Osho talks about when he leaves his body
I love the Himalayas. I wanted to die there. That is the most beautiful place to die—of course to live too, but as far as dying is concerned, that is the ultimate place. It is where Lao Tzu died. In the valleys of the Himalayas Buddha died, Jesus died, Moses died. No other mountains can claim Moses, Jesus, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Bodhidharma, Milarepa, Marpa, Tilopa, Naropa, and thousands of others….
I wanted to die there; and this morning, standing and looking at the sunrise, I felt relieved, knowing that if I die here, particularly on a day as beautiful as this, it is okay. And I will choose to die on a day when I feel I am part of the Himalayas. Death for me is not just an end, a full stop. No, death for me is a celebration. glimps01
I am as absent as I will be when I will be dead, with only one difference…that right now my absence has a body, and then, my absence will not have a body. psycho19
When a buddha dies, a man who has attained, he simply dies with no thought. He enjoys the orgasm. It is so fulfilling, it is so totally fulfilling that there is no need to come back. He disappears into the cosmos. There is no need to be embodied again….
When you die, you release your energy and with that energy your whole life's experience. Whatsoever you have been—sad, happy, loving, angry, passionate, compassionate—whatsoever you have been, that energy carries the vibrations of your whole life. Whenever a saint is dying, just being near him is a great gift; just to be showered with his energy is a great inspiration. You will be put in a totally different dimension. You will be drugged by his energy, you will feel drunk.
Death can be a total fulfillment, but that is possible only if life has been lived. nirvan09
A master gives you his life as an opportunity to be awakened. He also gives you his death—a second, and the last opportunity for you to be awakened. mess104
It is not necessary…that I have to be on a funeral pyre before you can become enlightened. I can be if you need it. One day I will be, but it will be far more beautiful if the day I am on the funeral pyre, you are without tears. As I disappear from the body you know I have become more involved deeply within you, within the whole existence. invita03
Just to end up this beautiful moment…. I always like to leave you laughing, singing, dancing. This is just an indication that the day when I ultimately leave you, I would like you to sing, dance and celebrate.
In fact, no man in the whole of history would have received such a celebration when he dies as I am going to receive. A few have received celebration only from enemies, because when one dies, enemies celebrate. The friends mourn.
I am the only person…in my death my friends will celebrate, my enemies will celebrate. In my death they will come together in celebration. There has never been such a man before. pilgr13
In India bodies are burned, but you will be surprised to know that the remains left after burning a body are called "flowers". Ordinary people's ashes are thrown into holy rivers, but enlightened people's "flowers" are preserved in samadhis—in beautiful marble memorials. Just to go and sit there is in itself a meditation. But the trouble is that the world is ruled by those who know nothing of this. psycho34
My own experience is, that wherever anybody has become enlightened there are certain vibrations still. Thousands of years may have passed but those vibrations are still there—in the trees, in the earth, in the mountains. You can still feel some strange kind of presence. The man is not there, the singer may have died, but his record is still there and you can hear the voice again. mystic17
You know that you will live in some form beyond this life?
Not in any form. I will live without form.
Eternally?
Eternally. I have been here eternally and I am going to be here eternally.
Will you have consciousness beyond death?
Yes, because death has nothing to do with consciousness.
Will you have identity beyond death?
No identity. last312
It is just like when a flower opens and the fragrance spreads. The flower remains attached to the tree, but not the fragrance. The fragrance is like a cloud moving with the wind in all the directions. The flower may die, but the fragrance will go on and on spreading to the very end of existence.
A person who has attained to love may die—his love continues. Buddha is dead, his love continues. I will be dead, my love will continue. And those who will be sympathetic, those who will be receptive, will be able to receive it any moment, anywhere. getout02
I may be gone, but I am creating a certain ripple that will remain. You may be gone, but you loved somebody and that love created a ripple that will remain and remain and remain. It can never disappear, it will have its own repercussions…it will go on vibrating. You throw a small pebble in the lake and ripples arise. The pebble settles very soon at the bottom, but the ripples continue. They go on moving towards the shore—and there is no shore to this existence.
I am talking to you…. In this moment something is transpiring between me and you. I will be gone, you will be gone, but that which is transpiring will abide. So these words will go on echoing, re-echoing. The speaker will not be there, the listener will not be there, but what is transpiring between the two in this moment has become part of eternity. And there is no shore, so these ripples will go on and on and on. whip18
So remember, when I am gone, you are not going to lose anything. Perhaps you may gain something of which you are absolutely unaware.
