How do you choose the names of people being initiated into sannyas just by taking one look at them?

Osho, how do you choose the names of people being initiated into sannyas just by taking one look at them?

Shraddhanand! An old hippie was getting his hair cut. The barber asked, “Were you ever in the navy?” The hippie asked in surprise, “How did you know? Are you also...!” “No, sir,” the barber said, “I just now found this sailor’s cap tangled in your hair.” It doesn’t take much investigation. Now, for example, Shraddhanand, I looked at you—no shraddha (faith), no anand (bliss)—so I said, all right: Shraddhanand! There are two things you need: shraddha and anand. This is a prescription, brother. It’s not your name; it’s a prescription for the medicine you need—these two things. On your face I saw doubt, your expression funereal, as if you were about to cry any moment, if not already crying—so I quickly said: Shraddhanand! Brother, don’t cry! What’s done is done. Hearing “Shraddhanand,” you did brighten a little; you felt steadied, heartened. The very word anand cheered you up: “Ah, me…

Question: OSHO, HOW DO YOU ALWAYS FIND NEW NAMES TO GIVE TO YOUR SANNYASINS? Hence I change the name -- to give you a break, to give you the idea that name is just a given thing. Your old name disappears, a new name becomes your reality, but now you will not get so much identified because you are now more mature. The first name was given when you were a small child; you were not aware. Now you are a little bit aware. And by becoming a sannyasin you are becoming committed to more and more awareness, to a life of witnessing in which all identities have to be dropped. A man is absolutely free only when there is no identity left.

Osho, when you initiate disciples into sannyas you give them beautiful names. Please be kind enough to explain the mystery and meaning of these beautiful names.

A name is just a name. If I have to give one, I give a beautiful one—why give an ugly one? If I wished I could say, “Swami Chuhadmal Fuhradmal.” A name is just a name. And if I must give it, I give a beautiful one. There isn’t much in it. What meaning can a name really hold? Meaning belongs to action. Don’t get stuck relying on a name. If you do something, something will happen; if you allow something to happen, something will happen. However beautiful a name I give you—what will that do? If only life changed by changing a name—how simple it would be! By giving you a beautiful name I am expressing my aspiration, my longing for you. By giving you a beautiful name I am blessing you: I have desired the most beautiful in you! Now you must do something. By giving you a…

(To June) This is your new name: Ma Sadhyo. Sadhyo means the end, the goal. The goal is not outside -- you are the goal. The target is not somewhere else -- you are the target. You are both the means and you are the end. Unless one discovers oneself one remains just a means. The moment one has discovered oneself one has found the end. The circumference of your being is the means: the body, the mind, the heart. Use all of them to reach the innermost core, the very center -- and that is the end. In finding it one finds everything that is needed to be found. In knowing it all is known. In reaching it one reaches god.

This is your new name: Swami Vimaleshwar. Vimaleshwar means the god of purity. Purity does not mean anything more... because morality is a calculative step, it is cunning. It is out of desire: one is hankering for the other world, for heavenly joys and pleasures. The same stupid mind that hankers for money is now hankering for meditation. It is the same desire, only the object has changed. But by changing the object of desire nothing is changed unless desire itself drops, disappears. So by purity I do not mean moral purity, virtuousness and all that. I mean innocence, a state of not-knowing, a state of childlike wonder, of tremendous awe, readiness to be surprised by existence and life. And that's how one comes to know god, not by being moral but by being innocent. Of course innocence brings a morality of its own, but that is quite another matter.