Why do I hesitate to take sannyas at seventy-five?

Osho, I am getting on seventy-.five, yet I hesitate to take sannyas. Why?

Why should you hesitate? The old sannyas certainly gives hesitation. In fact, no intelligent person would go into the old way, because it.is so against nature, against life; only stupid people can be victims of it. Hesitation is perfectly right if you are thinking to become an old Indian sannyasin. Then hesitation is perfectly right; that simply shows intelligence. But if you are hesitating to become MY sannyasin, that simply shows indecisiveness, not intelligence, because I am not telling you to leave anything. You will be the same, in the same world; everything will be the same. Just deep down, at the center of your being, a new quality will be added. I don't take anything from you, I give something to you. I make you more, not less. A quality of meditativeness will be added to you, a subtle fragrance of prayer will be added to you. You will…

Beloved Osho, I am seventy-five years old. I want to become a sannyasin, but I don't know why I am hesitating.

Prakash Chandra Sethia, I think you should wait a little more! Let death come first, then I can initiate you into sannyas...because when death has already happened, there will be no hesitation: you will not be there at all. Seventy-five years old and still hesitating? One leg is already in the grave! Ninety-nine percent is almost dead. Only one percent can become a sannyasin now, and even then you are hesitating. It almost always happens with old people. The people who followed Jesus were all young, almost all of them his own age. The people who followed Buddha were his age or nearabout. The same was true with Mahavira. The older a person becomes, the more cautious he becomes, and one can understand why. He has lived in the world with so many deceptive people all around. He has been deceived again and again, he has been cheated, so he…

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, I am growing old, yet I still cannot gather the courage to take sannyas. What should I do now?

They say Ibrahim was struck—by the man’s voice, his power, his blow—and he said to him, “You stay; I will go. If it is an inn, then stay at your ease—but I am leaving.” Ibrahim left the palace! And whenever anyone later asked him, “What did you do?” he would say, “I understood the point. It is true. How many have halted in this palace, come and gone—it will be the same with me. If I must go, why the claim! I dropped it.” And Ibrahim said, “From the day I left that inn, I found my home. I came to know my true dwelling.” Sannyas is courage, yes—but not as difficult as you imagine. Once understood, it is very simple. I say only this to you: this world is an inn. And I do not even say you must leave it and go. Ashtavakra would not say that either.…

So long as you are young, it is easier to get out of the world’s mire. When old, it will be difficult. People carry an inverted logic: “When I am old, I will chant God’s name; what’s the hurry now? When I am old, I will take sannyas; what is the rush now? Now I am young! Now life is here! Let me enjoy. When death comes close, when hands and feet tremble and old age knocks, then I will renounce.” People come to me, saying, “You give sannyas to the young! Sannyas is for the old.” Who told you that? Your mind, perhaps. If you listen to the mind, it will say sannyas is for corpses. Not even for the old—“When you lie on the bier, then take sannyas.” A woman used to visit me, a social worker of great fame in Bombay. She wished to take sannyas.