When you realize you’ve just been getting older, you start really living—your body ages, but inside you become fresh, joyful, and growing like a child.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, I have grown old; I used to think there was no remedy left for me. But your words have stirred new enthusiasm. Eyes that were losing their light have been touched again by a ray of some unknown radiance. Osho, what is happening? Am I not just dreaming?
The Beloved wears no veil, no curtain. But you have bound a bandage over your eyes. You are like a bullock at the oil press. And those who bound it used a clever device: had there been no blindfold, you would have rebelled long ago. You would never have fallen for the hollow politicians and the two-bit priests. You would have broken the chains. Look at the horse harnessed to a cart—blinders are put on his eyes. Otherwise he would bolt. If he could see clearly, he would run off. With blinders, only four steps ahead are visible. Seeing only four steps, he loses the very sense that there is anywhere to run to. Slowly he believes—“This is all there is; this is life.” A philosopher once went to a grocer to buy oil. Behind the grocer, the oil press was turning, the oil being pressed. A bullock was circling,…
Beloved Osho, I was 56 years old when I first came to you and realized what a wastage my life had been up till then, an increasing unreality. Now I am 67, and although I still feel youthful, I have to keep reminding myself that I am old so that I can it accept gracefully. So much of me still feels like a lost, little girl and when I look at your grace and beauty -- ageless, young and old both together -- I do not feel so sad. Will you say something to me about old age?
It is one of the significant problems because the way we have lived up to now has been unnatural, unpsychological, unspiritual. It has created so many problems. For example, oldness -- a person can either grow old or grow up. The person who grows old only has not lived at all. He has passed time, but he has not lived. All his life is nothing but repression. I teach you not to grow old. That does not mean you will not become old, it means I give you another dimension: growing up. Certainly you will grow old but that will only be as far as the body is concerned. But your consciousness, you, will not grow old; you will only grow up. You will go on growing in maturity. But all the religions of the world have been committing such crimes that they cannot be forgiven. They have not been…
Why am I always afraid of being old? Show me the way how I can get rid of it.
And this way, the whole energy by and by is forced into the head, because head is appreciated. We have the expression "the head clerk," "the head superintendent," "the headmaster" -- all "heads." "Hands" is used for laborers. "Heads" are superior beings -- "heads" of states. "Hands?" -- just a manual worker, worthless. In India "heads" are brahmins, and the poor sudras are not even hands, legs, feet. In Hindu scriptures it is said that God created brahmins as heads and sudras as feet and kshatriyas, warriors, as hands, arms, strength, and businessmen, vaishyas, as the belly. But brahmins are heads. The whole world has become brahmin. That is the problem -- everybody living in the head, and the whole body has shrunken. Just stand before a mirror some time and see what has happened to your whole body. Your face looks very alive, red with life, but your chest?…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, IN WESTERN SOCIETY, AT LEAST, YOUTH IS CONSIDERED TO BE EVERYTHING, AND TO A CERTAIN EXTENT, IT SEEMS THIS IS AS IT SHOULD BE IF WE ARE TO CONTINUE GROWING IN EVERY DIMENSION OF LIFE. BUT THE NATURAL COROLLARY OF THAT IS THAT AS ONE MOVES AWAY FROM YOUTH, BIRTHDAYS ARE NO LONGER A CAUSE FOR CONGRATULATIONS, BUT ARE AN EMBARRASSING AND UNAVOIDABLE FACT OF LIFE. IT BECOMES IMPOLITE TO ASK SOMEONE THEIR AGE; GRAY HAIR IS DYED, TEETH CAPPED OR REPLACED ENTIRELY, DEMORALIZED BREASTS AND FACES HAVE TO BE LIFTED, TUMMIES MADE TAUT, AND VARICOSE VEINS SUPPORTED -- BUT UNDER COVER. YOU CERTAINLY DON'T TAKE IT AS A COMPLIMENT IF SOMEONE TELLS YOU THAT YOU LOOK YOUR AGE.
Osho, I have heard that a seeker has to pass through four stages of sadhana: tariqat, shari’at, marifat, and haqiqat. The last is haqiqat, where the seeker meets his beloved and comes face to face with Truth. Osho, please explain the first three states.
These words are from the Sufis—very significant, and very straightforward. The first is tariqat. Tariqat means: the way, the method, the discipline, the means, the yoga. Tariqat means: something has to be done; only then will you attain—without doing, you will not receive. One has to walk a path; find the way; make a footpath. One has to bring some discipline into life, give it an order. Tariqat means learning the way to become worthy of it. When you go to have an audience with an emperor, you learn the etiquette of his court. You don’t just walk in. If you do, you will not be accepted. You learn how to sit there, how to stand there, how to bow there. If you are going to meet an emperor, you must taste something of the flavor of the emperor’s way of life. If you are going to meet the Divine,…