Have I become enlightened, and if not, when will I be?

Question: BELOVED MASTER, HAVE I BECOME ENLIGHTENED? AND IF NOT YET, THEN WHEN? Enlightenment is not an object to be desired, it is not a goal to be achieved. And you will become enlightened only when you have forgotten all about it -- otherwise, never. And it is not a question to be asked. Even if I say you have become enlightened, that won't help. The very question shows that you are still desiring. Enlightenment has become your greed. You may have been desiring other things before -- money, respectability, power, prestige; now you are desiring enlightenment. The desire has moved to a different object, but it has not changed. The desire is still the same and desire is the problem. To desire anything is to remain unenlightened. Let me tell you one anecdote...

Osho, I think I have become enlightened. What do you say about it?

THE moment one becomes enlightened, one does not think that one is enlightened; one simply knows. Thinking is guessing, it is not knowing. And when one becomes enlightened one never asks 'whether I have become enlightened', because it is self-evident; no certificate is needed. And Nisarga, when you become enlightened I will come to you to bless you. You will not need to come to me and ask. An old Welsh lady, seventy-five years old, is in the doctor's surgery. "Well, I know it is hard to believe, Mrs. Jones, but the tests are conclusive: you are pregnant!" the doctor tells her. "But I am seventy-five years old, doctor, and my husband is eighty-five years old. Are you certain? This will be such a shock for him." "Yes, I am certain. You must tell him very carefully because of his age. I suggest you telephone him from my office now."…

Beloved Osho, I have been your sannyasin for one year. I meditate, watch, and do whatever looks true to me; still a big pain arises. Beloved Osho, how long will it take to get enlightened, and does this enlightenment really exist?

Farmer Jones and his wife Betty take their three pigs over to a neighboring farm to get them mated. While the pigs are at it, Jones asks his neighbor, "How will we know if the mating is a success?" Jones is told that if in a few days the pigs are eating grass, it means it is a success. If they are rolling around in the mud, it means it is not a success. After a few days Jones comes down to breakfast and asks Betty, "Are they eating grass or rolling around in the mud?" "They are rolling around in the mud," replies Betty. So they put the three pigs back in the car and take them back to the other farm to get them mated again. After a couple of days Jones asks Betty again. "What are they doing?" "They are rolling around in the mud," replies Betty.…

Osho, I keep thinking of my life in terms of goal or destination, waiting to wake up some day and find myself enlightened, and I worry that others will reach before me. Today is a tension. Why is eternity so difficult to feel and remember? You keep reminding me but I keep forgetting and lose patience. Why am I such a food? And then I think 'so what?' and then I want to scream 'no more!' but go on.

But do you think a day will come when all your invest-ments and all your worries and all your acts are complete? Will there ever come a day when you are finished with the activities of your so-called life, and you can come and say, "Right now I am ready"? It will never come, because life is such a complexity. It never begins, it never ends. You are always in the middle. It is like reading a novel from the middle. The beginning part is missing and the end part is missing -- you know only the middle. That is the mystery of life! Try some time reading a novel from the middle and you will find that even an ordinary novel becomes very mysterious. Intrigued you will be, and many times you will be tempted to look back: "What is the beginning?" But resist the temptation, go on reading…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, HOW DO YOU EXPERIENCE YOUR ENLIGHTENMENT? But in this whole changing, riverlike being... who are you? Only the stupid will speak out; the wise will remain silent. One who knows not will say, "I am this; I am a man, I am a woman, I am young, I am Hindu, I am a Christian..." Only the stupid will speak out. The wise will become absolutely silent. He is also answering -- his silence is the answer. Buddha calls this silence "right remembrance"... sammasati. You are saying, "I go on remembering all kinds of things you have said, and my own insights..." Agyeya, I had no idea that you also have insights! But... okay. Remembering all kinds of things that I have said, and what you have imagined as your intuitions... just try to find a single intuition that is yours, and you will be surprised.