When even your last longing for God drops, you vanish like a river in the sea, and only God remains.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, aspiration dissolves and becomes abhipsa. When abhipsa ends, what remains? Please clarify.
Akanksha means the world’s desires. Akanksha means desires—plural. Not one, many. The world means many. When akanksha dissolves and becomes abhipsa—abhipsa means desire, not desires. The single desire is called abhipsa; the many desires are called akanksha. When all the rays of desire gather together and are focused on one truth—on the Divine, or liberation, or on the Self, on nirvana, on kevalya—that is abhipsa. When the net of desires collects into one, abhipsa is born. When rays gather, fire is born. Rays are many; fire is one. Up to here, it is understandable: a man wants wealth, position, wife, son, brother; he wants life, a long life. All these wants—these many wants—gather together, and the man wants only the Divine—this much we can still understand. One who has had many desires can at least imagine that all desires have merged, all small streams and rivulets have fallen into a…
Question: Second question: Osho, is abhipsa enough for the Lord? Shobha! It all depends on what abhipsa is for. If abhipsa is just a beautiful name given to desire, it is not enough. If abhipsa is a lovely garment put on lust, it is not enough. If abhipsa is truly abhipsa… abhipsa means a blazing fire. Within you only one yearning remains… Consider this: someone asked Farid, “I want to attain God—what should I do?” Farid said, “Come with me to the river, we’ll bathe. If I get the chance while we’re bathing, I’ll give you the answer; otherwise, we’ll sit on the steps afterward and I’ll tell you.” The inquirer was a little frightened—what kind of answer is that? “If I get the chance, I’ll answer while bathing!” Still he thought, “Fakirs speak in such carefree ways. Let’s see what he does—what answer can there be in bathing?
The song ends:
THE SUPREME UNDERSTANDING TRANSCENDS ALL THIS AND THAT. THE SUPREME ACTION EMBRACES GREAT RESOURCEFULNESS WITHOUT ATTACHMENT. THE SUPREME ACCOMPLISHMENT IS TO REALIZE IMMANENCE WITHOUT HOPE. AT FIRST A YOGI FEELS HIS MIND IS TUMBLING LIKE A WATERFALL; IN MID-COURSE, LIKE THE GANGES, IT FLOWS ON SLOW AND GENTLE; IN THE END IT IS A GREAT VAST OCEAN WHERE THE LIGHTS OF SON AND MOTHER MERGE IN ONE. Zen masters -- Bodhidharma, Rinzai, Bokuju -- they have been pictured in the first state. That's why they are so ferocious. They look like roaring lions, they look like they will kill you. If you look at their eyes, their eyes are volcanoes, fire jumps at you; they are like shocks. They have been pictured in the first satori state for certain reasons, because Zen people know that the first is the problem; and if you know Bodhidharma in this state, when the…
Therefore Buddha has been very difficult to understand. Because he says there is no Atman; he says there is no God; he says there is no Brahman. Then what remains is that which remains—that which remains. And what remains? Emptiness remains—shunya—without any boundary. Emptiness remains in which there is no wave of thought. Emptiness remains in which there is no center, no ego. Emptiness remains... one should say: nothing remains. This very losing of everything is the finding of everything. This is the ultimate, the last. Beyond this? There is no way beyond—for now there is no one left who could go beyond. From the cosmic unconscious, from the Brahman-unconscious, the leap that happens is into the void, into the Supreme, into Truth, into Mahanirvana, into Moksha—whatever name we may give. In truth, all names are futile. All language is futile.
A friend has asked: Osho, Krishna says, “The devotee who lets go of all beginnings is dear to me.” So should one also let go of the very beginning of the search for the Divine?
The idea of the Divine, meditation on the Divine, is there to remove all the thorns of this world—but it too is a thorn. But don’t be hasty, thinking, “If it’s a thorn, then what have we to do with it? We are already troubled by thorns—why pick up another?” Don’t be so quick. That thorn serves to remove all these other thorns. And the day your thorn is out, that day both thorns must be thrown away together; you don’t keep the second one either. As all desires fall away, in the end the desire to realize the Divine also has to be dropped. It is the last desire. The very moment it drops you realize: it has always already been attained. There is a limitation in our language: it makes it seem as if the Divine is somewhere to be sought, hidden somewhere far away, to be located;…