What is the interpretation of the rasa-lila?

Osho, what is raas? Though he is Rasbihari, Sri Krishna is also called a brahmachari—what is the essence of that? In today’s modern society, what significance would the raas-lila have? Please shed light.

To understand raas, the first necessity is to see that life itself is raas. As I have said, all of life is the meeting of opposing forces. The joy of life is hidden in the union of opposites. The whole bliss and mystery of life is concealed in the meeting of opposites. So first it is proper to understand the metaphysical, the cosmic meaning of raas; then we can understand its reflection in Krishna’s life. Raise your eyes and look around—what else is happening but raas? Clouds racing across the sky, rivers rushing toward the sea, seeds traveling toward flowers, bumblebees singing, birds chirping, human beings loving, positive and negative electricity attracting, the ceaseless play and love-story of woman and man—if we look at this vast expanse, nothing is happening but raas. Raas has a profoundly cosmic meaning. It has vast metaphysical dimensions. First, in the orchestration of this world,…

Osho, the question was about the chakra—Sudarshan—and about Panchajanya. And regarding the rasa-lila—yathā arbhaka sva-pratibimba vibhramaḥ? So what is the interpretation of the rasa-lila?

In truth, those who composed the poetry labored greatly with words. The very life of poetry is the word. And they worked on words with chisel and hammer for centuries. Now, Krishna’s discus has been named Sudarshan. It is a carrier of death, and yet it is named Sudarshan—“beautiful to behold.” Death is not beautiful to see, nor is it pleasing in form. But in Krishna’s hand even death becomes beautiful. That is all it means. We could not give the atom bomb the name Sudarshan. It is as destructive as the atom itself. Its strike is unfailing; the death it brings is certain. Once released, it returns only after killing. Where death is absolutely certain, would we still call that weapon Sudarshan? And yet it has been so named. In the hands of a man like Krishna, even death becomes Sudarshan. In the hands of a man like Hitler,…

Questioner: how is it that krishna is called a celibate in spite of his being a man of joyous dance and sensuous celebration? What is the place and relevance of raasleela -- the dance of celebration -- in modern society?

The significance of raas, the dance of celebration, is everlasting, it issues from the fundamental principle of life. This fundamental principle says that men and women are incomplete in themselves, they are fragments of a single whole. And they become whole and healthy only in close togetherness, in union with each other. If this togetherness happens unconditionally, it will complete the two in an extraordinary and unearthly way. On the other hand, if the union is conditional, if it has a motive, it is bound to lead to enormous difficulty and trouble in the process of its completion. However, so long as men and women exist on this earth, the raas will continue to be in vogue in many shapes and sizes. Maybe it does not attain the height and depth it had with Krishna, but if we grow in understanding and wisdom it is not impossible. More or less…

Osho, one day you said: the moment you become Krishna, the rasa is set in motion. I was thrilled by this, but when I tried to evoke the feeling of Krishna, the feeling of the gopis welled up in me. And that feeling filled me with even greater ecstasy. Just as the rasa-circle was arranged before Krishna, the same began to happen in your presence. But what did you mean by arranging your rasa?

Exactly that—what happened. What happened was precisely it. If you want to enact the rasa with Krishna, you will have to become a gopi. By becoming a gopi, one day you will also become Krishna—but you must pass through becoming a gopi. Becoming a gopi is a halting place on the road to being Krishna. One who is not ready to become a gopi will never become Krishna. Such a gopi, dancing and dancing and dancing, keeps coming closer. The circle keeps growing smaller. The dance becomes more intense. The gopi slowly begins to disappear, to be absorbed. The circle grows smaller still. The rasa becomes denser. Midnight arrives. The moon stands overhead. Dancing and dancing and dancing and dancing, the gopi dissolves into Krishna—she becomes Krishna. Then the circle has utterly vanished. The rasa is complete. Union has happened. The Puranas tell a tale. In the old scriptures there…

Osho, in yesterday’s exposition of the thirteenth verse you spoke of the four varnas. In the second half of that verse Krishna says that even while creating these four varnas according to qualities and actions, I remain a non-doer. Please clarify how he remains a non-doer.

In that inconsistency lies a secret: only one who is utterly non-serious—who knows life as play—can be so free. Give him Rama’s part—he will do it; give him Ravana’s—he will do it. He will not say, “I cannot play Ravana.” If life is a play, what’s the problem? No craving for future or fruit—because life is play. For the Supreme Existence, all is play; there is no future. One last point from this sutra. We, the human mind, divide time into three: past, present, future. Time itself is not divided. Ask the Divine and He would say, “Three? Time is always present.” There is no past and no future for the Divine—only the present. If we were a little wiser, we would even remove the “present,” because we have no experience of it. We only know either the past—the ash heap of our frustrated desires—or the future—the rainbows of our…