Right now I am available to you only embodied, imprisoned in a certain shape and form. When I am gone, where can I go? I will be here in the winds, in the ocean; and if you have loved me, if you have trusted me, you will feel me in a thousand and one ways. In your silent moments you will suddenly feel my presence.
Once I am unembodied, my consciousness is universal. Right now you have to come to me.
Then, you will not need to seek and search for me. Wherever you are…your thirst, your love…and you will find me in your very heart, in your very heartbeat. enligh11
Those who have loved me, those who have received my love, I am committed to them. I will do everything to remain in the body, and I will do everything—even if I have to leave the body—to be continuously around you. You will not be able to see me, but I will be able to see you. rebel27
If you are here with me through the heart, then it is a totally different relationship. Then it is going to be eternal. Then I can die, you can die, but the relationship cannot die. trans203
Once I am dead, then this world cannot prevent me; no law, no parliament, no country can make barriers for me; then I will be all over the place, tickling people to wake up. Even now I am not doing anything nasty to anybody, just tickling. quant05
How then do you want to be remembered?
I don't want to be remembered.
But you will be—you can't do anything about that.
That is other people's problem.
What do you want set on your tombstone?
No. Nothing.
Nothing? No name?
No. Nothing. Once I am gone, I am gone. Then whatsoever my people want to do, they can do. last130
You have said you don't care about what happens to you after you leave your body, but for the poor historians who will be struggling with the impossible—to capture the phenomenon which is Osho—can you say something about the impact of your presence and your teachings in a future historical context? Also, how would you like to be remembered?
I would simply like to be forgiven and forgotten. There is no need to remember me. The need is to remember yourself! People have remembered Gautam Buddha and Jesus Christ and Confucius and Krishna. That does not help. So what I would like: forget me completely, and forgive me too—because it will be difficult to forget me. That's why I am asking you to forgive me for giving you the trouble.
Remember yourself.
And don't be bothered about historians and all kinds of neurotic people—they will do their thing. It is none of our concern at all. transm29
You said in an interview that when you die you wanted to be forgotten.
That's true. That simply means my whole approach to life is that the past should not be a burden on the present. The past is like dust covering a mirror. It distorts the vision and it becomes heavier and heavier and does not allow you to live in freedom in the present and the same is true about the future.
If you think too much of the future, while you are thinking of the future the present is slipping by from your hands which is the only reality.
If this is my approach about others, that the past should be forgotten, I don't want to be a burden for anybody in the future, because then I will be a past. I would like to be forgotten completely as if I had never been here. Just the way a bird flies in the sky and leaves no footprints in the sky, I would like to disappear like those footprints. So that I am no more a burden on anybody.
This is simply part of my philosophy and the very logical conclusion of it. last502
When I am gone, please remember me as a poet, not as a philosopher.
Poetry has to be understood in a different way—you have to love poetry, not interpret. You have to repeat the poetry many times so it mixes with your blood, with your bones, with your very marrow. You have to chant poetry many times so that you can feel all the nuances, subtle shades of it. You have to simply sit and let the poetry move within you so it becomes a live force. You digest it, and then you forget about it; it moves deeper and deeper and deeper and changes you.
Let me be remembered as a poet. Of course, I am not writing poetry in words. I am writing poetry in a more alive medium—in you. And that's what the whole existence is doing. harmon10
When I am gone I hope there may still be courageous people in the world to criticize me, so that I don't become a hindrance on anybody's path. And those who will criticize me will not be my enemies; neither am I the enemy of those whom I have criticized. The working of the enlightened masters just has to be understood.
You should remember only one word, and that is compassion—compassion for you, compassion for all those who are still not centered in their being, who are still far away from themselves, who have to be called back home. satyam06
I am part of the eternal evolution of man. The search for truth is neither new nor old. The search for your own being has nothing to do with time. It is non-temporal.
I may be gone, but what I am doing is going to continue. Somebody else will be doing it. I was not here and somebody else was doing it. Nobody is a founder in it, nobody is a leader in it. It is such a vast phenomenon that many enlightened people have appeared, helped and disappeared.
But their help has brought humanity a little higher, made humanity a little better, a little more human. They have left the world a little more beautiful than they had found it.
It is a great contentment to leave the world a little better. More than that is asking too much. The world is too big; a single human individual is too small. If he can leave just a few touches to the painting, which for millions of years has been made by evolution, that's enough. Just a few touches…a little more perfection, a little more clarity. socrat11
Remember it—some day, after a few centuries, Poona will claim that Poona is spiritual because of me. And I have nothing to do with Poona and Poona has nothing to do with me. Just the same was the case with Buddha. India had nothing to do with him. He was alone and solitary, and people were criticising him as cruelly as they are criticising me. They have always done that. They were throwing stones at Mahavir, they are throwing stones at me. They have always done that. And not only here. everywhere in the world they have done that. isay202
I do not ordinarily make prophecies, but about this I am absolutely prophetic: the coming hundred years are going to be more and more irrational, and more and more mystical.
