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Part VII : Darshans: intimate talks between Osho and his disciples
Osho holds darshans at 7pm each evening for 1-2 hours. During
darshan, Osho initiates new sannyasins from all over the world,
gives personal meditations, answers questions, advises on problems,
and checks people's energy. For the first time, Osho's intimate
talks with his disciples are published.*
*Note: the main accusation against so-called cults and sects,
is that they control, enslave, and exploit credulous young people,
divide families, kidnap children, etc. So this section of personal
guidance from Osho is given in some detail to show how, as a spiritual
master, Osho guides seekers who come to him.
Darshan: About Sannyas
The following is an example of Osho initiating a new sannyasin:
Come a little closer and close your eyes. You pray inside, and
if something happens in the body, allow it, whatsoever it is.
If any movement comes in the body, energy starts waving in the
body, or if you become like a small leaf in a strong wind, just
pray and allow it.
Osho writes her sannyas name carefully in the silence. He places
the mala around her neck, touches her third eye (between the eyebrows)
and shows her name-paper saying:
Now I am going to be with you. This will be your new name: Ma
Anand Tushita. Tushita means paradise and anand means bliss. wobble21
Sometimes Osho explains the significance of the new name to an
initiate:
Chidambara is one of the most beautiful names in India. It means
sky of consciousness, expansion of consciousness. So get in tune
with this new name. It will mean the sky of love and consciousness.
That is the goal of the whole of humanity and they both come together.
When you love, you become more conscious. If you become more conscious,
you love more. Love is the only religion… cypres06
I insist for sannyas, because after someone has taken sannyas
he is showing a great gesture of affirmation, of surrender, of
yea-saying, of receptivity. By the very gesture of sannyas he
has become different. The same person will take things in a totally
different perspective now. He will be less resistant, more cooperative,
and he will feel more responsibility. So it is going to be different.
And then it becomes a family. If these twenty or thirty people
(indicating the group before him) come in a group, just separately,
then they are seeking their own ends and the group is just like
a crowd waiting at the airport for a plane to arrive. There are
thirty people sitting together but there is no inter-connecting
link. They are all separate and it is just a jumbled-up crowd.
But when everybody is a sannyasin they are not a crowd, they
are a group. That is the difference between a crowd and a group.
A group is where each individual is related to the other in some
way or other—a river flows there and you are all in the
same boat. You are not seeking your goal, and the other is not
seeking his—you are all seeking a common goal. It is not
competitive, it is cooperative.
There is a vast difference—a family feeling of belonging
to one goal; that you have a certain identity. It becomes a family,
a community. A community or a family functions differently. The
energy is multiplied and each person's change will affect all.
If one changes in a crowd, then only one changes. A crowd remains
aloof, because each is an island in himself, not related to anybody
else. In a family—and sannyas is a family—one changes,
one goes higher, and he is related to others, so others are pulled
up. It is an unknown force. By and by you will start feeling that
when one member changes, everybody goes higher; everybody has
become more confident, less resistant. One person's realisation
of any insight is shared. It is a very unconscious process, but
by and by, working with people you will become aware.
I have been talking to many types of gatherings. I have talked
to crowds where each person is listening to me but there is no
inter-relationship between the people. So it is as if I am talking
to one person. There may be ten thousand people sitting there
but I am talking to one person, because each person is one; there
is no inter-link. That gave me the idea that this wouldn't do.
Then I started creating a family. Now, when I talk to you, it
is not that I am talking to one person; I am talking to a family.
And I can see—it is so visible—that one person starts
feeling high and suddenly the whole group feels the vibrations.
One person starts smiling and suddenly the smile spreads; its
ripples reach everybody. I can see that if there is someone sitting
there who is not a sannyasin he becomes like an obstacle; the
flow stops there. He is not part of the whole.
So this is going to be totally different. And these are the
implications of sannyas, but one only becomes aware by and by.
hammer11
My whole approach is to help you to be yourself. By becoming a
sannyasin you are not becoming a follower, but a friend. You are
not becoming dependent on me; on the contrary, I will destroy
all kinds of dependencies in you. If there is anything worth giving
as a gift, it is freedom. By initiating you into sannyas I am
initiating you into total freedom. That's the very taste of sannyas:
freedom. The very texture of sannyas: freedom. upset16
A sannyasin asks Osho: Why am I wearing an image which is a symbol
of you as a mala?
This will have to be understood.
What is an image? An image represents something. If you understand
that it represents something, that it is not the thing represented,
then there is no problem. The moment you forget that it represents
something and it becomes that something itself, then the problem
arises. For example, you see a milestone. On the milestone is
written Delhi, and an arrow towards Delhi—50 miles. That
milestone is not Delhi, although Delhi is written on it. That
milestone is simply saying, "Go ahead. Delhi is fifty miles
ahead." If the statue in the temple is just a milestone,
there is no problem. If you think it is God, then the problem
arises.
The mala around your neck is not me! If you understand that—that
it simply represents me, it is a symbol, a metaphor—then
there is no problem. If you forget that and you start talking
with the mala, and you start listening to the mala, and you forget
all about me—because then there is no need to come here;
if you have the mala you have me—then you have fallen into
a trap. You have become an idolator. Then you are getting into
a very, very neurotic state. The symbol has become truth itself….
