Bondage

Is the desire to stay near you, not going away, also a bondage?

It depends, because bondage is never in a situation, it is in the attitude. If you want to go away and cannot, then it is a bondage. If you don't want to go away, the question doesn't arise. The reverse is also true: you want to be here near me and you cannot, then going away is also a bondage. If you want to be near me and you can be easily, there is no problem; the question doesn't arise. Bondage or freedom are attitudes. They are not in situations. Do you follow me? If you want to be near me and some inner obsession goes on forcing, "Go away! Don't be here," you would like to be here but some demon inside goes on forcing, "Go away!" -- that's a bondage, going away is a bondage. If you want to go away and some fear within you goes on…

Would you say that we keep binding ourselves in more and more bondage?

We look at even the small daily experiences of life through the veil of memory. Therefore the direct impact, the direct contact of life does not happen to us—nor with experiences, nor with words, nor with persons. What I am saying is only this much: there will be modifications in memory; they will happen by themselves. You do not have to do them. Your experience will come and get joined in memory and will go on modifying it. You do not have to do anything to it; if you try, you will create trouble. If you do not, it will happen quietly. You eat food; you do not then digest it. It digests. If you try to digest, you will fall ill. You take the food; it goes down to the throat—after that you have no role. It digests and becomes blood; you are not to make that happen. In…

Osho, it is asked: if a person’s karmic life is bound by the fruits of deeds across many lifetimes, then what is within a person’s control in this very birth? If we are governed by the past—past lives, past actions, and the samskaras formed by all that has been done—then what can we do now?

This is very rightly asked. If it is true that man is completely bound by his past actions, then what remains in his hands to do in the present? And if it is true that man is not bound at all by past actions, then what is the point of doing anything? Because if he is not bound by past actions, then whatever he does now will not bind him tomorrow. So if he does something auspicious today, there should be no possibility of receiving auspicious results tomorrow. If one is fully bound by past actions, then there is no meaning in doing, because one cannot do anything—he is totally bound. And if one is completely free, again there is no meaning in doing, because he will do it and tomorrow he will be free of it; what he has done will not remain with him. Therefore man is neither…

Questioner: krishna says a man of wisdom, who gives up attachment to the fruit of action, is released from the bondage of birth and death and becomes one with the ultimate. How is it that krishna believes that life is a bondage? You don't believe so, you say this very life is freedom, this very world the nirvana. Please explain.

Mohammed answers, "Looking at your face tonight I can see you are not calm and peaceful as you always are. For sure there is some money in the house. Those who are worried become acquisitive and acquisitive people become worried. It is a vicious circle, So take out what you have saved and distribute it so that I can die in peace. Remember, this is my last night. I don't want to spoil it and appear before God with a guilty conscience." His wife hurriedly takes out the five dinars from under her pillow, and says to Mohammed, "But there is no one out there to receive this money, it is midnight." Mohammed says, "Just call out and someone will come." And someone, a beggar really appears at the door. Mohammed says to his wife, "Just see, if someone comes to take in the dead of night, someone else can…