[NOTE: This is an unedited tape transcript of an unpublished darshan diary, which has been copy-typed. It is for reference purposes only.]
(To Shakuntala) -- Your name: Ma Shakuntala Bharti.
Remember only one thing because I have reduced sannyas to its bare minimum -- And that is meditation. Everything else is peripheral. Everything else can be dropped But meditation cannot be dropped. That is the only essential thing Which no religion can dare to drop.
There are religions which believe in god There are religions which don't believe in god; Even the concept of god Is not very essential for a religion. There are religions who believe in many lives And there are religions Who believe only in one life; Even that is not essential. Those are all hypothetical things. But there in so religion possible Which can drop meditation Which can be non-meditative. All the religions meet on one point only And that is meditation. Whether they call it prayer or meditation It doesn't matter. Those are different names for the same state, A state of inner silence.
And the miracle is: Ordinarily your inner world Is full of thoughts, desires, dreams; When all these have been dropped Through being aware of the whole process of mind; Nobody can drop them by any act, They drop on their own accord If you are simply watching them With no effort to drop them. Just by watching a distance is created. Slowly slowly The watcher becomes different from the watched And the moment the distance is absolute clear The watcher disappears, it becomes disconnected. It becomes uprooted from your being. This moment it the moment of radical change: Here thoughts, desires, the whole mind disappears And suddenly a new being explodes in you. That being can only be called love.
The word that comes closest is 'love'. A man who has no mind to cling to Becomes full of love. Meditation helps To get rid of the mind, on the one hand, And on the other hand It helps you to become receptive For the energy called love; It descends from the beyond. It is alight, eternal light and delight too. And the moment one knows what love is One has tasted eternity, on has tasted god!
Jesus is perfectly right when he says, God is love. He is talking about This innermost experience of meditation. So my sannyas has no other peripheral hypothesis. Nothing has to be believed in No rituals to be performed But a constant watchfulness. And whenever you have time Then sit silently, just looking at your own mind. Let your mind be the screen on which Pictures move and you are just a witness -- Don't forget the witness, go on remembering that 'I am only a witness.' This simple process Can do the greatest miracle on the earth because It brings buddhahood, it brings enlightenment It brings awakening.
(To Yves) -- This is your name: Swami Anand Yves. Anand means bliss, blissfulness. Yves means a beloved disciple.
Bliss is possible only if you become a disciple. The process of becoming a disciple Is the process of renouncing the ego. Ego is the cause of all misery. Once ego is surrendered there is nothing To prevent you from becoming blissful. The master-disciple relationship Is only a device, a strategy To help the disciple to drop the ego. It is very difficult To drop it by yourself, all alone. It is possible, it is not impossible. Once in a while it has happened But those are exceptions And exceptions only prove the rule.
The rule is that you will need a certain device To support you, to help you because To drop the ego means To become so vulnerable, so insecure, so open That one becomes frightened, one again closes up One again clings to the ego because You don't know anything else except the ego. Dropping the ego is like death. It is possible only In a deep love affair with a master That slowly slowly you can gather courage. As you trust in the master grows It becomes possible for you to risk. And the moment you are ready to risk the ego Bliss starts flowing from every nook And corner of existence towards you. It is the rock of ego That prevents bliss from reaching to you
To be a disciple is the whole science of religion Because through being a disciple The ultimate bliss opens its mysteries to you. In fact, except your ego There is no other problem in the world. All other problems are by-products of the ego.
You have a beautiful name Now this name has to be made a reality. Sannyas is a first step towards that realization.
(To Nasser) -- This is your name: Swami Dhyan Nasser. Dhyan means meditation. Nasser means victorious.
It is one of the qualities of god Described in Koran. Koran describes ninety-nine qualities of god. One of them is nasser, the victorious.
