How should we introduce ourselves as sannyasins?

Osho, how should we introduce ourselves as sannyasins?

Celebration is our caste; bliss is our lineage! That is our brief introduction. But it is enough. In it are contained all the Upanishads, all the Bhagavad Gitas, the Bible, the Quran, the Dhammapada. In it are contained all the songs of the buddhas. In it are contained all the celebrations of the awakened ones. Celebration is our caste; bliss is our lineage! That is all for today.

September 28, 1970 was a memorable day. At Manali in the Himalayas, Osho initiated His first group of sannyasins. This event was followed by this special evening discourse, on the significance of Neo Sannyas. To me, sannyas does not mean renunciation; it means a journey to joy bliss. To me, sannyas is not any kind of negation; it is a positive attainment. But up to now, the world over, sannyas has been seen in a very negative sense, in the sense of giving up, of renouncing. I, for one, see sannyas as something positive and affirmative, something to be achieved, to be treasured. It is true that when someone carrying base stones as his treasure comes upon a set of precious stones, he immediately drops the baser ones from his hands. He drops the baser stones only to make room for the newfound precious stones. It is not renunciation.

Sannyas is not a ritual. You are not becoming part of a church; on the contrary, you are dropping all memberships of all the churches and of all the nations, and of all that makes you limited, confined. You are attaining freedom through it. Initiation into sannyas means initiation into total freedom. Sannyas means assertion of your being as yourself. And only an individual can meet God. A crowd has never seen God, only individuals: a Moses, a Jesus, a Mohammed, a Krishna, a Buddha -- only individuals, not crowds. Moses was moving with a great crowd. He was moving from Egypt towards Israel with the whole crowd of Jews, but he had to move to the mountains into absolute aloneness and solitude, to encounter God. He had to leave the crowd behind. Buddha had to leave his kingdom behind to go into the mountains.

Osho, sannyas was born in this land; it was granted the dignity of Gaurishankar (Everest). But today its honor has become merely superficial. Inside, the individual and society alike are afraid of it. Why have sannyas and the sannyasin lost their meaning? Please explain.

In my sannyas there is no prohibition—no “leave this, run from that.” Awakening is enough. Cowards run. Those who awaken remain where they are and are free there. My sannyas does not want to give you knowledge; it wants to give you meditation. Meditation means emptiness; it means: I do not know. Life is such an ultimate mystery that nothing definitive can be known about it. And I want to give sannyas a new posture—creativity. I will call him a sannyasin who sings a new song; who strikes a new music from the veena; who dances a new dance; who makes this world a little more beautiful, brings a little more blessedness to the earth. Then sannyas can regain its dignity. And I would have the sannyasin not imitate. Listen, understand, contemplate—but live from your own individuality. Therefore I give my sannyasins no codes of conduct—only processes to awaken the…

To me, sannyas is not something very serious. Life itself is not very serious, and one who is serious is always dead. Life is just an overflowing energy without any purpose, so to me, sannyas is to lead life purposelessly. Live life as a play and not as a work. If you can take this whole life just as a play, you are a sannyasin; then you have renounced. Renunciation is not leaving the world, but changing the attitude. That is why I can initiate anyone into sannyas. To me, initiation itself is a play. And I will not ask for any qualifications -- whether you are qualified or not -- because qualifications are asked when something serious is done.