God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 26

Darshan 7 November 1976

[To a sannyasin, recently-arrived from the West:] These groups are just processes to unburden you a little, because God is not very far away; you just need a weightlessness. All that is needed is wings. He is very close, but everybody is so burdened - rocks upon rocks, and we cherish those rocks as if they are treasures. And underneath those rocks our wings are becoming destroyed and we cannot fly.

Man's destiny is to fly, to ascend as high as possible. Man has not been given wings as far as the body is concerned, but as far as the soul is concerned, he has the greatest wings possible. Man is a spiritual world with great wings which can take him to the farthest end of existence itself.

But then unburdening is needed. And this unburdening has always been the most essential part of all religion. That's what Jesus means when he says, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.' Poor in spirit means those who are unburdened, completely unburdened.

The Eskimos have a very beautiful tradition that every year, every person has to give as a gift to somebody - friend, neighbour, anybody - the thing that he likes most. It is tremendously significant.

Every year, the first day of the year, the Eskimos give gifts to people - but you have to give only that which is your most cherished thing. We also give gifts, but we only give gifts which are useless, which we don't use any more, which are not of any utility. Or somebody may have given those gifts to you; now you don't know what to do with them so you give them to others. Gifts go on moving from one person to another. But Eskimos have a very spiritual tradition. If you know that you will have to give after the year anything that you love very much, you will not gather in the first place, because it is so futile and it is so painful. Eskimos live very unburdened.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 25

Darshan 6 November 1976

[To a sannyasin leaving for the West.] Continue to meditate. There are many temptations for dropping meditation, and they are not all from the outside; many are from the inside. The mind tends to be lethargic and it can always find good reasons, so don't listen to the mind. Even if the reason seems to be perfectly right, be irrational but continue to meditate, because only those moments which have been used for meditation are the saved moments - all else is lost. This one understands only at the end, but then it is too late; you cannot do anything about it.

This is one of the human dilemmas: that we become wise when all time and energy is lost. When time and energy was there we were foolish. The mind is very foolish and yet very rational. In fact its foolishness consists of its rationality. Sometimes the mind will say 'What is the point? Nothing is happening.' Sometimes the mind will say 'There are better uses of your mind - there is a good movie, there is a good concert, or friends are meeting to gossip. Why waste time in sitting silently doing meditation? You can do it tomorrow. ' That tomorrow is very risky. The mind always says 'You can do it tomorrow' but tomorrow never comes.

So for these nine months make it a point not to be tempted by the mind. There is no need to repress the mind - just don't cooperate with it, at least as far as meditation is concerned. Twenty-three hours be with the mind - it is more than enough - and tell the mind, 'Only one hour I want for meditation; twenty-three are yours. But don't encroach on that one hour.' And don't allow it to encroach on that one hour. And remember, if the twenty-three hours given to the mind are not giving any satisfaction, what is going to happen if you give one hour more? It is not going to make any substantial difference.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 24

Darshan 5 November 1976

Deva means divine, natya means drama - a divine drama. And that's what life is. It should not be taken seriously. The moment you take it seriously, you miss. It is a drama. Taken as a drama it is tremendously beautiful. One has nothing to lose in it and nothing to gain; it is simply fun.

And once you start looking at life as fun, as humour, as joy, as play, all worries disappear on their own accord; all problems by and by become irrelevant. Because whenever there is a wound of seriousness surrounding that wound, problems, anxieties, worries collect. They feed on the wound of seriousness. Whenever that wound is healed, when one has forgotten all seriousness in life, one lives in a totally different way. Then life is sheer joy.

With seriousness one gets entangled in knots. The pure flow of life is lost. Any moment that you become serious, suddenly you are out of tune with God. Laughing, you are with God, and God is with you. Serious, you are a thousand miles away from God. One thing is certain - God is not serious; otherwise, so many flowers, so many stars, and so much joy in the world would not be possible. God is not like some serious headmaster in an old type of school. He is very joyful... there is so much laughter. Only man has forgotten that.

And priests have created such stupid ideologies that they make man more and more serious. They talk more about sin than about joy. They talk about hell, they talk about fear; they talk of going wrong.

