Alimony

Question: OSHO, WHAT IS WRONG WITH MARRIAGE? WHY DO YOU SPEAK ALWAYS AGAINST IT? Learn something from marriage. Marriage represents the whole world in a miniature form: it teaches you many things. It is only the mediocre ones who learn nothing. Otherwise it will teach you that you don't know what love is, that you don't know how to relate, that you don't know how to communicate, that you don't know how to commune, that you don't know how to live with another. It is a mirror: it shows your face to you in all its different aspects. And it is all needed for your maturity. But a person who remains clinging to it forever remains immature. One has to go beyond it too. Marriage basically means that you are not able yet to be alone; you need the other.

Osho, what is the definition of God?

Words are very small. If you say God is light, then what of darkness? The scriptures have said that God is light. Suppose we accept this as a definition—then what about darkness? Where will darkness go? Darkness is too; in fact it is far more than light. Light sometimes is and sometimes is not; darkness is always, eternal. Where will you place darkness? If you say God is light, darkness is left out. If you say God is darkness, then light is left out. If you say God is both darkness and light, a contradiction arises: they cannot be together. Try to have both darkness and light in the same room. If you bring in light, darkness disappears; if you preserve darkness, you cannot have light. Then how can both be together? That becomes an impossibility. So you cannot say “both” either. Then the fourth device is to say: it…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, IS THE CONCEPT OF SOULMATES MORE USEFUL THAN MARRIAGE? But in actual life, what we have been doing for centuries is asking the other to give; and the other is also asking you to give. And both are beggars, their bowls are empty; they don't have anything to give. It becomes a struggle, a warfare. You can change the concept from marriage to soulmates, but what about you? What about the people who will become soulmates? If they are the same people who were becoming a couple in a marriage, nothing will change. My suggestion is, neither marriage is needed nor soulmates are needed -- just friendliness is enough. You don't know anything about soul, how can you become a soulmate? If you can become just friendly with each other, that is more than can be expected from the present man.

Question: BELOVED OSHO, THEN ALMITRA SPOKE AGAIN AND SAID, AND WHAT OF MARRIAGE, MASTER? AND HE ANSWERED SAYING: YOU WERE BORN TOGETHER, AND TOGETHER YOU SHALL BE FOR EVERMORE. YOU SHALL BE TOGETHER WHEN THE WHITE WINGS OF DEATH SCATTER YOUR DAYS. AYE, YOU SHALL BE TOGETHER EVEN IN THE SILENT MEMORY OF GOD. BUT LET THERE BE SPACES IN YOUR TOGETHERNESS. AND LET THE WINDS OF HEAVENS DANCE BETWEEN YOU. LOVE ONE ANOTHER, BUT MAKE NOT A BOND OF LOVE: LET IT RATHER BE A MOVING SEA BETWEEN THE SHORES OF YOUR SOULS. FILL EACH OTHER'S CUP BUT DRINK NOT FROM ONE CUP. GIVE ONE ANOTHER OF YOUR BREAD BUT EAT NOT FROM THE SAME LOAF. SING AND DANCE TOGETHER AND BE JOYOUS, BUT LET EACH ONE OF YOU BE ALONE, EVEN AS THE STRINGS OF A LUTE ARE ALONE THOUGH THEY QUIVER WITH THE SAME MUSIC.