What is the work of a master in spreading awareness?

Question: A PEBBLE FALLING INTO WATER RIPPLES THE FAR SHORE. A SPARK FANNED BY THE BREEZE STARTS A FOREST FIRE. A MASTER'S PRESENCE SPREADS AWARENESS TO THE FAR CORNERS OF THE EARTH. OSHO, WHAT IS YOUR WORK? KABIR, IT IS NOT WORK AT ALL. The very idea of work is irrelevant with me. It is not work because there is no WILL behind it. I am not here to impose anything upon anybody. I am not here to convert you to any ideology or to a certain way of life. I am not teaching a philosophy of life, I am not teaching anything at all -- I am not a teacher. I am simply sharing whatsoever has happened with me. Never think in terms of work. It is not work for the flower to bloom, it is sheer joy, it is play. Think in terms of play.

You said that you don't "work" on people, so what is the meaning of having disciples?

A Master is just a presence, an encompassing present... Like a cloud he surrounds you. If you allow him, he enters to the deepest core of your being. Not that he enters! You simply allow... it happens. And in that moment when the disciple is allowing and the Master is present: a chemical change, better to call it alchemical, mutation -- the disciple also disappears, the same way as the Master has disappeared. The ego is no longer there. The disciple has also become a nondoer. Now he can function as a presence to others. He can be a Master. Sariputta, one of Buddha's disciples, one day entered into Buddha and allowed Buddha to enter in him. He became enlightened. Immediately, Buddha said, "Now, Sariputta, no need to hang around me. Now go. Go to the farthest corners of the country. Many people are thirsty. Now you have the water…

Beloved Osho, you said that when the master is in an absentlike presence and the disciple is also absentlike, then the divine work begins. If both are to be absentlike, then please explain the role of the master in the spiritual endeavor.

Basically, it is always the master to whom YOU come. Whether the master goes to the palace or the emperor comes to the master's hut, it makes no difference. It is always the emperor who is coming to the master because he is to be changed. HE will be changed. Bayazid says that it is the nature of the master to change others; it is not an effort. Nothing is being done by the master, simply his presence.... And if he appears to do something, that appearance is just a trick because you cannot understand the language of nondoing. You can only understand the language of effort. So he creates a language for you. Even if you cannot understand his language, he can understand your language very well. Even if you cannot understand him, he can understand you very well. So he gives whatsoever you can understand and by and…

Osho, even after the attainment of the Great Nirvana, in what way do the enlightened and the masters, merged in the Whole, help us? Please make it clearer.

It is not right to say “they help.” Help happens. The doer does not remain. It is not right to say the river quenches your thirst; the river simply flows. If you cup your hands and drink, the thirst is quenched. If the river itself quenched thirst, you would not need to drink; the river would make the effort. But the river moves on, inactive. The river goes on being itself; you can stand on the bank for lifetimes and still remain thirsty. Bend down, fill your cupped hands, drink, and the thirst will be gone. The enlightened do not help you either before merging into the Whole or after merging into the Whole. Because only when the sense of “doership” disappears does knowledge arise. As long as the sense of doership is there, one is not enlightened but ignorant. I am not helping you, nor serving you. I cannot…

Beloved Osho, is there any signficance in a disciple working for the master besides working on himself? Or are they the same?

They are the same. If you are working on yourself, that's exactly the work of the master -- because as you become more and more silent, more and more fragrant, more and more magnetic, you will start spreading the message of the master without any deliberate effort. I hate missionaries. I don't want anybody to be a missionary. A missionary is one who is spreading some message but he has not worked upon himself. What he is saying to others is not his own experience. My sannyasins first have to become what they want to say to others. Their very becoming will be their message. Their very life will be their mission. They will not be missionaries.