Gorakh Nath

What is gorakh nath's fundamental teaching?

It is short, very brief: <q>LAUGH, PLAY, MAKE MERRY, NEITHER LUST NOR ANGER REMAIN, LAUGH PLAY, SINGING A SONG, KEEP CONSCIOUSNESS WELL CENTERED.</q> This is my teaching also. LAUGH, PLAY, MAKE MERRY... Be merry! In ecstasy, in joy, in bliss. God has given so much: dance, hum a tune, sing! A song of thanksgiving wants to rise from your heart. This is prayer. <q>LAUGH, PLAY, MAKE MERRY... Laugh. If you cannot laugh then know that you can never become religious.</q> Your so-called religious people have completely forgotten laughter. They cannot laugh, laughing is a fault, a sin. This is why you cannot remain very long with your priests. Just go, quickly touch their feet, salute them and leave. You will find difficulty in staying twenty-four hours. Your own laughter will be taken away. People become serious going to the priests. People go to the sadhus and become stiff -- become…

Question: Third question: Osho, why is Gorakhnath against pandits? This is the language of experience. A well-read parrot cannot speak like this. The well-read parrot begins to whimper; he forgets the name of Ram and starts praising the cat—“Mother, spare me! I made a mistake. From today I’ll worship and pray only to you—why was I lost in Ram-ram!” Gorakh says: The one who merely mouths doctrine, call him a student; the one who reads the Vedas is but a grandson. The one who lives the way is our master; we are companions of the one who lives. The one who only repeats hearsay is a student; not a knower—at best a student: all right, he is studying. And even this—only if what he repeats has been heard from a living master—then he is a disciple; that is his status.

Question: NEITHER ISNESS NOR NO-ISNESS, NEITHER EMPTINESS NOR FULLNESS, SO UNFATHOMABLE, BEYOND THE SENSES. WITHIN THE CROWN OF THE HEAD A CHILD SPEAKS, HOW SHALL HE BE NAMED? LAUGHING, PLAYING, THE KNACK OF MEDITATION, DAY AND NIGHT SHARING DIVINE KNOWLEDGE. HE LAUGHS, PLAYS, KEEPS MIND UNTROUBLED SUCH UNWAVERING ONE IS ALWAYS WITH GOD. DAY AND NIGHT DISSOLVING MIND IN NO-MIND, DROPPING FATHOMABLE TALKING THE UNFATHOMABLE. DROPPING HOPE REMAINING HOPELESS: BRAHMA THE CREATOR SAYS, "I AM YOUR SERVANT." WHAT FLOWS DOWN, HE CHANNELS UP, A YOGI BURNS UP HIS SEX. HE RELEASES HIS EMBRACE, SHATTERS ILLUSION: VISHNU THE SUSTAINER WASHES HIS FEET. DIE, O YOGI, DIE! DIE, SWEET IS DYING. DIE THAT DEATH GORAKH DIED AND SAW. You have become miserable. Now you understand only the language of misery, you recognize only misery. You have become so skilled at misery that you are able to relate only with the miserable.

Drop the embrace of the outer, cut the web of Maya. Drop attachment, infatuation, greed slowly. For that which you hold outside—death will snatch it. If you drop it before death snatches it, then there is a great reward—you are blessed. For the one who drops before death comes—then death does not come to him. For nothing remains with him that death can snatch. He has dropped it himself. This alone is sannyas. And dropping does not mean running away. The one who runs away—he is still clinging. That is why he runs away—otherwise why would he run? If someone leaves his wife and runs to the forest—it means he is clinging to his wife. Otherwise what is the fear, what the anxiety? I tell my sannyasins: Wherever you are, you can drop. Running is a delusion. Running away is cowardice. Dropping happens not by running—it happens by awakening.