They create so many problems that one is bound to become serious. Each step is dangerous with the priests. They don't allow fun, they don't allow laughter, because if you can laugh you will start laughing at the priest too - that's the fear. He can exploit you only when you are serious.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 23

Darshan 3 November 1976

Deva means divine and arpita means offered - offered to the divine, an offering to God. And that's how life has to be. If it is not an offering one remains miserable. If it is not an offering one can never feel any meaning. Meaning comes only when you are joined together with something bigger than yourself; then suddenly there is meaning. When you are alone you are meaningless. So there is some meaning in love, there is some meaning in prayer, because they relate you, they take you out of your loneliness; they become bridges. An offering to God is the greatest bridge there is. Then you join with the whole, and with that very joining there is transformation. Then you are no more the old self. In fact you are no more the self at all; that privacy disappears. You are no more enclosed - you are simply open, and there is great trust.

The modern man is missing meaning because the modern man has forgotten how to offer himself to something bigger than himself. Many substitutes have been found. Those substitutes are very dangerous. Somebody offers himself to a political party; becomes a communist, or becomes a nazi, a fascist, or something else - that is an effort to find something bigger than himself. But a political party is a political party. It has nothing to do with the eternal; it is very momentary. Then people offer themselves to nations: somebody is offered to India, somebody to the fatherland - Germany - somebody to some motherland, and somebody is offered to some church - christian, mohammedan; but these are just poor substitutes. If one is going to offer, let God be the only altar. Nothing else will be helpful. Let the ultimate be the altar and become just a flower on that altar.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 22

Darshan 2 November 1976

[The mother of a sannyasin said that Osho's discourses had helped her to understand Jesus teachings: But when I go back, catholic students will ask me the difference between Osho Christ's teaching and Jesus Christ's teachings. And there is one point, if I may ask, I would like enlightenment on.

We are taught that the kingdom of heaven flowers in a love which shows itself in good works, in caring for the poor and the sick. Sometimes I get the impression with your lovely orange people, that good works are bad words... and please I would like enlightenment.] I understand. Christ has been very much misunderstood. In fact whatsoever Christianity is saying about Christ is more about Judas than about Christ. Let me tell you one parable that you must be aware of.

Jesus came to a house and a woman - not a good woman, a prostitute - came and poured very precious perfume on his feet.

Judas was standing there and he said, 'You should stop her because this much money is wasted.

This can be given to poor people.'

Jesus said, 'When I am gone, poor people will always be there. You don't understand her heart. Let her do whatsoever she is doing.'

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 21

Darshan 1 November 1976

[A sannyasin says: I feel if I don't ask you whatever comes up - every week almost something new comes up - I'll go off the track; I'll go off on some incredible ego trip.] Mm, mm. Even the fear of going in a wrong direction is an ego trip. Why are you so afraid of being in a wrong situation? - because the wrong situation is very ego shattering and the right situation is very ego enhancing. In fact to think of the future is to think in terms of the ego. So remain with the moment If it is needed for your growth - that you should go in a wrong direction - it will happen.

And you cannot avoid it, because avoiding it will be avoiding your own growth. You cannot avoid anything. So whatsoever is available, enjoy it to your total capacity; respond to it totally. Let this moment give all that it can give to you. And the next moment is going to be born out of this moment If this moment has been rightly lived, from where will the next moment come? It will grow out of this moment. It is going to take on the same quality. It is going to be a continuity with this moment. The next moment is not coming out of the blue. It grows out of you like a leaf grows out of the tree. It comes from your roots... it is nourished by your life juice. So if this moment is lived rightly.... And when I use the word 'rightly', I don't mean in the sense puritans use it; I don't mean the meaning that moralists will like to enforce on it.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 20

Darshan 31 October 1976

This will be your name... and to explain this a few things have to be understood. There has been a perennial debate down the centuries about man's being - whether man comes into the world with an essence or just comes without any essence and accumulates essence through actions, through lifestyles, through experience... whether man comes like a seed or comes empty. The seed has the whole tree existing in it already - it may not be visible but in essence the whole tree exists in the seed. The growth of the tree is not something new. It was already there - it is simply unfolding. The seed unfolds its essence and becomes existential. So essence precedes existence - that has been one school of thinkers.

