What is the meaning of the burning that Rumi refers to?

Osho, I am burning and turning to ash in your divine fire. Now all words have fallen silent—I live by a single hope. “Crow, eat my whole body, pick at my flesh bit by bit; but do not eat these two eyes—for they hold the hope of meeting my Beloved.”

People will advise you. They will say, “Come back—once you were fine. Why take on this trouble?” People tried to dissuade Meera, they tried with Chaitanya, they tried with Buddha: “Turn back! What madness has seized you? Keep your wits about you!” The whole world is wise. So when you weep in separation, when His fire burns you, when your heart is cut inch by inch, everyone will ask you, “What has happened?” Do not return, heeding people; nor begin explaining to them. For there are matters that are not to be explained or understood that way. “Everyone asks me the reason for my weeping; My God, how can I make the whole world my confidant!” How can I make everyone a sharer in this secret? Everyone asks: “Why are you weeping? Why singing? Why dancing?” The “why” stands there. The very moment you act otherwise—different from people—they demand, “Why?”…

Osho, you have kindled the fire of love for the Lord in my heart. Now I am burning. Please calm this fire!

If with the Beloved friendship begins—what can be said! Even if only enmity starts, it is fine; for in enmity too He is remembered. A friend may even forget; an enemy cannot. Do not cut off all connection with me— if not love, then let there be enmity! No worry: if you cannot find me worthy of your love, then let there be enmity—but let your remembrance remain. If with the Friend a quarrel starts, Asad— if not union, then let there be longing. If there is no meeting, no matter; let there be the very longing to meet, let there be the fire to attain! That very fire has caught you. Dance, sing, celebrate! I am amazed at my own thought—that there are intoxications without wine: no wine jar before the eyes, no cupbearer, no goblet at hand. Turning my face from all, I am content with Your remembrance;…

Osho, the Upanishads say that seeking truth is like walking on the edge of a sword. Saint Dariya says that in the search for the Divine there is burning, only burning, at first. And you say: go singing and dancing toward the Lord’s temple. Which approach is the right one?

Anand Maitreya! Truth has many facets, and all of them are true at once. There is no question of choosing. Each one has spoken as he saw. The Upanishads are right, because to walk the path of truth is risky—very risky! The crowd is steeped in untruth, and when you walk toward truth, the crowd will oppose you. It will throw a thousand obstacles in your way, laugh at you, call you mad. There is a certain safety in the crowd; the one who walks the path of truth becomes solitary. The crowd breaks ties with him, severs relations, and society treats him as an enemy. Otherwise, would people have crucified Jesus? Would they have cut off Al-Hillaj Mansoor’s head? They were people like you who crucified Jesus and beheaded Mansoor. Look closely at your hands and you will find the stains of Mansoor’s blood. They were people like you—not…

Osho, I have just one prayer: that in the fire you have, I may be burned up completely and be lost.

Jesus has said: Do not try to save yourself, otherwise you will lose yourself. Jesus has said: Blessed are those who lose themselves, because then they can never be lost; they become available to the immortal. Only one thing here is stable; looked at from one side its name is meditation, from the other its name is love. Everything else is unstable. In this world only one thing is stable. If you look with the eyes of a devotee, its name is love; if you look with the eyes of the knower, its name is meditation, witnessing. But it is one and the same happening. Where meditation happens, the stream of love begins to flow; and where the stream of love flows, meditation happens. They come together, two sides of the same coin. I am not the eternal, nor are you; the existence of the life-breath is truth, of the…

Osho, this aphorism from the Mahabharata seems to match your vision exactly—“muhurtam jvalitaṁ śreyaḥ, na tu dhūmāyitaṁ ciram.” “It is better to blaze for a moment than to smoulder for a long time.” Please be gracious and explain how this is possible.

So you may worship Buddha’s statue or read the Quran in the morning or go to church—it makes no difference; you do not trust because your life offers no evidence. Your life is smoke—and Krishnamurti speaks of a smokeless flame! You have not known even a smoky flame; only smoke. Wet wood smokes. The wetter the wood, the more the smoke. Remember: smoke is not part of the fire. People think smoke rises from fire. It does not. If the wood is utterly dry—with not a trace of moisture—there is no smoke. Smoke is from the water in the wood. Buddha rightly said: as long as your mind is wet with desire, there will be smoke. The day you are free of craving, of imagining, of the mind’s restless scrambling—when you are dry, like seasoned wood—then only flame will arise: a blazing, smokeless flame. That flame is life’s supreme wealth,…