According to Osho, monkhood (sadhu) grows out of the foundational discipline of being a shravak—the listener and practicing lay seeker. You cannot jump directly; first embody the shravak’s training. From there, one may become a true sadhu inwardly while still a shravak, or adopt the conventional outer form of a monk. Either way, no obstacle exists once the shravak discipline matures.
First learn and live as a sincere listener-practitioner; then monkhood can blossom inside you or as an outer way of life.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Would you not say: become a monk first, before being a shravak?
No, no—no one can do that. There is simply no way to become it. There is simply no way to become it. One has to pass through the discipline of being a shravak. Then either one becomes a sadhu while remaining a shravak, or one becomes what we conventionally call a sadhu—there is no obstacle in that. There is no obstacle in that.
Mahavira used a very lovely term. He said there are four fords, by which a person crosses from this shore to the other. The first ford: shravaka; the second: shravika—two only because of male and female, otherwise it is one. Shravaka–shravika one ford; and sadhu–sadhvi, the second. Through the centuries sadhus and sadhvis have tried to explain that the shravaka–shravika are lower, the sadhus–sadhvis higher. Basically this is wrong. If you understand Mahavira, another secret opens. Shravaka means one who has heard. Heard what? The anahata nada. One who has heard the Shabd—who has heard that inner resonance—and by hearing became free, crossed over; that very resonance became the boat, that very Word became the boat. Those who are simple, guileless, will reach the other shore as shravakas—just by hearing they will cross. In whom there is naturalness and trust, for them hearing is enough.
Osho, what is the difference between surrender and blind imitation?
So be careful: the freedom you allow yourself, allow the other too. You have no right to judge another as blindly credulous or as a surrendered being. Drop that concern. You cannot judge anyway—how will you enter another’s heart? How will you know? Think only about yourself. See within whether, up to now, you have lived by blind belief or by surrender. Decide only there; leave worrying about others. Otherwise, all your judgments will be wrong. Jesus said: Judge not; do not set yourself up as a judge in relation to another. To the friend who has asked: if you are asking for yourself, good. Drop worrying about others. Look within and see: whatever I have been clinging to till now—have I ever staked my life to hold it? Have I meditated for it? Have I loved for it? Or am I just clutching what culture, society, civilization handed me?…
Such maturity at such a young age! Surely Shankara’s mental age cannot be measured at thirty or thirty-three. At thirty-three you find people in taverns and brothels. Sannyas! At thirty-three you find men engaged in all kinds of foolishness—almost unhinged. Understanding sannyas? Buddha’s sutra says what Alfred Binet discovered at the dawn of this century: people’s mental age and physical age are different. Do not be deceived by your physical age—it has no intrinsic relation to your wisdom. Oxen also grow like that. Understand this a little. An ox’s physical and mental age are always the same. A buffalo’s physical and mental age are the same. Only in man can there be a gap between the two. You will be surprised when you consider your own mental age.
Osho, when we begin to ask a question we feel an infinite distance; and when you begin to speak, through your way we don’t know where we are carried. While listening, sometimes joy bursts forth, sometimes tears well up. Sometimes this happens, sometimes that. Sometimes you shake us like a storm; sometimes you shower like a cloud. What is this?
Krishnamurti continuously emphasizes right listening—samyak shravana. But even right listening can be dangerous. It has its use, because the first glimpses are received from there. Then do not make those glimpses the basis of your life. Try to find those glimpses in different situations, so there can be freedom from the guru. So sometimes by a tree, sometimes by a river, sometimes standing in the middle of the marketplace, listen to the sounds and become silent. There too the same other realm will instantly open. When you ask, when you want to ask, you become restless inside. Questions agitate you and make the mind aggressive. A question too is a kind of deep violence. But when you listen, the mind becomes quiet; the tension settles, the waves dissolve. In that listening, there is a glimpse of the other world. Certainly, at times I shake you like a storm, and at…