What results have been observed with sannyasins regarding enlightenment?

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…

Enlightenment comes just like grass growing -- by itself! No effort from your side is needed. All that is needed is a complete withdrawal of all efforts, as if you are not -- that's what is meant by silence. Sannyas is a suicide, effacing yourself completely, totally, categorically, not leaving even a small trace behind. The moment you are completely gone truth arrives, and arrives with such splendour and beauty, with such bliss and benediction, with such ecstasy, that it is impossible to imagine it. Then he talked of pleasure and of bliss, of how the former is what people know through relationships with others, while bliss needs the climate of aloneness. People are acquainted only with pleasure. Pleasure happens in relationship. The other is needed, the other is an absolute necessity, without the other pleasure cannot happen.

In the East we have a long tradition, a ten-thousand-years long tradition at least, of thousands of awakened people working. That's why nobody was crucified like Jesus. In India he learned the art of awakening people. For eighteen years he was travelling in the East, that's why for eighteen years the Bible has no account of him. The Bible remembers him when he is twelve, and then suddenly the Bible remembers him when he is thirty. Eighteen years' gap is there, and they don't have any way to explain what happened in these eighteen years. Eighteen years is a long time in the life of a man who lived only thirty-three years; eighteen years is his whole life! He was travelling in the East from Egypt to India, continuously being with many awakened masters, so he learned one thing, that people have to be awakened.

And to know it is to become a song, to know it is to become a dance, to know it is to become a celebration. My sannyas is nothing but entering into the world of celebration. It is not renunciation, it is rejoicing. Rejoice, rejoice that life is! Rejoice in the stars and the sun and the moon and the rains and the wind. Rejoice in trees and animals and birds and people. Rejoice in your own being. If rejoicing becomes your whole life I call it religious. A religious person is blissful moment-to-moment and his bliss goes on growing, deepening. This deepening bliss brings you closer and closer to God. One day when there is only bliss and you are not -- not even to say that "I am blissful," but simply bliss is -- you have arrived home.

Beloved Osho,what are the qualities of a sannyasin?

In the early morning he went back, fell at Buddha's feet and said, "Sir, excuse me, forgive me. I could not sleep the whole night." And Buddha laughed, and he said, "You fool! Why? I slept perfectly well. Why should you get so disturbed about such a small thing? It has not hurt me. You see my face is as it was before. Why did you get so worried?" And the man said, "I have come to become your disciple. Initiate me. I want to be with you. I have seen something unique, superhuman. But first, forgive me." And Buddha said, "This is nonsense. How can I forgive you? -- because I have not even taken any note of it. I was not angry, so how can I forgive you?" Twenty-four hours had passed, and they were sitting on the bank of the Ganges. And Buddha said, "Look at how…