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According to Osho, discipleship is a flowering that cannot be manufactured or granted; it happens when, after total effort, your ego is exhausted and you fall into non-action. Taking sannyas shows intention, not attainment. You must 'earn' it by exhausting every resource - then it descends: relaxation, trust, unconditional yes, love and compassion beyond duality. The master provides direction, not the gift; once tasted, it can be effortlessly retriggered.
You can't force discipleship or get it handed to you; give your all until your ego gets tired, and then peace, trust, love and compassion bloom by themselves.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, it seems to me that I don't understand anything
If I say something, there is no need to believe in it. There is no need to disbelieve either. Remain open. If I say something, then try it. Then look at the trees without any ideas whatever. Look at the birds and the sky with no knowledge. Drop language and see whether what I am saying gives you clarity. If you can drop the word "rose" and then see the rose flower, what happens? You will immediately feel a new kind of relationship arising between you and the flower. Don't even call it a flower; there is no need. Your language is not needed to support it; it exists without language. Why bring language in? Put language aside. Put aside your continuous gibberish that goes on inside the mind. Just look. In the beginning it is difficult -- the language will come up again and again, just out of old…
To be a disciple is a great art. One can even say the greatest, because Its requirement is the surrender of the ego Which is the hardest thing in life. One can do everything for the ego: One can climb mountains and go to the moon. Everything is easy if it is for the ego. But to drop the ego is really an uphill task It goes against our natural instinct. But it is the beginning of real spirituality. The first requirement for a disciple Is to surrender, to say to the master 'Now I am no more, only you are!' A total yes to the master, an absolute trust -- That's what makes a disciple. There are many students but very few disciples. And only disciples can be transformed Students can only be informed.
Osho, have you now stopped giving initiation into sannyas and making disciples? Will I be left deprived of becoming your disciple?
A disciple is not made; one has to become a disciple. When you love someone, do you first ask, do you seek permission? Love happens. Love obeys no command, no permission, no method, no ordinance. What is discipleship? It is the highest, deepest name for love. If you want to love me, how can I stop you? If tears fall in love for me, how can I stop them? And if you wish to plunge into what I call meditation, how can I hinder you? One who is to be a disciple cannot be stopped by anyone. That is why I have dropped the formality of “making” disciples—because now I want only those who are coming toward me from their own being, for no other reason. Now the whole responsibility is yours. Just as in the first grade we teach children: aa for aam (mango), ga for Ganesh. It used…
Osho, can I not be your disciple without taking sannyas?
Narayandas Tiwari! You can be a student, not a disciple. And the difference between a student and a disciple is as great as the difference between a poet and a seer—no less. A student means: someone who will walk away with bits of information, who will gather a little trash of knowledge, whose memory will be a little more stuffed, who will learn to repeat a few fine sayings. But you cannot be a disciple without becoming a sannyasin. For the first prerequisite of a disciple is: to drop curiosity. And not only curiosity—to drop inquisitiveness as well, and to take up mumuksha. What is mumuksha? Curiosity is a childish thing; small children have it—they go on asking and asking. “Why this? Why that?” They drive you crazy. Whomever they latch onto, they make his life difficult. Because before one question is finished, they have already posed another. They don’t…
Osho, glory to you! Even in a thousand lives I could not have received as much as you have, unasked, given me. Please accept me as your disciple!
If you have taken, you have become a disciple. Being a disciple does not depend on my acceptance; it depends on yours. A disciple means one who is ready to learn. A disciple means one who is willing to bow down, to hold out his bowl to be filled. A disciple means one eager to listen with humility, to contemplate in silence, to meditate. You have become a disciple—if you have taken, in the very taking you have become a disciple. Being a disciple does not depend on my acceptance. I may accept you—but if you do not take, what can I do? I may not accept you—but if you keep taking, what can I do? Discipleship is your freedom. It is not anyone’s charity. Discipleship is your dignity. No certificate is needed for it. That is why Ekalavya went and sat in the forest. Look: Dronacharya had refused him,…