Spirituality

A friend has asked: Osho, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa walked many different paths and affirmed one destination and one truth. But once he had become accomplished in a practice, how did he start another practice again from A, B, C? After attaining knowledge, did he become ignorant again and then begin anew on a fresh path?

This needs a little understanding. After the ultimate knowing, no one can return. There is no way back—because the destination and the traveler have become one. When the destination and the traveler are one, who would return, and how? But before the ultimate knowing—just before arriving at the destination—one last step remains. We call that knowing. We call it the ultimate knowing when the destination and the traveler dissolve into one. The river has fallen into the ocean; now it cannot return. But a river that has reached the shore and is poised there can still fall into the ocean—or it can turn back. That is the moment of knowing: the seeker has arrived at the very door of fulfillment. From there the whole spread of the ocean is visible. And yet a small distance remains. The seeker has not yet become the siddha. He has come very close—almost equal…

Osho, you have often described mind as a collection of past experiences and memories which are all dead. Even its apparent vitality is not its own; it is supplied from the source of the being. Last night you said that mind was the only thing which one can offer to god. But is it worth offering?

Even an Indra is not without desires. Deities may be living m heaven, but they are with desires. So with Buddha and Mahavir, human dignity was raised to its ultimate. If you can become desireless then everything will worship you, because the desireless consciousness is one with That. That contentless mind is not only worth offering: the Divine needs it, the Divine waits for it. When a child returns Enlightened, the father is enriched, the home is enriched. Really, when a child returns Enlightened, when the father sees his child Enlightened, the father cannot be the same. So when a Buddha flowers, the whole universe flowers with him. He shows the potentiality, the peak possibility. Now you may not attain it, but you may rest assured that you can attain it. The whole universe becomes confident with a Buddha happening. The whole universe becomes a promise, a certainty. The same…

Osho, in yesterday’s talk you said that a seeker should first be concerned with becoming a vessel, and should not go about begging from place to place. But the very meaning of a seeker is that he has obstacles in practice. He doesn’t know how to become a vessel, how to prepare. So if he does not go asking, what should he do? How difficult it is to meet the right guide!

But searching and begging are two different things. In fact, the one who does not want to search is the one who begs. Searching and begging are not the same; they are opposites. He who wants to avoid searching begs; a seeker never begs. And the processes of searching and begging are entirely different. In begging you have to keep your attention on the other—the one who will give. In searching you have to keep your attention on yourself—the one who is to receive. It is true that there are obstacles on the path of the seeker. But if we understand rightly, saying there are obstacles on the path of the seeker means the obstacles are within the seeker; the path too is within. And to understand one’s obstacles is not very difficult. So we will have to speak a little more extensively on what the obstacles are and how…

Sadaamanskam arghyam mind constantly arrowed towards that is arghyam -- the offering.

The same life denying attitude is of Christianity also: "Life is sin and man is born in sin." History begins in sin. Adam has been expelled from heaven because he has sinned. He has disobeyed, and now we are born out of the sin. That's why Christians have been insisting that Jesus was not born out of sex, that he was born out of a virgin girl: because if you are born out of sex you are born out of sin, and at least Jesus must not be born out of sin. So everyone is born in sin; mankind lives in sin. So a deep renunciation is needed to reach the Divine. Christianity is also death-oriented. That's why the cross became so meaningful. Otherwise, the cross should not be so meaningful. It is a symbol of death. Hindus cannot conceive how the cross can become a symbol, and even Jesus…