There is another school - and very prominent in the modern world: the school of the existence, existentialists. They say that man comes as an existence, with no essence; existence precedes essence. Man is not born like a seed. He comes hollow, empty. You have to create your own essence. Man comes without a soul, and the soul has to be created by doing. Your action will give you your soul - not that you already have it I am giving you a name: Swami Deva Mahasatva. Deva means divine and mahasatva means the great essence. All the religions of the world belong to the first school - that man is born like a seed.

And that seems to be scientific too. The existentialist's attitude has a flair to it looks more intriguing, more interesting, but is not true. Life is an unfolding. If you don't obstruct its way, the seed will culminate into a flowering, but the flowers always existed in the seed.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 19

Darshan 30 October 1976

Anand means bliss and shantam means silence. So you have to be blissful and very silent.

Happiness has a fever in it; it is never silent That's the difference between happiness and bliss.

Happiness is tense. One really gets tired of everything - even happiness. One cannot remain happy for a long time; you will get fed up with it. You would like to relax - you would like to move to the opposite. Hence misery follows happiness. It is a must; it is a necessity - just as night follows the day. The day you work hard; in the night you relax into oblivion.

So whatsoever we call happiness, pleasure - they are all very tense states. One is constantly excited. Excitement tires, and excitement dissipates energy. And to be excited means that you are not centred. To be excited means that you have gone out; you are wavering. To be excited means that the lake of your being is disturbed too much. Maybe you like that disturbance so you call it happiness, but all the same it is disturbance. The lake is not silent. There are too many waves and much excitement and much turmoil and much chaos.

Pain also is excitement and pleasure too. Hence both are convertible. Pleasure can become pain; pain can become pleasure. And many times, if you observe minutely, you will see this happening:

pleasure turning into pain; pain turning into pleasure. That's why sadists and masochists exist in the world. They have come to know how to make pain a pleasure. The masochist tortures himself.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 18

Darshan 29 October 1976

Prabhu means divine, and vairag means renunciation - divine renunciation. And renunciation can either be human Qr it can be divine. When it is human it is futile. When it is your doing it is not of much worth. But when it is God's doing it has tremendous value. So I don't teach that you have to practise renunciation. I simply teach surrender and to just start moving with His will. Wherever He leads is the destiny. Even when His ways are sometimes contradictary, inconsistent, don't mistrust.

The path is zigzag; it is not straight. It cannot be because it is not logical. It is not rational, it is not linear; it is not one single line - it is very complex. It is just as if you move in hilly country, in the hills.

Sometimes you are going towards south, sometimes you are going towards east, sometimes you are going up and sometimes you are going downward, going down, but still you are moving towards the peak all the same because the path goes round and round. Many times you come to the same view, of course on a different altitude. You come again and again many times to the same point but never on the same altitude. The path is zigzag, round-about, multi-dimensional, circular, because the path is towards the peak of human consciousness.

If you practise renunciation it never goes beyond you. Whatsoever you practise remains below you.

If you are angry, whatsoever you practise will be poisoned by your anger. If you are violent, you may practise love, but in your love there will be violence. It is natural because it is your practice. How can you practise something which is beyond you? How can you reach for something that you have never known before? You move always in the known. You move in the past, in the mind, in time.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 17

Darshan 28 October 1976

[A sannyasin had previously written to Osho about a fever which she gets in the late afternoon and in the night. Osho checks her energy.] Good. Come back! Do two things: one, tomorrow when you feel this heat coming to you, just go to the bathroom, rub your whole body with a dry towel. Rub your whole body so it becomes really more hot. Mm? Almost rub it so much that you start perspiring. Start from the feet and go on rubbing upwards. Let the body feel as hot as possible. Then it will not take four hours; within fifteen minutes it will be finished. It has to become very intense.

And it is very good. Some poisons in the body and in the mind are being released. It is simply good - nothing wrong in it, nothing like a disease. You are throwing something out. So help the process - rub the whole body, mm? and then take a cold shower. First rub the whole body, perspire. If you feel like dancing and jumping, dance and jump; anything that you want to do, you can do. The whole point is to perspire, because through perspiration many toxic things get out of the body. And the mind wants them to be released from the body. Only when they are released will the mind be able to release something.