The second thing: After a hundred years people will be perfectly able to understand why I was misunderstood—because I am the beginning of the mystical, the irrational.
I am a discontinuity with the past.
The past cannot understand me; only the future will understand.
The past can only condemn me. It cannot understand me, it cannot answer me, it cannot argue with me; it can only condemn me. Only the future…as man becomes more and more available to the mysterious, to the meaningless yet significant….
After a hundred years they will understand. Because the more man becomes aware of the mysterious side of life, the less he is political; the less he is a Hindu, a Mohammedan, a Christian; the less is the possibility for his being a fanatic. A man in tune with the mysterious is humble, loving, caring, accepting the uniqueness of everybody. He is rejoicing in the freedom of each individual, because only with freedom can this garden of humanity be a rich place.
Each individual should have his own song.
But right now it is the crowd, the mob, that decides everything. And it is the mob that is condemning me because I am asserting the rights of the individual—and I am alone in asserting the rights of the individual. upan16
If you were to die tomorrow, what would you like the world to remember you most for? What would you like your obituary to be?
Just a simple man, an innocent man, who was always misunderstood. last412
Osho talks about the continuation of his work
Nobody is going to be a successor to me. The very idea of succeeding was an idea borrowed from the royal families. Just as kings were succeeded by their eldest sons, it reflected on the tradition of masters also that somebody would become their successor.
I want to make a complete break. As far as I am concerned, you are all intimate to me. I can afford the intimacy of all of you, because there is no question of any succeeding. Nobody is going to be my successor. I want everybody to be a master unto himself.
To be a successor is a little humiliating. It is against the dignity of an enlightened man. Neither has he anybody before him as his predecessor nor has he anybody after him who is his successor. He is alone, standing like an Everest; no one precedes him, no one succeeds him.
His aloneness is a message to all who fall in love with him, that they also have to be alone. In your aloneness you are beautiful, pure. It does not mean that you have to renounce the world. It simply means that you don't have to belong to the world. You can remain in the marketplace, but just be a mirror, a witness, watching whatever is going on.
But traditionally they never understood that it is against the freedom of the individual to be a successor. It makes a spiritual experience almost like a treasury or a kingdom. It is neither. Nobody can succeed. Everybody has to be on his own, and that independence and the taste of that independence is so valuable that I want to bring a new kind of master and a new kind of disciple into the world. They are intimate in their love, in their trust, but they are not bound in any way—by any thread, visible or invisible. The master is himself, the disciple is also himself. And the function of the master is to prove to the disciple that to be oneself is the greatest glory in the world, the most splendorous thing. matzu05
You have often said you will have no successors. But won't all those who love you be your successors in that we carry you in our blood and bones and so you are part of us forever?
The concept of the successor is bureaucratic. The very idea of succession is not the right idea in the world of consciousness. That's why I have said, I will not have successors. But you are right in saying that you will carry in your bones and in your blood my love, my insight. But don't use the word `successor', rather use the words `you will be me'. Why be so far away, a successor, when you can be me? Be so empty that I can make a home in you, that your emptiness can absorb my emptiness, that your heart can have the same dance as my heart. It is not succession; it is transmission.
The very idea of succession is political. Only one person can be a successor, so there is bound to be competition, ambition. There is bound to be a subtle struggle to be closer to the master, to force others away. It may not be on the surface but, underneath, the problem will remain in the disciples: "Who is going to be the successor?"
I destroy the whole conception. Every disciple who has loved has become one with the master. There is no need of any competition, nor one successor. It is for everybody who has offered himself in deep gratitude, who has become one in a certain sense with the master's presence. There is no need of any competition. Thousands can have the same experience, millions can have the same experience.
To avoid politics in religion, I have said that I will not have successors. I want religion to be absolutely devoid of ambition, competition, being higher than another, putting everybody lower than oneself. With me you are all equal. And I trust and love you, that you will prove this equality. In equals there is no competition; there is a combined effort. You will all carry my message, but nobody will be higher or lower, nobody will be a successor. All will be my lovers and they will carry me….
If the disciple loves the master, if there is trust, and trust founded on experience, he will carry spontaneously the master's message. There is no need to say anything, he will be his master's message. nansen02
This always happens: when I say something, I create two groups of people around me. One group will be exoteric. They will organize, they will do many things concerned with society, with the world that is without; they will help preserve whatsoever I am saying. The other group will be more concerned with the inner world. Sooner or later the two groups are bound to come in conflict with one another because their emphasis is different. The inner group, the esoteric mind, is concerned with something quite different from the exoteric group. And, ultimately, the outer group will win, because they can work as a group. The esoteric ones cannot work as a group; they go on working as individuals. When one individual is lost, something is lost forever.
