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Part X : 1987-1990 Poona-Two : Death of
Swami Maitreya, and his Mahaparanirvana
On 17 July 1987, Swami Maitreya, one of Osho's oldest and most
loved disciples, dies from a heart attack. There is a big celebration
for him.
Earlier Osho has answered a question from Maitreya:
You say, "Every day You are becoming more and more mysterious."
This is a good symptom. That means you are slowly, slowly coming
closer and closer to me. The closer you come to me, the more mysterious
you will find me.
And that moment will also come, Maitreya, when not only I will
be mysterious; you will also be mysterious. And when two mysteries
meet, they are not two. There is no demarcation line between two
mysteries. Two mysteries always become one, just like two zeros
always become one; two nothingnesses always become one.
You are asking, "What is this unending mystery?"
This is life.
This is love.
This is a deep laughter. spirit04
This is a special evening, because one of us has left for the
other shore. Swami Anand Maitreya was certainly a man of tremendous
courage. He met me sometime near 1960. He had already been a member
of parliament for twelve years and he was very close to the first
prime minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. But the moment
he heard me he simply dropped his whole political career.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru tried to persuade him, saying, "There
is every chance for you to become the chief minister of your state."—he
was from Bihar, the land of Buddha.
But Maitreya said, "I want one thing understood clearly:
ambition is hell and I am not going to look back; politics is
finished for me. All ambitions are finished for me." And
since then he has been with me.
He has never asked a single question. He has never doubted, his
trust was absolute. In these years, thousands of people have come
to me; many have been lost, but he remained unwavering. He could
not conceive how people can find contradictions in my statements.
Sometime in 1984 Maitreya became enlightened, but he had chosen
to remain silent, so he remained silent. He did not even tell
me what had happened to him….
All these years before his enlightenment and after his enlightenment,
he just remained absolutely ordinary, with no ego, with no desire,
with no greed.
Just before I came back to Poona, Maitreya told me in Bombay,
"I have got ten thousand rupees in a post office deposit
in Patna, Bihar; that's all I have, but now I will not need it."
Certainly he was becoming aware that his time of departure was
coming closer. And he transferred the money to Neelam for the
ashram. He died without anything, any possessions. And he slipped
very slowly, very silently, from sleep into eternal sleep.
I am saying this evening is special, because one of us has moved
from the world of mortals to the world of immortals. He will not
be born again. He has attained to the freedom and the liberation
we have been talking about.
This is a moment of great celebration and rejoicing. It happens
very rarely. In millions of people perhaps one comes to this silent
explosion of light and disappears into the ocean of consciousness
that surrounds existence.
I would like these talks to be dedicated to Swami Anand Maitreya,
who slipped from sleep into eternal sleep. But he was not asleep!
He has gone in full awakening. He has gone with full awareness.
You will keep him in your memories because he has shown the path
to you, too. He lived joyously, although he had nothing, and he
died peacefully, blissfully.
That's what attaining to one's destiny means. Those who live in
misery and die in misery go on missing their destiny. They are
failures, and because they have failed so many times, they become
accustomed to failing again and again. But even if one person
amongst you succeeds, it is your success, too. He has proved that
what we have been talking about is not mere philosophy—it
is an authentic path to self-realization.
Maitreya will be missed. Just the other night, when I last saw
him, I had a certain strange feeling…as if he is going to
depart very soon. And this feeling happened to many other people
too; it was as if he was gathering himself and preparing for the
eternal pilgrimage. He has gone the way a man should go—joyously,
ecstatically.
You have to remember that his whole experience was based on two
things: one, that he has fallen in trust with me…It is a
strange language that I am using. You may not have ever heard
the phrase `falling in trust'. Falling in love happens every day.
Falling in trust happens only once in a while.
And secondly, not for a single moment since he has met me has
he missed entering into meditation as much as possible. His death
was not an end to life, but the ultimate culmination of a tremendous
trust and meditativeness. Where trust and meditation meet, one
attains to one's potential in its whole glory and splendor. tahui06
Maitreya! Maitreya!
Forever dividing himself,
He is here, there, everywhere—
Yet scarcely noticed.
This haiku is particularly important for us, because Maitreya
is lying here. Hotei was not aware where Maitreya is. He used
to sit here in the front row, and he has been missed….
He is being missed tremendously, but anyway he is here in the
trees, in the air. exist03
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