[NOTE: This is an unedited tape transcript of an unpublished darshan diary, which has been copy-typed. It is for reference purposes only.]
(To Usha) -- Your name: Ma Anand Usha.
Remember only one thing because I want my sannyasins to be concerned only with the very essential. The non-essentials have destroyed the whole beauty of religion. And once the non-essentials start becoming important the essential is lost. And there are a thousand and one non-essential things in life. All the religions have become a great chaos, for the simple reason that the essential is lost sight of. The essential is meditation, everything else is non-essential. All beliefs are non-essential. Whether one believes in god or does not believe, it matters not at all, because those who have believed - they have reached, and those who have not believed - they have also reached. Buddha never believed in god, yet he became enlightened. Jesus believed in god, yet he became enlightened, hence the belief in god is a non-essential thing; it is only a question of like and dislike. But neither Buddha nor Jesus nor Mahavira nor Patanjali can avoid meditation. Anybody who avoids meditation misses the goal. Then he can go on believing in a thousand things but nothing is going to help - the naked truth is that all beliefs are decorations. The essential thing is that one should become silent, utterly silent; thoughtless, alert, aware. And one should start moving inwards, when one reaches one's center then all is revealed; there is no need to believe beforehand. In fact to believe beforehand is a disturbance. Then you are prejudiced and any mind that is prejudiced cannot go very far. One needs an absolutely unprejudiced approach with no conclusions, no knowledge, no belief and you will attain to the ultimate very easily. If one gets entangled into beliefs and what is right and what is wrong and what to do and what not to do, then it becomes impossible.
In Buddhist scriptures there are thirty-three thousand rules for a monk. Even to remember them is impossible. There is no question of following - how can one remember thirty-three thousand rules? And one's whole life will be wasted in remembering those rules. And if you have to follow thirty-three thousand rules you will become a robot, you will lose all spontaneity, you will not be able to move a single inch! Your whole life will be cramped, paralyzed you will live in a prison. And Buddha was teaching freedom, ultimate freedom, and the outcome is thirty-three thousand rules. The moment he died scholars started collecting all the rules. How they collected thirty-three thousand rules that too is a miracle, a feat!
The way they followed was that of Buddha who was talking to millions of people in his long life, forty-two years he was a master, an enlightened master. He became enlightened when he was forty and remained alive up to the age of eighty-two. So for forty-two years he was teaching and he was telling different people different things - their needs were different. They collected everything, whatsoever he has said. It is as if you go on collecting all the prescriptions of a doctor which have been given to different patients for different illnesses - of course you will be able to collect thirty-three thousand prescriptions and then if you deliver those prescriptions to one single person, you will kill him immediately. Just the load of the prescriptions will be enough. He will not be able even to reach to the chemist! And he will be in such a contradiction, he will not know what is happening. He will be in a mess - if he follows this rule then some other rules are broken. If he follows that rule then some other rule is broken. You will drive him crazy! Or if he is a sensible, intelligent person he will become a hypocrite: he will pretend that he follows the rules and he will live his own private life utterly ignoring all those rules.
So there is no rule in my sannyas, no ritual; I don't prescribe anything. My whole insistence is for a single medicine and that medicine is meditation. Both the words meditation and medicine come from the same root. Medicine cures the body, meditation cures the soul.
So from today you keep only one thing in your mind. And whenever you have time - and there is no need to make a fixed time, that creates difficulties. One day you may have some work, you may have somewhere to go and then it becomes a trouble: if you don't follow the routine you feel guilt; if you follow the routine your ordinary life is disturbed. There is no need to make it so that you have to do every day in the morning, six to seven - there is no need to make any particular time. Any time will do. And there is no need even to think that you have to do it only once or twice. As many times as you get the opportunity just close your eyes and disappear within. Slowly slowly the knack starts happening. Slowly slowly something opens up. And that opening leads you beyond the body, beyond the mind, to the farther shore. Good, Usha! Good.
(To Martha) -- This is your name: Ma Anand Dhyana. Anand means bliss. Dhyana means meditation.
