What should I do if I believe in discipline, law, and order but hesitate to take a jump into sannyas?

I believe in discipline, law and order, and that's why I am hesitating to take a jump into sannyas. What should I do?

This is the only commandment -- the eleventh commandment. And the eleventh is enough; the other ten are not needed at all. Be aware and let your discipline come out of your awareness. And there will come a discipline which has a beauty. It will not be like a plastic flower, it will be a real rose. It will have perfume, it will have life. And there will come a certain order, but not imposed, not cultivated -- natural. Just the other day Bodhidharma was saying: When you know the ultimate law, Dharma, when you have become aware of it, when you are attuned to it, your life becomes simple, easy, natural, flowing. No hindrances, no obstructions are there, no blocks are there. That is order. Order is not like railroad tracks, where the train goes on moving on the rails, the same rails, every day. Order is like a…

Osho, I am eager to take sannyas, yet I have been hesitating for a year. I also have this doubt in my mind: what will happen by taking sannyas?

You are still living. Breath still moves. The heart still beats. The blood still runs. However many days may have been wasted, much is still left. The as-yet-unarrived is still there; the future remains. Live this future in a new way, Krishnaraj! Will you keep beating the same old track? Just as you think, “What will happen by taking sannyas?” now think this: what will happen by not taking sannyas? Until now you have not been a sannyasin. What has happened so far? One thing is certain: at least sannyas will be a new experiment. Whether anything happens or not, a new path will be cut. Who knows—what didn’t happen on the old path may happen on the new! Walk with at least that much curiosity. Who knows! The old path is familiar; will you keep circling on it? And not think even once that after so many rounds nothing…

Osho, how do I take sannyas? I keep thinking and then I stop. What is this hesitation?

One night a thief broke into Mulla Nasruddin’s house. While the thief gathered things, Mulla quickly spread his blanket on the floor. When the thief, ready to tie up the loot, looked for a sheet to wrap it in, he found a blanket laid out. He was a bit scared—when he had entered, there had been no blanket on the floor. He’d seen a man sleeping under it; now that man lay on the bed without the blanket, and the blanket was on the floor! But it wasn’t the time to ponder. He tied his bundle and set off. Mulla got up and followed. Hearing footsteps, the thief turned and saw the same man who had been on the bed—first under the blanket, then without it. The thief got nervous and said, “Why are you following me?” Mulla said, “Why not follow? I was the only one left back there!…

I desire to become a sannyasin, but at the very idea a great fear grips my heart. It is so new. And, moreover, I had not come here to become a disciple, I had just come to see a friend who is a sannyasin.

But you are caught, you are trapped! Now it will be very difficult to escape. It is always difficult to choose the new, but only those live who choose the new. To choose the old is to choose death, not life. To choose the familiar is to remain in the prison of the familiar, to choose the known is to avoid really the unknown that is knocking on the door. To choose the known is to reject God, because God is always unknown -- not only unknown, but unknowable. God is always fresh, as fresh as the dewdrops. God is always utterly new, unfamiliar, unmapped, unscheduled, uncalculated. God comes only as the unknown. And if you become afraid, if you shrink back, then you have to live in your so-called dark hole. What is your past that you cling to? What is there to cling to, except that it is…

Sannyas is a concentrated effort to use this opportunity to live

So if you have to suffer as a sannyasin, don't blame me! (laughter) It's natural. Accept it with no complaint, no grudge, with deep thankfulness, because that is how the crowd recognizes you: it says, 'Yes, now we recognize you, that you are on the right path.' The moment that the crowd starts torturing you, starts going against you... That's its way of declaring that, 'Now this man is coming closer to the truth,' -- very close to the truth that they don't want to see. But it is beautiful to suffer on the way towards god, far more beautiful than to be happy in the world of lies. It is better to suffer and sacrifice on the way towards god because each suffering will create integrity in you, each suffering will bring a blessing in disguise. It is passing through fire -- and it is only through such fires…