We can't be victorious. If we allow god to pass through us Then the victory is ours, We can't be victorious on our own. On our own we are going to be defeated On our own there is no hope. We are so tiny, like dewdrops, Dewdrop on a leaf of grass -- That's how Mahavira used to describe man's life. A little breeze and the dewdrop is gone Or the sun rises and the dewdrop evaporates.
We are very small: Unless we drop ourselves in the ocean of god Unless we become oceanic, we can't be victorious. We can't be victorious as ourselves We can be victorious only through god. And that's what meditation is: It is allowing god to pass through you Not preventing him. Removing all the barriers, Barriers of thoughts, desires Memories, imagination; removing all the barriers So you can simply become a pure passage And god can flow though you. Then your life will have the taste of victory Of tremendous joy, of bliss, of benediction.
(To Peter) -- This is your name: Swami Nirmal. Nirmal means pure.
Man's consciousness is eternally pure But it becomes covered with many layers of dust; Like a mirror. Although the mirror remains pure The dust cannot destroy the mirror But the dust can destroy one thing: It can hide the quality of the mirror The quality of reflecting reality. The mirror remains the same No change in the mirror happens Through the layer of dust But is no more functioning It becomes non-functional; it cannot reflect. The sun rises but not for it The night becomes full of stars but not for it The rose opens but not for it The lake reflects the moon but not for it. It is there but a layer of dust Is preventing its qualities to function. That's our situation: Our consciousness is pure But our mind is a layer of dust and nothing else.
Sannyas means becoming aware of this fact And putting the mind aside. Use it when it is needed; it has its utility It is a good machine, it is a biocomputer It has all the memories, all the information -- So whenever you need it, use it. But there is no need to allow it To cover you for twenty-four hours Day in, day out, year in, year out. It should be put aside when it is not being used And the consciousness should be allowed To reflect reality -- then god is everywhere. Once your consciousness reflects that which is You know. God need no proof. Only god is and nothing else is Every form is a manifestation of god. And to know it, is to rejoice because that means There is no death, no misery, no darkness. One has arrived home!
(To Paolo) -- This is your name: Swami Nirdosh. Nirdosh means innocent, innocent like a child.
Man has to become a child again Only then he is really aware Of the beauty of existence Of the wonder of existence. That very awe is the beginning of religion. But it happens And it is bound to happen, it cannot be avoided, It is almost a necessary evil that Every child will have to lose his innocence Because he will have to be educated He will have to be taught certain languages, Science, geography, mathematics Certain essential subjects. He will have to be an expert in a certain branch, A doctor, an engineer, a scientist. Life's requirements are such: He cannot be left alone.
And all this education takes away his innocence; He becomes knowledgeable He becomes full of information And he forgets the joy of wonder Because now he thinks he knows So what is the point of wonder? He forgets the immense dimension of awe. Nothing surprises him -- That is a kind of spiritual death. He becomes very useful for the world He become clever, cunning, he becomes powerful Because he has a certain utility in the world. He becomes a commodity in the marketplace, He is purchasable, sellable. The greater his knowledge, the more is his price, But something of great value is lost -- That has to be regained.
Sannyas is nothing but An effort to regain the paradise lost. It is a conscious effort to put aside knowledge So that you can again look like a child: Innocent, with the same eyes of wonder. The day it happens you are transformed Your life starts having a dance Your heart starts singing again, A forgotten language is remembered Again everything is full of surprise. The whole existence is full of wonder Everything is mysterious, miraculous.
This whole mystery and miracle Is condensed in a single name, god. God is not a person But this whole experience of mystery This unending pilgrimage from one peak of wonder To another higher peak of wonder From one awe into another awe, This is what god is all about.
Jesus says, 'Unless you are reborn again You will not enter into my kingdom of god.' That's exactly what he means: Be innocent like a child. That is going to be The work for you to do upon yourself.
(To Doris) -- This is your name: Ma Anand Sindhu. Anand means bliss; Sindhu means ocean -- an ocean of bliss.