Bliss is a flowering of meditation. Meditation is like a rose bush And bliss is like roses. Without meditation There are no flowers in life and no fragrance, One lives utterly empty, meaningless. One's whole life remains just like a driftwood; Accidental, with no sense of direction. One does not know why one is doing this or that Why one is alive at all -- for what? One has no answers and because to know That 'I have no answers,' One never raises the questions Because those questions hurt, They make you aware of your ignorance. One avoids the questions so that one can remain Unaware that one's life is absolutely pointless One keeps oneself occupied Into thousand and one small things, tiny goals: Achieve money, power, prestige Do this, do that -- very short-sighted goals. And you can achieve money and you can have power But nothing happens out of it Because you remain the same. Then have no money, then have more power And there is no end to it. It is chasing shadows. It is such a stupid act But everybody goes into it because one finds Everybody else going into it And people are imitators.
I don't know Whether Charles Darwin is right or not But when I look at people's imitativeness Then I start thinking maybe he is right, that Man has come from the monkeys. Maybe biologically it is not true But psychologically it seems to be very true. All men are monkeys: Just to see somebody purchasing a new car And you have to purchase a new car Somebody has a new house You have to have a new house. This is how you go on and on: You go on following others And others are following you. It is such a foolish game And we are moving in circles. And one can waste one's life very easily Because it is so short; but it is strange. If you ask people, 'Why are you playing cards? Why are you playing poker? Why you are so deeply engaged into chess?' They say, 'To kill time.' As if they have more time than they need. As if time is so useless that you have to kill it.
Time is the most precious thing! Once gone it is gone forever. And we don't have much time; Life is really very short. It flies so fast that between birth and death There is not much gap And people are killing time not knowing at all That in fact it is just the other way round: Time is killing you. In Hindu language We have the same word for both time and death Song word 'kal' means both, time and death Because time brings death, time is killing you Time is death. The moment a child is born he starts dying. If he has been there just for five minutes That means he has died a little bit. Out of his seventy years life Five minutes are gone, he is less alive Than he was just five minutes before. And it is slipping out of our fingers.
Something has to be done And something has to be done very determinedly With great determination and commitment Only then meditation is possible. It needs a focussed, intense effort. You have to put all your energies into it. People start meditation Thousands of people start meditation But only out of curiosity hence nothing happens. One or two days or three days they will meditate And they will say, 'Nothing is happening.' Meditation is not like going into a movie Or watching TV -- that just you sit and you watch And something starts happening, You have nothing to do.
You have to transform Your whole structure of mind. You have to dismantle the whole edifice You have to find out where your reality is hiding You have to uncover it, discover it. It needs a persistent and patient effort. But if one works it pays tremendously. It is worth -- even if you have to put Your whole life energy into it to attain it It is worth because it is far more valuable Than your whole life. A single moment of meditation Is more valuable than your whole life Because in that single moment You attain to eternal life Which knows no birth, no death And that is the flowering That is where one becomes blissful. Without knowing it one remains in misery Because if one is going to die How can one be blissful? How can one avoid death? Its shadow falls continuously. In everything you are doing There is the shadow of death And it is deepening every moment.
Even when you are in love with somebody Even making love, death is present. Sometimes it is more present In those moments when you are silent When you are enjoying it is more present Because in those moments You are a little more alert, you can feel it. It almost always happens to intelligent people That while making love they become sad And if not while making Then afterwards they become sad. And they become very much puzzled Because it was a beautiful experience And why they have become sad? That beautiful experience Has made them a little alert and now they know Death will take everything away. All these beautiful moments Are not going to save them And all these beautiful moments Are fleeting moments, they are not going to abide Sooner of later all will be gone.
A miserable person Who has never know a single glimpse of joy Will not be so aware of death Because he lives in misery, He himself lives in such darkness That death cannot make its shadow. When you are in darkness, you don't make a shadow When you come into light Immediately the shadow disappears. That's why when ever you are happy Feeling good, healthy, suddenly a shadow appears And that shadow is of death And that makes one sad.
