Sannyas is a disidentification with the past... a new beginning, a new being, a fresh breeze, a rebirth. All that is implied in giving you a new name. One name was given to you by your mother and father. Now I am giving you another name. That one name was given to you so you could function well in life. Without a name it would be very difficult to function. One needs a label, one needs some indentification, one needs some identity card. People need some name to call you by, to address you. They have given you one name for the world. I am giving you another name for God, not for the world.
God will also need a name so that He can call you, so He can provoke you, so that whenever He wants to say something it can be addressed to you. The sannyas name is simply a new address -- a new address fundamentally meant for God, for the whole existence. So this is a turning point.
You may not be even aware of what a great jump you are taking. By and by after you have taken it, you will become aware. There are many things that you know only when you have done them. In fact there is no other way to know them. Many people ask me, 'What is sannyas?' It is very difficult to say. It is something that has to be experienced. It is something that has to be tasted.
So you are moving in a new territory from this moment -- with a new name, with a new dress, with a new identity. And now you belong to me and you become part of me from this moment. It is a great responsibility too, because now whatsoever you do I will be associated with it. Good or bad -- whatsoever your action -- now my name will be associated with it. And I never give any discipline. I never say, 'Do this, do that.' I simply want you to be aware that now you have to be responsible. And then move in freedom.
By becoming a sannyasin you are changing your very way of life. Right now it will be just a small stream. Mm? It is just as a great river is born as a very small stream -- not even a stream but just a fountain. By and by it gathers more and more water and becomes a big river. Right this moment it is just drops. Soon you will become vast....
[A sannyasin says: I appreciated that you read my poetry. Is there anything that you want me to do?]
Much has to be done, and continue creating there whatsoever you feel like. One should always cultivate something that is purely for delight. Your profession is a need -- it has to be done. That may be a delight it may not be, but one has always to do something on the side which is sheer delight, for no financial reasons, for no economics, for no politics. You are just doing it for your own delight. Write poetry, paint, or whatsoever you feel like. And always remember that this will rejuvenate you. This will become your real recreation.
The world 'recreation' is very good -- it creates you. And unless it creates you, it is not a recreation. All entertainments are not recreations. Only that in which you are creatively involved is a recreation.
If you are just sitting there and somebody is dancing, that is not a recreation, maybe entertainment. You remain passive, you are not active. Recreation has to be very active -- you have to be involved. Dance, sing, or do whatsoever you feel like doing: gardening, cooking, anything.
It is not being done for any ulterior motive. It is not even done for someone to appreciate. If they appreciate, good. If they don't appreciate, good, because it is not meant for that.
There has been an indian saint, a great poet, who has written the story of Ram. It is a great epic, one of the greatest in the world -- 'Rama-charit-manas'. Somebody asked Tulsidas, 'Why have you written it -- because it must have taken years, it is such a long poem and so superb. Why have you written it? Why have you put so much energy into it? Your whole life into it?'
And Tulsidas said, 'Svantah Sukhaya': 'I have been singing this story of God just for my own delight. It is not meant for any-body. It was my delight.. .1 enjoyed it. The value is intrinsic -- it is an end unto itself.' That's what recreation is -- 'Svantah Sukha.' -- for one's own delight, and an end unto itself.
So whenever you are tired, whenever you are fed up with the world -- and many times one is fed up with the world, it is natural. The world is too heavy, too boring, too monotonous, too repeti-tive, too routine and trivial. So whenever you feel that, the best way is to do something creative and get involved in it. You will come out of it recreated, rejuvenated... again throbbing with energy. Even more than sleep, poetry can be recreative -- more so than sleep. Just five minutes concentrated creation of a poem can be more than eight hours sleep, can refresh you tremendously, because when you are totally involved in it, God starts functioning through you.
All creation is His -- we become only vehicles. So whenever there is some creation, it is always God's. The signature is His. We are just vehicles, passages. And when God flows through us, of course -- we are rejuvenated. Just His passing through us is enough. It is a magnetising force, again you are recharged. So allow God to pass through you in any form whatsoever.
