Will I not receive blessings if I do not take sannyas?

A woman has asked: I am your admirer, I love your ideas, but I cannot take sannyas. Then will I not receive your blessing?

Yesterday, in the Punjab Kesari—a newspaper from Jalandhar—I was reading a report. It said that in the capital a Ramlila was going on. The scene was Shurpanakha’s nose being cut. When she came to Rama, a song began to play on a record in a nearby hotel: “If someone like you were to come into my life, everything would be perfect,” and Shurpanakha began to dance to this tune. The audience must have been astonished. Those who had dozed off must have woken up. No sooner was her nose cut than another song played: “Whether it’s glass or a heart, in the end it breaks,” and Shurpanakha again swayed and danced. Such is the unconsciousness! Break this stupor. These records are playing in the hotels outside—how long will you keep dancing to them? Inside too a melody is playing—the melody of emptiness. A flute is sounding; the unstruck sound is…

Osho, I feel that although I am of course very far from you, I am yet so close to you—perhaps hardly anyone is this close. I have neither taken sannyas from you nor received the blessing of your lotus-hands. Even so, what is the reason for such a feeling?

Salahuddin! The preparation for sannyas is underway. You are a little afraid. Don’t mistake the mind for yourself on this account. This is only the beginning. It’s just a drizzle; soon the flood is on its way. This is the first blossom of spring, merely the news that spring has arrived; now millions upon millions of flowers are yet to bloom. Don’t stop here, Salahuddin! From your question I feel you are thinking, “It’s done.” It has only started, and it is only the beginning—the A, B, C. Hold this thread. A long journey still lies ahead. What has happened is auspicious, is beautiful. To be near me does not require physical nearness, because nearness is a bond of love, not of the body. Nearness means simply that your heart is now beating with my heart. You may live a thousand miles away; if your heart is attuned with mine,…

Osho, even after arriving at the camp why does a divide still appear? Does the distance vanish the moment one takes sannyas? Is your blessing only for sannyasins? Is it not for all living beings?

Blessing is for everyone. But it is not that just because I give it you will receive it; you will receive it only if you take it. The river is flowing—flowing for all. Trees will drink, animals and birds will drink, humans will drink. But only the one who drinks will be quenched. If you stand stiff on the bank, the river will not jump into your cupped hands. You will have to bend, you will have to form your palms into a cup—only then will you be able to drink. If you do not drink, if the water is not drunk, then do not complain about the river. The river was flowing. But man is very upside down. If he does not receive blessing, he thinks the blessing must not have been given. But do you have the capacity to receive? Will you accept blessing? Blessing is not a…

It is asked: “I haven’t met you personally yet, and still I am filled with strange feelings toward you. Sometimes I cry; sometimes I just keep gazing at you.”

The friend who has asked—this is a new, fresh contact. New experiences are rising in it. Before these experiences lose their meaning, before these waves become inert, before you slowly accept even these waves and they, too, grow old—take the leap. “Sometimes I cry; sometimes I just keep gazing at you.” Tears are a sign that the connection is being made through the heart. If it were made through the intellect, tears would never come. If the connection is through the head, at most one nods: “Right”; or if not, one shakes the head: “Wrong.” Only the skull nods a little. Tears have nothing to do with the head. Tears flow from the eyes—but they come from the heart, from the innermost core. Tears are more meaningful—than doctrines, ideas, sects. Tears are more meaningful. Tears bring the news that the heart has been struck, something within has trembled. Before the…

Osho, I want to take sannyas, but friends and loved ones are becoming obstacles! What should I do?

They would not be friends, nor loved ones. Those who do not grant you the freedom to be yourself can be neither friends nor loved ones. The very meaning of friendship is that we care for the other so much that whatever they wish to become, we will give them freedom. And the meaning of a loved one is: whichever direction you wish to go, wherever your joy lies, our blessings will be with you—even if we do not agree in our opinions. Love liberates. And that which does not liberate is not love. I am not telling you to take sannyas. I would only say this—whatever your inner feeling is, move toward it with courage. If it is for sannyas, then toward sannyas; if it is for the world, then toward the world. Do not make another the decider. Do not place the decision in someone else’s hands. Otherwise…