What is the need for solitude if one can attain peace while engaged in worldly work?

A question has been asked: If a person, like a lotus in water, can remain immersed in worldly work and, by being submerged in it, still attain peace, then what is the need to come to Matheran and to solitude? What is the need to come into this aloneness and to go far away from everything?

Only after self-knowledge is non-delusion possible; when non-delusion is there, non-attachment flowers. But do not fall into the self-deception that “We are already householders; let us comfortably remain where we are—non-delusion will arise here, non-attachment will arise here. And like that fakir I spoke of, who lived in palaces, we too will live in palaces—no harm.” Do not give yourself this cheat. He lived in palaces—but his way of living was utterly unique. He was living in the palace just as he had lived under the trees. Perhaps for him there was no palace at all; perhaps he was still under a tree. It made no difference to him. If that inner vision happens in you, then live anywhere. But do not deceive yourself. Do not set up arrangements for deceiving yourself. We have made many such arrangements. And these fine words—karma-yoga, the yoga of non-attachment, sannyas while remaining in…

Abide in some place endlessly spacious, clear of trees, hills, habitations. Thence comes the end of mind pressures.

CONSIDER THE PLENUM TO BE YOUR OWN BODY OF BLISS. Man is born alone and dies alone, but between these two points he lives in society, he lives with others. Aloneness is his basic reality; society is just accidental. And unless man can live alone, can know his aloneness in its total depth, he cannot be acquainted with himself. All that happens in society is just outer: it is not you, it is just your relations with others. You remain unknown. From the outside you cannot be revealed. But we live with others. Because of this, self-knowledge is completely forgotten. You know something about yourself, but indirectly -- it is said to you by others. It is strange, absurd, that others should tell you about yourself. Whatsoever identity you carry is given to you by others; it is not real, it is just a labelling. A name is given to…

Osho, when I first met you I knew nothing at all. I don’t know from where to where you have carried me! Solitude now feels sweet. Now there is nowhere to go and nowhere to come. Nothing to become and nothing to know. I have received so much, more than I was worthy of. So now, farewell and pranam. Who knows where today my boat has set sail—sailing, sailing, my boat sails. Some say it goes here, some say it goes there; I say, it goes to the Beloved’s village.

This is exactly what we all have done with God. We do not give thanks for what has been given. In those ten years he never once said thank you. But when fifty dollars were cut, he was angry, complaining, blazing. His fifty dollars are being cut? If you ask—first, you will not receive. And it is good that you do not—because whatever you ask is wrong. You cannot ask rightly. You are wrong; from the wrong only wrong asking can arise. In a neem tree only neem’s bitter fruit can grow; there is no possibility of the mango’s sweet fruit. What is not in your roots cannot appear in your fruits. If you are wrong, whatever you ask will be wrong. So first: you will not receive. And it is auspicious that you do not. It is God’s great compassion that what you ask is not granted. Sit sometime…

In the West the mind is constantly trained to do something, to be active, because if you don't do anything you will not achieve anything. So a mind to achieve has been conditioned. In the East we have been thinking in totally different terms. We say not to be a doer; you already have everything... Mm, everything comes and goes. You are just a witness, and nothing really happens to you. You just remain untouched. It is just like a bird that comes into a room. He flies around in the room, afraid, then he goes out a window. A little fluttering, then he is gone. Your mind is just like that: a small window through which thoughts and emotions come and go. If you simply remain a witness, doing nothing, they go. Have you sometimes tried to help a bird to go out if he has entered your room?

Osho, when one becomes fully aware and the feeling of nonattachment becomes complete—that is the whole thing. To be in the midst of the whole world... this is what is called jivan-mukta, the same reckoning... like the lotus in the mud.

Otherwise, troubles of the opposite kind arise. Remain in just that space. Otherwise you keep working and go on being miserable, thinking, “This work is giving me suffering.” The work is not giving you suffering; your mind is giving you suffering. So you drop this work and take up something else. But even after leaving the work, the mind remains the same. And as long as you live you will be doing something or other. There too it will give suffering. It will continue in the background, and you will not do the real thing. The real thing is that a distance should arise between the work and you.