The mind and body correspond with each other. If the mind has to drop something, the body also has to drop the corresponding part of it in the body. Your mind wants to release certain heat and the body is just helping it. So rub it and then sit under the shower and let it be cooled; or you can lie down in the tub and let it cool. If you don't have a tub in your bathroom you can go to somebody's bathroom who has a tub, mm? But continue it at least for fifteen days.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 16

Darshan 27 October 1976

[A sannyasin says he feels divided between following his feelings and making more effort.] You simply follow your feelings. And who has said to you that it is easy to follow the feelings? It is the most difficult thing in the world, otherwise so many people would have been following their feelings; nobody follows. Priests have been teaching people that it is very easy to follow your feelings - it is not. I never see a person who has been following his feelings! If it were really easy you would come across many more people who follow their feelings; you don't come across them. Rarely it happens that a person is feeling-oriented and fully in tune with his feelings and his heart. People try to fight - that is easier.

To follow the feeling is the most arduous thing in the world, because when you want to follow your feeling you become an individual - that is the difficulty. You become rebellious, that is the difficulty.

Then you don't want to listen to anybody else's commandments. You don't want anything to do with scriptures, traditions, religions, churches - you want to follow your feelings.

Churches exist by confusing you. Unless they confuse you they cannot exist. The whole trade of the priest is based on confusing people about their feelings. First they confuse you; when you are confused, then of course you have to go to them and ask for advice. And their advice is more confusing, so there is a vicious circle. You have to go again and again - and the more you go, the more confused you become. By and by you lose all contact with your feeling part. Your head starts weaving its own things and completely forgets about the heart. A split arises. Listen to the feeling.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 15

Darshan 26 October 1976

Deva means divine and batohi means the wanderer. And life is a divine wandering. There is no goal to it. One is not going somewhere - that's why it is endless. It is not a journey - it is a wandering.

A journey has a direction, and a journey has a destination in it. Wandering has no destination and no direction. A journey imposes a sort of imprisonment on you; it does not allow freedom. If you are going somewhere, you cannot be free.

If you are going nowhere, just going for going's sake, then you are tremendously free. Then all directions are available and all dimensions are available. You are not stuck. You can over flow in all directions. To me, life is a wandering, and I would like you to become a wanderer - not a wayfarer but a wanderer... a gypsy of the soul.

Then each moment is beautiful. When you are not going anywhere, there is no tension. The tension comes when you are going somewhere. The tension comes from the future. The tension comes because you have to reach somewhere. Who knows? - you may not be able to reach. Who knows?

- you may not have chosen the right direction. Who knows whether the destination exists or not?

So when you have a destination you are bound to have worries; a thousand and one sorts of worries will engulf you. They will abide in you and destroy you.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 14

Darshan 25 October 1976

Deva Nisarga.... Nisarga means to be natural, to be spontaneous, to be simple and poor. And blessed are the poor - only they shall inherit the kingdom of God. Only the poor are rich. This inner poverty is really an inner richness. When you simply move with nature, by and by you disappear.

You are so poor that even you are not there - the poverty is total. When the poverty is total, there is nothing to possess and nobody to possess it. That's what Jesus means when he says 'poor in spirit'. A man can be poor but may not be poor in spirit. He may not have anything to claim as his own but at least he has his ego. He may not have possessions but he has the possessor.

The inner poverty, the poor in spirit, means that even the possessor is gone - no possessions, no possessor. Then you cannot be against nature because there is nobody to be against Then nature simply flows through you. You become like a, cloud: wherever the winds take it, it goes. It has no idea of its own. It has no destiny, no private goal. It has not planned any journey, so wherever it lands it is beautiful, because there is never any frustration. Frustration comes out of a private goal.

Whenever you come across a man who is frustrated, it simply shows that he has a private goal against the universe. Naturally he is frustrated. When you move with the universe, there is no frustration; there is tremendous fulfillment. Each moment is joy because everything is going right Nothing can go wrong because whatsoever is happening is how it should happen.

