Does one have to be in love as a prerequisite to the next kind of relationship?

I cannot seem to feel for you as a lover. It just feels that you are right for me. Is this because of my hang-ups about men? Does one have to be in love with you as a prerequisite to the next kind of relationship?

There are three possibilities. Whenever you come to a Master, the first possibility is to be related with him intellectually, through the head. That is not much. You may like his ideas but that doesn't mean that you like him. Liking the ideas, his attitudes, is not liking him. You can take the ideas separate. There is no need to fall in any relationship with the Master. This is what is happening to the questioner: the relationship is intellectual; that's why it is "just right". There is another possibility: you fall in love with the heart. Then there is no question what he says; the question is he himself. If you are intellectually related to me, sooner or later you will have to go away. Because I will go on contradicting myself -- one idea suits you, another may not suit. This idea you like, that idea you don't like…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, YOU HAVE BEEN MY FAVORITE UNCLE AND MY FATHER, MY MIDWIFE, A LAUGHING CHILD; MY BEST FRIEND, AN ANCIENT SAGE, MY FAVORITE STORYTELLER, AND MY MASTER... MY FIRST THOUGHT ON WAKING, MY LAST AT NIGHT.... YOU HAVE BEEN WARM BROWN EYES, A GENTLE HAND, FEET FOR MY HEAD; A TINGLING IN MY BODY... SOMETIMES A SILENCE, SOMETIMES A SONG.... YOU HAVE BEEN A HIT, A GLANCE, A PRESENCE, AN ABSENCE; DAY AND NIGHT, SUMMER AND WINTER -- A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS; A PROMISE OF FULFILLMENT, THE ONLY HOPE, THE ULTIMATE DESTROYER OF ALL DREAMS; THE ONLY REFUGE -- AND THE ONE I SOUGHT TO ELUDE; A MAGICIAN, AND JUST ONE ORDINARY MAN. YOU WERE AN ENIGMA, YOU WERE ME. YOU WERE THE MOON, THE STARS AND ALL THAT MOVED AROUND THEM. YOU WERE THE GREEN AND BROWN, THE BLUE AND GOLD, OF MY EARTH.

In moments of deep love and merging with the surrounding existence, o fragrance, your fragrance, comes to me, and gratitude arises in my heart. Is love the only communion possible with a master?

There is no other communion, not only with a Master -- there is no other communion with anybody except love. There are three ways to be related. One we call communication. It is mind to mind. You talk. Words meet, not you. Intellects grope, try to understand each other, but you remain far away. It is a very guarded relationship. Not really a relationship, just a groping, trying to find whether you would like to come closer or not. Intellect is very suspicious, non-trusting. In ordinary life ninety-nine per cent of your relationships remain intellectual. You talk to judge You talk to protect. You talk to avoid. In fact when you are talking to people you are not saying much, in fact you are trying not to say much. Words create an illusion that you are saying many things. It may be just otherwise, you may be hiding. Have you…

Osho, why does the heart love you?

I cannot say. I have kept you before my eyes, kept you in my heart of hearts; why I myself became the prey—that I cannot say. I have reached your ghat; from you, may I find the refuge of the boat called sannyas? Manhar has asked. When he asked, he was not yet a sannyasin. Now he is; he has boarded the boat. But what he has said is right. There is no way to explain or say what the relationship between disciple and master is! It is one of the most tangled riddles in existence. Why? All other relationships in this world—mother, father, brother, sister, husband-wife, friend—are worldly. They are all of the body-mind, of matter. They belong to maya, to dream, to sleep. In this world there is only one ray that is not of this world: the master–disciple relationship. Though it happens here—on this very earth, under…

Osho, you say the same thing in countless ways. But when I listen to you, it feels as if I am hearing it for the first time. And I feel so much joy that I don’t feel like going back home. What should I do—what can I do—so that I can just keep listening to you!

You will feel as if you have been made to rise out of season, before time—as if you were not yet to go and yet had to go. And if you go in that way, your home will become even more desolate than before. I do not want to make your home desolate; I want to make your home a temple. I want that when you go home, your home’s new form is revealed. I do not want to tear you away from home, from the world, from family life. That is the newness of my sannyas: I do not want to sever you from the world; I want to join you to the world in such a way that your connection with the world becomes a connection with the Divine. Let the world no longer be a barrier between you and the Divine; let it become a means. If…