This happens with every teacher. Ultimately the outer group becomes more and more influential; it becomes an establishment. The first thing an establishment has to do is to kill its own esoteric part, because the esoteric group is always a disturbance. Because of "heresy," Christianity has been destroying all that is esoteric.
And now the pope is at the opposite extreme to Jesus: this is the ultimate schism between the exoteric and the esoteric. The pope is more like the priests who crucified Jesus than like Jesus himself. If Jesus comes again, he will be crucified in Rome this time—by the Vatican. The Vatican is the exoteric, organizational part, the establishment.
These are intrinsic problems—they happen, and you cannot do anything about it. gchall09
Around you a community is created and with it the seeds of establishment.
That's true! Whenever there is communion there will be a community. It cannot be avoided—and there is no need to avoid it. I invite it! I have invited you all. I have called you all to be with me, to share the joy that I have found, to share the truth. But there is no establishment.
Establishment happens only when the Master is dead. Establishment is when the community no longer has any center, only a circumference. A dead community is what an establishment is. I know that whenever a community is born, sooner or later there will be an establishment, but that does not mean that the community has to be prevented from being born. That will be like killing a child because if the child survives then sooner or later he will have to die—so better kill him now. Why let him live just to die? Everybody knows that everybody is going to die; that does not mean that every child has to be killed. When death comes it is perfectly okay. The only thing to be remembered is that when the Master is dead, the community should start dispersing; it should start seeking and searching for new Masters.
Either the Master will leave many Masters behind him, alive, enlightened…then the community can still remain a community, it will not become an establishment. If one enlightened person is there then the community is still a community; it does not matter who the enlightened person is.
And I can assure you that I am going to leave many more enlightened people in my commune than has ever been done before. ultima08
You asked me what I am thinking about these people after I am gone. I am not even thinking now, when I am here.
I am giving them total freedom. I have not enforced anything on them that will make me afraid that once I am gone these celibates are going to create trouble. I have not repressed anything. If they want to smoke, I tell them to smoke the best cigar possible—don't go for anything second rate. If you want to love, find out the best man, the best woman, and go into it as totally as possible. I am in support of expression and all the so-called religions were in support of repression. When you repress people you are certainly afraid that when you are gone there is going to be chaos.
That problem does not exist for me. When I am gone there is going to be no chaos because chaos was all that I have been training my people for. My commune is a chaos and yet a very organic chaos, a very creative chaos, a chaos out of which stars are born. That's why that kind of question becomes very difficult for me to answer. I am not giving them any discipline, any rules of conduct. I am simply teaching them to be aware, alert, to be independent. Take your responsibility and do whatsoever you want to do. Don't bother about Moses, or Jesus, or Buddha, or me.
Jesus lived his way; he never bothered about others. If he had bothered about others; the Jews would never have crucified him. Buddha never bothered about anybody. I don't accept anybody as my master or my leader. I am nobody's shadow, nobody's carbon copy, and that's what I am teaching to my people: Don't be anybody's carbon copy, including me.
So, alive, dance with me, rejoice with me. When I am gone continue to dance and rejoice in remembrance of a man who gave you freedom, who gave you individuality. What else is there to bother about the future? Wherever I am—somewhere I must be—I will go on showering my love on my people and I know they will find ways to respond. But that is something very private; I cannot reveal it to a non-sannyasin. last123
I would like that what I am doing is not lost. So I am trying in every possible way to drop all those things which in the past have been barriers for the revolution to continue and grow. I don't want anybody to stand between the individual and existence. No prayer, no priest…you alone are enough to face the sunrise, you don't need somebody to interpret for you what a beautiful sunrise it is….
And this is my attitude: you are here, every individual is here, the whole existence is available. All that you need is just to be silent and listen to existence. There is no need of any religion, there is no need of any God, there is no need of any priesthood, there is no need of any organization.
I trust in the individual categorically. Nobody up to now has trusted in the individual in such a way.
So all things can be removed. Now all that has been left to you is a state of meditation which simply means a state of utter silence. The word meditation makes it look heavier. It is better to call it just a simple, innocent silence and existence opens all its beauties to you.
