Will I ever find the light that I glimpse in others?

Osho, will I too ever find that light whose glimpse I behold in you?

Satyaprem! Why not! I am only a mirror. My sole use is to remind you of you. The light that appears to you in me is your own light. You are not aware of it; I am. That’s the small difference. You are asleep; I am awake. You are that, I am that. You have your back turned to yourself; I have turned to face myself. You are averted; I have become turned toward. But the matter is exactly the same. Now, if you stand with your back to a lamp, naturally the lamp won’t be seen. Just turn a little—and the lamp will be seen. The light is hidden within you too. Life itself is light. Life itself is God. You ask: “Will I ever attain that light?” Why ‘ever’—you can attain it now—here. It’s only a matter of turning a little. In the heart’s mirror is the Beloved’s…

Question: Osho, In "Lamps on the Path" you have said: Osho, that darkness gathers beneath a clay lamp we can still understand; but we are completely unfamiliar with the dense darkness that lies beneath the inner lamp. What is it, why is it there, and how can it be removed? Kindly explain in detail. The supreme light is within; but where you stand right now, it is dark. Your entire radiance is flowing outwards. Nothing is left within. You are like the Ganges pouring into the ocean—nothing remains at Gangotri; it runs outward, farther and farther, away from itself. Inside, all becomes empty. Even if there is great light within you, if it keeps flowing out, darkness will remain. Scientists say our sun will burn out in a few billion years. Light is flowing outward. Vast—sixty thousand times bigger than earth—immense capacity—yet it will exhaust.

Man lives in darkness if he lives without love, and to live in darkness is not to live at all. Darkness is death. One simply stumbles; one cannot even walk. One cannot see where one is, who one is, from where one is coming and to where one is going. The whole life of darkness is constantly falling into this ditch or into that ditch, falling here, falling there, wounding oneself and others, getting stuck with this wall or with that rock, bumping into people; and that's what is happening all over the world. Everybody is moving in darkness, and then there are clashes, which are inevitable. People are clashing with other people, nations are clashing with other nations, religions clashing with other religions, as if the whole of life consists of only conflict, violence, destruction.

Osho, years ago when I first saw you, my eyes were dazzled; and from that very day a light has remained kindled at the center of my vision every moment. What is this mysterious light? Is it not some defect in my eyesight?

There is only one purpose for your being with me: that you become acquainted with yourself. There is only one purpose for my being: that I throw you back upon yourself. Do not get entangled in me; you have to return to yourself. There is no substance in your eye going on looking at me. Only if, seeing me, your eye returns to you—there is a reversion, a withdrawal of the gaze (pratikraman, pratyahara)—does it have any meaning. Consider this experience auspicious; nourish it. Do not become uneasy because of it, nor get worried about treating the eye. I am singing; you learn to hum. Learn to shimmer in the storms. Let a humming arise within you on hearing my song; by being near me, come to be near yourself. What has come to me lies within you too. There is not the slightest difference between me and you. I…

Take this as a touchstone: the Ganges in which both your virtue and sin are washed—know it is the true Ganges. The place where your very identity washes away, so you cannot re-grab the ego—know that is the real Ganges. The real pilgrimage is that from which you never return. If you come back, it was false. Become a hajji and return—the hajj was futile. But from the real pilgrimage, none returns. One who goes within does not come back—he is gone. From within, the Divine manifests; the self does not. The wave dissolves—now only the ocean resounds. And what a joke, that what is inside we seek outside! One evening Rabi’a began to search for something at her door. The neighborhood gathered. “Rabi’a, what are you seeking?” “I was sewing, my needle fell.” People began to search. Sun was setting.