Prem means love, shakura means thankfulness, gratitude, gratefulness. And love is always thankful. If love complains, then it is not love. Love basically is gratitude. Complaints arise when there are desires and they are not fulfilled; gratitude arises because all that is needed is already fulfilled. So much is given that more cannot be asked, then there is gratitude. Complaints arise because this has to be there and it is not and that has to be there and it is not. The desiring mind complains; the loving mind thanks.
That's why one very fundamental thing has to be understood: love is not a desire, because desire is complaint, desire is ungratefulness. Love cannot be a desire; it is fulfillment. It has no demands, it does not ask for anything. It only gives, and gives out of thankfulness. Love is a sharing, not a desire. And people who think love is a desire go on missing; they will never know what love is. They will know passion but they will never know love. They will know lust but they will never know love.
Love is very unearthly. It is of the sky! Love exists in time but does not belong to time; it comes from eternity. Learn to become more and more grateful for small things. Just for the sheer joy of breathing, feel grateful to God... just for the sheer joy that you can see rainbows and flowers and the clouds. What more is needed? Just for the sheer joy that you can love and that you can be loved, be thankful, and out of that thankfulness a person becomes religious. Not by going to a church or by becoming a Christian or a Hindu but by becoming grateful, does a person attain to religiousness.
Prem means love, aurobindo means lotus -- love lotus. And love is the lotus in the mud of life. The lotus is a symbol of great metamorphosis: it arises out of dirty mud and there is nothing more beautiful than it. There is nothing more fragrant than it, there is nothing more delicate than it... and it arises out of very dirty mud. It is the symbol of transformation. So is the case with life: ordinarily it is dirty mud, it is a mess, but it can be transformed into a lotus, a lotus can arise out of it.
In the East we have always thought of Buddhas as lotuses. They belong to us and yet they don't belong to us. They come from us but they go beyond us; they live in the world but the world does not live in them. They remain here and yet they are somewhere else, in some other space. They are outsiders here. They move in the crowd but they remain alone; they talk but they are silent. They live as everybody else lives but there is a different quality in their life. Their life has a luminosity, their life has grace -- that grace is divine.
When I say the 'mud of life', I am not condemning life; I am simply saying that life contains lotuses in it. They have to be searched for, they have to be cultivated, they have to be helped, so that they can grow.
Don't accept the seed as the end. The seed has to be given to the soil; the seed has to disappear into the soil, and then a majestic tree arises out of it. Nobody could have imagined that that small seed had contained such a big tree -- a tree which will talk to the stars, which will have conferences with the clouds, a tree which will be a message from the earth to the sky. Nobody could have thought, imagined, dreamt that a small seed can contain such a beautiful phenomenon.
So is man a seed, a muddy phenomenon... not to be condemned, but to search for the lotus. And love helps you to grow, love helps to make you a lotus. Love is exactly the inner lotus, the opening of the heart; and with that opening there is great fragrance, great joy and great benediction.
[A sannyasin says: I see how difficult it is to surrender. When I listen to you it seems pretty easy, but... ]
It is! Surrender is the easiest thing in the world. If you cannot do surrender, you cannot do anything! In fact, surrender is not a doing at all; it is a non-doing. You don't do it, you simply relax into it. There is nothing like doing. What do you do when you go to sleep? You don't do anything; you simply relax into sleep. That's what surrender is: if you love me, you relax into me.
There is no effort needed. Effort means resistance, effort means you are fighting. Something in you is not ready, something in you wants to deny, something in you wants to say no -- and against that you are trying to say yes, hence the conflict -- otherwise, no effort is needed. Just see me and listen to me, watch me, just feel me and surrender will come on its own. One day you will suddenly find that you are no more; then it has a beauty. It is effortless.
But it is going to happen; maybe that is why you started feeling some negative space. Before surrender one has to go into many negative spaces. Many doubts arise, many dark nights of the soul have to be passed. Before one comes to the oasis it is a long desert. But when the darkness becomes too much, then know well that the morning is very close by, by the corner. The night is darkest before the dawn. Good!
[Another sannyasin says: It's always the same thing: I'm groping for a question and they're so short-lived; they don't survive the way to you!]
There is no need... there is no need! (laughter) No question is needed. To get my answer no question is needed. In fact you will get it only when there are no questions left.
... Nothing is there... nothing. All questions are momentary. Just watch and they will disappear -- and by watching, watching, one day you will come to a space where there is no question left. Then you will understand my answer, not before it.
If you are too much in your questions you will not understand the answer. When you are no more in questions you have the right vision, an unquestioning consciousness. Then there is no need even for me to say a single word. Without my saying anything, it will be heard by you. Without being given to you, you will get it.