And you are going to do much for me because you belong to me. By becoming a sannyasin you become pan of me. Now my work is your work. If you do something and if you succeed, you are not obliging anybody. You are simply obliging yourself because it is your work.
[Osho passed a small wooden box to the sannyasin, one of which He gives to sannyasins, as a reminder of Him.]
Keep this with you, and whenever you write your poetry or you do something creative, just keep it in your lap and it will remind you of me. It can bring you very close to me.
And every night when you go to sleep, put it under your pillow so I can go on haunting you (laughter). And if sometimes I come in the dark of the night, don't get scared!
[A visitor from Madagascar, Africa, came said, through a translator, he is a contractor and wants Osho's help so that he can make a lot of money for his family.]
(to the translator) Tomorrow morning before he leaves he should do at least one Dynamic meditation. Tell him to start doing it every day and within three months, things will start happening.
[A visitor says: I'm a B'hai.]
Be a B'hai. Nothing to be worried about...
Nothing is a problem. I give sannyas to all sorts of people -- no problems. It's perfectly good, I will not replace whatsoever you are -- I will simply strengthen it, because whatsoever I am doing here is for the essential religion. So whatsoever is essential, I am with it and for it, and that essential is in B'hai also. It is in Christianity, it is in Mohammedanism -- it is everywhere. Maybe much which is not essential has gathered around it -- I may hammer that -- but I am absolutely for everything. The non-essen-tial I may be against sometimes, and sometimes one may think that I go on shattering things, but those are just non-essential growths.
The essential is one -- only names differ. So B'hai is perfectly good. If this is hindering you, you are unnecessarily preventing yourself from some experience. And a B'hai should not be such a coward. A B'hai should be very ready to experiment, to explore new spaces. Fear is not of religion -- fear is political, organisational. Religion is just fearlessness. If you are a B'hai, sannyas is not going to take anything -- it will be a plus.
Of course much will change, because you may be a B'hai and you may not know at all what essential B'haism is, because if you have once seen the essential, you will laugh at the ridiculousness of religious people fighting, arguing with each other and trying to prove that they are right and others are wrong. It looks stupid, because the essential is one.
[The visitor takes sannyas]
Now you really become a B'hai!
And this will be your name: Swami Satyananda. Satya means truth, anand means bliss; bliss that comes by the experience of truth. And change to orange !
Osho's Commentary
God will also need a name so that He can call you, so He can provoke you, so that whenever He wants to say something it can be addressed to you. The sannyas name is simply a new address -- a new address fundamentally meant for God, for the whole existence. So this is a turning point.
You may not be even aware of what a great jump you are taking. By and by after you have taken it, you will become aware. There are many things that you know only when you have done them. In fact there is no other way to know them. Many people ask me, 'What is sannyas?' It is very difficult to say. It is something that has to be experienced. It is something that has to be tasted.
So you are moving in a new territory from this moment -- with a new name, with a new dress, with a new identity. And now you belong to me and you become part of me from this moment. It is a great responsibility too, because now whatsoever you do I will be associated with it. Good or bad -- whatsoever your action -- now my name will be associated with it. And I never give any discipline. I never say, 'Do this, do that.' I simply want you to be aware that now you have to be responsible. And then move in freedom.
By becoming a sannyasin you are changing your very way of life. Right now it will be just a small stream. Mm? It is just as a great river is born as a very small stream -- not even a stream but just a fountain. By and by it gathers more and more water and becomes a big river. Right this moment it is just drops. Soon you will become vast....
[A sannyasin says: I appreciated that you read my poetry. Is there anything that you want me to do?]
Much has to be done, and continue creating there whatsoever you feel like. One should always cultivate something that is purely for delight. Your profession is a need -- it has to be done. That may be a delight it may not be, but one has always to do something on the side which is sheer delight, for no financial reasons, for no economics, for no politics. You are just doing it for your own delight. Write poetry, paint, or whatsoever you feel like. And always remember that this will rejuvenate you. This will become your real recreation.
The world 'recreation' is very good -- it creates you. And unless it creates you, it is not a recreation. All entertainments are not recreations. Only that in which you are creatively involved is a recreation.