The picture on the mala is not me; please don't pinch it! It
is simply a representative. And it helps, because you are so unaware.
It reminds you.
So is the orange color: just to remind you again and again. Wherever
you go people look at you with a shock—their shock reminds
you that you are in orange, that you are a sannyasin. You were
just going to say something, or hit somebody, and you see your
orange and something stops exactly in the middle. You feel frozen.
A great awareness has happened in that moment—of that old
rotten habit of saying something ugly, that what you are doing
is stupid. You were just going to say it and suddenly, the remembrance.
The mala comes in between, or the orange. And those small moments
of remembrance can be of great transformation. This is not idolatry.
Idolatry is when you keep my picture and you worship it, and
you are finished with it. Idolatry is worship without being in
any way involved in the process of transformation. If an image
can help to remind you about yourself, it is not idolatry….
sands109
A sannyasin says: I've been feeling a little perverse towards
sannyas so I thought it best to say so…
Mm, it can come. This idea can come. But always remember one thing:
I am here to help you to be more free. If at any moment you feel
that sannyas is becoming a burden to you, heavy, and if rather
than being a help it is hindering you, then drop out of it—and
with no guilt. I am the last person to create any guilt in anybody.
Meditate over it. If you feel that it has become a confinement
to you and you would be more free without sannyas, then I am always
for freedom. Knowing well that you are wrong, still I am always
for freedom—even if it is illusory.
The sannyasin says: I don't want to drop sannyas, but I feel a
need to fight against it, rather like a fish on a line.
[chuckling] Mm! That you can do. Whenever you feel like fighting
against me, you can do it. You can start with my blessings; that's
not a problem, Anything that helps you grow and that you feel
will give you more maturity—even if it is fighting against
me—is good. And don't think in terms of your being a renegade
or betraying me. Even if you want to be a Judas, be one.
Remember only one thing—that whatsoever gives you happiness
and growth is good. It is nobody else's business to interfere….
So if sometimes you feel like fighting, fight. Don't repress it.
If sometimes you feel like betraying, betray. Don't be worried
about it. I am not here to create any sort of worry and anxiety
in you. Whatsoever you feel good is good. Go into it. Go wholeheartedly
and headlong so that whatsoever happens will help you. If it is
a wrong thing, you will come out of it wiser. If it is a right
thing, you will come out of it still wiser, so nothing is lost.
In the total reckoning, the final reckoning, nothing is lost.
Even going astray is part of following a path.
So it is going to happen many times to many people that they
will want to go away from me. Perfectly good. Sometimes you need
your own space. To be near me becomes a heavy thing. So be here
only when you want to be, otherwise go away. You should have your
own space.
And my sannyas is nothing else but an effort to give you the courage
to have your own space. If someday you feel that this sannyas
has become a bondage and you are burdened, drop out of it. And
never think that you cannot do that because I have given it to
you with such love; don't be worried about it. I can take it back
with the same love.
But I am the last person to make you feel guilty for anything.
So if you are a sannyasin, it is your choice. If you are not a
sannyasin, it is your choice. My blessings are unconditional.
Whatsoever you are—a sannyasin or a non-sannyasin—makes
no difference….
And always remember that my suggestions are not commandments.
The final decision has to be arrived at by you…. Then too
don't think that you are not following me or my advice. This is
simply advice. It was never meant to be followed. The decision
has to be taken by you.
So my sannyasins remain absolutely free with me. Your relationship
with me is of two free persons. I am not occupying your space.
Whatsoever I say has to be pondered over by you, and the final
decision has to be yours. Even if you decide to follow me, remember
it is your decision. You can never blame me. I am not responsible.
You cannot ever blame me. That's the beauty of giving freedom
to people—they cannot blame you! So you think about it,
mm? Good. roseis07
A sannyasin, who is leaving, says she had met another group whom
she trusted totally.
So wherever your trust is be there. If your trust is not with
me, then why waste my time and your time?
I want to weed out people. I am in a hurry, and I want only those
who are really with me so I can work on them. I have something
to communicate to people; once they are ready it can be communicated.
People like you will not be ready, or it will take so long that
by the time you are ready I will be gone.
So the best logical course is: you drop sannyas; and wherever
your trust is, be totally there, maybe that's where you are to
grow. And if some day you can be here with total trust, the doors
are open; the doors are not closed for you.
This may be the right way. A few people are like that: they
cannot catch hold of the door directly; they go round about. You
may be one of them. So before you go, leave sannyas. And there
is no problem in leaving it. Sannyas is given happily and taken
back more happily, because my boat is already too full, and I
would like a few people to disappear.
Those who are half-hearted, their being with me is just useless:
it is useless for the work, it is useless for you, because you
remain divided.
And whenever you leave sannyas I am not angry, I am not in any
way disappointed in you. Leave sannyas with all my blessings.
My love remains the same; your being a sannyasin or not being
a sannyasin makes no difference. But leaving sannyas will be helpful
at this stage; you will be clear and at least you will not be
divided. And whenever you feel that you can be totally here, totally
with me, you are welcome; you can come. join18
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