Cosmic Consciousness

Beloved Osho, can a person who has cosmic consciousness really enjoy pleasures or does he just act as though doing so?

Only a person who has cosmic consciousness can really enjoy. Only he can enjoy the ultimate bliss. Only he enjoys -- the rest of the people are under the false notion of enjoying. They are carrying false coins; actually, they are suffering. Your happiness and pleasures are nothing but the misery and agony which you have experienced. You say and you think that you are experiencing happiness, but in reality you are experiencing misery. Only the enlightened one enjoys. Ten tyakten bhunjithan -- those who renounced, only they enjoyed. He enjoys the divine. You are enjoying trivia, and the so-called enjoyment of the trivial is causing you great misery. One day a man came and put a lot of money at Ramakrishna's feet. Ramakrishna said, "Please take it away." That man said, "This is another proof of your being a great renouncer." Ramakrishna said, "You are a great renouncer, not…

It is one thing to realize cosmic consciousness on earth, and transcend body. But how do realized ones know for sure that this consciousness is eternal and will remain after the death of the body?

The first thing is they don't bother about it. They are not worried about whether it will remain or not. It is you who are worried. They don't think of the next moment. The next life is just irrelevant; even the next day, the next moment, is not a point of concern. It is you who always ask about something in the future, something of the future. Why? Because your present is just empty, your present is just nothing, your present is just rotten, your present is such a suffering that you can tolerate it only if you go on thinking of the future and the paradise and the life ahead. Just here now there is no life so you pitch your mind into the future just to escape from the present, the ugly present. One who is realized is here and now, totally alive. All that can happen has…

Osho, can one who revels in Brahman truly be engrossed in enjoyment, or is he merely acting?

Only one who revels in Brahman is truly engrossed in enjoyment. He alone partakes of the supreme bliss. He enjoys; the rest are merely under the illusion that they are enjoying. The rest are carrying counterfeit coins; in the name of enjoyment they are suffering. If your enjoyment were to be summed up in a single word, it would be: suffering. That is what you have tasted—what else have you tasted? You say you are enjoying happiness; in fact, you enjoy suffering. Only the knower of Brahman truly enjoys. Tena tyaktena bhunjīthāḥ! Those who have renounced are the ones who have enjoyed. He enjoys the Divine. You are enjoying the trivial, and by consuming the trivial you reap great sorrow. One day a man came to Ramakrishna and placed a heap of money at his feet. Ramakrishna said, “Take it back, brother.” The man said, “You are a great renunciate—here…

Osho, you support the Upanishadic utterance “tena tyaktena bhunjīthāh”—first enjoyment, then renunciation. If one has to renounce anyway, why enjoy? Why bring in enjoyment at all?

But if you get hasty, half-baked, and say, “If one has to renounce, why enjoy?”—then how did it occur to you that you “have to” renounce? The thorn has not pricked you, so why think of removing it? You must have heard the words of one whose foot was pierced by a thorn—one who knew the pain, removed it, and knew the relief—some awakened one. You heard a Paltu, a Kabir, a Nanak, and borrowed their words. The thorn had pricked them, so there was pain; they removed it and found ease. You have not been pricked and you begin to remove a thorn that is not there—what will you remove? You will deceive yourself that there must be a thorn! A sick man takes medicine and becomes well; you, hearing of a sick man’s recovery, buy the medicine—being healthy, you will become ill. And this is what happened here.…