That is the meaning of nisarga. It is one of the most beautiful terms in Sanskrit. And I would like you to disappear completely, to die completely. And it is possible - that's why I am giving you this name.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 13

Darshan 24 October 1976

[A newly arrived sannyasin says: I have been able to start witnessing myself. I don't know if it's really witnessing but it feels as if it's something like that.] Very good! That's the only barrier - the subtle ego. It comes everywhere and it is so subtle that unless you are very very aware of it, it will go on deceiving you. It can take many garbs. It can play many games; it is very inventive. It can even become humbleness, it can become simplicity, it can become sannyas. So only watchfulness is the key.

A few things to be remembered: don't condemn it, otherwise your watchfulness will be corrupted.

Once you condemn a thing you have become afraid of it. Once you have condemned a thing you have accepted the power that the thing has over you. You are already in a defensive mood, and when you are defensive, your defeat is certain. When you condemn a thing, you have already accepted that it exists. That very acceptance gives it life energy. Because the ego is not a thing; it is not substantial. It is just a shadow. In fact it does not exist. It exists only like a shadow - it has no matter in it.

But if you become afraid of your shadow and you start running, the shadow will follow you. Your mind makes it run faster - only then can you defeat the shadow; otherwise it is running very fast with you. But that is not the way: by running faster you can never win. The shadow is your shadow, so wherever you are it is there. The mind can say to you, 'Fight with it. Take a sword and cut it into pieces.' You can only cut something which is - you cannot cut something which is not. Absence cannot be cut, only presence. So if you try to cut it, again your energy will be dissipated and by and by you will start feeling that it is hopeless, you cannot win; you are doomed.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 12

Darshan 23 October 1976

[A sannyasin with a small child says that her husband has sent her away. He loves her but cannot live with her any more: He wants his silence, and the child and I are too much of a disturbance, I think.] No, no, those are simply excuses. If you love, you accept everything that comes out of it. You love the child and you love the child's crying too; it is no more distracting. Love makes everything acceptable. But if love is missing, everything is a problem. If you can love a woman, she can never hinder you on the path of spirituality because love is always a good help and spirituality is not at all opposed to love. He must have some wrong notions in his mind.

[She says: I really feel that I cannot love as deeply as it should be. Maybe I'm afraid of love - I don't know.] That 'should' is poisoning your love. You think you don't love as you should love. That 'should' is a very poisoning thing. Never have any 'should' because that becomes a condemnation.

When you have some ideal of how love should be, if you fall short of it.... And you will always fall short of the ideal because the ideal is just utopia, imagination; it has nothing to do with reality. In fact the ideal is always unreal - that's why it is ideal. It does not happen in the nature of things. It is a wish, a hope, but it is never fulfilled. And once you have a certain idea that it should be like that, you will always feel as if you are falling short and there will always be a condemnation arising and self-hatred. Then you are in a conflict.

The conflict is not created by the way you love him. You love him the way you can. The conflict arises out of a should. Drop that should completely.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 11

Darshan 22 October 1976

[A sannyasin says he has always had trouble with relationships, including the present one with his girlfriend.] Mm, mm. A relationship is always a problem because the other becomes the mirror and the presence of the other help you to see your own face in many ways. And the same happens to the other - you become the mirror. Nobody wants to know his real face. That's why down the centuries people have been escaping to the monastery. These are the cowards! They are avoiding relationship, because in a relationship they are reflected as they are. Alone, they can think of themselves whatsoever they want to think; they can create any image about themselves. So the first problem with relationship is that relationship reflects you and you reflect the other person. And your totality comes up - you are not just the surface.

The deeper you get involved in your relationship, the deeper feelings it will bring up. If you are really into a relationship it will shatter you. All your images will be shattered. All your faces will be tom. All your masks will start dropping. And whenever this happens the person starts to take revenge on the other. That's why [your girlfriend] goes on saying no. Behind her no there is yes. In fact, she wants to say yes - that's why she says no - but she is afraid of her own totality.

