What is the command of love after renunciation?

Osho, I was a dispassionate renunciate for years, but you have immersed me in love for the Lord. What is your command now?

Dispassion is a disease. Raga is life; dispassion is death. If one’s love is for the world, the fault is not in love, the fault is in the world. If you connect your eyes to the false, what fault is it of the eyes? The hand can hold diamonds or stones—what is the hand’s crime? Because most people have tied their love to the world, a reaction arose: “break your loves.” Love itself is not at fault; the fault lies in the rubbish you’ve fastened it to. This very love can and should become the ladder to the Divine. One who abandons love loses the very means of joining to God. Love joins; dispassion severs. Understand the glory of raga. Raga means the color of love. The word also means melody. The hue of love; the music of love. Love can be attached to the wrong, but that does not…

Osho, most of the world’s religious leaders gave their male and female renunciates rules to keep as much distance as possible; yet you always emphasize love between the two. Do you wish to make some constructive use of love? Or do you want us to experience its futility?

Therefore I say: love is the first introduction to God. Whomever you fall in love with, you will begin to glimpse God in them. Where love happens, you will see transformation. The person you love is no longer ordinary; he becomes extraordinary. Your love begins to seek God within him. Love finds God—because without God, love cannot be. The faults of the one you love stop appearing; and the one you hate, you see only faults. In the one you hate you begin to see the devil; in the one you love you begin to see God. You see goodness upon goodness. Even if he does wrong, it seems right. Only fragrance seems to emanate. A temple begins to arise. This is the recognition, the acquaintance. If this acquaintance is with you, then some day, standing before God, you will recognize him. Without this, as is the case with your…

Saint Maharaj has asked: Osho, love is rippling in my heart, springing up in waves, leaping and surging. Whoever I offer it to, they just won’t take it. I’ve become very helpless. Revered Master, what should I do with this love?

Sexual desire is Punjabi. It will throw its weight around. Everyone’s lust is Punjabi—it will keep jumping up. You are right when you say, “It keeps leaping and surging.” Saint Maharaj is speaking absolute truth. That’s why I call him Maharaj. He speaks the truth; he doesn’t hide or prettify. He is right to say, “Love is taking waves in my heart.” Now if celibacy alone is proclaimed to be life, while in your heart love is swelling and “leaping and surging,” what will you do? Then you’ll put on a mask on the outside—the shawl of God’s name—and inside you’ll have to find some secret outlet. And then deception will happen. You will be dishonest with yourself. No—accept this love, embrace it. It is your life-energy. And don’t be afraid, Saint. You say: “Whoever I offer it to, they won’t take it.” People have become frightened; they’ve been taught…

As a sannyasin you have to work hard to make that glimpse a reality to yourself, always available. And it is possible because love is our intrinsic nature. It is not something accidental, it is our very source. So if we work a little, if we dig inside our being we will find the eternal source. And once love is flowing in you for twenty-four hours a day, irrespective of situations, circumstances, you live in the world but you are no more part of it; you have become part of god, you have become part of eternity. All fear disappears. Then you know that birth and death don't make any difference. Only the body is born and the body dies, not you; you are never born and you never die.

Osho, after listening to you I experience slackness and sadness in practical life. But when you speak on love and devotion, on joy and celebration, my mind blossoms and fills with delight. Kindly show me my path.

You see—no second Mahavira, no second Krishna, no second Rama. Once one comes, he never appears again on the stage. Remember this. You too are new. Learn from everyone; accept your own. Listen to all; let the final decision come from the heart. So if talk of renunciation brings you slackness and sadness; your heart’s flower does not open but withers; the bud does not become a flower but, on the contrary, the flower closes its petals—as many flowers do at dusk when the sun sets—then understand: this is not your sun of truth. It may be someone else’s truth, because some flowers bloom only when the sun sets—night-blooming jasmine is like that. It may be hers; it is not for you. Then your path is perfectly clear. Wherever you glimpse joy, go there with courage. I am not saying you will find joy there every time. Many times you…