What happens when people drop sannyas?

What do you think about people who drop sannyas?

I love them, just as I have always loved them. Sannyas is just a formality, it does not matter. They cannot drop me; I am going to haunt them in their nights, in their dreams, in their hearts. So dropping sannyas does not matter. I don't pay any respect to rituals and formalities. I know one thing: once somebody is here with me, I make a way in his heart of which he may be absolutely unaware. He may drop sannyas, but I am going with him. I am spread over all my people; they are my home. So I will love anybody who drops sannyas exactly the same as I have been loving him when he was a sannyasin -- with no difference at all. Love never depends on formalities.

If somebody wants to become a sannyasin, what should he do? And what if he wants to drop out again?

There is no problem. When you fall in love, what do you do? Just fall in love; become a sannyasin -- there are no conditions. And when you want to fall out, there is no need for any divorce. You simply fall out -- we say goodbye. We celebrate both the occasions. There are no conditions when you come in. There are no conditions when you leave. It is your freedom to be part of the movement. It is your choice not to be part of it. We respect you and we respect your decision.

Beloved master, when I hear people say that they have dropped sannyas, I wonder if this is possible. I feel that once you have started on this path of sannyas, there is no return.

You are right. Once you are a sannyasin, you are a sannyasin forever. You can drop the clothes, you can drop the mala, but sannyas is something that has entered into your being. You cannot drop it, unless you drop your heart. And I don't think anybody is going to drop his heart. Sannyas is initiation of the heart: the individual heart moving towards the universal heart. There is no way to drop it. So before you enter, think twice! Okay?

Psychological memory has to be dropped. Factual memory is okay, it is not a problem, it does not create any dust. If one can drop the psychological memory and can be new every moment, every day, then life becomes a joy. It becomes an incredible experience. Each moment brings new surprises. Each moment flowers go on showering on you from the beyond. Sannyas is a sunrise; hence the orange colour. It is the colour of the sky in the East just before the sun rises. It is the colour of the dawn, the night is over and the new day beings. A new chapter opens. Sannyasin is not a continuity with your past, it is discontinuous. Put a full stop on your past and start from ABC, fresh. Be a child again. Unlearn all the tricks that you have learned before.

Osho, how do you feel when somebody leaves sannyas?

And this too I have felt: once you have left sannyas there is a possibility you may come back -- because then you will miss me, and then you will understand what was being showered on you. Then you will miss the nourishment, then you will miss the contact. When you are getting it you start taking it for granted. Sometimes it is good to take it away so real thirst and an appetite arises in you and you start seeing. But next time, when you come for sannyas, it is not going to be that easy. I will not initiate you so easily. Then you will have to earn it. Once you drop sannyas, coming back is going to be difficult. I will create all kinds of barriers. Unless you transcend those barriers you will not be accepted again. That too is to help you, because there are people…