People have cleared a little ground of their being and they try to live comfortably there. Mm? - the whole is like a vast canvas. They don't even want to remember. And whenever you are in love your deepest feeling is stirred. With that feeling all other feelings are stirred. Love is almost like a backbone to the feeling body. If your backbone is taken out you will be spineless . . . just a heap, a blob. Your spine holds you together. Exactly in the same way the feeling body is held together by the spine of love. If you are not in love you can control your anger very easily. In fact, if you are not in love at all there will not be any opportunities to be angry. You can control your sadness very easily if you are not in love. You can manage your life very conveniently; that's what is being done in monasteries.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 10

Darshan 21 October 1976

Anand means bliss and shunyam means emptiness, nothingness, nobodyness. And that's what bliss is. When you are empty, only then are you full - never before it. When you are not, only then you are - never before it. Your very absence is the door to the presence of God One has to annihilate oneself utterly; nothing less can help. One has to disappear. And once you start moving inwards, you start disappearing, because whatsoever you are is only the surface, the circumference.

Once you start moving towards the centre, the circumference goes on disappearing. Then the whole universe is your circumference. Either the whole is your circumference or there is no circumference.

This is the meaning of the word shunyam. Literally it means the zero. The concept of zero was discovered in India. Even the mathematical zero is an indian concept, and the whole of mathematics has evolved out of the concept of zero. Without the concept of zero, mathematics cannot exist And all the basic digits - one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine - are also indian. Even the terms are sanskrit terms. But everything, the whole of mathematics, can spread if there is zero. If there is no zero you are stuck at nine; then you cannot move ahead.

With ten you start repeating again - one with zero. Zero itself is the basic source. Mathematics starts in zero and ends in zero. Zero is the beginning and zero is the end, and just in between is the whole play.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 09

Darshan 20 October 1976

[A therapist, recently arrived back from the States, was at darshan tonight Osho suggested he begin to plan a new group, commencing with just a vague idea of what he wanted... ] .... There is no need to have a very fixed notion about it; just a hypothetical idea... just the direction, the line - like a vision - and then start working. It will start getting more and more solid and dear and defined. After two, three groups it will have arrived. Then you also will be surprised - because there are two different ways of working....

One is always to plan everything beforehand. Another is just to have a vague notion and to move into the act and let the activity itself determine the course. Both are totally different. The first is very efficient, but dead. The second is not so efficient, but very alive. And whenever there is a choice between efficiency and life, always choose life, because a machine can be efficient, so efficiency is not a very great value. In fact the machine is more efficient than man. Scientists go on thinking that they are going to make man too, but as I see it they can never make man because they cannot make such an inefficient machine - that's impossible! That's the beauty of man.

So if you plan everything from the beginning you don't allow the group to grow as an organic phenomenon. You have a fixed notion - you follow your notion. You don't give freedom - you impose the structure. I'm not saying that there should be no structure, because then you start moving in all directions. Then you are spread too thin.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 08

Darshan 19 October 1976

Anand means bliss and subhan means well-aware - awareness of bliss. That you have to develop.

Ordinarily we are more aware of misery. We are more aware of pain, more aware if something goes wrong, more aware of illness, disease, less aware of health, well-being. That creates much trouble, because if you are too much aware of pain you help pain to be there, you feed it. Awareness is food, and if you are too much aware of pain pur whole vision of. We is upside down. You think life is not worthwhile... oceans of misery, and only here and there an island of bliss. So it doesn't make much sense whether it is there or not It is so rare that it can be counted out; it need not be counted in.

It is as if somebody goes to a rosebush and counts the thorns - and there are many. Then one starts disbelieving the rose. How is the flower possible amidst so many thorns? The flower seems to be an impossibility, an improbability. It cannot happen the way things are. And if you start disbelieving the flower, the flower disappears from your vision, because only that which is believed appears in your vision.

Once you trust something, you are available to it. Once you distrust you become unavailable, closed.

Then your mind does not allow it into your being. Even if you see it, you don't see it And even if it is there, it looks unreal. The thorns become too real and the flower becomes too unreal. Then you start expecting thorns because you know that they are there... and when you expect, you invite.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 07

Darshan 18 October 1976

Anand means bliss and dhara means river - river of bliss. And become more and more river-like.

Never allow anything to become stagnant Never allow anything to become frozen. The moment you see that something has become frozen, do something and get out of it.... Because that frozen thing is nothing but a dead part which has no more any life. Life is always streaming. Life is always in being a river. So whenever you feel that something is becoming dead, stale, stagnant, no more flowing, there is no more movement, then whatsoever the risk, get out of it.

