Now is the Season to Explode The Shadow Of The Whip #17

[The Sajah -- spontaneity -- group is at darshan. The group leader said it was a very exciting group with a tremendous amount of life energy. However, one woman who seemed to have a breakthrough, left the group.]

Sometimes some people leave. If they feel like leaving that is their spontaneity, so let them leave. Nothing to worry about. We are not to force anybody -- that is their choice, mm? And when somebody leaves, help him not to feel guilty about it -- that is to be remembered. Don't feel it as a rejection -- that he has rejected the group or the group process; no don't take it that way.

This is how it evolved in his or her being -- to leave. So if it has come into somebody's mind to leave, then that is the spontaneous thing to do. Then forcing him or her to be in the group will be against the group, against the very philosophy of the group. Even if the person forces himself to be there and you come to know, just tell him not to force, because that is against the whole process. The process is to float... and who knows? Surprises will be there! Sometimes somebody comes floating to a point. where he simply jumps out of the river. That's how it happens to him -- so say good-bye! But don't make it in any way be felt as a rejection of the group -- because if you feel that it is a rejection of the group, then knowingly, unknowingly, you will create a guilt feeling in the person who has left. He will start feeling that he has done something wrong, that he should not have done it. No.

One thing has to be absolutely clear about my work: I don't want anybody to feel guilty about anything. I want humanity to be completely free from guilt. Now all the religions of the world have done just the opposite: they have made people feel very very guilty. They have made all people feel like sinners. That's why the world is so miserable. The ceremony has lost its music, its dance. Everybody is so sad and the whole thing has become ugly because everybody is so guilty. If you eat this, you are guilty; if you drink that, you are guilty. If you make love to this woman, you are guilty. If you have some revolutionary ideas, you are guilty. If you have some eccentric sexuality, you are guilty... a thousand and one traps to make you guilty!

Unless you completely deaden yourself you cannot be respected. So the society respects only the dead people, and the alive people are all guilty and sinners.

My whole approach is just the contrary, the diametrically opposite -- I would like you to feel happy. Whatsoever you do, you are accepted. The way you want to do it is good for you -- good that for three days, four days, you were with the group. We are happy that for four days we continued to be together.

When next time somebody leaves, give him a good farewell so that he leaves without any guilt. And it the person leaves without any guilt, your group has worked tremendously for him. If he comes next time to do the group, he will not come out of guilt. He will come out of a feeling that this is the group where hc belongs, that this group has to be completed not out of guilt that he has done anything wrong, but out of a feeling that he has missed something.

The original meaning of the word sin is 'missing the mark'. It is tremendously beautiful. It has lost its original meaning. A sinner is one who missed the mark -- nothing else!

So next time when somebody leaves, give him a good farewell. Let him leave with good feelings that he has left a beautiful group, a friendly one behind -- and a great desire arises in him or her to come back next time.

The group worked well. That was my feeling about it -- that it should become very very spontaneous. That's why I have given the name Sahaj; it means spontaneity, natural; whatsoever is, is good and we accept it totally.

It will go on changing because a spontaneous group will change every time. It will bring many surprises to you too. You will never be fed up with it, because if it is structured, participants change but the leader remains the same, and every time he is repeating the same. But that will not happen in your group. It will be as new to you as it will be to the participants.

In fact the group has no leader really -- you are just a coordinator, just to be there to help, that's all... a midwife.

And that is the real function of a leader -- to be a midwife. If something is being born, you help. You cannot produce the child and you are not supposed to make a pregnancy. If somebody is carrying a pregnancy, you help. You just facilitate the process, and whatsoever is.... You are not worried whether a girl is born or a boy, or a fool or a wise man; you are not worried about it. That's not the point -- you simply help.

And each time there will be different things, because different people will be coming with different pregnancies. It is going to be a continuous surprise, and it will remain very very alive.

[A group member says: I often feel totally restless -- wanting to go somewhere and not knowing where to go.]

And what are you doing for twenty-four hours? I think you need a little more creativity, more action. It is just energy -- nothing else -- and energy needs work.

This is how man makes problems. When a child is a child he hankers to be a young man because he looks all around -- older people are so powerful, and doing many things which he would also like to do. He wants to grow up fast -- as fast as possible. In fact he prays to God, 'By the morning make me bigger, stronger.' When one is young this problem arises -- so much energy, what to do? It constantly goes on driving you mad: do something!

One does not know what to do and where to go and anywhere you go it makes no difference -- it is there again. So young people go on moving from one town to another, from one country to another, from one guru to another.... Again they become restless. They are constantly on the move. The young energy is a vagabond... it is vagrant. Then it creates problems. One becomes so anxious with energy. And then there is old age.