One cannot be really happy Unless one comes to know That one's innermost core is beyond death. To know that is the only bliss And that's the goal of sannyas. Meditation is the way to attain it. Bliss is the goal.
(To Michael) -- This is your name: Swami Anand Amoha. Anand means bliss. Amoha means non-attachment.
Misery comes out of attachment. We become attached to things To people, to places. We are addicted with attachment We cling to anything and clinging brings misery Because life goes on changing It is in an constant movement, it is never static Even for two consecutive moments. So to cling to such a life is to create misery Because it can't remain as you want it: Whether you cling or not, it is going to change. Except change, everything changes. In life only change is a non-changing phenomenon. So the man of understanding Never clings to anything. Seeing that everything changes These is no point in clinging. It is foolish, it is unintelligent And you create your own misery And then you condemn the whole world. The world is not responsible Nobody is responsible for your misery Except your own unawareness Unawareness of this absolutely certain fact That life is a constant change Seeing it one stops clinging Then whatsoever comes, one watches. One remains a witness One enjoys it while it is there. When the beautiful sunset is there, enjoy it But don't cling to it -- it is not a photograph Soon it will disappear, it is disappearing While you are watching, it is disappearing. Soon the night will fall, but why be worried Because the night has its own beauty. The stars will appear. But the clinger is such a fool that He will try to cling with the beautiful sunset He would like that it remains static forever. It is good that what he asks does not happen Otherwise we would have been bored by things. Life never listens to our stupid demands It goes on its own way Undistracted by millions of fools Calling to stop: shouting, crying, weeping. Life never listens to anybody because Those fools don't know what they are asking for They will cry for the sunset Because it is no more there and in that crying They will miss the new appearing stars. By the time they get free of that misery and They start looking at the beautiful starry night. Again the same foolishness is there: They start clinging to it, but it is fleeting, Soon it will be gone. Otherwise the sunrise will not happen They will again cry. Their eyes are always red And because of their tears They cannot see what is the real. Then they will miss the beauty of the sunrise And so on, so forth, it goes on. The fool goes on missing everything The wise man enjoys everything. He enjoys the day, he enjoys the night He enjoys the summer, he enjoys the winter. He enjoys life, he enjoys death. He is a non-clinger; in con-clinging is bliss. That's the way of sannyas: Non-attachment, non-clinging. Learn the art of being non-attached And you have learned the greatest secret of life.
(To Sanatano) -- Laxmi, Sanatano wants his name to be explained? -- Yes, he wants. -- Sanatano? Call Sanatano first -- just call him. -- (Mukta calls;) Sanatano. -- Come here, Sanatano! So you have come finally! Good! How long you will be here? -- One life. -- Mm? -- One life. -- Be a little longer! (laughter) Be a little less miserly -- just one life you say? Forever! -- And a little longer! That is the meaning of your name.
Sanatano means the eternal That which has no beginning and no end Which has always been and will always be. That is our reality, that's our truth. And to live it Is the only bliss, the only benediction. And it is not far away; it is so close That's why we go on missing it. It is like a fish missing the ocean Because it is in the ocean. We are in the eternal, inseparably in it. The eternal is in us In fact, there is no division at all: Each moment We are merging and melting in the whole. To know it and life immediately becomes A dance, a song -- and that is true revolution!
You have been a revolutionary But that was not true revolution. Now you have come in the most dangerous hands! This is true revolution. It does not change the outer structure It is not concerned with outer structures, It changes the very consciousness of man. And if the consciousness changes Then the outer structures Will change themselves.
So good that you have come here -- I was waiting for you! Come close you call one more. Come close. Good.
Osho's Commentary
(To Usha) -- Your name: Ma Anand Usha.