Our body is small, out mind is small But our being is vast -- as vast as the ocean; In fact, vaster than any ocean because Even the greatest ocean has its limits But our being has no limits, it is infinite.
It has three qualities. The first quality is truth. When you experience your being For the first time you taste something of truth. Before that You had known only theories about truth. It was like a man who has known much about food But has no experience of eating anything at all. It is like a man Who understands everything about water And is thirsty: He knows the formula, H2O But that formula is not going to quench his thirst. He understands intellectually what water is, Of what it is constituted But he has never seen water He has never drank water He has never tasted the coolness, the contentment That comes when your thirst is quenched.
Truth we have not known We have only heard many theories about it. Those are all hypotheses. When you enter your being Beyond the body, beyond the mind The first taste is of truth And the second taste is of consciousness. Otherwise consciousness is only a word. People are fast asleep, They don't know what consciousness is. They are not conscious at all, They are like robots, functioning like machines. And the ultimate, the third thing Is bliss, anand -- that is the peak. As you go deeper into yourself First you encounter truth Then you encounter consciousness And at the very core of it, you encounter bliss.
The way to this bliss is To this oceanic bliss is Becoming unidentified with the body-mind complex. One has to remember constantly that 'I am not the body,' that 'I am not the mind,' That 'I am the watcher, the witness.' Slowly slowly it becomes so natural That you need not remember it, It is simply there, an undercurrent; Even in your sleep you know that, 'I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am the witness.' Even in your dreaming you know 'I am the witness of the dreams.'
When this witness has deepened so greatly You are on the verge of a breakthrough. Then any moment all boundaries disappear And suddenly you are unbounded, infinite. That's the goal of sannyas That's the goal of all religion as such: To become infinite.
Osho's Commentary
(To Shakuntala) -- Your name: Ma Shakuntala Bharti.
Remember only one thing because
I have reduced sannyas to its bare minimum --
And that is meditation.
Everything else is peripheral.
Everything else can be dropped
But meditation cannot be dropped.
That is the only essential thing
Which no religion can dare to drop.
There are religions which believe in god
There are religions which don't believe in god;
Even the concept of god
Is not very essential for a religion.
There are religions who believe in many lives
And there are religions
Who believe only in one life;
Even that is not essential.
Those are all hypothetical things.
But there in so religion possible
Which can drop meditation
Which can be non-meditative.
All the religions meet on one point only
And that is meditation.
Whether they call it prayer or meditation
It doesn't matter.
Those are different names for the same state,
A state of inner silence.
And the miracle is:
Ordinarily your inner world
Is full of thoughts, desires, dreams;
When all these have been dropped
Through being aware of the whole process of mind;
Nobody can drop them by any act,
They drop on their own accord
If you are simply watching them
With no effort to drop them.
Just by watching a distance is created.
Slowly slowly
The watcher becomes different from the watched
And the moment the distance is absolute clear
The watcher disappears, it becomes disconnected.
It becomes uprooted from your being.
This moment it the moment of radical change:
Here thoughts, desires, the whole mind disappears
And suddenly a new being explodes in you.
That being can only be called love.
The word that comes closest is 'love'.
A man who has no mind to cling to
Becomes full of love.
Meditation helps
To get rid of the mind, on the one hand,
And on the other hand
It helps you to become receptive
For the energy called love;
It descends from the beyond.
It is alight, eternal light and delight too.
And the moment one knows what love is
One has tasted eternity, on has tasted god!
Jesus is perfectly right when he says,
God is love. He is talking about
This innermost experience of meditation.
So my sannyas has no other peripheral hypothesis.
Nothing has to be believed in
No rituals to be performed
But a constant watchfulness.
And whenever you have time
Then sit silently, just looking at your own mind.
Let your mind be the screen on which
Pictures move and you are just a witness --
Don't forget the witness, go on remembering that
'I am only a witness.'
This simple process
Can do the greatest miracle on the earth because
It brings buddhahood, it brings enlightenment
It brings awakening.