And as it goes on growing you go on growing, and there comes a moment when you have reached the very peak of your potentiality—you can call it Buddhahood, enlightenment, bhagwatta, godliness, whatever…it has no name, so any name will do. last516
I am not creating any religion. It is only a religiousness, a diffused kind of religiousness, not very tangible. You cannot make a creed out of it, you cannot make a church out of it—impossible! I am not leaving a single Bible or Koran or Gita so you can make a church out of it. When I will leave the world I will leave at least one thousand books, so contradictory to each other that anybody trying to make out any dogma out of them will go crazy.
It is impossible to make any dogma out of my ideas, but you can transform your being through them. ggate210
I have been constantly inconsistent so that you will never be able to make a dogma out of me. You will simply go nuts if you try. I am leaving something really terrible for scholars. They will not be able to make any sense out of it. They will go nuts; and they deserve it, they should go nuts. But nobody can create an orthodoxy out of me, it is impossible….
From my words you can get burned, but you will not be able to find any kind of theology, dogmatism.
You can find a way to live but not a dogma to preach.
You can find a rebellious quality to be imbibed, but you will not find a revolutionary theme to be organized.
My words are not only on fire. I am putting gunpowder also here and there, which will go on exploding for centuries. I am putting more than needed—I never take any chances. Almost each sentence is going to create trouble for anybody who wants to organize a religion around me.
Yes, you can have a loose community, a commune. Remember the word loose: everybody independent, everybody free to live his own way, to interpret me in his own way, to find whatsoever he wants to find. He can find the way he wants to live—and everybody unto himself.
There is no need for somebody to decide what my religion is. I am leaving it open-ended. You can work out a definition for yourself, but it is only for yourself; and that too you will have to continuously change. As you understand me more and more, you will have to change it. You cannot go on holding it like a dead thing in your hand. You will have to change it, and it will go on changing you simultaneously. person08
Do you want me to say that I bring you the last message? I am not going to say it. I am not going to be in the company of all these fools who have been trying somehow to make their religion look bigger, higher, truer.
I say to you that I am not bringing anybody's message—because there is nobody! I want you to understand that I am simply trying to share my experience with you. It is always fresh, always young; it is always in the now, in the here. That is a fundamental quality of truth.
And I'm not saying that after me there will be nobody who will experience it. On the contrary, I am saying to you that if you understand me, there are going to be millions of people after me who will go on and on and on discovering more and more. Even if they have to contradict me, don't bother about it—let them contradict. Who am I? I am not closing the doors. I am not putting a lock on the door and taking the keys with me. My house is without doors. It is open from everywhere—and I want it to remain always open.
Naturally, people who will be coming will make new arrangements of the furniture in the house. They may plan a new architecture for the house, they may make new plans for the garden. I leave it to them, but the process will be the same. false21
One of the most important things to be remembered by all is the way you have started your question. The question is, "I have heard You say." Usually, people drop the first part. They simply say, "You have said this." And there is such a great difference between the two, such an immense difference that it is unbridgeable, and needs a great understanding.
Whatever you hear is not necessarily the thing said; what is said is not necessarily what you hear. The obvious reason is that I am speaking from a different space of being, and you are hearing from a totally different space. In the transmission, many things change.
It is always a sign of understanding to remember that whatever I have said may be totally different than what you have heard. Your question should be about what you have heard, because how can you ask a question about something which you have not heard? golden11
So the greatest work for sannyasins is to keep the message pure, unpolluted by you or by others—and wait. The future is bound to be more receptive, more welcoming. We may not be here but we can manage to change the consciousness for centuries to come. And my interest is not only in this humanity; my interest is in humanity as such.
Keep the message pure, twenty-four carat gold. And soon those people will be coming for whom you have made a temple—although it is sad when you are making the temple; nobody comes. And when people start coming, you will not be here. But one has to understand one thing: we are part of a flowing river of consciousness.
You may not be here in this form, you may be here in another form, but keep it in mind never to ask such a question that I should be more acceptable, more respectable, more in agreement with the masses. I cannot be. And it is not stubbornness on my part. It is just that truth cannot compromise. It has never done it; it would be the greatest sin. sermon12
The Masters have always believed in the spoken word; there are reasons for it. The Masters have never written books. The spoken word has a lively quality to it; the written word is dead, it is a corpse.
When I am speaking to you it is a totally different thing than when you will be reading it in a book, because when you are reading in a book it is only a word; when you are listening to the Master it is more than the word. The presence of the Master is overpowering! Before the word reaches you, the Master has already reached; he is already overflooding you. Your heart is breathing with the Master, beating with the Master in the same rhythm. You are breathing in the same rhythm. There is a communion, an invisible link. the presence of the Master, his gestures, his eyes…the words spoken by him are ordinary words, but when spoken by a Master they carry something of the beyond; they carry some silence, some meditativeness, some of his experience, because they come from his innermost core.
