Nansen

At the very core of our being there is nothing, just a pure emptiness. Because of this emptiness we are afraid to go in. Buddhas go on saying to people, "Go in." People hear them but nobody follows, people worship them but nobody follows. People say, "You must be right but our time has not come yet." The fundamental reason is that people are afraid of going in. Somehow unconsciously they feel that the experience is going to be too much, it may prove unbearable. And they are right: the experience is tremendous, it is unbearable. It kills you as you are and gives you a birth. A new being arrives, the old completely disappears. For the old it is really drastic, it is death. But the old is not worth keeping. It is ugly and it is the source of all kinds of miseries and nightmares.

September 28, 1970 was a memorable day. At Manali in the Himalayas, Osho initiated His first group of sannyasins. This event was followed by this special evening discourse, on the significance of Neo Sannyas. To me, sannyas does not mean renunciation; it means a journey to joy bliss. To me, sannyas is not any kind of negation; it is a positive attainment. But up to now, the world over, sannyas has been seen in a very negative sense, in the sense of giving up, of renouncing. I, for one, see sannyas as something positive and affirmative, something to be achieved, to be treasured. It is true that when someone carrying base stones as his treasure comes upon a set of precious stones, he immediately drops the baser ones from his hands. He drops the baser stones only to make room for the newfound precious stones. It is not renunciation.

The moment you are hundred per cent devoted A sudden flash of light And your life is transformed: You are no more the old one, The old one is gone and the new is born. And then only one knows what life is Then only one tastes the immortality of life The tremendous joy of it, The moment to moment ecstasy of it all. (To Masafumi) -- This is your name: Swami Anand Virago. Anand means bliss. Virago means non-attachment. For centuries it has been told That non-attachment brings bliss. My teaching is just the opposite; I say bliss brings non-attachment. The old teaching made non-attachment The basic phenomenon of a religious life, Hence it taught escapism, renunciation, Dropping out of life -- but it was all repressive. You can escape from the world But where will you escape from yourself?

Osho, sannyas was born in this land; it was granted the dignity of Gaurishankar (Everest). But today its honor has become merely superficial. Inside, the individual and society alike are afraid of it. Why have sannyas and the sannyasin lost their meaning? Please explain.

In my sannyas there is no prohibition—no “leave this, run from that.” Awakening is enough. Cowards run. Those who awaken remain where they are and are free there. My sannyas does not want to give you knowledge; it wants to give you meditation. Meditation means emptiness; it means: I do not know. Life is such an ultimate mystery that nothing definitive can be known about it. And I want to give sannyas a new posture—creativity. I will call him a sannyasin who sings a new song; who strikes a new music from the veena; who dances a new dance; who makes this world a little more beautiful, brings a little more blessedness to the earth. Then sannyas can regain its dignity. And I would have the sannyasin not imitate. Listen, understand, contemplate—but live from your own individuality. Therefore I give my sannyasins no codes of conduct—only processes to awaken the…