How can I accept two masters while wanting to become a sannyasin?

Beloved master, I want to become a sannyasin, but I cannot because I am already a practicing catholic. How can I accept two masters? And am I allowed to ask questions before I become a sannyasin?

Alexander, there is no question of accepting two masters. It is not a question of masters, it is a question of surrender. If you are surrendered to Christ, you are surrendered to me. If you are surrendered to me, you are surrendered to Christ, to Buddha, to Mahavira, to Krishna. The question is of surrender. You are taking the question from the wrong end. If you know how to surrender, then all the masters are one. Then you will find Christ in Buddha, and Buddha in Christ. The surrendered heart becomes so deeply harmonious that it can see that Krishna and Christ are not different. Certainly their language is different -- Krishna speaks Sanskrit, Christ speaks Aramaic. Certainly they use different metaphors, different parables. They are different fingers but pointing to the same moon. If you can see the moon, will you be worried about the fingers? If you can…

This phenomenon of the master and the disciple is one of the greatest contributions of the East to humanity. In the West there have been only teachers and students. Even a man like Socrates is thought only as a great teacher, and Plato and others are his students. In the East we have a great distinction between a teacher and a master. A teacher is only to give you information. A master has to give you transformation -- it is a totally different process. Information is not difficult: you can go on memorising it. That's what schools, colleges, universities are doing: they go on feeding your biocomputer, they go on putting more and more information in you. The master has to transform you; hence deep surrender is needed, because the master will start working on you and it hurts -- it is surgical.

Question: Third question: Osho, Shri Kammu Baba was a Sufi fakir who passed away two years ago. He lived in Goregaon, Bombay, where his shrine now is. My inner being feels he was an enlightened saint who had realized the truth—a vast ocean of kindness and compassion. People from every religion and walk of life went to him and found peace. He was a truly masti-filled fakir. After much pleading he gave me a Sufi kalam. A year and a quarter later he died. I could not ask him anything, because for the last year of his life he had become childlike. He never gave any definite method or rule about how to read the kalam. He said, whenever you wish, wherever you are, you can read the kalam I have given you.

Osho, a master can always know the spiritual state of a seeker longing for liberation, but how can the seeker know whether the master has attained truth or not? And if the disciple ever feels he has lost the gamble in his choice, can he go to another master? Please clarify your view.

The scripture says: eat once a day—so they eat once. Two garments—so two garments. Don’t travel after sunset—so they don’t. Don’t drink water at night—so they refrain. Rise before dawn—so they rise. They rehearse what the scripture prescribes; through this, they match your idea and seem suitable. If your conception springs from the same scripture, the match is exact. Hence the odd spectacle: the guru of one sect does not seem like a guru at all to another sect. But to his sect he appears the supreme guru. Their conceptions match. Understand the trick. You study the same shastra… Consider an actress who came to see me: “What do you say about the Bhrigu Samhita?” I asked why. She said, “In Delhi they read my Bhrigu. I noted what they said of my past lives, and future too. Some things about this life were true. Others aren’t yet, but the…

Osho, true masters are different, and a follower of one master cannot accept another. But we find ourselves bowing to Buddha, Mahavira, Lao Tzu, Jesus, Krishna—everyone. Perhaps it is because you yourself have oriented us toward them. Even on seeing the living master Krishnamurti, our hearts overflowed with joy, our feet began to dance. Why? And we cannot understand why Krishnamurti’s lovers cannot accept you?

True masters are certainly different. Broadly, three kinds can be seen. First is the kind of master like Krishnamurti; Mahavira and Buddha belong to the same line. Such a master has one central message: become utterly free, do not depend on anyone. Your liberation lies in your freedom. Liberation is not a final event waiting at the end; you must learn freedom from the very first step—only then will it flower at the last. Krishnamurti’s famous book is The First and the Last Freedom: the first freedom is the last freedom; the very first step of freedom is already the last step. So: do not go into anyone’s refuge, do not surrender anywhere, do not bind yourself to any ideology; avoid belief. Mahavira called this the state of ashraya-shunyata—no refuge. Take no shelter. Buddha’s last message at the time of his death—Ananda asked for a final word to treasure forever—was:…