According to Osho, when you don’t recognize someone—especially the awakened—you see only a role (a gardener, a cab driver) and miss the living presence that can shatter your distress. Non-recognition reflects your clinging to goals and misery; you project, postpone, and keep the ‘rock’ on your heart. Recognition arises when you drop everything, become nothing, and then the master—and a ‘heavenly smile’—reveals itself anywhere.
If you can’t truly see who’s in front of you, you just see their job and miss the gift that could lighten your heavy heart.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: OSHO, WILL I ONLY RECOGNIZE YOU WHEN I AM ENLIGHTENED? RECOGNITION IS POSSIBLE even before enlightenment, but it will remain vague; it will remain hidden behind a mist. Just as in the early morning, a winter morning, you can see that somebody is coming, but who he is you cannot exactly say. Something you can figure out, that a man is coming or a woman, but the mist is thick and it is difficult to figure out who the person is exactly. This type of recognition is possible; without it there will be no possibility of a Master and a disciple. How does one become a disciple? A vague recognition, a fragrance that has touched you, a love that has moved your heart, something of the beyond. It is a feeling, it is not knowing. You cannot be absolutely certain about it; it is mysterious.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO RECOGNIZE YOU? Prem Cordula, it is a simple phenomenon: you can recognize only that which comes within your experience. How can you recognize something which you have not experienced? What I am saying to you and what I am being to you is something utterly unknown to you -- not only unknown, but much of it is unknowable too. Recognition needs some experience within you to coincide with my experience. Those who are falling in tune with me, recognize me, and only they can recognize; it is not for all. It is only for the disciples to have a glimpse of recognition and it is only for the devotees to be absolutely certain of the recognition. But many of you have come here only as students searching for more knowledge, and I am imparting being, not knowledge.
Beloved Osho, if you were a cab-driver, would I really not recognize you? Firstly, instead of taking me straight down to mg road, you would drive me nuts for one and a half hours. Secondly, you would refuse to accept the fare and instead demand my life. Thirdly, while leaving me in total distress, you would drive off with a heavenly smile and light your sign: 'enough for today.' could I still miss this cab-driver? Then I had better go by foot.
But then Jesus went in search of his other disciples. He met two disciples on the way -- they were going to another town, and they were talking continuously of what had happened to their master: he had been crucified, and what the repercussions of it were going to be, and no miracle had happened, and they were waiting for the miracle.... And Jesus walked with them, and they were talking to Jesus also, thinking that he was a stranger. For four miles they walked together and they could not recognize Jesus: and he talked and they could not recognize him. They never looked at him. Then they sat in a restaurant to eat, and the moment Jesus broke his bread, then they recognized -- because the way he used to break his bread was simply his, unique. That gesture was his; nobody could have imitated it: with such respect,…
Osho, kindly explain—what is the way to recognize enlightened ones?
If you go near an enlightened one, you will recognize. How could it be otherwise! It may be that a blind man cannot see the sun, but when the morning sun spreads its rays, he feels its touch. He experiences its warmth, its heat. He comes to know that night has gone. Birds have begun to sing, the morning hymn has begun. He knows that a moment ago all was silent, asleep, dead; now life has revived, a hum is there. The sun may not be seen, but its warmth is felt. Even the blind senses the sun. He knows when night has passed and day has come. Granted you do not yet have the inner eye—but if you go near an enlightened one, that gust from the Malaya will touch you. You will bathe in it. You will be freshened. That piece of moonlight will shower upon you. You…
Osho, if another man who has already realized his own self comes to you, can you recognize him simply by looking at him? I would like to meet you if you permit me.
It is a very paradoxical phenomenon. To realize who you are is to realize that you are not! If you want to be, never try to realize, because in the very process of realization the ego disappears. And the self is only another name for the ego. There is nothing like self-realization. Yes, there is realization, but the realization always makes you absolutely clear that the self had never existed in the first place and it is not there; it has never been there. And for whom are you looking for recognition? As I see it, to me everybody is a no-self, whether he knows it or not. Yes, if he knows that there is no self I will immediately see that he knows. His humbleness, his simplicity, his spontaneity, his no-nonsense will be enough. His eyes will be absolutely empty because only in emptiness is there clarity. He will…