Unknowable

Osho, why should one try to know the unknowable?

Yes! You ask why anyone would want to know the unknown, the unknowable, the Unknowable. Why would anyone want to know the unknowable? The very moment we ask, “Why should one want to know?” we reveal that the Why is already within us—and it makes us restless. That very Why unsettles us. We cannot simply accept, without question, that the unknowable should be known. The mind asks, “Why?” The mind also asks, “Why is there the unknowable? What is it? Why is it? Why is there anything at all? And why do I want to know it?” If we look very closely and ask, “Why do we want to know the unknowable?”—that too becomes an attempt to know the unknowable. Because it is itself utterly unknowable why I want to know. My point is: what we call the human spirit, the very soul of man, is this longing to know…

Beloved Osho, out on the sparkling seas of oneness, a mysterious wind fills my sails, giving direction to my journey and beckoning me onwards into unknown waters. My beloved captain, when does the unknown become the unknowable?

Milarepa, your question is very simple. The mind can be divided into two parts: the known and the unknown. The known is your knowledge; the unknown is your ignorance. And all your universities and educational systems are trying to do only one thing: to put your mind completely in the field of the known, to dispel the unknown, to dispel ignorance. Beyond the known and the unknown is what I call `the unknowable'. That is beyond mind. That is the world of the mysterious, the world of the miraculous. The moment you pass beyond mind, the unknown is left behind, the known is left behind, and you enter into the unknowable. And the unknowable is the field of true religion. You experience it, you live it, you feel it, it becomes your heartbeat, but you can never say you know it. Knowledge seems to be a much lower category. The…

Remember: the unknowable. Science only believes in two things -- the known and the unknown; it does not believe in the unknowable. That's the difference between science and religion. Science says the existence can be divided into two parts -- the known and the unknown. The unknown is that which we will know some day. It has no intrinsic quality of remaining unknown forever -- it is just uncharted, but we will chart it. All that has become known was unknown one day; it has become known. All that is unknown today will become known tomorrow... or some day! it is potentially capable of being known. Religion says there are three things: the known, the unknown... and up to this point religion agrees with science, there is no disagreement. But religion says there is something more too: that is the unknowable, which cannot be known ever, which will remain mysterious.

Question: IN THIS SEVENTH STAGE, THE STATE OF VIDEHAMUKTI, LIBERATION WHILE LIVING IN THE BODY IS ACHIEVED. THIS STAGE IS TOTALLY SILENT AND CANNOT BE COMMUNICATED IN WORDS. IT IS THE END OF ALL STAGES, WHERE ALL THE PROCESSES OF YOGA COME TO THEIR CONCLUSION. IN THIS STAGE, ALL ACTIVITIES -- WORLDLY, BODILY AND SCRIPTURAL -- CEASE. THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IN THE FORM OF THE WORLD -- VISWA, INTELLIGENCE -- PRAJNA, AND RADIANCE -- TEJAS, IS JUST AUM. THERE IS NO DIVISION HERE BETWEEN SPEECH AND THE SPEAKER. IF HOWEVER ANY SUCH DIVISION REMAINS, THE STATE HAS NOT BEEN ATTAINED. THE FIRST SOUND 'A' OF AUM, STANDS FOR THE WORLD, THE SECOND 'U' FOR RADIANCE AND THE THIRD 'M' FOR INTELLIGENCE. BEFORE ENTERING SAMADHI, THE SEEKER SHOULD CONTEMPLATE ON AUM MOST STRENUOUSLY, AND SUBSEQUENTLY HE SHOULD SURRENDER EVERYTHING, FROM GROSS TO SUBTLE TO THE CONSCIOUS SELF.