Mastery

Osho, does the Master ever play hide-and-seek with the disciples? Please tell us.

Hide-and-seek is the entire relationship between Master and disciple. Not that he plays it “sometimes”—that is the relationship. And not only between Master and disciple; it is the very relationship between the Divine and creation. The Master and the disciple play, on a small scale, the vast game the Divine is playing with existence on a grand scale. Here the Divine is hidden everywhere, calling from all directions: “Come, touch me, search for me!” The day you hear that call and begin to seek, you will discover such joy in the seeking that you may even say, “Don’t be in a hurry to reveal yourself.” When you were small you played children’s games—hide-and-seek. In a single room the children hide: one presses under the bed, another slips behind a chair—and everyone knows more or less where everyone is, because all are half-peeking. Still the game goes on. Even the one…

Question: Second question: Osho, does the true master ever test the disciple? ... The master said, “I did. But he had not practiced it. It was spontaneous. He did not know from where it came—call it from the unknown, from the divine, from nature. A wondrous flower bloomed in his being. It was not his; it was of the beyond, born of his own suchness. You have come with practice. This is a paper flower. And remember: if you open one eye of a corpse, the other does not open. If you practice again, remember this too: if you open one eye of a dead man, the other does not open. What kind of deadness is this that when I opened one eye, both of yours opened! With such a death you will not die—and if you do not die, you cannot be new.

Osho, even with a living master present, in our country the dead are worshipped. Is this our misfortune, our foolishness, or our downfall?

Satya Prem! Neither misfortune, nor foolishness, nor downfall. It has always been so. This has been man’s way. It is built into the very mode of human being. It is an inevitable part of man’s unconsciousness. You can worship the dead; with the living you have to be transformed. Worship won’t do. Worship is a trick to avoid, a device, a politics. The most cultured way to avoid someone is to worship him. Offer a couple of flowers at his feet and be free—and remain exactly as you were. And you even take the inner pleasure of feeling you did something. In fact you did nothing. The flowers belonged to the trees; they were already dedicated to the divine. You plucked them and placed them on a stone idol or on a scripture. All flowers are already at the feet of the divine. All the birds’ songs are prayers unto…

Osho, the master sees the disciple directly, yet he still deliberately puts him through various tests. Does this make the disciple’s self-realization more intense and purer? Please explain.

You will often find that where such pure Vedanta talk is going on, you will see great sinners sitting there—and cheerful! Only there do they find a little joy; nowhere else can they. Anywhere else they go, someone says, ‘There goes a black-marketeer’; someone says, ‘He is a thief’; someone, ‘He is dishonest, a great sinner.’ Only where pure spirituality is flowing do they get a little peace. There they feel, ‘This is exactly right—sin and all that is false!’ You will see sinners gathered around saints. Their words gratify their ego immensely: ‘At least there is some place where we can sit elated—there is no sin and the like; it is all maya. Nothing was done, nothing can be done. We are not doers, nor enjoyers—we are merely witnesses!’ So the master has to watch that this notion of ‘witness’ does not become suicidal for you. Declarations come too…