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‌CHAPTER 8

8 October 1978 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Deva means divine, viryo means life, energy – divine life energy. The divine is the hidden part of reality... the inner part of reality. The outer is visible; the inner is invisible. The outer is available through the senses; the inner is available only through consciousness. So those who depend only on the outer senses see reality on the circumference. They never penetrate the core of it, the centre of it. Those who depend only on the senses are bound to remain materialists; for them the divine remains non-existential. Not that it doesn’t exist – it exists, but it needs a different kind of approach.

The eyes cannot see it – the eyes can only see the form, and the totality is formless. The ears can hear only the sound, and the totality is soundless. It is utter silence, stillness. The centre is just the opposite of the periphery. This is the polarity: the centre can be approached only if you become centered.

So god is known only by closing your eyes. If you open your eyes you see the world; if you close your eyes and see, you will see god. But ordinarily even if you close your eyes you will see the world reflected because that has become habitual. The mind knows only one way of contacting – that is through the form. Slowly slowly one has to learn another technique: to contact the formless. That is the divine in existence. And to know the divine, all that is needed is an overflowing energy, overflowing vitality.

When the tree is overflowing with vitality it blooms and flowers. If the tree is not overflowing with vitality it will never be able to produce flowers. Flowers are a luxury. Only when you have too much and you cannot contain it, do they burst forth.

So is the case with spirituality: it is a flowering – it is the ultimate luxury. If you are overflowing with vitality, only then does something like a golden flower bloom in you. William Blake is right when he says ‘Energy is delight.’ The more energy you have, the more delight you will have.

Not to have energy is to remain depressed. Despair comes because energy goes on leaking; and people have forgotten how to contain it. In a thousand and one thoughts, worries, desires, imagination, dreams, memories, energy is leaking. And energy is leaking in unnecessary things which can be easily avoided. When there is no need to talk people go on talking. When there is no need to do anything they cannot sit silently: they have to do.

People are obsessed with doing... as if doing is a sort of intoxicant; it keeps them drunk. They remain occupied so they don’t have time to think about the real problems of life. They keep themselves busy so that they don’t bump into themselves. Otherwise they are afraid – afraid of the abyss that is yawning there within. So they keep hanging around things necessary, unnecessary; they invent problems and they remain clinging to those problems. This is how the energy goes on leaking and why you never have too much of it.

One has to learn to drop the unnecessary, and ninety percent of ordinary life is unnecessary; it can be easily dropped. One has to be almost telegraphic, just the essential, and you will have so much energy left that one day suddenly you start blooming, for no other reason at all. Just the level of energy goes on becoming higher and higher and one day suddenly it has touched the highest peak in you and the golden flower.…

So these two things have to be remembered: the real is not only the apparent – the apparent is only the outside of the real; the inner is not available through the senses. For that one has to become rooted in one’s consciousness, one has to become awareness. And second: to become that awareness, to become that flowing of awareness, one has to conserve energy.

This is the meaning of sannyas: to renounce the unnecessary, to renounce the meaningless. And then nothing else is needed. Energy goes on accumulating and one day suddenly it has reached to that degree where the revolution happens on its own. It is just like heating water: at one hundred degrees it suddenly evaporates. At one hundred degrees your energy blooms and you are no more an ordinary mortal. Suddenly you have become aware of something immortal in you, timeless, deathless. To know that is to know god, and to live without knowing it is to live just a futile life.

Prem means love, pranam means salutation, a salute – a loving salute. And that has to become the very lifestyle of a sannyasin – that he is constantly in that state of gratitude towards existence, that he is a loving salute, that he is constantly bowing to existence... to the trees, to the mountains, to the sun, to the moon, to people, to animals, to the earth. It has to become the very lifestyle, an undercurrent – that one is constantly grateful, that deep down with every breath one is saying ‘thank you’, that one is overwhelmed because the gifts of god are so many.

Prayer becomes false when we start demanding something; prayer is true when it is only a thanksgiving and nothing else. Because already much has been given to us... much that we don’t deserve at all, for which we have not done anything. Life has been given to us – we have not paid for it, we have not earned it. It is a gift, a sheer gift.

These two words are very important. One is ‘pranam’ – it means a thankful salute. Another is ‘prasad’ – ‘prasad’ means gift. Prasad is from god’s side. Pranam is from our side. He gives – we can only be grateful. In return we have nothing to give. Life is a prasad, a gift. Love is a prasad, a gift... this beautiful existence and so many possibilities and so much potential. Each moment is

pregnant with infinite benediction. God is the giver. All that we can do in return is bow down in deep gratitude. His gift is called ‘prasad’; our gratitude is called ‘pranam’.