It is like passing through a garden: even though you have not touched a single flower, but when you reach home you can still feel the fragrance of the garden; your clothes have caught it, your hairs have caught it. The pollen of the flowers was in the wind. You have not touched anything, but the fragrance was in the air; it has become something part of you. ithat09
Jesus' recorded life was very poor because his followers were obsessed with history. They could not write anything that was beyond history.
The eastern mind could see that we cannot do justice to Krishna or Buddha if we limit ourselves to bare events. This will be an injustice because the real has happened somewhere else. Then how to record the real? It cannot be recorded. But, we can create a myth. And that myth can indicate, can show something about it. Those who will read the myth will not read a bare statement of events. They will go deep into the poetry of the myth, deep into the imagination. And it may be possible that somewhere, from their own imagination not from the facts—very far from the facts, from somewhere deep in their own unconscious minds, from what Jung calls 'archetypes'—they might get a glimpse; they may be able to know what has happened beyond history. They may be able to know, from deep down within themselves.
History cannot go deep inside you. Only poetry can. But only from within you can something happen which will be in sympathy with the nontemporal, which can be in communion with the nonhistorical. Krishna's life and Buddha's life are only jumping points to enable you to go deeply inside yourself. If you read Tulsidas, a western historian will say that this is not history; this is imagination. It is. But I still say that Tulsidas does more justice to Ram than Luke can ever do to Christ because he knows the secret. By going deeply into what Tulsidas has written, you will again relive the whole phenomenon. Time will be transcended; you will again be in the time of Ram. Now there are no space/time relationships. Deep within yourself, you are in Ram's milieu—as if Ram was present, as if he was somewhere nearby….
This is a mythological approach to the nontemporal. Re-enacting it. Reviving it. Resurrecting it. History cannot do this; only myth can do this. Myth is helpful but not substantial: A creative imagination is needed to fill in the substance….
When we live in time, in the world of events, if someone is not doing anything it seems as if he is not. Doing is everything. Doing is in the realm of history, but being is in the realm of the spirit. You are; you just are. You are not doing anything, not even mentally. Nothing either physical or mental is happening There is no doing at all, no ripple of action at all you are in an absolute nondoing state. But you are!
This beingness is the vertical dimension. Through this beingness, you jump into the unknown, into the divine. And unless one jumps into this non-historical, non-temporal moment, one has not known what life is. quest06
The first thing you have to understand is the difference between the fact and the truth. Ordinary history takes care about the facts—what actually happens in the world of matter, the incidents. It does not take care about the truth, because it does not happen in the world of matter; it happens in consciousness. And man is not yet mature enough to take care about the events of consciousness.
He surely takes care about events happening in time and in space; those are the facts. But he is not mature enough, not insightful enough to take care about what happens beyond time and beyond space—in other words, what happens beyond mind, what happens in consciousness. One day we will have to write the whole of history with a totally different orientation, because the facts are trivia—although they are material, they don't matter. And the truths are immaterial but they matter.
The new orientation for a future history will take care about what happened inside Gautam Buddha when he became enlightened, what went on happening while he was in the body for forty-two years after his enlightenment. And what was happening in those forty-two years is not going to be discontinued just because the body drops dead. It had no concern with the body. It was a phenomenon in consciousness, and consciousness continues. The pilgrimage of the consciousness is endless. So what was happening in the consciousness inside the body, will go on happening outside the body. That is a simple understanding.
So this story is a story of inner happenings. rebel27
Lao Tzu, one of the most important figures in the history of non-doing…. If history is to be written rightly then there should be two kinds of histories: the history of doers—Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Nadirshah, Alexander, Napoleon Bonaparte, Ivan the Terrible, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini; these are the people who belong to the world of doing. There should be another history, a higher history, a real history—of human consciousness, of human evolution: the history of Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Lieh Tzu, Gautam Buddha, Mahavira, Bodhidharma; a totally different kind. upan28
It is one of my deep desires that when our mystery schools are functioning, slowly slowly, we will bring from all over the world the great mystical scriptures, without any consideration of to whom they belong, and publish them with the latest commentaries, so that mysticism does not remain just a word but becomes a vast literature, and anybody can devote his whole life to understanding what the mystics have given to the world. transm25
What I am doing here is play—it is not work. When I am gone, my work is to be known as play, never as work. So take it non-seriously. Seriousness is a disease and through seriousness no one has ever gone beyond. Seriousness is so heavy that it makes you rooted in the gravitation. One needs to be very playful, then one can go beyond gravitation—one can fly!