(To Yves) -- This is your name: Swami Anand Yves.
Anand means bliss, blissfulness. Yves means a beloved disciple.
Bliss is possible only if you become a disciple.
The process of becoming a disciple
Is the process of renouncing the ego.
Ego is the cause of all misery.
Once ego is surrendered there is nothing
To prevent you from becoming blissful.
The master-disciple relationship
Is only a device, a strategy
To help the disciple to drop the ego.
It is very difficult
To drop it by yourself, all alone.
It is possible, it is not impossible.
Once in a while it has happened
But those are exceptions
And exceptions only prove the rule.
The rule is that you will need a certain device
To support you, to help you because
To drop the ego means
To become so vulnerable, so insecure, so open
That one becomes frightened, one again closes up
One again clings to the ego because
You don't know anything else except the ego.
Dropping the ego is like death.
It is possible only
In a deep love affair with a master
That slowly slowly you can gather courage.
As you trust in the master grows
It becomes possible for you to risk.
And the moment you are ready to risk the ego
Bliss starts flowing from every nook
And corner of existence towards you.
It is the rock of ego
That prevents bliss from reaching to you
To be a disciple is the whole science of religion
Because through being a disciple
The ultimate bliss opens its mysteries to you.
In fact, except your ego
There is no other problem in the world.
All other problems are by-products of the ego.
You have a beautiful name
Now this name has to be made a reality.
Sannyas is a first step towards that realization.
(To Nasser) -- This is your name: Swami Dhyan Nasser.
Dhyan means meditation. Nasser means victorious.
It is one of the qualities of god
Described in Koran.
Koran describes ninety-nine qualities of god.
One of them is nasser, the victorious.
We can't be victorious.
If we allow god to pass through us
Then the victory is ours,
We can't be victorious on our own.
On our own we are going to be defeated
On our own there is no hope.
We are so tiny, like dewdrops,
Dewdrop on a leaf of grass --
That's how Mahavira used to describe man's life.
A little breeze and the dewdrop is gone
Or the sun rises and the dewdrop evaporates.
We are very small:
Unless we drop ourselves in the ocean of god
Unless we become oceanic, we can't be victorious.
We can't be victorious as ourselves
We can be victorious only through god.
And that's what meditation is:
It is allowing god to pass through you
Not preventing him. Removing all the barriers,
Barriers of thoughts, desires
Memories, imagination; removing all the barriers
So you can simply become a pure passage
And god can flow though you.
Then your life will have the taste of victory
Of tremendous joy, of bliss, of benediction.
(To Peter) -- This is your name: Swami Nirmal.
Nirmal means pure.
Man's consciousness is eternally pure
But it becomes covered with many layers of dust;
Like a mirror.
Although the mirror remains pure
The dust cannot destroy the mirror
But the dust can destroy one thing:
It can hide the quality of the mirror
The quality of reflecting reality.
The mirror remains the same
No change in the mirror happens
Through the layer of dust
But is no more functioning
It becomes non-functional; it cannot reflect.
The sun rises but not for it
The night becomes full of stars but not for it
The rose opens but not for it
The lake reflects the moon but not for it.
It is there but a layer of dust
Is preventing its qualities to function.
That's our situation: Our consciousness is pure
But our mind is a layer of dust and nothing else.
Sannyas means becoming aware of this fact
And putting the mind aside.
Use it when it is needed; it has its utility
It is a good machine, it is a biocomputer
It has all the memories, all the information --
So whenever you need it, use it.
But there is no need to allow it
To cover you for twenty-four hours
Day in, day out, year in, year out.
It should be put aside when it is not being used
And the consciousness should be allowed
To reflect reality -- then god is everywhere.
Once your consciousness reflects that which is
You know. God need no proof.
Only god is and nothing else is
Every form is a manifestation of god.
And to know it, is to rejoice because that means
There is no death, no misery, no darkness.
One has arrived home!
(To Paolo) -- This is your name: Swami Nirdosh.
