Craving

Therefore, Krishnanand, your question is important. You ask: “Osho, the path to be free of craving?”

It is hidden within craving itself. Look at craving, understand it, recognize it. There is no path outside of craving. And because outer paths have been prescribed, even greater confusion has arisen. You ask for a path to go beyond craving; someone says, “Chant Ram-Ram.” Now you’re trapped—trapped in a new craving. They’ve handed you a new bucket—again without a bottom. True, it’s a new model, straight from the factory, fresh and shiny—but it’s the same old thing! Now you’re chanting Ram-Ram. If someone asks why, you’ll say, “So that I can be free of craving.” Hasn’t craving simply put on a new dress? It’s the same craving—arrived in a new outfit. Earlier you were chasing wealth, thinking, “If I get money, happiness will come.” Now you think, “If I chant Ram-Ram and get free of craving, happiness will come.” The race is the same—the same pursuit of happiness. No;…

Osho, if dharma is pure law, the great law, then craving too is according to the law; it is not a human creation. And if it is lawful, craving should also be of use. Then why is it called nothing but suffering?

That is why Buddha says: suffering, only suffering. Not because Buddha wants to condemn lust. Why would Buddha condemn? Buddha does not know how to condemn. Buddha simply declares the fact. “The beloved did not come. The dispassionate one stayed awake all night, keeping a lamp lit. Maddened pain put up for auction, in the open market, all the dreams. On far, high mountains nameless doorways of the horizons kept opening. The ascetic body silently bore it all. The beloved did not come. The mirror of the lakes deepened. The sky stood there, dozing. The garden kept watching— again and again robbed— the earth’s caress for the flower. The wanderer-mind lived sorrow, it lived joy. The beloved did not come.” That which you seek does not appear. Sorrow is found, joy is found; what you seek is not found. “The wanderer-mind lived sorrow, it lived joy. The beloved did not…

Osho, you said that becoming attached to the outer form of the Master is also not right. But again and again a feeling arises in me that I don’t want knowledge or liberation; I just want to dissolve and become one with the Master. Is this also attachment?

It seems very difficult. You say, “We can understand not seeking wealth but seeking religion; not going to the shop but to the temple. But it makes no sense to go nowhere at all, to seek nothing at all.” But I tell you: the day you go nowhere, seek nothing, and begin to abide within yourself— Desire always carries you outward: sometimes left, sometimes right; sometimes north, sometimes east—it makes no difference; outward it goes. The day you go nowhere at all and remain and rejoice within yourself, that very day, that very day, liberation is found. That very day there is union with the Master; that very day the Divine is attained. Understand desire so that desire dissolves. I do not even tell you to “drop” desire, because even in dropping there is a danger: you will drop it only when some other desire has arisen in your mind.…

Osho, how to be free of the world? The world’s fetters are very strong.

A friend of mine became a sannyasin—of the old type. Whenever we meet he says, “I kicked away lakhs.” I asked him, “Years have passed—seems the kick didn’t land right; otherwise why does the memory still linger? If the kick landed, finished—why remember?” And there weren’t any lakhs anyway. I told him, “You yourself, in front of me, used to say how much you had. I know exactly how much you had in your post office savings book.” He looked a bit scared; two or three of his disciples were sitting there. “We’ll talk later,” he said. “Not later—now,” I said. There were no lakhs. He was a homeopathic doctor. Do homeopaths have lakhs? If one had lakhs, would he practice homeopathy! “You used to swat flies in your clinic; I never saw patients—only we friends came to chat. That was it! Tell the exact amount; I know it,” I…