Old people come to me and they say, 'We cannot meditate. We would like to, but the energy is not there. We would like to dance like these young people -- we cannot.' So it seems that whatsoever happens, there are problems.

A wise person is one who uses all the situations of life. When he is a child he enjoys childhood. He does not bother a bit for growing up soon or anything -- he does not think about it. When he is a child, he is a child. He enjoys that innocent, irresponsible state of mind. When he is a young man he becomes creative. He does not go rushing from one place to another; rather he starts using the energy to move from one space to another space -- the journey becomes inner. And you have a thousand and one spaces yet unexplored.

So it is pointless to go to Kathmandu and to Goa and to Kabul -- it is meaningless. There are Kathmandus within you and Goas within you and vast tremendous beautiful beaches of being -- you need to go there.

So when a person is wise and young, he uses, rides on the waves... dances, laughs, lives, loves, and does not make any problem out of it. When he is old, he uses that too; when the energy is gone he can sit silently. Now he can follow the zen maxim: sitting silently, doing nothing, and the grass grows by itself.

This is how a wise man should be -- using all opportunities as they come. And each opportunity has its own beauty and it opens its own door.

So right now dance, sing, love -- use your energy! Invest it in inner exploration -- paint, make poems, write a novel. This is the time when one needs to do many many things, because once energy is gone if you have not done many, many things, you will repent -- but then it will be too late. So use this time to do a thousand and one Things. Enjoy doing them and then the restlessness will disappear.

This is how I have lived. When I was a child I was never worried about growing up. Why? Why should one? Then I lived like a whirlwind.

Somebody, a young man, asked Confucius, 'How to be silent?' Confucius looked at him and he said, 'Have you gone mad? When you die you will rest in your grave -- then you will be silent! What is the hurry? Right now enjoy! Right now don't be worried about silence. Everybody is to die, that much is certain. Then in your grave there will be eternal silence -- you enjoy it then!'

Confucius is right. This is no time to become grave-like. This is time to flower! This is the season to explode! If you are not exploding, there will be trouble, mm? It is just like a tree which is somehow hoarding its flowers and fruits inside it, and does not allow them out. It will go mad! Sooner or later the tree will be on the psychiatrist's couch, going through psychoanalysis. But trees don't do that -- they are not that foolish.

When it is time, they flower. When it is time, many fruits come. They become so heavy with fruit that their branches start touching the earth. When it is time to drop the fruits, they drop. When it is time to drop the leaves, the leaves drop and they stand naked against the sky. When it is time to die, they die silently. They live each moment as it comes.

This is my essential teaching: live each moment as it comes. You have energy -- be creative, mm?

[Another group member says: The fourth day leader had been saying to everybody to go crazy, and at the first moment a fear came into me -- like being oppressed by violence... going into a space where I didn't feel like going. Then the group entirely focused on me saying, 'Get angry! Get angry!' And they started slapping me and fighting me.... And I didn't know how to cope with this violence... So how to cope with the aggression? -- because I didn't feel any anger against anybody or anything to get into stuff like that. The first three and a half days were really spontaneous, and then after these days, this fear.]

Mm mm. In such a situation you should listen to your own spontaneity, and then you would have enjoyed the last days tremendously. They were hitting you -- let them hit -- but you didn't feel anger, so what could you do? If you didn't feel, you didn't.

There is no need to create a feeling. Nobody has ever been able to create a feeling. You can pretend, you can act, but how can you feel? If you are not feeling, you are not feeling.

So this was a good opportunity -- that they are slapping your face, and hitting and saying things and provoking you, and you were just sitting there. This was your craziness!

Just sitting there... Buddha-like. And sooner or later they would have felt that they were crazy and what were they doing to this poor man? He is simply sitting there looking at the whole scene, enjoying it or smiling.

They could have killed you -- and even if they kill, what is wrong in it? (Osho chuckles. ..laughter) I don't see the point -- what is wrong? One day you will die... and you will not find such a beautiful group to die in! (laughter) You missed an opportunity!

Next time it happens, just listen to your spontaneity. This may be their spontaneity -- and of course when somebody is hitting you and you don't get angry, he becomes more angry because this man is defeating him. So that is his problem. If you could have watched, it would have given you such a great insight into your being and such a transcendence. All this craziness around you and you were sitting there.
This is what is happening to me! (laughter) What else can I do?

But it happens the first time. In the next group you look at it again. Otherwise some time repeat Sahaj. And just let them. What are they doing? What can they do? At the most they can kill, that's all. Once you accept the worst, then there is no problem. You should have lain down there amidst them and let those crazy people do what they were doing -- shouting and screaming -- and they would have worshipped you finally! They would have touched your feet! (laughter) You would have simply attained! You would have become enlightened or something! This is how enlightenment happens! (chuckling... laughter)