Nirdosh means innocent, innocent like a child.
Man has to become a child again
Only then he is really aware
Of the beauty of existence
Of the wonder of existence.
That very awe is the beginning of religion.
But it happens
And it is bound to happen, it cannot be avoided,
It is almost a necessary evil that
Every child will have to lose his innocence
Because he will have to be educated
He will have to be taught certain languages,
Science, geography, mathematics
Certain essential subjects.
He will have to be an expert in a certain branch,
A doctor, an engineer, a scientist.
Life's requirements are such:
He cannot be left alone.
And all this education takes away his innocence;
He becomes knowledgeable
He becomes full of information
And he forgets the joy of wonder
Because now he thinks he knows
So what is the point of wonder?
He forgets the immense dimension of awe.
Nothing surprises him --
That is a kind of spiritual death.
He becomes very useful for the world
He become clever, cunning, he becomes powerful
Because he has a certain utility in the world.
He becomes a commodity in the marketplace,
He is purchasable, sellable.
The greater his knowledge, the more is his price,
But something of great value is lost --
That has to be regained.
Sannyas is nothing but
An effort to regain the paradise lost.
It is a conscious effort to put aside knowledge
So that you can again look like a child:
Innocent, with the same eyes of wonder.
The day it happens you are transformed
Your life starts having a dance
Your heart starts singing again,
A forgotten language is remembered
Again everything is full of surprise.
The whole existence is full of wonder
Everything is mysterious, miraculous.
This whole mystery and miracle
Is condensed in a single name, god.
God is not a person
But this whole experience of mystery
This unending pilgrimage from one peak of wonder
To another higher peak of wonder
From one awe into another awe,
This is what god is all about.
Jesus says, 'Unless you are reborn again
You will not enter into my kingdom of god.'
That's exactly what he means:
Be innocent like a child.
That is going to be
The work for you to do upon yourself.
(To Doris) -- This is your name: Ma Anand Sindhu.
Anand means bliss; Sindhu means ocean -- an ocean of bliss.
Our body is small, out mind is small
But our being is vast -- as vast as the ocean;
In fact, vaster than any ocean because
Even the greatest ocean has its limits
But our being has no limits, it is infinite.
It has three qualities.
The first quality is truth.
When you experience your being
For the first time you taste something of truth.
Before that
You had known only theories about truth.
It was like a man who has known much about food
But has no experience of eating anything at all.
It is like a man
Who understands everything about water
And is thirsty: He knows the formula, H2O
But that formula is not going to quench his thirst.
He understands intellectually what water is,
Of what it is constituted
But he has never seen water
He has never drank water
He has never tasted the coolness, the contentment
That comes when your thirst is quenched.
Truth we have not known
We have only heard many theories about it.
Those are all hypotheses.
When you enter your being
Beyond the body, beyond the mind
The first taste is of truth
And the second taste is of consciousness.
Otherwise consciousness is only a word.
People are fast asleep,
They don't know what consciousness is.
They are not conscious at all,
They are like robots, functioning like machines.
And the ultimate, the third thing
Is bliss, anand -- that is the peak.
As you go deeper into yourself
First you encounter truth
Then you encounter consciousness
And at the very core of it, you encounter bliss.
The way to this bliss is
To this oceanic bliss is
Becoming unidentified with the body-mind complex.
One has to remember constantly that
'I am not the body,' that 'I am not the mind,'
That 'I am the watcher, the witness.'
Slowly slowly it becomes so natural
That you need not remember it,
It is simply there, an undercurrent;
Even in your sleep you know that,
'I am not the body, I am not the mind,
I am the witness.'
Even in your dreaming you know
'I am the witness of the dreams.'
When this witness has deepened so greatly
You are on the verge of a breakthrough.
Then any moment all boundaries disappear
And suddenly you are unbounded, infinite.
That's the goal of sannyas
That's the goal of all religion as such:
To become infinite.