husband to Poona. Now they are here he loves it and she is afraid. They say that things have not worked out so well since they have been here.]

Mm mm. It happens, because this place simply exposes you, so hidden fears surface, masks fall (she nods). You start becoming more authentic and sincere and then trouble arises. But that trouble is not a curse, it is a benediction. If you can dare a little more, things will start flowing again; then they will be really flowing.

In Zen they have a saying: Before a man starts meditating, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers. When a person goes deeper into meditation, mountains are no more mountains and

rivers are no more rivers. But when one has come home, arrived, when the meditation is fulfilled, mountains are again mountains and rivers are again rivers.

So you are in the middle: mountains are no more mountains and rivers are no more rivers. This confusion is very creative. Courage will be needed to face it, and it is better to face it, because if you escape from here you will not be able to tackle it. Your mind will suggest to you to escape, your mind will say ‘Escape from here – this is a dangerous place!’ I am not saying it is not, but it is only through danger that one learns to live.

I understand: you have been together for four years, you must have lived many pretensions, you must have lived many falsities; that is natural. Now if you are here those things will start slipping, chunks of your falsity will start disappearing. You will be able to see more deeply, and naturally you will have to come to a new understanding between you. You will have to be remarried. And before that remarriage, a minor divorce is natural. This is what is happening – a minor divorce – and that creates fear, naturally, and more in you than in him because the feminine mind hankers more for security.

So the natural tendency will be to escape, but if you escape this confusion will remain; you will not be able to tackle it. You can tackle it here. It will disappear; it is momentary, transitory. It happens to every couple that comes here. Just a little daring is needed, and once it has gone, your marriage will come to a higher place of friendship. There will be less fear, less deception, more truth, and great joy.

My suggestion is: be here, do a few groups. Alone it will be difficult to get out of the storm that you have created. If you had not come it would have been okay, but now you have come!

Mm mm... but now it is too late! (chuckling) It is better that you be here, both do a few groups. And within a month the storm will be gone and there will be great silence. But it is up to you: if you decide to go, go knowing that at home you will be in great trouble. because now he wants to stay; that will create trouble. It is you who have brought him here; now you want to escape and he wants to stay.

... And don’t be afraid; I am here, mm? This will go, this will pass away. Because I can see deep love between you; that’s why I am so certain it will pass away. There are couples who don’t have any love between them. Then it is very difficult to say to them that it will pass; they can live only through lies. If I see that there is no love and that once you start drifting away from each other there will be no coming back, then I always say so. But you love each other so it is worth going into the trouble. Love will come to a higher peak, to more clarity, more purity.

... And don’t be worried; let the turmoil explode. Your love is great and it will not be destroyed. [Osho gives them sannyas.]

This will be your new name: Ma Prem Nandana. Prem means love, nandana means a garden – a garden, a garden of love. And that’s what you have to become!

This will be your name: Swami Prem Sudheer. Prem means love, sudheer means patience – loving patience. And that’s what is needed. Love is destroyed because we don’t have enough patience for it. Love needs great patience to grow. It is not a seasonal flower; it takes time and very loving care.

So just keep these two words in your consciousness: be loving and be patient, and everything will be as it should be. Good, Sudheer. God, Nandana.

< Previous | Contents | Next >