Does the inquiry into love transform into the experience of egoless love?

Osho, athato prema jijñasa—now, therefore, an inquiry into love. Does the very inquiry into love transform into the experience of egoless love? Please explain.

Athato jijñasa—athato prema jijñasa. With this we began Dariya’s sutras. Good to complete it here. Because love is the beginning and love is the end. Love is the seed and love is the fruit. Love is the start and the final expression. Athato prema jijñasa. We have searched for everything in life—wealth, position, respectability—yet we have not searched for love; hence we seem crippled, impoverished. The inquiry into love, the search for love, finally becomes the search for the divine. Why? Because in love the ego dissolves, melts. Love means your death—your disappearance. Where you are not, God is. Your presence is the obstacle; your absence becomes the door. Die, O yogi, die—dying is sweet. Die the death by which Gorakh was seen. Dissolve. Become zero. Let this identity go—this ego, this I-sense. The moment the I is gone, samadhi arrives. This I-sense is like ice; let it melt in…

This question has been asked by Pragya. She asks: “Yesterday you said, ‘Dissolve—efface yourself—and union with the Divine will happen.’”

We say we feel afraid of disappearing because the journey of the ego is not yet fulfilled. The experience that the ego reaches nowhere has not yet become deep. There is still the foolishness: “I will accomplish something.” “I will show the world something.” “Let me try a little more. Don’t erase the ‘I’ so soon. Perhaps something is just about to arrive—who knows! True, nothing has come so far; but it may come tomorrow, who knows! The day after tomorrow!” So we keep trying a little more, a little more. You are still attached to the prison. The day it is seen that this is a prison, who can stop you? It is you who are holding on. You are clutching the bars of your own cage. You are holding them. The door is open; the day you decide, you will step out. The Divine is present within you;…

Osho, you have titled this series of talks “Sahaj Yoga.” Do “sahaj” and “yoga” not seem mutually opposed?

Anand Maitreya! They don’t just seem opposed, they are opposed. But no ultimate truth of life can manifest without contradiction. Life is made of opposites—darkness and light, day and night, woman and man, negative electricity and positive electricity, birth and death. The very structure of life is woven of opposites. Hence the opposites are not only opposed; they are complementary to each other. If you have labored hard all day, you will be able to sleep deeply. Labor and rest are opposites, yet only the one who has worked can rest deeply—and the one who has not worked cannot. So the opposites are not only opposed, they complete each other. And only the one who has rested deeply at night can rise in the morning and engage in work again. One who has not rested through the night will not be able to work in the morning. Look closely at…

What is love?

The stronger a person's ego is, the harder it is for him to unite with anybody. The ego comes in between; the "I" asserts itself. It is a wall. It proclaims, "You are you and I am I." And so even the most intimate experience does not bring people close to each other. The bodies may be near but the people are far apart. So long as there is this "I" inside, this feeling of otherness cannot be avoided. One day, Sartre said a wonderful thing: "The other is hell." But he didn't explain any further why the other was hell, or even why the other was the other. The other is the other because I am I, and while I am I, the world around is the other -- different and apart, segregated -- and there is no rapport. As long as there is this feeling of separation, love…

Osho! I set out to seek the Beloved; how is union with the Beloved attained?

Yog Neelam! The Beloved is not far. Not even so far that any meeting would be needed. There has only been forgetfulness, not separation. Separation cannot be. The Beloved abides within. He is the breath of our breath, the heartbeat of our heart. Without him we have no being. Because he is, we are. As the ocean is, so the waves are. The ocean can be without waves, but the waves cannot be without the ocean. Yet a wave can fall into a delusion—the delusion that “I am separate from the ocean.” In that very delusion, forgetfulness happens. Only forgetfulness happens; separation cannot. The whole search for the Beloved is nothing but remembrance—re-remembering. That is why the saints have called this search surati. Surati means remembrance, recollection. Surati is the folk form of the word smriti. What the Buddha called smriti, by the time of Kabir and Nanak became surati—dearer,…