Will becoming a sannyasin change my rapport with your writings, and will this change be beneficial?

I feel a rapport with your writings -- almost like a contemporary. Surely this feeling will change if I become a sannyasin. Will this change be beneficial?

Becoming a sannyasin means you have become a disciple. Now you will put your mind aside, now you will get more and more in tune with my vibe. This in the East WE call SATSANGA: to be in the presence of the Master, to see the Master, to touch the Master, to be touched by the Master, to be seen by the Master. It is not a verbal communication. Verbal communication has its own purpose. Because you cannot start without verbal communication, that's why I have to go on speaking. If I had been totally silent here you would not be here. You are here because I have spoken. But if you remain here only just to hear me you miss the whole point. Then you will gather only words; those words will turn dead in your hands. Howsoever alive and warm they are when I release them, the moment…

Osho, some of us take sannyas and do spiritual practice; some do not take sannyas and still practice—in both cases we follow your path. Please tell us: what special difference does sannyas make in life?

There is no way to know the difference without taking sannyas. Sannyas is a taste. Sannyas is the taste of coming close to me. Sannyas is the courage to surrender. You do sadhana; but the sannyasin is not alone—you are. You practice; the sannyasin also practices. The sannyasin is with me; you are not with me. I am with both! But you practice in your own way. You listen to me, but you go on choosing. The sannyasin does not even choose. Once he has chosen me, he drops choosing. He says, Enough! I am with both, but the sannyasin comes to be with me—and that makes a revolutionary difference. But you will know it only when you know it. There was a famous Christian woman—Theresa. She was a poor beggar. One day she announced in her village, “I want to build a great church for Jesus.” People laughed. “How…

Osho, whatsoever you say, I always agree with it. Then why is my life not changing?

So to follow is a way to avoid change. Please don't follow me. You simply listen to what is happening here, you see what is happening here. You just look into me, and you give me way -- so my energy can start functioning on your energy. It is not a mind thing: it is a total affair... so that you can start vibrating in the same wavelength -- even for a few moments. Those moments will bring change, those moments will bring glimpses of the unknown. Those moments will make you aware that there is eternity beyond time. Those moments will give you a feel of what it is to be in meditation. Those moments will allow you a little taste of God, of Tao, of Tantra, of Zen. Those moments will bring the possibility of change, because those moments will come, not from your past but from your…

A friend has asked: You keep telling people again and again to take sannyas. But when the mind is not at peace, what will sannyas do?

Sannyas means only this much: that the uninterrupted stream of our life should be broken somewhere—somewhere a break, a gap, a fracture. Otherwise, out of habit, a person goes on living as he lived until yesterday. Somewhere a break is needed. Otherwise we go on bound to the old groove, and that same groove holds us until death. There is no other meaning to sannyas; psychologically it means only this: we are changing the image of the self that has existed in a person’s mind up to now. It makes a difference. Astonishingly, it makes a difference. There is a friend who took sannyas. He used to say to me, “What will changing clothes do?” I said, “Change them and see. And if it doesn’t do anything, change back.” Fifteen days later he came and said, “This is amazing! My feet stop for a moment in front of the liquor…

Beloved Osho, I often ask myself what sannyas really means to me. I read your books, sometimes I see a video or hear a tape of you; and mostly it stays only on the surface, is only something which touches my mind. But my whole life is changing since I have been going the way towards you, and this afternoon I will see you for the first time. Osho, please tell me something about sannyas and my next step.

My definition of sannyas is coming closer to a master, coming closer to a light. Your candle is unlit. You bring your candle closer to a candle that is burning bright. Come closer... there is a certain moment when, from the burning candle, the flame jumps to the unlit candle and suddenly you are enlightened. And the beauty is, the burning candle loses nothing and the unlit candle gains everything -- the whole universe. Sannyas is a journey from darkness towards light, from death towards immortality, from ignorance towards an explosion of knowing. The books or any other medium are just a net thrown into the sea with the hope that somebody will be caught in it. People are caught, and as they come closer to the master, their life starts changing. They may not understand what is happening, they may not be able to explain what is happening, but…