Being truly young means staying open, brave, and alive enough to try something new inside, so you can hear and follow the call to wake up.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Chaitanya Kirti has asked me: Osho, you have issued a call to young men and women. From all over the world they have begun to come, and people from at least fifty countries are present here. But Indian youth don’t even seem to stir. There’s no trace of them! Don’t they hear your call?
The branches have shed their coyness, They will all don new attire; Rustling over the dry leaves The lord of seasons has come near! The west wind has begun to sway, The village singer has begun to sing Holi; A new color in every limb, In every vein, a thirst for nectar! Light red, the horizon is flushed, The palash is deep red! Phagun, the spring month, has blossomed like a flower! My sannyas is spring. My sannyas is the month of Phagun. My sannyas is like flowers. It is a celebration of life. It is gratitude to the divine, a feeling of grace. It is not renunciation. It is not indulgence either. It transcends both renunciation and indulgence. It is to enjoy in such a way that you enjoy yet are not bound. To pass through the world in such a way that you pass through and yet the…
"everything arises and passes away." when you see this, you are above sorrow. This is the shining way.
"EXISTENCE IS SORROW." UNDERSTAND, AND GO BEYOND SORROW. THIS IS THE WAY OF BRIGHTNESS. "EXISTENCE IS ILLUSION." UNDERSTAND, GO BEYOND. THIS IS THE WAY OF CLARITY. YOU ARE STRONG, YOU ARE YOUNG. IT IS TIME TO ARISE. SO ARISE! LEST THROUGH IRRESOLUTION AND IDLENESS YOU LOSE THE WAY. MASTER YOUR WORDS. MASTER YOUR THOUGHTS. NEVER ALLOW YOUR BODY TO DO HARM. FOLLOW THESE THREE ROADS WITH PURITY AND YOU WILL FIND YOURSELF UPON THE ONE WAY, THE WAY OF WISDOM. SIT IN THE WORLD, SIT IN THE DARK. SIT IN MEDITATION, SIT IN LIGHT. CHOOSE YOUR SEAT. LET WISDOM GROW. CUT DOWN THE FOREST, NOT THE TREE. FOR OUT OF THE FOREST COMES DANGER. Any thought goes on inside your mind. Watch for a few minutes and you will be surprised: the mind seems to be crazy! It jumps from one thought to another thought for no reason at all.…
Osho, sannyas was born in this land; it was granted the dignity of Gaurishankar (Everest). But today its honor has become merely superficial. Inside, the individual and society alike are afraid of it. Why have sannyas and the sannyasin lost their meaning? Please explain.
In my sannyas there is no prohibition—no “leave this, run from that.” Awakening is enough. Cowards run. Those who awaken remain where they are and are free there. My sannyas does not want to give you knowledge; it wants to give you meditation. Meditation means emptiness; it means: I do not know. Life is such an ultimate mystery that nothing definitive can be known about it. And I want to give sannyas a new posture—creativity. I will call him a sannyasin who sings a new song; who strikes a new music from the veena; who dances a new dance; who makes this world a little more beautiful, brings a little more blessedness to the earth. Then sannyas can regain its dignity. And I would have the sannyasin not imitate. Listen, understand, contemplate—but live from your own individuality. Therefore I give my sannyasins no codes of conduct—only processes to awaken the…
Osho, I have heard that a seeker has to pass through four stages of sadhana: tariqat, shari’at, marifat, and haqiqat. The last is haqiqat, where the seeker meets his beloved and comes face to face with Truth. Osho, please explain the first three states.
These words are from the Sufis—very significant, and very straightforward. The first is tariqat. Tariqat means: the way, the method, the discipline, the means, the yoga. Tariqat means: something has to be done; only then will you attain—without doing, you will not receive. One has to walk a path; find the way; make a footpath. One has to bring some discipline into life, give it an order. Tariqat means learning the way to become worthy of it. When you go to have an audience with an emperor, you learn the etiquette of his court. You don’t just walk in. If you do, you will not be accepted. You learn how to sit there, how to stand there, how to bow there. If you are going to meet an emperor, you must taste something of the flavor of the emperor’s way of life. If you are going to meet the Divine,…
So long as you are young, it is easier to get out of the world’s mire. When old, it will be difficult. People carry an inverted logic: “When I am old, I will chant God’s name; what’s the hurry now? When I am old, I will take sannyas; what is the rush now? Now I am young! Now life is here! Let me enjoy. When death comes close, when hands and feet tremble and old age knocks, then I will renounce.” People come to me, saying, “You give sannyas to the young! Sannyas is for the old.” Who told you that? Your mind, perhaps. If you listen to the mind, it will say sannyas is for corpses. Not even for the old—“When you lie on the bier, then take sannyas.” A woman used to visit me, a social worker of great fame in Bombay. She wished to take sannyas.