A great unburdening is needed, so just be playful about it. When I say, 'when walking, watch,' I mean be playful. If sometimes you forget, nothing is wrong in it. Watch that too—you have forgotten, good! Then again you remember, good! Both are good. In fact there is a rhythm. You cannot constantly watch; it is just like breathing in, breathing out. whip08
Life is love and love is celebration. Celebration is the very core of religion, the soul. Without celebration religion becomes a corpse. And that's what has happened to religions in the past again and again: they become serious. And the moment they become. serious, only the dead body is there.
Religion remains alive only through celebration. When Buddha is there, there is celebration. When Krishna is there, there is celebration. When Jesus is there, there is celebration. The moment the Master leaves the body the disciples become very serious, they become fanatics, and they start becoming missionaries: they want to convert the whole world. They start arguing, proving, disproving; they create theology. And slowly slowly the soul dies—they become too engaged with other things. Religion lives only through celebration, as celebration. But this point has been missed again and again; that's why so many religions were born but they all died, and they all died a premature death. It was not necessary to die; they could have lived and served humanity.
I want to make it very conscious in my sannyasins not to be serious; be sincere but don't be serious. And remember continuously that existence is in a constant celebration. When you are in celebration you are in tune with existence, in tune with God, in tune with Tao. When you become serious you fall apart.
The old proverb is right: When you laugh the whole world laughs with you, but when you cry, when you weep, you weep alone. People are ready to share with you if you are happy. They themselves are in enough misery—who wants to be with a serious man? The serious man is heavy.
It is said that you cannot live with a saint twentyfour hours a day: you will die of boredom. But of course, these are not saints about whom that is said; otherwise you can live with a saint for eternity and you can go on celebrating. But then the saint has to have a different taste, a different flavor to him. That flavor is called utsavo.
My sannyasins have to be laughing, dancing, singing. That is their prayer. If you can laugh a heartful laugh, it is prayer. If you can dance to abandon, it is prayer. If you can sing your being, that is prayer. And there is no need to take religion seriously. Seriousness is pathological. Children are not serious, because they are very close to the source of life. The birds are not serious; nobody has ever come across a bird who is serious. The trees are not serious; nobody has ever seen a tree serious. It is all joy…it is continuous celebration.
Even when a flower is dying and the petals are falling there is no seriousness at all; even in the dying flower you will see joy and beauty and thankfulness. And that's how a man should live and should die. Dancing one should live, and dancing one should die. I teach the dancing God. athing05
All your so-called religious leaders have been promising—after your death, after two hundred or two thousand years they will be coming back. And none of them has shown up. It is enough proof that those people were lying. But you go on waiting for them. You are simply wasting your time, your life. I cannot do that.
I cannot promise you anything.
I trust in the moment, in the present.
For me there is no tomorrow.
For me there is no future.
And I want you to understand that existence is always now and here. If you want to live it authentically, intensely, then be now and here. Use this moment to its totality. Squeeze the whole juice out of it. Don't wait for the next moment, because who knows about the next moment. And you are waiting for centuries, for thousands of years. This is simply wasting the great opportunity that existence has given to you.
Life is a school. You have to learn something. Don't postpone it till tomorrow—tomorrow may never come. Use this moment to learn. And the only thing life wants you to learn is to know yourself, to be yourself. Then whatever comes, you will be joyful. Whatever happens, you will find ecstasy in it. Don't think in terms of the future; the future is nonexistential. Only the present is.
My whole approach is rooted in the present. Hence I don't have anything to promise you. You have to learn to live now, this very moment, as totally, as intensely as possible. Burn your life torch from both the ends together. That very intensity will make you afire, aflame. And to be aflame with the intensity of life is to know what godliness is, is to know what religion is, is to know all that spirituality has in it, the whole mystery. There is nothing more to it. sword16
Does a Master's responsibility towards his disciples cease upon the physical death of the Master?
Even while he was alive he was not burdened by any responsibility. But the disciple's mind always creates such kinds of bondages. The disciple would like the Master to be responsible so that the Master becomes answerable, so that the disciple can claim. 'If I am not redeemed yet you are responsible!' This is a trick of the disciple to protect himself and to throw the responsibility on the Master's head. And then you can go on living the way you want to live, because what else can you do? You have accepted Jesus as your Master, now it is his responsibility.
This is not the way to become free. This is not the way towards nirvana or moksha. This is not the way towards liberation. You are playing tricks even with your Master. And the disciple would like that the Master remain in a kind of contract—even when he is dead he has to look after you. And what have you done? What have you done on your part? You have not done anything. In fact, you are trying to do everything to hinder, to obstruct. You are clinging to the prison, and the responsibility is the Master's.
