According to Osho, there is essentially no disciple-to-disciple relationship. Each disciple relates individually to the master; any bond among disciples is a non-binding, 'liquid' friendliness—a light companionship of fellow travelers, mediated through the master. Direct disciple alliances harden into organizations, sects, and conflicts. Keeping ties fluid avoids hierarchy and preserves each seeker’s personal, living connection to truth.
Disciples aren’t meant to bond as a group; they just share gentle friendliness while each stays directly connected to the master.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, I am familiar with the master-disciple relationship after years of being around you. Could you please comment on the disciple-disciple relationship?
There is no such thing. Disciples in the past have created organizations. That was their relationship, that "we are Christians," that "we are Mohammedans," that "we belong to one religion, to one faith and because we belong to one faith, we are brothers and sisters. We will live for the faith and we will die for the faith." All organizations have arisen out of the relationships between disciples. In fact, two disciples are not connected with each other at all. Each disciple is connected with the master in his individual capacity. A master can be connected with millions of disciples, but the connection is personal, not organizational. Disciples don't have any relationship. Yes, they have a certain friendliness, a certain lovingness. I am avoiding the word `relationship' because that is binding. I am not calling it friendship even, but `friendliness' -- because they are all fellow travelers walking on the…
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…
Beloved Osho, being with you in these days has been like a shower of love, gratitude, like an open ocean. Being away from you has been sometimes so hard and so deep at the same time. Can you please say something once again about the relationship between master and disciple?
The relationship between the master and the disciple is a scientific lab in which the false has to be burned and the original has to be discovered. And it is the original that we are all missing. That is our misery, that is our pain, that is our anguish -- that we do not know who we are. All that we know is so stupid. A Sufi story will help you. A Sufi mystic comes to a great fair. All the caravanserais are full; he goes from one place to another, it is becoming midnight, he is tired. One manager of a caravanserai has compassion for him and says, "I can arrange something, but I cannot give you an individual room. In one of the rooms one person is there; he is well known to me, so I can persuade him just to let you also sleep there. Now, where…
Beloved Osho, many of your sannyasins were happy to hear from you that you are our friend, but it was a great shock for me. My beloved master, will you say something about the master-disciple relationship?
He went, because Buddha promised him; but it was a trouble. Every day he had to be informed of what direction Buddha was in. And morning and evening he would bow down on the earth, tears of joy in his eyes -- just dust in his hands, but he would touch it as if he were touching the feet of Buddha. And people would say to him, "Mahakashyap, you yourself are now a master. It doesn't seem right for you to behave like a disciple." Mahakashyap's answer was, "As long as Gautam Buddha is alive I cannot be the master, I can only be the disciple. Because to be disciple is so beautiful; under the shade of the master it is so cool, it is so protected. When Buddha dies, of course I will be a master -- under the hot sun, there will no longer be any shade over…
Osho, in a previous talk you said you prefer shaktipat to be as close to grace as possible. Doesn’t that imply that the method of shaktipat admits gradual refinement and development? In other words, is qualitative progress also possible in the process of shaktipat?
From one who has attained the seventh body, shaktipat becomes the purest—the purest. Yet it is still not grace. The purest state of shaktipat is reached at the seventh body—no further. On that side there is no veil now; for the one in the seventh there is no veil—he is one with the void. But on your side there is a veil. You will still take him to be a person. Your veil will now provide the final obstruction. From his side there is none, but for you he remains a person. The sense of personhood toward the medium is also an obstacle Understand: if I attain the seventh state, it is my affair that I know I am the void—but you? You will know me as a person. And your notion that I am a person becomes the last veil. That veil will fall only when the happening befalls…