If it is love, get out of it. If it is meditation, get out of it - whatsoever it is. Remember only one thing - that life is in flowing. And if you can become a total flow, immediately God is there. In being a total flow, one becomes divine. And when I say in being a total flow, I mean nothing, not even this self - the idea of being myself - is there, because that too is a dead thing and stale. When you are simply a process, a tremendous movement, a continuous going and going, river-like tumbling towards the sea, rushing towards the sea to dissolve, then you are alive, and you are alive at the optimum. Less than that is never blissful. And never settle for less than that. Be a river - let that be the goal.

Prem means love and subhadra means grace. Grace in love. And let that be your very discipline.

Become more and more loving, become more and more graceful. Walk as if you are dancing; bring grace to it. Eat as if you are invited by God Himself and it is a feast. Talk to people as if you are singing to them. And then grace will arise.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 06

Darshan 17 October 1976

Jaina is one of the most important concepts in the East. It means the conqueror of one's own being.

Literally it means the conqueror. And deva means divine - one who has become a god, or divine, by conquering himself. And there are only two possibilities to conquer: either you conquer others or you conquer yourself. Those who conquer others ultimately come to know that their whole effort has been in vain. They have simply lost their soul and nothing has been attained. Their hands are empty in the end. They come empty, they go empty. And their whole life is nothing but a tale told by an idiot, full of fury and noise, signifying nothing. They make much noise certainly, they create much trouble certainly, they make much news certainly - but the whole story is just a tale told by an idiot.

The wise man tries to conquer his own being. The wise man's kingdom is his own being. He wants to become the emperor, not of others, not of things, not of anything that is outside, but of all that belongs to his inner being.

Deva means divine, and uruvara means fertility, creativity, possibility - a divine possibility. And that's everybody's possibility. We never claim it; our treasure remains unclaimed. We never ask for that which is already given to us - and of course we never use it. We are emperors who somehow have come to believe themselves to be beggars. So this has to be remembered by you - that each moment of life has to be fertile. Never miss a single moment without being creative.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 05

Darshan 16 October 1976

[A visitor says: I've been here for five days and have been running the gammit of feelings from thinking you're a phoney, to laughing at you. Now I'm at the point where all I have to say is - good, lord!

Osho had recounted a joke at the morning discourse that went like this:] A man went to a ranch to buy a horse, pointed at one and said, 'My, that' s a beautiful pony right there. What kind is it?'

'That's a palomino,' said the rancher.

'Well, any friend of yours is a friend of mine. I would like to buy that pony,' said the man.

The rancher replied, 'I gotta tell you sir, it was owned by a preacher man. If you want the horse to move, you say, "Good Lord!" If you want the horse to stop, you gotta say, "Amen!" '

'Let me try that horse,' said the buyer. He mounted and said, 'Good Lord!'

The horse promptly moved out and was soon galloping up on the mountains. The man was yelling, 'Good Lord! Good Lord!' and the horse was really moving. Suddenly he was coming up to the end of the cliff and panic-striken, he yelled, 'Whoa, whoa.' That did not work, and then he remembered and said, 'Amen. '

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 04

Darshan 15 October 1976

[A visitor says: : I feel very close to you. I've been on the spiritual path for about twenty years... I've had many masters. When I first read the first few words of 'My Way: The Way of the White Clouds' I knew it was for me!] (a chuckle) Good, very good. One has to learn from many sources, and one should never be closed to any possibility. One should trust in life itself, and in many forms you will be helped. All the forms are of the divine, so never make any conflict between masters. One comes across many masters, and each master has to function in his role in your growth, then he departs. But he prepares you for another; it is a chain.

Howsoever diverse the paths may look, they lead to the same goal. And once that understanding arises, then you are not close to one master - you are close to all the masters: past, present and even future. Just being close to one master one becomes close to all, because they are the windows of the same palace. Different windows and different views of course, but all are windows of the same palace, of the same temple.

Once you have looked into the temple from any window then all the windows are yours. Then it is never a question of either/or; that question never arises for a true seeker. If it arises, the seeker is not yet religious; he is yet a politician. In politics the question is always of conflict - one against the other; it is always a tug-of-war, and it is always to choose one against the other. Politics is conflict.

