According to Osho, yes—he is your gardener: his disciples are his garden, and their flowering is his rejoicing. Closeness to him depends on your inner state: misery creates distance; bliss erases it; in enlightenment, you and he are one. Past outer gardening was a device; wherever you are, he remains the gardener—so bloom like a rosebush.
He tends your inner growth like a gardener; when you become joyful you’re close to him, and when you’re miserable you feel far—so focus on blooming.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, in rajneeshpuram I was your gardener, and it was the best and the most beautiful and fulfilling time in my whole life. Now, sitting here at your feet, I suddenly realize that you are my gardener. Is it so?
It is so. But the realization has come a little late, because in Rajneeshpuram also I was the gardener. Think it over again. With me, you cannot be a gardener. My disciples are my garden, and when they blossom and flower I rejoice as any gardener rejoices. With each of my disciples coming to flower, I attain enlightenment again -- because from my side, there is no distinction at all, no distance. Particularly as you become blissful, the distance starts becoming less and less. In your misery -- you have to forgive me -- I cannot be with you. The greater your misery, the further apart we are. But in your blissful moments, you are are so close that there is no distance at all. In your enlightenment, you are not even close -- you are one. I feel that again another spring has come to me. So this time…
Question: Third question: Osho, Mine, mine—yes, my Lord! Whether that communion happens through lips or through glances—what a happening it is! When You are born within, the “I” is erased and the thirst of lifetimes is quenched. But how can I speak what lies hidden in the innermost core of my life-breath? I have come to Your gate; You seem familiar from eternity. Life is boundless, the paths are boundless, and yet I have been able to reach You. This is your grace alone, Master—otherwise the current would have swept me away. Once the Guru’s door was found, how far could it be? Now the hour to meet Govind has come. This mind is Yours, this body is Yours; now whatever there is in life is Yours. What am I now? Only You are. Do whatever Your heart desires.
Beloved Osho, I'm getting more and more dizzy... With trying to follow you up to the sunlit peaks, taking a jump, then suddenly floating down the water course way. And before I drown in the ocean, you're dragging me out to dance till the dancer is gone. If we ever pause for breath, should I check that the grass is still growing by itself?
Anand Dhiren, you need not worry about it, that is my business. The grass is growing by itself perfectly well. You don't worry about the grass, you just dance totally. That's how small things become disturbances. Worrying about the grass, whether it is growing or not, will disturb your dance, will disturb your meditation. You leave this to me. For what I am sitting here? Just to keep an eye that the grass goes on growing. And I have put a net all around... you think it is to prevent the mosquitos from coming in? You are wrong. It is to prevent dancers from going out and destroying the grass! Okay, Vimal? Yes, Osho.
Osho, you made me your own—it is your kindness. We were not worthy; it is your graciousness. You made me your own...
Krishnatirth! You have no idea how many diamonds lie within you! You don’t know what a vast empire is inside you—that you are an emperor! Your own kingdom is not visible to you; it is visible to me. Your own gold mine is not visible to you; it is visible to me. In your own eyes you have no value because you have never looked at yourself, never recognized yourself. Had you recognized, known, become a little acquainted, you would find that you are an emperor, born as an emperor! In this existence, where everyone arrives from the very source of the Divine, how could anyone be less than an emperor! These feet of mine that tremble at every step, this head of mine whose curse is knowledge, these hands of mine that are spread, cupped in offering, this heart of mine whose law is rise and fall! In these…
Question: A PEBBLE FALLING INTO WATER RIPPLES THE FAR SHORE. A SPARK FANNED BY THE BREEZE STARTS A FOREST FIRE. A MASTER'S PRESENCE SPREADS AWARENESS TO THE FAR CORNERS OF THE EARTH. OSHO, WHAT IS YOUR WORK? That's what I said yesterday to you about Yoka: that R.H. Blyth is wrong if he says that Yoka has nothing much to say and still he goes on saying. He misunderstood the whole thing. The basic weakness of the Western approach towards life... And it is not that he is against Yoka, he loves him; he has translated Yoka's words with great care, with great love, but still the argument is there. And it is not a question of more or less -- 'Why does Yoka go on speaking when he has nothing more to say?' -- it is not even a question of more or less.