So become a constant salute. Slowly slowly it penetrates so deeply that small things, very small things.… You are feeling thirsty: just a glass of water, and the thirst is quenched then there arises great thankfulness. You see a flower and suddenly you are possessed by its beauty. One would like to bow down, one would like to be on one’s knees and have a little prayer. And then at each step and in every moment you will find many many things every day. And these things were always happening but you were not aware.

Only a grateful person becomes aware of the infinite gifts that are constantly being showered on us. The more grateful you are, the more you become aware how many gifts are being given. The more you feel grateful, the more you become open to receive. And those who are ready to receive, all is given to them. Nothing else is is needed... just an open heart.

Man has to become a host, then god is ready to become the guest.

Prem means love, anamo means nameless. Love is indefinable. Nothing can be said about it, nothing at all, and whatsoever can be said about it will be false just because it has been said. It is something so deep that it cannot be brought to the surface world of language. It is something so mysterious that it can only be experienced, tasted, lived, but cannot be expressed.

Language is absolutely inadequate. It says nothing about deeper things. It is good in the marketplace; in the temple of life it is utterly useless. k has been created for the marketplace, for the mundane; it has nothing to do with the divine. Hence lovers become silent. There is a kind of awe. They are overwhelmed by some unknown energy, but they cannot figure out what it is – it is nameless; no word can contain it.

You can dance, you can sing, you can play on a guitar – that may be far better than using language because that will be more existential. You can laugh, you can weep... yes, that may be closer to the truth, but only closer; even that cannot contain the truth as it is.

One has to enter into love utterly mindless, wordless. Hence love has become a rarity, because people have forgotten how to be still, how to be silent, how to put the constantly chattering mind aside. They have completely forgotten. The mind has possessed them absolutely, the mind has become the master. Day in, day out, awake or asleep it continues; it goes on secreting thoughts. In the day you call them thoughts, in the night, dreams, but they are the same phenomenon. It never leaves you alone, and love is possible only when the mind leaves you alone.

Then suddenly there is a transformation; you are transported into another world. Call it love or call it god – it is the same thing. It is better to call it love, because the word ‘god’ has been so contaminated by the so-called religious people. And so much blood has been shed in the name of god that the word has become almost a dirty, four-letter word. It is better to call it love because in the name of love we have not yet done so many wrongs. In the name of love man has not been divided into Hindu. Christian, Mohammedan. In the name of love man has not committed any crimes yet; it is still more pure.

Jesus says ‘God is love’; I say ‘Love is god.’ We can forget about god; we can go deep into love, and there is no need for any theologian to help us to go into love. Each heart is born with the capacity, inherent, intrinsic. Just as each seed is capable of bringing a tree into the world, each heart is capable of bringing love into the world. If we don’t, only we are responsible, nobody else. And all that is needed to bring love into the world is a silent heart.

That’s what meditation is all about: it prepares the way for love to come, it removes the barriers. It opens the doors and windows for the breeze of love to come in. It removes the curtains so that the sun of love can penetrate.

Meditation is just the negative work for the positive to happen. The positive is love.

Deva means divine, dhyana means meditation. There is a meditation which is not human, which is divine. That meditation cannot be done, obviously, because whatsoever we can do will be human. That meditation happens – it is not our part to do. On our part only one thing is needed: that if it happens we do not hinder it. We can hinder it – we cannot create it. And the real meditation is always divine; it is never human.

All human techniques lead you only so far. Ultimately one has to learn how to be available to god. It is not a question of doing. No effort can help; on the contrary a kind of effortlessness is needed, a surrender. One simply falls silent, one falls into a kind of relaxed state. One is not doing anything – one is just being, and then it happens. And only that meditation can liberate.

The meditation that you can manage will remain a mind game. It is your mind which is in control; it is the mind which is doing the meditation. But this meditation cannot take you beyond the mind. How can it take you beyond the mind if the mind is the doer of it? Then it is manipulated by the mind and remains something in your hands.

The real meditation is that which is not in your hands; on the contrary you are in its hands. But these human techniques help; they bring you to a point of frustration. They bring you to a point of hopelessness, they bring you to a point of helplessness. They bring you to a point where, out of despair, seeing the vicious circle of your doing, that it leads nowhereAgain and again you come

to the same point, you are back to your mind.one day, this insight dawns, that your doing is really

your undoing. In that very moment, is let-go.

Then all doing disappears, all effort disappears. Something descends from the beyond. That is liberation. And even a single moment of that glimpse is enough. You are never the same again – you cannot be the same again. God has been contacted.

