Is the situation with sannyasins similar to the story of the noseless monk?

Osho, you have said that adopting personalities and faces from the outside is a subtle theft and gives birth to hypocrisy and irreligion. But it is being seen that these days many new sannyasins are gathering around you, and without any special preparation or maturity you are recognizing their sannyas. Are you not thereby causing great harm to religion? Please explain.

First thing: if someone tries to become like me, I will stop him; I will tell him that trying to be like me is self-destruction. But if someone sets out on the journey of trying to become himself, I have no hesitation in giving him my blessings. Those sannyasins who want me to be a witness to their journey toward God—to be a witness on their path—I have no objection to becoming their witness. But I am no one’s guru. I have no disciples. I am only a witness. If someone wants to take a resolve in my presence that he is setting out on the journey of sannyas, I have no objection to becoming a witness. But if someone comes to become my disciple, I have a grave objection. I cannot make anyone a disciple, because I am not a guru. If someone comes to walk behind me, I…

Osho, what is the relationship between meditation and patience?

If you sit to meditate to remove mental restlessness, you will keep looking back again and again: “Has it gone yet?” And the irony is that when you begin to meditate, restlessness will increase. Because what has been repressed will start surfacing; catharsis will begin. The rubbish you have kept hidden within and never allowed to express—meditation will break open those doors too. It will clean the house. Dust piled up for years, for births, will rise again; there will be gusts and storms. For a while even the little peace you had will be lost. Then you will panic: “I came for peace, and even what I had is gone.” Without patience, you could even become unhinged, because meditation brings such a great storm. The disease is not from a day or two; it’s from lifetimes. Meditation will break through all the layers to reach your innermost core. In…

Beloved Osho, I often ask myself what sannyas really means to me. I read your books, sometimes I see a video or hear a tape of you; and mostly it stays only on the surface, is only something which touches my mind. But my whole life is changing since I have been going the way towards you, and this afternoon I will see you for the first time. Osho, please tell me something about sannyas and my next step.

My definition of sannyas is coming closer to a master, coming closer to a light. Your candle is unlit. You bring your candle closer to a candle that is burning bright. Come closer... there is a certain moment when, from the burning candle, the flame jumps to the unlit candle and suddenly you are enlightened. And the beauty is, the burning candle loses nothing and the unlit candle gains everything -- the whole universe. Sannyas is a journey from darkness towards light, from death towards immortality, from ignorance towards an explosion of knowing. The books or any other medium are just a net thrown into the sea with the hope that somebody will be caught in it. People are caught, and as they come closer to the master, their life starts changing. They may not understand what is happening, they may not be able to explain what is happening, but…

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…

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…