Caste

Osho, this year the census is being conducted, and it requires a mandatory declaration of caste and religion. Since your sannyasins do not acknowledge any so-called conventional caste or religion, what should they tell the census officer?

Aroopananda! Have you forgotten so soon? Only yesterday I said— Our caste is Brahman; our mother and father are Ram. Our home is in shunya; in anahad we repose. What more do you need? For parents, write Ram; for caste, Brahman; for religion, Shunya; and for language, Anahad. Our caste is Brahman; our mother and father are Ram. Our home is in shunya; in anahad we repose.

A friend has asked: Osho, why should we think about death at all? We have life—let us live it. Be in what is present. Why allow the thought of death to come in between?

Just as there can be fear of sleep. Sleep is, in a way, a daily death. The day is life; the night is death. It is a piecemeal death. Every day we die a little, we sink within; in the morning we return fresh again. Then after seventy or eighty years the whole body gets tired—work, work, work—the body wears out. Then full death takes hold; the entire body changes. But we are very afraid of that. It is a deep sleep. Yet we are very afraid of it. Have you noticed that the body changes every morning too? It changes a little, which is why you don’t notice. It does not change completely; there is a partial transformation. When you go to sleep in the evening, your body is in one condition; when you wake in the morning, your body is in another. By morning the body has become…

Osho, the second part of the question is: moved by Krishna’s stream of life, into what dimensions of living might human civilization and culture enter? Please outline it briefly and clearly.

For this one would have to speak at great length. In fact, that is what we have been doing all these days. Two–three words can be said. Through Krishna’s understanding, human civilization will become effortless and natural; it will become moment-to-moment; it will be devoted to joy; it will no longer be sorrow-centered, time-centered, negation-centered, renunciation-centered. Life will be recognized, graciously, as a benediction. And there will be no division between life and God: life itself is God. That dignity will, little by little, grow. There is no God sitting somewhere opposed to life—life itself is God. There isn’t some creator sitting apart from creation; the very process of creation, the energy of creation—creativity itself—is the Divine. If you keep in mind all that I have been saying in the meantime, the last point I have just made will become clear. In these days I said many things to you;…

Osho, I am a Brahmin, and perhaps that very identity is becoming a barrier to surrender. I am not accustomed to bowing, and now even when I wish to, the old habit obstructs me. Please help.

So being a Brahmin is not something bad. It is good fortune—you were born in a house where there was talk of God; even if only in words, there was some hint of the divine, a far-off echo of God’s voice. There was the hum of the rishis, the Vedas and Upanishads. It has become very old, covered in dust, but behind it truth still lies. However deep the embers lie under ash, they are not extinguished. Even if only the ash is being worshiped, remove a little and you will find the coal aglow. Consider it a blessing. When I say consider it a blessing, do not misunderstand me. Do not think I imply that one born in a Shudra’s house is not blessed. I say to him as well: you too are blessed—blessed that you escaped the pundits’ nuisance, escaped the nets of doctrines and scriptures; you are…