[A sannyasin says: I think I’ve changed since I’ve been here this time.]

You have changed.and you will go on changing. The only problem in life is to get stuck somewhere.

If one goes on moving and changing one is bound to reach the ultimate, just as every river is bound to reach to the ocean if it goes on moving. The problem arises only if it stops moving. And that’s what life energy is: a river. God is nothing but that ocean that is waiting in the beyond.

There is no need to do something special in any way to reach to god. All that is to be remembered is: go on changing, go on flowing. Never get stuck at any point – remain river-like. And that has started.

Just remember that change is life. Each moment remain available to the new. Always welcome the new so that change can continue. What people do is just the opposite: they cling to the old; then change stops. The change is with the new. With the old there is no change, but people cling to the old because the old seems to be secure, comfortable, familiar. You have lived with it so you know it, you have become skilful in it, knowledgeable about it. With the new again you will be ignorant. With the new you may commit mistakes; with the new, who knows where it will lead? Hence fear arises and out of the fear people cling to the old. And the moment you start clinging to the old you have stopped flowing. That’s what I mean when I say ‘getting stuck’.

Remain available to the new. Always go on dying to the past. It is finished! Yesterday, yes, is yesterday, and it can never come back. If you cling to it you will be dead with it; it will become your grave. Open the heart for that which is coming. Welcome the rising sun and always say goodbye to the setting sun. Feel grateful – it has given so much – but out of gratefulness don’t start clinging to it.

If this is remembered life goes on growing, maturing. Each new step, each new adventure, brings new richness. And when the whole life is a movement, by the time death arrives one is so rich and one has known something so tremendously of the ultimate that death cannot take anything away. Death comes only to poor people – those who have not lived. I call them poor – the people who have remained in the familiar, the secure, the people who have stopped growing long before death comes; they are already dead.

But a person who is young and alive when death comes – young because he is still ready to receive the new, alive because he has still the spirit of adventure... as young as Socrates dying, as alive as Socrates dying. Even when he was dying he was so thrilled with the idea of death. Death became the adventure. He was so intrigued – he was just like a child, waiting. The poison was being prepared and the man who was preparing the poison was delaying... just out of love for Socrates: ‘Let this beautiful man live a little longer.’ So he was delaying and Socrates would come again and again to the window and would ask ‘What is the matter? Why are you delaying so long?’ The man was angry and he said ‘You seem to be almost mad! I am delaying deliberately so that you can live a little longer! But you are in such a hurry! Why are you in such a hurry?’ And Socrates said ‘But I have lived my life – I have known what life can give. I would like to know now what death can give.’

This is the enquiry of an alive consciousness. Even death is conquered. How can Socrates be dead? impossible. Such spiritual richness – death is defeated. Death died, not Socrates; Socrates still lives. That spirit is immortal.

So go on moving, go on changing. That’s my message to my sannyasins: they have to become rivers; never get frozen, never get stuck. Never get too attached to the past – remain available. This is the way to live dangerously, but to live dangerously is the only way to live. There is no other way.

[A sannyasin says: I always feel a great lack of receptivity.]

Mm mm... I don’t see that that is the problem; the problem is something else. And the mind is very clever: it always creates a false problem to protect the real problem so you become engaged with the false problem. And because it is false it can never be solved, so you become occupied and the real problem remains. It is a device. It has to always be remembered, that the mind cannot give you the right diagnosis – it always gives you the wrong diagnosis; hence the need of a master.

Because if you listen to your mind, the mind will tell you ‘This is the problem’, and because you know nothing except your mind, you will believe it! People never doubt their minds, that’s the problem. They doubt everything else – they never doubt their minds, and their whole life becomes a mess. The beginning of spiritual life is the doubt about your own mind.

That is the function of a master – to create a doubt against your mind. This is another aspect of the same thing; to create trust in the master means to create doubt in your own mind. If you believe in your mind, you cannot trust the master; if you disbelieve your mind, then only can you trust the master.

It is not the real problem; you are receptive. The problem is that you cannot accept yourself as you are. You have great ideas about how you should be, you have ideals about how you should be. And because of those ideals you remain in a kind of anxiety, because you are always falling short. Now this is a very vicious circle: first you make a great ideal.The great ideal means it is

as far away from you as possible, that’s why it is great. You put it as high as you can – it is the ultimate in your imagination, you cannot imagine beyond it. It is the Everest, it is far away in the clouds, and then suddenly you look at yourself and now you are crawling on the earth, in the dust. So the gap between you and the ideal becomes so big, it creates anxiety, anguish, sadness, a kind of meaninglessness, futility, despair. It is because of the ideal.