Remember only one thing because I want my sannyasins to be concerned only with the very essential. The non-essentials have destroyed the whole beauty of religion. And once the non-essentials start becoming important the essential is lost. And there are a thousand and one non-essential things in life. All the religions have become a great chaos, for the simple reason that the essential is lost sight of. The essential is meditation, everything else is non-essential. All beliefs are non-essential. Whether one believes in god or does not believe, it matters not at all, because those who have believed - they have reached, and those who have not believed - they have also reached. Buddha never believed in god, yet he became enlightened. Jesus believed in god, yet he became enlightened, hence the belief in god is a non-essential thing; it is only a question of like and dislike. But neither Buddha nor Jesus nor Mahavira nor Patanjali can avoid meditation. Anybody who avoids meditation misses the goal. Then he can go on believing in a thousand things but nothing is going to help - the naked truth is that all beliefs are decorations. The essential thing is that one should become silent, utterly silent; thoughtless, alert, aware. And one should start moving inwards, when one reaches one's center then all is revealed; there is no need to believe beforehand. In fact to believe beforehand is a disturbance. Then you are prejudiced and any mind that is prejudiced cannot go very far. One needs an absolutely unprejudiced approach with no conclusions, no knowledge, no belief and you will attain to the ultimate very easily. If one gets entangled into beliefs and what is right and what is wrong and what to do and what not to do, then it becomes impossible.
In Buddhist scriptures there are thirty-three thousand rules for a monk. Even to remember them is impossible. There is no question of following - how can one remember thirty-three thousand rules? And one's whole life will be wasted in remembering those rules. And if you have to follow thirty-three thousand rules you will become a robot, you will lose all spontaneity, you will not be able to move a single inch! Your whole life will be cramped, paralyzed you will live in a prison. And Buddha was teaching freedom, ultimate freedom, and the outcome is thirty-three thousand rules. The moment he died scholars started collecting all the rules. How they collected thirty-three thousand rules that too is a miracle, a feat!
The way they followed was that of Buddha who was talking to millions of people in his long life, forty-two years he was a master, an enlightened master. He became enlightened when he was forty and remained alive up to the age of eighty-two. So for forty-two years he was teaching and he was telling different people different things - their needs were different. They collected everything, whatsoever he has said. It is as if you go on collecting all the prescriptions of a doctor which have been given to different patients for different illnesses - of course you will be able to collect thirty-three thousand prescriptions and then if you deliver those prescriptions to one single person, you will kill him immediately. Just the load of the prescriptions will be enough. He will not be able even to reach to the chemist! And he will be in such a contradiction, he will not know what is happening. He will be in a mess - if he follows this rule then some other rules are broken. If he follows that rule then some other rule is broken. You will drive him crazy! Or if he is a sensible, intelligent person he will become a hypocrite: he will pretend that he follows the rules and he will live his own private life utterly ignoring all those rules.
So there is no rule in my sannyas, no ritual; I don't prescribe anything. My whole insistence is for a single medicine and that medicine is meditation. Both the words meditation and medicine come from the same root. Medicine cures the body, meditation cures the soul.
So from today you keep only one thing in your mind. And whenever you have time - and there is no need to make a fixed time, that creates difficulties. One day you may have some work, you may have somewhere to go and then it becomes a trouble: if you don't follow the routine you feel guilt; if you follow the routine your ordinary life is disturbed. There is no need to make it so that you have to do every day in the morning, six to seven - there is no need to make any particular time. Any time will do. And there is no need even to think that you have to do it only once or twice. As many times as you get the opportunity just close your eyes and disappear within. Slowly slowly the knack starts happening. Slowly slowly something opens up. And that opening leads you beyond the body, beyond the mind, to the farther shore.
Good, Usha! Good.
(To Martha) -- This is your name: Ma Anand Dhyana.
Anand means bliss. Dhyana means meditation.
Bliss is a flowering of meditation.
Meditation is like a rose bush
And bliss is like roses.
Without meditation
There are no flowers in life and no fragrance,
One lives utterly empty, meaningless.
One's whole life remains just like a driftwood;
Accidental, with no sense of direction.
One does not know why one is doing this or that
Why one is alive at all -- for what?
