What will the next phase of Osho's work be and what will his sannyasins do?

Osho! A few days before his passing, revered Dadda-ji, while talking one night, said: “Only That is, and other than That there is nothing.” When we asked, “Who runs the world?” he said, “No one. Everything moves on its own. What is happening is happening. No one is doing anything; it is all happening.” In response to questions about the doctrine of karma he said, “It’s all nonsense.” We asked, “Then what should we do?” He said, “Eat, drink and live joyfully. That’s all—there is nothing else in the world.” Osho, please say something about these teachings of his.

You are lying on both counts. You do not believe you are a great sinner. Put your hand on your heart and say it. You will say: “Me, a great sinner? There are much worse than me! What count am I in! I’m only saying it. I call myself a great sinner so I can call you great compassion. I blacken my face to brighten yours.” But ask your heart. Such praises won’t work there, because there is no one to hear. No answer will come. And because your prayers are not answered, atheism arises. For thousands of years you have prayed; no answer came—so atheism grew. The basic cause of growing atheism is your pundits and priests with their false assurances. Since those assurances fail. Yes, now and then, by chance, an arrow hits the target. Shoot in the dark, sometimes it hits. No prayer is heard—sometimes it lands.…

Osho, since life is limited—you know you have only so many days to live. It may happen that what you are thinking of remains unfinished. So the idea of handing it over to someone else should also stay in your awareness.

What you say is right. Yes, what you say is right. It is also true that life is uncertain. And it is also true that the work is so vast that whether one man can complete it in a single lifetime or not is uncertain. My only trust is that I have no personal stake in the work; if life so wills, it will take the whole work; if not, it will not. I have no insistence that it must be completed. What is there to be stubborn about? To say it must be completed—there is no such demand in me. And what you say is right: among these very people, slowly, those who come close to me—if they gain some momentum in their sadhana—certainly work can be taken from them; yes, work can be taken from them. And that too only if life wants to take it. Even about…

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.

A few things in brief. Firstly, in the future there is no possibility of the survival of sannyas as it was in the world until now -- it will not be able to survive. In Soviet Russia today, it is not possible to be a sannyasin; in China, now it is not possible to be a sannyasin. And wherever socialism is influential, sannyas will become impossible. Wherever the idea arises that anyone who does not do regular work has no right to eat, sannyas will become difficult. In the coming fifty years, many traditions of sannyas will simply disappear from the world. In China there was a great Buddhist tradition of sannyas; it simply disappeared. Lamas are disappearing from Tibet, they cannot survive. In Russia also, there was a tradition of very old Christian fakirs, it is ruined. And sannyas will have difficulty in surviving anywhere in the world.

Osho, but what will happen after that?

I do not worry about what comes afterward; I don’t, because a thoughtful, reflective society continually faces things and finds their solutions. There is no need to hand out fixed solutions. There are two ways. Either we tell you: go left, walk ten steps, and on the eleventh step turn right—there is the door. That is one way. The other way is that we teach you the art of seeing with your own eyes and say: you look! And wherever you find a path, take it. The path and the door will be visible to your open eyes. The mentality the world has had till now has been to give people a fixed formula, to give them an organized religion, to give them an organized party, to give them an ideology to follow—but not to give them a mind with which they can think and move. There is a difference…