According to Osho, Devadatta’s name is intrinsically sacred—‘given by God,’ like the English ‘John’—so its beauty isn’t canceled by the bearer’s misdeeds. He uses Devadatta’s jealousy and failed plots to show that without realization, intellect breeds violence, which, turned outward is murder and inward is suicide. In Buddha’s vision of oneness and equality, even the apparent enemy serves the divine play; the name’s essence remains pure.
The name means “gift of God” and stays beautiful, while his story shows how jealousy without wisdom turns the same energy into hurting others or yourself.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, you have given me the name of devadatta, and many people say to me that he was the guy who tried to kill gautam the buddha many times. Then why have you given me such a name?
THE NAME in itself is very beautiful. It means: given by God, by the grace of God, a gift of God. It means exactly what the English name John means. John means: a gracious gift of God. Devadatta also means the same. It was just a coincidence that this was also the name of the man who tried to kill Gautam Buddha many times. He was Gautam Buddha's cousin-brother, and he was very jealous. He became a disciple of Buddha, but because he was a cousin-brother, almost of the same age, and they had studied in the same school and they hid played together and they had hunted together, he felt that he was equal to Buddha. And Buddha told him many times, "Not only ate you equal to me, everybody is equal to me. The moment I became enlightened, all questions of inferiority or superiority disappeared. Even rocks are…
Deva tara... It means divine star. Tar means star, mm? -- the english word 'star' comes from the sanskrit root 'tara'. In sanskrit it is 'sitara'; from sitara it has become tara in Hindi and star in English. But tara is also the name of a tantra goddess. There are two traditions of tantra -- one is Hindu, another is Buddhist. In the Buddhist tradition tara is the name of the tantra goddess. And every Buddhist tantrika has to practise the idea of the goddess with the beloved. When a tantra worshipper is making love to his woman, first, for months he has to visualise the woman as being the goddess Tara. By and by the visualisation becomes settled; by and by he completely forgets that she is a human being. When she is no more a human being, only then is love allowed, not before it.
Osho, why is it so difficult to forgive, to stop clinging to hurts long since past?
It is very essential to understand because you are all disciples here, and you all will be carrying some grudge or other against me, for the simple reason because I am trying to destroy your ego. That I have to do; that's the function of the Master, to destroy your ego. And you can become very revengeful, and you can carry deep wounds through it. Katyayani, you ask me: WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO FORGIVE, TO STOP CLINGING TO HURTS LONG SINCE PAST? For the simple reason that they are all that you have got. And you go on playing with your old wounds so that they keep fresh in your memory. You never allow them to heal. A man was sitting in a compartment in a train. Across from him was sitting a Catholic priest who had a picnic basket beside him. The man had nothing else to…
Deva means divine, nirmalo means innocence -- divine innocence, the original state of consciousness, the empty state of consciousness, before knowledge enters in. That's what Zen people call "the original face -- the face that you had before you were born and the face that you will have again when you are dead. Between the two we have many false faces -- all those false faces constitute our personality. The word "personality" comes from persona; persona means "the mask." We are not it; we are behind it and beyond it. We are not even touched by it. It is just around us but not in us. Your mind is just something that is happening around you. Nothing is happening at the very core of your being; nothing ever happens there. It is always the same -- uncontaminated, pure, innocent, virgin. And one can reach it in a single instant.
Deva means divine, yuuichi means strength -- divine strength. Man in himself is impotent. All that is alive in him comes from god, all that is power in him is divine: man is only a vehicle. If one functions simply as a vehicle of god then one's life is religious. And if one starts interfering in the flow of the energy and is no more just a vehicle but becomes a controller, then one's life is irreligious. So be just an open door for god to come in, just a passage for him to flow into the world. That's what sannyas is all about. Deva means divine and nobuyuki means trust -- trust in the divine. We trust in the material -- in money, in power, in respectability -- and that trust is the cause of all our miseries.