One has no answers and because to know
That 'I have no answers,'
One never raises the questions
Because those questions hurt,
They make you aware of your ignorance.
One avoids the questions so that one can remain
Unaware that one's life is absolutely pointless
One keeps oneself occupied
Into thousand and one small things, tiny goals:
Achieve money, power, prestige
Do this, do that -- very short-sighted goals.
And you can achieve money and you can have power
But nothing happens out of it
Because you remain the same.
Then have no money, then have more power
And there is no end to it.
It is chasing shadows. It is such a stupid act
But everybody goes into it because one finds
Everybody else going into it
And people are imitators.
I don't know
Whether Charles Darwin is right or not
But when I look at people's imitativeness
Then I start thinking maybe he is right, that
Man has come from the monkeys.
Maybe biologically it is not true
But psychologically it seems to be very true.
All men are monkeys:
Just to see somebody purchasing a new car
And you have to purchase a new car
Somebody has a new house
You have to have a new house.
This is how you go on and on:
You go on following others
And others are following you.
It is such a foolish game
And we are moving in circles.
And one can waste one's life very easily
Because it is so short; but it is strange.
If you ask people, 'Why are you playing cards?
Why are you playing poker?
Why you are so deeply engaged into chess?'
They say, 'To kill time.'
As if they have more time than they need.
As if time is so useless that you have to kill it.
Time is the most precious thing!
Once gone it is gone forever.
And we don't have much time;
Life is really very short.
It flies so fast that between birth and death
There is not much gap
And people are killing time not knowing at all
That in fact it is just the other way round:
Time is killing you.
In Hindu language
We have the same word for both time and death
Song word 'kal' means both, time and death
Because time brings death, time is killing you
Time is death.
The moment a child is born he starts dying.
If he has been there just for five minutes
That means he has died a little bit.
Out of his seventy years life
Five minutes are gone, he is less alive
Than he was just five minutes before.
And it is slipping out of our fingers.
Something has to be done
And something has to be done very determinedly
With great determination and commitment
Only then meditation is possible.
It needs a focussed, intense effort.
You have to put all your energies into it.
People start meditation
Thousands of people start meditation
But only out of curiosity hence nothing happens.
One or two days or three days they will meditate
And they will say, 'Nothing is happening.'
Meditation is not like going into a movie
Or watching TV -- that just you sit and you watch
And something starts happening,
You have nothing to do.
You have to transform
Your whole structure of mind.
You have to dismantle the whole edifice
You have to find out where your reality is hiding
You have to uncover it, discover it.
It needs a persistent and patient effort.
But if one works it pays tremendously.
It is worth -- even if you have to put
Your whole life energy into it to attain it
It is worth because it is far more valuable
Than your whole life.
A single moment of meditation
Is more valuable than your whole life
Because in that single moment
You attain to eternal life
Which knows no birth, no death
And that is the flowering
That is where one becomes blissful.
Without knowing it one remains in misery
Because if one is going to die
How can one be blissful?
How can one avoid death?
Its shadow falls continuously.
In everything you are doing
There is the shadow of death
And it is deepening every moment.
Even when you are in love with somebody
Even making love, death is present.
Sometimes it is more present
In those moments when you are silent
When you are enjoying it is more present
Because in those moments
You are a little more alert, you can feel it.
It almost always happens to intelligent people
That while making love they become sad
And if not while making
Then afterwards they become sad.
And they become very much puzzled
Because it was a beautiful experience
And why they have become sad?
That beautiful experience
Has made them a little alert and now they know
Death will take everything away.
All these beautiful moments
Are not going to save them
And all these beautiful moments
Are fleeting moments, they are not going to abide
Sooner of later all will be gone.
A miserable person
Who has never know a single glimpse of joy
Will not be so aware of death
Because he lives in misery,
He himself lives in such darkness
That death cannot make its shadow.
When you are in darkness, you don't make a shadow
When you come into light
Immediately the shadow disappears.
