Is it possible to remain a disciple without taking sannyas and still advance in silent practice?

Osho, is it possible that I remain your disciple without taking sannyas, and keep advancing the silent practice that has been born within me? It is all your gift, of course, but this is a method awakened from my own innermost being, and I feel there is more benefit in following it. I also think there should be a branch in your path through which one may reach that ultimate reality even without taking sannyas and so on. Kindly tell me how far my thinking is right.

As long as you think, you will think wrongly. Thinking itself is wrong. As long as you go on thinking, you will think wrongly, because the very notion of “I” is wrong. You don’t want to take a risk. You are eager to attain, and yet you don’t want to take any danger. You say: “Is it possible that I remain your disciple without taking sannyas?” From my side there is no obstacle; the obstacle will arise from your side. What obstacle could there be from me? Be a disciple at your ease, be a student, or be no one at all—there is no obstacle from my side. From my side you are free. The obstacle will come from your side. You want to remain a disciple without becoming a sannyasin—already the obstruction has begun. It means you want to come close without actually coming close. How will that happen?…

Osho, can I not be your disciple without taking sannyas?

Narayandas Tiwari! You can be a student, not a disciple. And the difference between a student and a disciple is as great as the difference between a poet and a seer—no less. A student means: someone who will walk away with bits of information, who will gather a little trash of knowledge, whose memory will be a little more stuffed, who will learn to repeat a few fine sayings. But you cannot be a disciple without becoming a sannyasin. For the first prerequisite of a disciple is: to drop curiosity. And not only curiosity—to drop inquisitiveness as well, and to take up mumuksha. What is mumuksha? Curiosity is a childish thing; small children have it—they go on asking and asking. “Why this? Why that?” They drive you crazy. Whomever they latch onto, they make his life difficult. Because before one question is finished, they have already posed another. They don’t…

Osho, have you now stopped giving initiation into sannyas and making disciples? Will I be left deprived of becoming your disciple?

A disciple is not made; one has to become a disciple. When you love someone, do you first ask, do you seek permission? Love happens. Love obeys no command, no permission, no method, no ordinance. What is discipleship? It is the highest, deepest name for love. If you want to love me, how can I stop you? If tears fall in love for me, how can I stop them? And if you wish to plunge into what I call meditation, how can I hinder you? One who is to be a disciple cannot be stopped by anyone. That is why I have dropped the formality of “making” disciples—because now I want only those who are coming toward me from their own being, for no other reason. Now the whole responsibility is yours. Just as in the first grade we teach children: aa for aam (mango), ga for Ganesh. It used…

Osho, what is the definition of God?

Words are very small. If you say God is light, then what of darkness? The scriptures have said that God is light. Suppose we accept this as a definition—then what about darkness? Where will darkness go? Darkness is too; in fact it is far more than light. Light sometimes is and sometimes is not; darkness is always, eternal. Where will you place darkness? If you say God is light, darkness is left out. If you say God is darkness, then light is left out. If you say God is both darkness and light, a contradiction arises: they cannot be together. Try to have both darkness and light in the same room. If you bring in light, darkness disappears; if you preserve darkness, you cannot have light. Then how can both be together? That becomes an impossibility. So you cannot say “both” either. Then the fourth device is to say: it…

Beloved Osho, is it possible for a man's mind to become like the mind of the newborn baby?

Definitely. A lake is absolutely calm, peaceful, but with the incoming breeze the waves start rising. But if the breeze stops, the waves will also stop and the lake will become calm. It will again become like a mirror. The lake is clean; with the falling of the leaves it becomes dirty, but when the leaves settle down the lake will again become clean and fresh. A child is born -- the lake was still clean, there were no ripples, there were no leaves of thought, no waves of desire. Then with the advent of youth storms arose, strong winds blew and the lake was full of waves. The mirror got lost. There was a terrific onset of passion. Then old age came and the storm was over -- the lake was calm again. A little understanding -- let the leaves settle down. A little understanding -- let the winds…