According to Osho, the eternal is always available; there is no difficulty in experiencing it, only in expressing it. Knowing is timeless; what changes with eras is the language and angle of expression. Like a rainbow, revelation needs three elements aligned: the experience itself, a speaker at the right angle, and a receptive listener.
Yes—the timeless truth can be felt now, but sharing it needs the right person, place, and openness.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, is it possible to experience the eternal, the immortality about which you have been talking, in the conditions and circumstances of today?
The experience of the eternal has been there for all. There is no difficulty in having the experience. The difficulty is in giving expression to the experience. Buddha had the experience of the eternal, but Mahavira was expressing it in the old language and Buddha in a new language. I want to express it in the language of the eternal itself. You mean to ask whether I had that experience seven hundred years ago. Yes, I nearabout had the experience then, but I am giving expression to it today. When one attempts today to express whatsoever was known seven hundred years ago, there will be no difference in the knowing, but there will be a great difference in expressing it. Seven hundred years ago it could not have been told in this way; there was no reason for it. The situation is like the appearance of a rainbow during the…
Osho, about the Eternal, the Sanatan, that you speak of—did its realization come to you seven hundred years ago, and are you speaking today in that same symbolic language? Or is it in today’s circumstances that the realization of that eternality occurs to you?
The Eternal has been realized by all. There is no obstacle in realization; the obstruction arises in expression. Mahavira has the realization of the Eternal, Buddha has it too. But Mahavira expresses that realization in the language of the old; Buddha expresses it in the language of the new. I want to express it in the very language of the Eternal. And you ask, “Did it happen to me seven hundred years ago?” Almost. The expression, though, I will give only today. Because even if something was known seven hundred years ago, when it is said today, the knowing does not change—but the saying changes greatly. Seven hundred years ago, this could not have been said; there was no reason to say it in this way. The situation is somewhat like a rainbow that appears during rain. It is a very amusing phenomenon. From where you stand, the rainbow becomes…
An earthquake is more destructive than creative, hence the so-called revolutions have destroyed much; they have not been really creative. Love is far more creative. In revolution destruction becomes the goal, in love creation is the goal. If something needs to be destroyed it is destroyed only in order to create. In revolution destruction becomes the goal and if something is needed for destruction then it is created, otherwise there is no question of creating. A revolution is a little bit upside-down, evolution is a natural course. A sannyasin has to change very silently without making any noise, without making any fuss -- and that happens through love. The very soul of sannyas is love. Love as deeply as possible, let your love be as multi-dimensional as possible. Love as many things as you can; love music, love poetry, love dancing, love people, trees, birds.
Osho, on the one hand Doolandas sings of life’s transience, and on the other, after drinking the nectar of love he plunges into carefree ecstasy where time becomes infinite! Please explain this paradox to us.
Narendra! A moment too is a fragment of the eternal—just as the drop belongs to the ocean, the atom to the vast. In a single small leaf the sap of the whole tree is flowing. In a tiny flower the entire existence has poured its beauty, its color, its fragrance—its all. The great poet Tennyson has said: if we could fully understand even a single flower, we would understand the whole of existence. For what appears small from the outside is, by unending pathways, joined to the whole. This flower would have no fragrance if it were not of the earth. It would have no colors if it were not linked with the sun. It would have no life if the breath of air did not move through it. The deeper you inquire, the more you will find the flower has already disappeared; little by little, the whole cosmos has…
You ask: “Are lust, anger, greed, and attachment merely shadows of time?”
Only desire is the shadow of time. You can call desire the shadow of time or time the shadow of desire. It is more accurate to say that time is the shadow of desire. If desire drops, time drops. If time drops, desire too drops. But your effort has to be to let desire drop—because at the very root is desire, the wanting: something is needed! As I am, I am not content; I must become something else! There is the seed of desire. What I have is not enough; I must get more! The world as it is will not do; it should be otherwise, in accord with my dreams. My mind is not delighted. If there is even a trace of discontent, desire has arisen. In the expanding of that desire, time also arises. It is better to say desire and time are two sides of the same…