What happens when love ripens?

Osho, when sex ripens, one’s interest in it begins to wane. What happens when love ripens?

In this country this mishap has happened often. The reason it happened is the good fortune of this land—that many saints arose here. We turned that good fortune into our misfortune. We heard the ambrosial words of the saints. Their words appealed to us. Not only was their reasoning powerful, the weight of their presence was powerful too. In their presence we felt that what they said must be right. “Must be right.” But “must be right” is not the same as our own experience bearing witness that it is right. The dignity of their being, their luminous aura, their stream of consciousness moved us, influenced us: we followed behind, and our mind kept wandering in the world. From this a great deterioration has occurred here. People call themselves religious, yet inside they are so worldly as you will hardly find anywhere. Here people abuse money, and yet the grip…

Osho, yesterday you said that when anger is watched consciously, it dissolves. But why is it that when sexual desire arises, even in awareness its intensity persists? Why is it so?

There is no entanglement in the breath. If you try to practice on anger… Anger is not happening every moment; it happens sometimes. And when it happens, it happens with such intensity that you are already going deep into it; so much is at stake in those moments that you may think, “We will look into awareness later; first let’s settle this now.” Lust is very deep, because existence has made it so deep; life depends on it. If lust were so easy that you decided and were freed, perhaps you would not even have been born—because many before you would have become free, and the possibility of your being would have been almost nil. But your parents, and their parents, did not become free; therefore you are. You too will not get free so easily, because your children are also to be—they are waiting: “Do not run away midway.”…

And that is the experience that gives you the proof of god's existence; when you have experienced it with one person you know that now you can melt with the whole. You know the art, you have learned it; you can now melt with the whole universe and become one with it. That is prayer. Not the Christians and Hindus praying in their temples -- that is not prayer. Prayer is the ultimate state of love, the fragrance of that ultimate state, the fragrance of the flower of divine love. [Then more on love to Satprem. Her name means true love, Osho told her. Our love is only so-called love, he began.] It has many other things in it which are far more predominant: jealousy, possessiveness, domination -- all kinds of ego numbers. And ego is the most poisonous thing for love. Love is very delicate.

Osho, athato prema jijñasa—now, therefore, an inquiry into love. Does the very inquiry into love transform into the experience of egoless love? Please explain.

Athato jijñasa—athato prema jijñasa. With this we began Dariya’s sutras. Good to complete it here. Because love is the beginning and love is the end. Love is the seed and love is the fruit. Love is the start and the final expression. Athato prema jijñasa. We have searched for everything in life—wealth, position, respectability—yet we have not searched for love; hence we seem crippled, impoverished. The inquiry into love, the search for love, finally becomes the search for the divine. Why? Because in love the ego dissolves, melts. Love means your death—your disappearance. Where you are not, God is. Your presence is the obstacle; your absence becomes the door. Die, O yogi, die—dying is sweet. Die the death by which Gorakh was seen. Dissolve. Become zero. Let this identity go—this ego, this I-sense. The moment the I is gone, samadhi arrives. This I-sense is like ice; let it melt in…

Osho, does preeti—passing through sneh (affection), prem (love), and shraddha (reverence/faith)—naturally transform into bhakti (devotion)?

Naturally and inevitably. If a seed is sown in the right season, in suitable soil, with water and sunlight, then naturally and inevitably it will sprout. If there are obstacles, it becomes difficult. If the soil is wrong—stony; if the sun is absent, the water lacking—the seed will not sprout. The full potential was there, but rocks fell across the path. If the seed sprouts, then naturally and inevitably it will become a tree. But there may be obstacles, accidents. An animal may come and graze it; if no fence is put up, no protection; a child may break it in play. So a fence will be needed. For a few days it will need protecting. Very soon the moment will come when the tree can stand in its own strength; then no fence is needed; not even a gardener is needed. And when there is a tree, and the…