What happens when there are more sannyasins?

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…

Beloved Osho,what are the qualities of a sannyasin?

In the early morning he went back, fell at Buddha's feet and said, "Sir, excuse me, forgive me. I could not sleep the whole night." And Buddha laughed, and he said, "You fool! Why? I slept perfectly well. Why should you get so disturbed about such a small thing? It has not hurt me. You see my face is as it was before. Why did you get so worried?" And the man said, "I have come to become your disciple. Initiate me. I want to be with you. I have seen something unique, superhuman. But first, forgive me." And Buddha said, "This is nonsense. How can I forgive you? -- because I have not even taken any note of it. I was not angry, so how can I forgive you?" Twenty-four hours had passed, and they were sitting on the bank of the Ganges. And Buddha said, "Look at how…

Osho, for the past two or three days many listeners, seeing the new sannyas and the new sannyasins around you, wish to hear about them from your own mouth. Please say something on this.

Such are man’s limits. To think that the whole of humanity is one is beyond the ordinary man’s limits. To think that all temples and all mosques belong to the same God is difficult. For the limits of the ordinary, it will be hard. But sannyas is a declaration of being extraordinary. So the second point: sannyas is an entry into religion—not into Hinduism, not into Islam, not into Christianity, not into Jainism, but into religion. What does this mean? Against Hinduism? No. Against Islam? No. Against Jainism? No. For that in Jainism which is religion, and against that which is merely Jain. For that in Hinduism which is religion, and against that which is merely Hindu. For that in Islam which is religion, and against that which is merely Islamic. Against the limited, and for the unlimited. Against the formed, and for the formless. A sannyasin belongs to no…

September 28, 1970 was a memorable day. At Manali in the Himalayas, Osho initiated His first group of sannyasins. This event was followed by this special evening discourse, on the significance of Neo Sannyas. To me, sannyas does not mean renunciation; it means a journey to joy bliss. To me, sannyas is not any kind of negation; it is a positive attainment. But up to now, the world over, sannyas has been seen in a very negative sense, in the sense of giving up, of renouncing. I, for one, see sannyas as something positive and affirmative, something to be achieved, to be treasured. It is true that when someone carrying base stones as his treasure comes upon a set of precious stones, he immediately drops the baser ones from his hands. He drops the baser stones only to make room for the newfound precious stones. It is not renunciation.

Sannyas is the process of self-actualization. Whatsoever is hidden has to become manifest, and whatsoever is possible has to be made real. Nothing has to be left as a seed. Then man has multi-dimensional possibilities. In his small body he contains the whole sky. The heart is small but its capacity to love is infinite. But the society, the people, the culture, the civilization, the church, the state -- they are all against the individual. The individual seems to be the enemy. They destroy the individual, they sacrifice the individual for the sake of the collective. And the collective does not need any live, the collective needs, on the contrary, more hatred. The Christians have to hate the Mohammedans, the Mohammedans have to hate the Hindus, the Hindus have to hate the Christians and so on, so forth... because the collective can remain together only if it hates somebody.