What is the nature of truth and dreams?

Osho, you said that we have faith in dreams and doubt the truth. But what you call a dream appears true to us, and your truth seems dreamlike to us. Kindly tell us whose Ganges is flowing upstream—yours or ours? And why, and how?

If it is a matter of democracy, then your Ganges is flowing straight. But truth has nothing to do with democracy. The crowd does not determine truth. Then what is the touchstone? There is only one touchstone: if the Ganges is flowing straight, there will be joy, ease, music; she will be reaching the ocean, nearing her home—she will be thrilled at every moment, dancing, celebratory. If the Ganges is flowing upstream, she will be wretched and forlorn, troubled, full of tension, unhappy, tormented. So decide for yourself. If you are cheerful, blissful—fortunate! Your Ganges is flowing straight. If you are miserable, afflicted, distressed, don’t sit there assuming the Ganges is flowing right; for then there would be no way to escape your misfortune. Test it within yourself. Each has one’s own Ganges. If it is flowing backward, it cannot be joyful. Has anyone ever been blissful while inverted? Try…

Question: Third question: Osho, is life true or false? Krishnatirtha! Life in itself is neither true nor false. In itself life is only an opportunity, a bare opportunity; it can become truth, it can become untruth. The greatest concern of Buddhas is that whatever they say can be misunderstood, because the listener stands somewhere else. Buddhas live on peaks, on Gaurishankar—snow‑clad, where the sun rains gold! And you live in dark valleys, in cellars. From their golden summits whatever they speak, by the time it travels to your dark alleys its meaning has changed. They say one thing; you hear another. Therefore Buddhas must speak with great care. Each word must be weighed. They know well that life is true! But their life is true. How many are like them? And those who are like them have no need to be told; they already know.

Question: First question: Osho, In my sleep, you; in my dreams, you. We have become lost in your love; the veena of the mind is singing its tune— we have fallen silent, lost in your love. Osho, sometimes you say that dreams are not true, and sometimes you have said that the dream state is very receptive and that in dreams no doubt arises. For nine years I remained connected with you only through dreams; no other link bound me to you. Even now, whatever I have to say to you, or whatever you wish to say to me, all keeps happening only in dreams. What kind of state is this? What is the truth in it? Please grace me with guidance. Veena! In love, distinctions fall—outer and inner; mine and yours; dream and truth. Love establishes non-division. In love duality disappears; twoness vanishes; only oneness remains.

Question: Fourth question: Osho, where is truth? Dhirendra, truth is here! Why ask “where”? “Where” means somewhere else—at the Kaaba, in Kashi? “Where” means somewhere else—at Girnar, at Shikharji? “Where” means somewhere else—on the Himalayas, in Tibet? Feet not anchored on earth, yet flying in the sky; flowers of emptiness, bubbles of the mind, ripening without any breeze. Accursed hope keeps hoeing the green fields of belief. But how simple is man! He has endured for countless ages, has kept hearing a great hullabaloo age after age, yet he has always been a worshipper of life. The ocean’s waters crashed over him, and still he did not collapse. The religion of the earth is a fair of beliefs. How many beliefs we have piled up here! There are three hundred religions on the earth, and from those at least three thousand sects.

Osho, after listening to you I experience slackness and sadness in practical life. But when you speak on love and devotion, on joy and celebration, my mind blossoms and fills with delight. Kindly show me my path.

You see—no second Mahavira, no second Krishna, no second Rama. Once one comes, he never appears again on the stage. Remember this. You too are new. Learn from everyone; accept your own. Listen to all; let the final decision come from the heart. So if talk of renunciation brings you slackness and sadness; your heart’s flower does not open but withers; the bud does not become a flower but, on the contrary, the flower closes its petals—as many flowers do at dusk when the sun sets—then understand: this is not your sun of truth. It may be someone else’s truth, because some flowers bloom only when the sun sets—night-blooming jasmine is like that. It may be hers; it is not for you. Then your path is perfectly clear. Wherever you glimpse joy, go there with courage. I am not saying you will find joy there every time. Many times you…