Is it possible for a sergeant in the army to get enlightened?

Beloved Osho, this sounds like a silly question. I am not sure that I want to become enlightened. I am surprised to see so many people around who seem to have that desire. I feel very much attached to my country and I love my work there. Still I want to take sannyas. Is that possible? Is it not a contradiction?

To live now is to be enlightened, to live here is to be enlightened, to be a lily is to be enlightened this very moment! Don't think about what I am saying. Don't think about it, just be here. This is the taste of enlightenment. And once you have tasted it, you will want to taste it more and more. Don't make a goal out of it; it is not a goal, it is the most ordinary state of consciousness. It is nothing extraordinary, it is nothing special. Trees are enlightened, and the birds are enlightened, and rocks are enlightened, and the sun and the moon are enlightened. Only man is not, because only man thinks and goes on missing. The moment you realize that you are missing because you are brooding too much, then small glimpses start happening. Small gaps in the traffic of the mind, small gaps when…

Are you the only enlightened person in this ashram? If yes, is it impossible to enlighten or to be enlightened near an enlightened person?

SINCE I BECAME ENLIGHTENED I have never come across a person who is not enlightened. You see only that which you are. Before I became enlightened, the same was the case with me -- the whole world used to appear tremendously asleep, in darkness, in death, unenlightened, because you are reflected continuously everywhere. Every other person is just a mirror; you see yourself. So don't be worried about others; think about yourself. That should be your problem. Others are not your problems. Whether they are enlightened or not, how does it concern you? Why should you be worried about it? If somebody wants to remain unenlightened, it is absolutely his business to decide about it. If they want to play the game of being unenlightened, it's perfectly okay. If you have become fed up with the world, if you are fed up with your anguish and anxiety and you have…

Beloved Osho, is it possible to become enlightened in a really easy and relaxed way, with not too much effort and lots of naps?

Gayano, you are asking me, a man who has never done anything. Just through relaxation ... without any effort and lots of naps! Mostly I am asleep. I just get up to talk to you in the morning, then I go back to sleep; then I get up again in the evening to talk to you and go back to sleep. My total hours of sleep must be eighteen. Six hours I am awake, two hours with you, one hour for my bath, for my food and the remainder I am in absolute samadhi. And I don't even dream -- so lazy! And you are asking me the question. This is my whole philosophy, that you should not make any effort, that you should relax and enlightenment comes. It comes when it finds you are really relaxed, no tension, no effort and immediately it showers on you like thousands of…

Osho, I want to become enlightened. Why don't you help me?

So I cannot predict it because the very prediction will change the whole situation. I cannot say directly, 'Remain here for four to six weeks, something is going to happen.' That is not possible; nothing will happen. Even if I say, 'Be here for four to six weeks; it will be good for you,' a subtle desire may start in her being, a subtle hope. No, I cannot say anything to her directly, I have to be very indirect. So I told her, 'Be here for a few weeks' -- she is a group leader -- 'run two or three groups here.' That had nothing to do with her own growth; I did not say anything directly about her own growth. She agreed, but I was watching and saw that the agreement was only fifty per cent, not more than that. Just... just enough to stay. There was no joy…

Beloved Osho, I can't conceive of you ever being unenlightened. Did you really become enlightened only thirty-two years ago?

Seven years, by and by, passed -- they must have looked to that man almost like seven centuries. And he was so happy when he went to the abbot and said, "Master, I have a complaint to make. In the room you have allotted me, there is no mattress. And for seven years I have been prohibited from speaking." The abbot said, "Okay, a mattress will be provided immediately. You go back." A mattress was provided. But the cell in which the monk was living was very small, and the door was very small, and the mattress was big. So while they were bringing the mattress in, the door fell out and the window's glass was broken. Somehow they forced that big mattress into the small room. For seven years the poor man again suffered -- from rain, wind, snow, because there was no door and the window was broken.…