What is the nature of love in the context of discipleship?

Beloved Osho, as one pair of sparkling eyes after another arrives to be with you here, is it perhaps that you are surrounded for the first time by disciples who love you as you are, or however you want to be -- and who are certainly not looking for any goody-goody saint?

Amrito, the way of love is the way of no-expectation. Love exists only when there is total acceptance and no desire to change anything. The moment you start thinking of how the other should be... whether the other is your lover, your beloved, your child, your master, your disciple... it does not matter who the other is. What matters is a total acceptance of the other As he is. Not tolerance -- tolerance is an ugly word. In the very word "tolerance" there is intolerance. The very word smells as if somehow against your will you are managing it: it is not a loving acceptance but an unloving tolerance. It is true that it has taken me a long, long journey to find only those people who can understand me, accept me, love me as I am. I have never asked anybody to be somebody other than who he is.…

Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A DISCIPLE? Prem Samadhi, it is one of the most delicate mysteries. No definition is possible of a disciple, but a few hints can be given, just fingers pointing to the moon. Don't cling to the fingers -- look at the moon and forget the fingers. A disciple is a rare phenomenon. It is very easy to be a student because the student is searching knowledge. The student can only meet the teacher, he can never meet the master. The reality of the master will remain hidden to the student. The student functions from the head. He functions logically, rationally. He gathers knowledge, he becomes more and more knowledgeable. Finally in his own turn he will become a teacher, but all that he knows is borrowed, nothing is really his own. His existence is pseudo; it is a carbon-copy existence.

At times I feel like a sheep, at times like a fox, sometimes more like a disciple. Is it love or understanding that transforms one into a disciple?

AT TIMES I FEEL LIKE A SHEEP, AT TIMES LIKE A FOX. ONLY SOMETIMES LIKE A DISCIPLE. Precious are those moments when you feel like a disciple. Nourish them. Those moments have to be nourished more and more, so by and by they come more and more to you, they happen more and more to you. Surrender your sheep and fox both to those rare moments when you are a disciple. A disciple is neither afraid, nor in search of power. A disciple is in search to know what this life is. He does not want to conquer, he does not want to prove himself in the world that he is somebody, he simply wants to know, 'Who am I?' He is not in any way interested in proving, he simply wants to know, 'What is this mystery that has happened to me?' In deep humbleness he asks. His query…

Beloved Osho, your relationship with your disciples seems to be unique among the religions. Would you say something about this?

The person who made it possible for you to have those few moments, the woman, the man -- be grateful, immensely grateful to the person. Yes, those moments are no more there. Nothing can be done about it. They cannot be pulled back, and even if there was some way to pull them back, they would not be the same. It would be a repetition. It wouldn't bring you the same joy, the same ecstasy. It is good that they cannot be pulled back, otherwise even the memory of those cherished moments would be spoiled. Respect the person, be grateful to the person that, for no reason at all -- she is a stranger, you are a stranger -- for no reason at all, for no bargain, there was no business... mysteriously the universe managed; something transpired between you. And it was nourishing to both of you. It has made…

Osho, you say the same thing in countless ways. But when I listen to you, it feels as if I am hearing it for the first time. And I feel so much joy that I don’t feel like going back home. What should I do—what can I do—so that I can just keep listening to you!

You will feel as if you have been made to rise out of season, before time—as if you were not yet to go and yet had to go. And if you go in that way, your home will become even more desolate than before. I do not want to make your home desolate; I want to make your home a temple. I want that when you go home, your home’s new form is revealed. I do not want to tear you away from home, from the world, from family life. That is the newness of my sannyas: I do not want to sever you from the world; I want to join you to the world in such a way that your connection with the world becomes a connection with the Divine. Let the world no longer be a barrier between you and the Divine; let it become a means. If…