Why don't I understand?

Osho, you say the same thing in countless ways. But when I listen to you, it feels as if I am hearing it for the first time. And I feel so much joy that I don’t feel like going back home. What should I do—what can I do—so that I can just keep listening to you!

You will feel as if you have been made to rise out of season, before time—as if you were not yet to go and yet had to go. And if you go in that way, your home will become even more desolate than before. I do not want to make your home desolate; I want to make your home a temple. I want that when you go home, your home’s new form is revealed. I do not want to tear you away from home, from the world, from family life. That is the newness of my sannyas: I do not want to sever you from the world; I want to join you to the world in such a way that your connection with the world becomes a connection with the Divine. Let the world no longer be a barrier between you and the Divine; let it become a means. If…

Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHY DON'T I UNDERSTAND YOU? Ram Gopal, understanding is a second step. The first is hearing. You don't hear me. You miss the first step; then the second is not possible. While you are listening to me, a thousand and one thoughts are roaming in your mind. They keep you deaf. My words never reach you intact, in their purity. They are distorted, they are colored by your thoughts, by your prejudices, by your already arrived at conclusions. You listen to me through your knowledge -- that's why you really DON'T listen. And whatsoever reaches you is something totally different than what was conveyed. I'm saying one thing, you go on hearing something else; hence the misunderstanding. That's why you don't understand me; otherwise, I am using very simple words. I'm not using any intellectual jargon, I'm using the day-to-day language.

Question: Second question: Osho, I don’t understand what you say. What should I do? It isn’t even as it was in the Mahabharata, where some of Arjuna’s kin were on one side and some on the other. Things had gone so far that Krishna was on one side and Krishna’s army on the other. That is not only in the epic—it is even more so inside you. At least Krishna was wholly on one side there; it wasn’t as if half of him was here and half there—one hand with the Kauravas and one with the Pandavas. But that is exactly the state within you. A man was run over by a steamroller and died. His wife rushed to the hospital on hearing he had been admitted to Sassoon Hospital. She asked the nurse, “Which ward is my husband in?” “Name?” “The one crushed under the steamroller.

Osho, you confuse me.

Whatsoever I say you don't hear, hence the confusion. The way that I say it, you don't hear in the same way; you interpret it, you bring your mind in. A constant commentary is going on in your minds: while I am speaking you are continuously commenting inside you. Your commentary does not allow me to reach to your heart. All that I pour into you never reaches. Only fragments reach; much is missed, hence the confusion. Those fragments you cannot put together. Even if you try to put them together they never fit, because much is missing and then you start feeling confused. I am not confusing you -- you confuse yourself. If you listen to me all confusion will disappear. You will become FUSED, you will become one. But I say something, you hear something else. They strolled into the park. It was a beautiful day. Perfect for…

Why do I misunderstand you, Osho, continuously?

THAT IS NATURAL. Understanding will be a surprise -- misunderstanding is not a surprise. You are bound to misunderstand me because you ARE. You will understand me only when you are not. That 'I' is the cause of all misunderstanding. [t remains between me and you. It do- i not allow me to say what I am saying -- it interprets, it colours it, it distorts, it chooses, it adds, it deletes -- it docs a thousand and one things, and only then does it allow it to go in. And by the time it reaches you it is something totally different. It is not what was said to you: it is something that your mind has made out of it. You will have to disappear if you want to understand me. Less than that won't do. Lorenzo was extolling the virtues of his newly adopted homeland. "This is-a great-a…