That's why when ever you are happy
Feeling good, healthy, suddenly a shadow appears
And that shadow is of death
And that makes one sad.
One cannot be really happy
Unless one comes to know
That one's innermost core is beyond death.
To know that is the only bliss
And that's the goal of sannyas.
Meditation is the way to attain it.
Bliss is the goal.
(To Michael) -- This is your name: Swami Anand Amoha.
Anand means bliss. Amoha means non-attachment.
Misery comes out of attachment.
We become attached to things
To people, to places.
We are addicted with attachment
We cling to anything and clinging brings misery
Because life goes on changing
It is in an constant movement, it is never static
Even for two consecutive moments.
So to cling to such a life is to create misery
Because it can't remain as you want it:
Whether you cling or not, it is going to change.
Except change, everything changes.
In life only change is a non-changing phenomenon.
So the man of understanding
Never clings to anything.
Seeing that everything changes
These is no point in clinging.
It is foolish, it is unintelligent
And you create your own misery
And then you condemn the whole world.
The world is not responsible
Nobody is responsible for your misery
Except your own unawareness
Unawareness of this absolutely certain fact
That life is a constant change
Seeing it one stops clinging
Then whatsoever comes, one watches.
One remains a witness
One enjoys it while it is there.
When the beautiful sunset is there, enjoy it
But don't cling to it -- it is not a photograph
Soon it will disappear, it is disappearing
While you are watching, it is disappearing.
Soon the night will fall, but why be worried
Because the night has its own beauty.
The stars will appear.
But the clinger is such a fool that
He will try to cling with the beautiful sunset
He would like that it remains static forever.
It is good that what he asks does not happen
Otherwise we would have been bored by things.
Life never listens to our stupid demands
It goes on its own way
Undistracted by millions of fools
Calling to stop: shouting, crying, weeping.
Life never listens to anybody because
Those fools don't know what they are asking for
They will cry for the sunset
Because it is no more there and in that crying
They will miss the new appearing stars.
By the time they get free of that misery and
They start looking at the beautiful starry night.
Again the same foolishness is there:
They start clinging to it, but it is fleeting,
Soon it will be gone.
Otherwise the sunrise will not happen
They will again cry.
Their eyes are always red
And because of their tears
They cannot see what is the real.
Then they will miss the beauty of the sunrise
And so on, so forth, it goes on.
The fool goes on missing everything
The wise man enjoys everything.
He enjoys the day, he enjoys the night
He enjoys the summer, he enjoys the winter.
He enjoys life, he enjoys death.
He is a non-clinger; in con-clinging is bliss.
That's the way of sannyas:
Non-attachment, non-clinging.
Learn the art of being non-attached
And you have learned the greatest secret of life.
(To Sanatano) -- Laxmi, Sanatano wants his name to be explained?
-- Yes, he wants.
-- Sanatano? Call Sanatano first -- just call him.
-- (Mukta calls;) Sanatano.
-- Come here, Sanatano! So you have come finally! Good! How long you will be here?
-- One life.
-- Mm?
-- One life.
-- Be a little longer! (laughter) Be a little less miserly -- just one life you say? Forever! -- And a little longer! That is the meaning of your name.
Sanatano means the eternal
That which has no beginning and no end
Which has always been and will always be.
That is our reality, that's our truth.
And to live it
Is the only bliss, the only benediction.
And it is not far away; it is so close
That's why we go on missing it.
It is like a fish missing the ocean
Because it is in the ocean.
We are in the eternal, inseparably in it.
The eternal is in us
In fact, there is no division at all: Each moment
We are merging and melting in the whole.
To know it and life immediately becomes
A dance, a song -- and that is true revolution!
You have been a revolutionary
But that was not true revolution.
Now you have come in the most dangerous hands!
This is true revolution.
It does not change the outer structure
It is not concerned with outer structures,
It changes the very consciousness of man.
And if the consciousness changes
Then the outer structures
Will change themselves.
So good that you have come here --
I was waiting for you!
Come close you call one more. Come close.
Good.