This is very good; whatsoever is happening is the right thing. But I understand: so many people ask questions, so you become worried. You start thinking, 'So many people are asking questions and getting answers.' While they ask they will not get the answer! Answers are available only when questions have left yoU; they can't live together. So this is paradoxical but this is how it happens: those who have never asked, will receive sooner. Just keep a little patience! Good.
Osho's Commentary
That's why one very fundamental thing has to be understood: love is not a desire, because desire is complaint, desire is ungratefulness. Love cannot be a desire; it is fulfillment. It has no demands, it does not ask for anything. It only gives, and gives out of thankfulness. Love is a sharing, not a desire. And people who think love is a desire go on missing; they will never know what love is. They will know passion but they will never know love. They will know lust but they will never know love.
Love is very unearthly. It is of the sky! Love exists in time but does not belong to time; it comes from eternity. Learn to become more and more grateful for small things. Just for the sheer joy of breathing, feel grateful to God... just for the sheer joy that you can see rainbows and flowers and the clouds. What more is needed? Just for the sheer joy that you can love and that you can be loved, be thankful, and out of that thankfulness a person becomes religious. Not by going to a church or by becoming a Christian or a Hindu but by becoming grateful, does a person attain to religiousness.
Prem means love, aurobindo means lotus -- love lotus. And love is the lotus in the mud of life. The lotus is a symbol of great metamorphosis: it arises out of dirty mud and there is nothing more beautiful than it. There is nothing more fragrant than it, there is nothing more delicate than it... and it arises out of very dirty mud. It is the symbol of transformation. So is the case with life: ordinarily it is dirty mud, it is a mess, but it can be transformed into a lotus, a lotus can arise out of it.
In the East we have always thought of Buddhas as lotuses. They belong to us and yet they don't belong to us. They come from us but they go beyond us; they live in the world but the world does not live in them. They remain here and yet they are somewhere else, in some other space. They are outsiders here. They move in the crowd but they remain alone; they talk but they are silent. They live as everybody else lives but there is a different quality in their life. Their life has a luminosity, their life has grace -- that grace is divine.
When I say the 'mud of life', I am not condemning life; I am simply saying that life contains lotuses in it. They have to be searched for, they have to be cultivated, they have to be helped, so that they can grow.
Don't accept the seed as the end. The seed has to be given to the soil; the seed has to disappear into the soil, and then a majestic tree arises out of it. Nobody could have imagined that that small seed had contained such a big tree -- a tree which will talk to the stars, which will have conferences with the clouds, a tree which will be a message from the earth to the sky. Nobody could have thought, imagined, dreamt that a small seed can contain such a beautiful phenomenon.
So is man a seed, a muddy phenomenon... not to be condemned, but to search for the lotus. And love helps you to grow, love helps to make you a lotus. Love is exactly the inner lotus, the opening of the heart; and with that opening there is great fragrance, great joy and great benediction.
[A sannyasin says: I see how difficult it is to surrender. When I listen to you it seems pretty easy, but... ]
It is! Surrender is the easiest thing in the world. If you cannot do surrender, you cannot do anything! In fact, surrender is not a doing at all; it is a non-doing. You don't do it, you simply relax into it. There is nothing like doing. What do you do when you go to sleep? You don't do anything; you simply relax into sleep. That's what surrender is: if you love me, you relax into me.
There is no effort needed. Effort means resistance, effort means you are fighting. Something in you is not ready, something in you wants to deny, something in you wants to say no -- and against that you are trying to say yes, hence the conflict -- otherwise, no effort is needed. Just see me and listen to me, watch me, just feel me and surrender will come on its own. One day you will suddenly find that you are no more; then it has a beauty. It is effortless.
But it is going to happen; maybe that is why you started feeling some negative space. Before surrender one has to go into many negative spaces. Many doubts arise, many dark nights of the soul have to be passed. Before one comes to the oasis it is a long desert. But when the darkness becomes too much, then know well that the morning is very close by, by the corner. The night is darkest before the dawn. Good!
[Another sannyasin says: It's always the same thing: I'm groping for a question and they're so short-lived; they don't survive the way to you!]
There is no need... there is no need! (laughter) No question is needed. To get my answer no question is needed. In fact you will get it only when there are no questions left.
... Nothing is there... nothing. All questions are momentary. Just watch and they will disappear -- and by watching, watching, one day you will come to a space where there is no question left. Then you will understand my answer, not before it.
If you are too much in your questions you will not understand the answer. When you are no more in questions you have the right vision, an unquestioning consciousness. Then there is no need even for me to say a single word. Without my saying anything, it will be heard by you. Without being given to you, you will get it.
This is very good; whatsoever is happening is the right thing. But I understand: so many people ask questions, so you become worried. You start thinking, 'So many people are asking questions and getting answers.' While they ask they will not get the answer! Answers are available only when questions have left yoU; they can't live together. So this is paradoxical but this is how it happens: those who have never asked, will receive sooner.
Just keep a little patience! Good.