In religion when you come close to one master, you have come close to all. If you understand Jesus, you have understood Buddha and you have understood Lao Tzu.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 03

Darshan 14 October 1976

Deva means divine and dheeraj means patience - divine patience. And that is very significant to remember. On the path nothing more is needed than patience. Man can do everything that he is capable of, but still there is no necessity that the ultimate happens; it may happen, it may not.

We can grope in the dark; the door may open, it may not So if one has not infinite patience, one starts getting tired of the search. There is no short cut to it - and there cannot be because of the very nature of things. The journey is long and many times one starts losing hope. Those are the moments when patience will be needed.

Patience is nothing but a fragrance of trust. The night is dark but one trusts that the dawn is coming.

Each moment it is coming closer and closer. Maybe the night is actually becoming darker. In fact it becomes darker before the dawn comes, so the actual may not be helpful to the possible. The actual may be saying, 'What are you doing? What are you waiting for? The night is getting darker than ever before. The dawn must be going further away and the distance is growing greater. This is simple logic: the night is getting darker so the dawn cannot be very close. You are losing track!

There is no point in waiting any more. '

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 02

Darshan 13 October 1976

Prem means love and pradeepam means flame - a flame of love, a light of love or lamp of love. And sannyas is nothing but coming closer to me so that your unlit flame can be lit. Just coming closer to a flame is enough. In a certain moment the flame jumps from one flame to another. Suddenly there are two flames. Nothing is lost in the original flame. Out of one flame, out of a small candle, you can light a thousand candles. Nothing is lost in the original. That's the beauty of love - you go on sharing and nothing is lost. In fact the more you share, the more you have. So first be courageous enough to come closer to me so that your flame takes its own life, so that you are lighted again. And then help others... share your light with others.

Much is going to happen... a great potentiality is there in you. Never think that the actual is the end of life; the actual is a very tiny part of the possible. The possible is vast - the actual is very small. The actual has a definition. The possible is infinite; it has no definition. So live with the actual but always remain open for the possible. And there is no end to it. One can simply go on growing and growing from one perfection to another perfection, from one door of mystery to another door of mystery. The journey is eternal.

So remain alert about the possible. That's what has happened to the modern mind. The modern mind has lost track of the possible; it has become too involved with the actual. The vision is lost, the hope is lost. And if the modern man feels so hopeless, so meaningless, nobody else is responsible for it. The modern mind goes on looking only at the actual. The actual is very small. One gets fed up with it It is boring because it is repetitive. Once you raise your eyes to the possible, you are facing the infinite horizon. Then vast is the sky and infinite is the possibility. Then you are never in a fed-up mood, and you are never in a state of hopelessness.

God Is Not For Sale (A Darshan Diary) - 01

Darshan 12 October 1976

Prem means love, and tyagi means renunciation. Tyagi means one who has renounced - love and renunciation. I make a special condition for renunciation - and that is love. A man can renounce out of anger, a man can renounce out of hatred, a man can renounce out of frustration... but then it is meaningless. Unless you renounce out of love, renunciation is of no use. If you renounce, and there is no love in your renunciation, it is a struggle. If there is love, it is a surrender.

The old renunciation used to be out of hatred for the world. The old renunciation was anti- life, negative. I teach a positive renunciation, a life-affirmative renunciation, a life-enhancing renunciation. So your renunciation is going to be a profound yes to life. Certainly when you say yes to life or yes to God, many things start dropping on their own accord. Not that you really renounce them; they simply become irrelevant So never renounce a thing unless it has become irrelevant. What I am saying is, never renounce a thing as an effort, as a struggle; don't use your will to renounce anything. Just be in a let-go.

The old renunciation was a sort of a price that one had to pay for God. It was a bargain. You had to renounce the world if you wanted to enter the kingdom of God. It was a price to be paid. But to me, God is not for sale, and there is no price to be paid. God is not a commodity. There is no way to achieve God or to purchase God. Neither knowledge nor austerities nor renunciation is going to be of any help. Anything that you can do is not going to help. You have to be just passive and receptive.