Why is there a delay in achieving enlightenment?

Beloved master, why am I not getting enlightened soon? Why is there so much delay?

Sagaram, the cause must be in you. In fact, YOU ARE the cause. You are not trying to understand what I am saying. Now enlightenment has become an object of your desire -- and enlightenment happens only when there is no desire left. And when I say no desire I exactly mean no desire -- absolutely no desire. The desire for enlightenment is still a desire. If you go on desiring enlightenment it is not going to happen, neither sooner nor later. It is never going to happen. You will have to drop the desire. See the point, because mind is so cunning and so stupid too that it can go on being clever. You can even say, "Okay, then I will drop the desire -- but is it guaranteed that when I drop all the desires, the desire for enlightenment included, is it guaranteed that I will become enlightened?"…

Beloved Osho, I feel really confused about this whole enlightenment business. On the one hand, you say, "be thoroughgoing in your search for enlightenment." but on the other hand, the very desire to become enlightened prevents it. How to solve this dilemma?

That night he slept without any desire. He had no idea what he was going to do tomorrow morning. For six years he was so much involved in searching for enlightenment, but now he had no energy even to think what he was going to do tomorrow morning. He slept one of the deepest sleeps of his life -- no desires, no dreams, no thought. And when in the morning he opened his eyes, the last star was disappearing. It was still a little dark, a little before the sun would be rising. As the last star was disappearing, he simply watched it disappearing -- utter silence all around. And suddenly he became aware of his own light. He heard for the first time the still small voice that there is no need to search anywhere: You are it. But without those six years of thoroughgoing search this moment would…

Beloved Osho, I have been your sannyasin for one year. I meditate, watch, and do whatever looks true to me; still a big pain arises. Beloved Osho, how long will it take to get enlightened, and does this enlightenment really exist?

Farmer Jones and his wife Betty take their three pigs over to a neighboring farm to get them mated. While the pigs are at it, Jones asks his neighbor, "How will we know if the mating is a success?" Jones is told that if in a few days the pigs are eating grass, it means it is a success. If they are rolling around in the mud, it means it is not a success. After a few days Jones comes down to breakfast and asks Betty, "Are they eating grass or rolling around in the mud?" "They are rolling around in the mud," replies Betty. So they put the three pigs back in the car and take them back to the other farm to get them mated again. After a couple of days Jones asks Betty again. "What are they doing?" "They are rolling around in the mud," replies Betty.…

Since coming to you, living a meditative life has become an easier and more natural phenomenon. However, I have practically given up all hope for enlightenment are these tendencies contradictory?

Not at all. To attain to enlightenment that is a must -- that you should lose all hope and desire for it. Otherwise the desire for enlightenment becomes a nightmare in itself. And the more you desire it, the further away you are from it -- greater the desire, greater will be the distance. Drop all desiring for it, all hoping for it. If you have really become desireless about enlightenment, any moment it is possible to happen. Give space; don't be filled with the desire for it. The greatest barrier to enlightenment is the longing for it, because a mind that longs and desires is always tense. It has a subtle anxiety around it; it is never at ease. How can you be at ease if you have to go somewhere, reach somewhere? You may be sitting, but you are on the move. Visibly you may be resting, but…

So many people are looking for instant enlightenment these days and there are all these gurus running around saying 'follow me' and yet it is questionable whether the answer is there. What do you attribute this to?

In that fear and anxiety, in that impatience, you can go on searching but you will not find. It is not that you have to find God, it is that you have to allow him to find you. So you have to be in a receptive mood, in a non-desiring, non-demanding mood, utterly at ease, as if it has already happened. There is no need for it to happen, it is as if it has already happened. With this silence, this peace, with this non-tense state, it happens. You ask: SO MANY PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR INSTANT ENLIGHTENMENT THESE DAYS AND THERE ARE ALL THESE GURUS RUNNING AROUND SAYING 'FOLLOW ME' AND YET IT IS QUESTIONABLE WHETHER THE ANSWER IS THERE. The answer is in you, it is nowhere else. So if you want to follow a man, follow the man who throws you back to yourself -- because the…