Those ideals have to be destroyed, they have to be dropped; that’s what I mean by accepting yourself totally. You are the way you are, and this is the only way you can be; there is no other way. So not even a small lurking desire to be somebody else has to be allowed, because that very desire will create despair; it will condemn you. You will always be comparing and you will always feel inadequate. That’s the misery that you create.

My basic teaching is: accept yourself in toto. Nothing is missing, all is as it should be. Everyone is already perfect. Perfection has not to be achieved; it is already there. The moment you accept yourself, it is revealed. If you don’t accept yourself, you go on chasing shadows, mirages, faraway mirages. And they only look beautiful when you are very far away from them. The closer you come, the more you find that there is nothing, only sand; it was a mirage. Then you create another mirage. And this is how people waste their whole life.

Just accept yourself as you are. Don’t condemn, nothing has to be condemned, nothing has to be judged. There is no way to judge, no way to compare, because each person is unique. There has never been a man like you and there will never be again, so you are alone; comparison is not possible. And this is the way god wants you to be, that’s why you are this way. Now don’t fight with god, and don’t try to improve upon yourself. otherwise you will create a mess. That’s how people have created a mess out of their lives.

So this is my message to you: in the days that you will be there, accept yourself. It will be hard, very hard, because the idealistic mind is always there and and watching and saying ‘What are you doing? This is not the right thing to do! You are not supposed to do it. You have to become a great man. You have to become a Buddha or a Christ and what are you doing, Sarjano? This does not look like a Buddha. You are behaving like a fool. Are you mad?’

Accept yourself. In that acceptance is Buddhahood. And when will you be back?

[A sannyasin says: I’m totally in your hands – please guide me.]

You have come to the place where you belong, and I know it has been a long search, but it is how it happens.

It is natural – one has to knock on many doors before one finds the right door. And even knocking on those wrong doors is helpful, because that is the only way to find the right door – there is no other. One should be grateful for all those mistakes, errors, for all those cul-de-sacs, going astray. All that is needed, it is a part of growth. This is the fire of life, and it is only through this fire that one becomes steel. And one gets only what one deserves, and when one deserves it.

And when the disciple is ready, the master appears.

If the master appears before the disciple is ready, the disciple will not be able to recognise him; it is not possible to recognise him. Unless the need has arisen in you, unless you are really hungry for it, you will not be able to see it.

So Jesus comes – only a few people feel his presence; others don’t feel it at all. Others think that he is mad or a dangerous person or a criminal. Others only think of how to get rid of him; his presence is unbearable, intolerable. Only for a few people is he manna, only for a few people is he spiritual food, nourishment... but only for those who are ready. And this has always been so.

But once you have started recognising somebody as your master the transformation has already set in. In that very surrender the real thing has already happened. All else is secondary – all else will follow in its own time; there is no need to worry about it. The basic thing is surrender, and if one can start with it, one has arrived; one is already at the goal. Then there is no question of missing.

The great problem is how to seduce people to surrender. That takes a long time, that takes unnecessary work, energy; it is a sheer wastage. But when somebody comes surrendered, things are so simple and so easy; then the growth is very natural.

You have come ready and now you can leave it to me. Now it is my responsibility; it is my work and my problem. You have nothing to do about it – just relax.

[To another sannyasin, Osho says:]

You are unnecessarily worried. Your worry is purely mental, and you are creating it. In fact it is not there, because your energy is completely free of worry. When some problem is in the energy, then it is actual. But some problem can be only in the mind and have no corresponding complexity in the energy; then it is just false. It is just like a hypochondriac who thinks he is ill; he is not ill but he suffers. His suffering is true but his suffering is not real. Certainly true, because he is suffering – he thinks that he has a stomach ache and because he thinks and believes in it, he creates it – but the body is completely free of it. He does not need any medicine. All that he needs is a homeopathic treatment – just sugar pills.

And that’s what your situation is: you don’t have any problem; you are creating it. And sometimes it happens that when you don’t have a problem – the mind has nothing to do and the mind feels

absolutely at a loss as to what to do – it starts creating problems. k has always lived with problems and always felt good with problems because there is something to do, something to solve, something to fight; there is a challenge. Now all problems have disappeared, there is no problem, and the mind is at a loss.

You have to understand it and just drop all those worries. I am your security – what else do you want to be secure about? If my love cannot be your security then nobody’s love on this earth can be your security.

So just drop all that nonsense, and things are perfectly good!

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