If you are just sitting there and somebody is dancing, that is not a recreation, maybe entertainment. You remain passive, you are not active. Recreation has to be very active -- you have to be involved. Dance, sing, or do whatsoever you feel like doing: gardening, cooking, anything.
It is not being done for any ulterior motive. It is not even done for someone to appreciate. If they appreciate, good. If they don't appreciate, good, because it is not meant for that.
There has been an indian saint, a great poet, who has written the story of Ram. It is a great epic, one of the greatest in the world -- 'Rama-charit-manas'. Somebody asked Tulsidas, 'Why have you written it -- because it must have taken years, it is such a long poem and so superb. Why have you written it? Why have you put so much energy into it? Your whole life into it?'
And Tulsidas said, 'Svantah Sukhaya': 'I have been singing this story of God just for my own delight. It is not meant for any-body. It was my delight.. .1 enjoyed it. The value is intrinsic -- it is an end unto itself.' That's what recreation is -- 'Svantah Sukha.' -- for one's own delight, and an end unto itself.
So whenever you are tired, whenever you are fed up with the world -- and many times one is fed up with the world, it is natural. The world is too heavy, too boring, too monotonous, too repeti-tive, too routine and trivial. So whenever you feel that, the best way is to do something creative and get involved in it. You will come out of it recreated, rejuvenated... again throbbing with energy. Even more than sleep, poetry can be recreative -- more so than sleep. Just five minutes concentrated creation of a poem can be more than eight hours sleep, can refresh you tremendously, because when you are totally involved in it, God starts functioning through you.
All creation is His -- we become only vehicles. So whenever there is some creation, it is always God's. The signature is His. We are just vehicles, passages. And when God flows through us, of course -- we are rejuvenated. Just His passing through us is enough. It is a magnetising force, again you are recharged. So allow God to pass through you in any form whatsoever.
And you are going to do much for me because you belong to me. By becoming a sannyasin you become pan of me. Now my work is your work. If you do something and if you succeed, you are not obliging anybody. You are simply obliging yourself because it is your work.
[Osho passed a small wooden box to the sannyasin, one of which He gives to sannyasins, as a reminder of Him.]
Keep this with you, and whenever you write your poetry or you do something creative, just keep it in your lap and it will remind you of me. It can bring you very close to me.
And every night when you go to sleep, put it under your pillow so I can go on haunting you (laughter). And if sometimes I come in the dark of the night, don't get scared!
[A visitor from Madagascar, Africa, came said, through a translator, he is a contractor and wants Osho's help so that he can make a lot of money for his family.]
(to the translator) Tomorrow morning before he leaves he should do at least one Dynamic meditation. Tell him to start doing it every day and within three months, things will start happening.
[A visitor says: I'm a B'hai.]
Be a B'hai. Nothing to be worried about...
Nothing is a problem. I give sannyas to all sorts of people -- no problems. It's perfectly good, I will not replace whatsoever you are -- I will simply strengthen it, because whatsoever I am doing here is for the essential religion. So whatsoever is essential, I am with it and for it, and that essential is in B'hai also. It is in Christianity, it is in Mohammedanism -- it is everywhere. Maybe much which is not essential has gathered around it -- I may hammer that -- but I am absolutely for everything. The non-essen-tial I may be against sometimes, and sometimes one may think that I go on shattering things, but those are just non-essential growths.
The essential is one -- only names differ. So B'hai is perfectly good. If this is hindering you, you are unnecessarily preventing yourself from some experience. And a B'hai should not be such a coward. A B'hai should be very ready to experiment, to explore new spaces. Fear is not of religion -- fear is political, organisational. Religion is just fearlessness. If you are a B'hai, sannyas is not going to take anything -- it will be a plus.
Of course much will change, because you may be a B'hai and you may not know at all what essential B'haism is, because if you have once seen the essential, you will laugh at the ridiculousness of religious people fighting, arguing with each other and trying to prove that they are right and others are wrong. It looks stupid, because the essential is one.
[The visitor takes sannyas]
Now you really become a B'hai!
And this will be your name: Swami Satyananda. Satya means truth, anand means bliss; bliss that comes by the experience of truth. And change to orange !