Non-Duality

Osho, just a small question. If truth is non-dual, then what is the point of calling apara and para different? And are apara and para interchangeable?

In the Vigyan Bhairava, Shiva tells Parvati: “Ask no more. The more will hinder. Let me tell you in little. In this Om—A-U-M—forget A, forget M; what remains in the middle—U—dive into that. Then I will be attained.” This is technique. If you can dive into U… If you utter U with force, you will feel the navel contract within. The more forcefully you intone U, the more pressure on the navel. And the navel is the root source of life-energy. One who can tap it rightly—Om is the hammer, the device to strike there. If one strikes rightly, the life-energy begins to rise; kundalini awakens; the journey upward begins. I have heard: In a small town a huge factory installed a new machine. For a month it ran well; then suddenly it stopped. No fault was found. The factory engineers tried and failed. A specialist was called from the…

O how may I ever express that secret word? O how can I say he is not like this, and he is like that? If I say that he is within me, the universe is ashamed. If I say that he is without me, it is falsehood. He makes the inner and the outer worlds to be indivisibly one; the conscious and the unconscious, both are his footstools. He is neither manifest nor hidden, he is neither revealed nor unrevealed: there are no words to tell that which he is.

II. 56. dariya ki lahar dariyao hai ji THE RIVER AND ITS WAVES ARE ONE SURF: WHERE IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE RIVER AND ITS WAVES? WHEN THE WAVE RISES, IT IS THE WATER; AND WHEN IT FALLS, IT IS THE SAME WATER AGAIN. TELL ME, SIR, WHERE IS THE DISTINCTION? BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN NAMED AS WAVE, SHALL IT NO LONGER BE CONSIDERED AS WATER? WITHIN THE ABSOLUTE, THE WORLDS ARE BEING TOLD LIKE BEADS. LOOK UPON THAT ROSARY WITH THE EYES OF WISDOM. THE TRUTH IS KNOWN AND YET NOT KNOWN -- known in a sense and not known in another -- known because we are part of it, but not known because we are not separate from it. To know something, the knower has to be separate; and yet again, to know something really, how can you know it if you are separate? This is the basic…

Osho, what truth is there in the statement that devotion is duality and knowledge is non-duality?

Not a grain of truth. And that statement belongs to the knowers. The jnanis have kept saying that bhakti is duality and jnana is non-duality. If you want to know about bhakti, ask the devotees. Asking the jnanis is asking in the wrong place. Devotees say: bhakti too is non-dual, and jnana too is non-dual. But bhakti is a non-duality full of juice; jnana is a dry non-duality. Bhakti is like a lush, green garden. And jnana is like a desert. The divine is in the desert too—no one denies it. And there are some who even find the desert beautiful; that too no one denies. To each his own! But greenery is something else entirely! Flowers bloom! There is the shade of trees! The music of waterfalls! The songs of birds! Greenery has a magic all its own! The desert is his too! The thorns are his! The flowers…

Osho, Shandilya says—love, devotion is Advaita (nonduality). Then what is it that has been said in the name of nonduality?

The devotee’s alchemy is wondrous. He says: there is no need to erase either. Let both join, embrace; let both hearts beat together. What place then for possession? Their heartbeats can be so in step that the One begins to be experienced between the two. Each one’s freedom remains untouched, and yet both unite in One—joined by a bridge. As two riverbanks are joined by a bridge, so true lovers remain two and yet are joined; remain separate and yet become one. Therefore devotion has variety; devotion has richness. A unity that survives by killing one is no great unity, for it is a unity afraid of the other. It could not exist in the other’s presence. The devotee says: the world is true, and God is true; the Creator is true, and His creation is true—both are true. This is what Shandilya said: do not call the world false.…