Don't befool yourself.
The question is from Chintana. She has been a nun and that mind goes on lingering around her. Christians have done that. Millions of Christians are thinking in their minds that they can do all kinds of things, whatsoever they want, and finally Jesus is going to redeem them. On the Day of Judgement he will he standing there, and he will call to all his Christians 'These are my children. Come and stand behind me.' And all the Christians will be standing behind Christ, and will enter into heaven with flying flags. And all others will go into hell…obviously. Those who are not with Christ—they will go to hell.
And that is the idea of everybody. The Mohammedan thinks the same: that only those who are Mohammedans will be saved—the prophet will come and save them. These are stupid ideas. If you go on living the way you are living, nobody can save you—no Jesus, no Mohammed.
You will have to change your quality of life, you will have to change your vision, and then you are saved. You can learn the art of changing your vision from Jesus, from Mohammed, from Krishna, from Buddha; from any source you can learn how to change your vision. But you will have to learn the art and you will have to practise the art. Nobody else is going to transform you—nobody can do that. And that is beautiful that nobody can do it. If it were possible for somebody to transform your being, then you would have been a thing, not a person. Then you wouldn't have any soul.
That is the difference: A thing can be made. You can make furniture out of wood, you can make a statue out of stone, but you cannot make a soul out of a man. You cannot create enlightenment out of a man. If somebody from the outside can do it, that will be very very insulting; it will be below human dignity. And what kind of freedom will it be which has been created by somebody else? If that somebody else changes his mind, then he can create your slavery again. It won't be much of a freedom.
Freedom is freedom only when you have attained it!
So the first thing to be understood is: Learn from Jesus, learn from me, learn from any other source that appeals to you. But remember, you are responsible for your life, nobody else is responsible. And don't go on befooling and kidding yourself. Don't go on believing in such beautiful dreams and consolations. isay108
Just look silently and deeply and you will find your master everywhere. The whole existence will become suffused with your master. And of course the moment a master dies, he makes the whole existence sacred for his disciples. In the stones they will touch him, in the flowers they will see his colors, in the rainbows they will see his beauty. A disciple becomes so deeply immersed in the consciousness of the master, that when the master's consciousness spreads all over existence, the disciple at least can see it. That's why in Zen when a master dies the disciples dance; they make a ceremony of it, because their master is freed from all boundaries of body and mind. This freedom of their master is an indication of their own freedom. This freedom has to be respected, recognized, through their ceremony, through their songs and dances. bolt09
Even if I leave the body I am not going to leave my sannyasins. I will be as much available as I am right now. But the only thing to remember is—are you available to me?
I am available to you, and I will remain as available forever. If you are available to me then there is no need to be afraid, then a link exists. And with my sannyasins I am individually linked. It is not a question that you belong to an organization, it is not an organization at all. It is a personal relationship, it is a love affair.
If you are open to me, even if this body disappears, it is not going to make any difference. I will be available to you. trans106
The question is not of the master's life and death, the question basically is of your response. So don't be worried about when I am gone. Those who are missing me now will be missing me then too—no loss. Those who are living my message now, they will go on living it. And if they go on living it, they cannot help but spread it. I am not depending on books—all the religions have depended on books—I am depending on you!
George Gurdjieff used to say—very sadly, of course—that if even two hundred people are enlightened, they can make the whole world full of light, full of life. Just two hundred people can transform the whole character of humanity. He could not manage it, but what he said is true.
I am going to manage it! I will not leave you unless I have made enough people enlightened so that they can make the whole world afire, alive. I am depending on you, not on any books. Those books may be helpful in some way to bring people to you, but my word will be throbbing in your heart; only then can you help anybody who comes to you.
And it is so simple. I have more than half a million sannyasins in the world, and more than one million people who are just on the borderline—a little push and they will be sannyasins. One million more who are lovers but cannot drop their camelhood….
On this big a scale, a worldwide scale, nobody has worked before. Gautam Buddha remained confined to the small state of Bihar in India—not even the whole of India. India has thirty states; Buddha remained confined to one space, one state. He did great work, but it was impossible to transform the whole quality of consciousness on the earth. The same is true about Jesus, Moses—anybody who has been trying.
For a simple reason I have been able to contact millions of people around the world: I am not confined to any tradition. I am not burdened by the past, I am completely weightless. So anybody who is burdened—and who is not burdened?—becomes interested in me, particularly the young people who are fed up with all the nonsense that is being taught in the churches and the synagogues, in the temples, in the mosques….
They are trying hard, but it is just foolishness. They cannot catch hold of the new spirit of man.
I don't give you any tradition.
I don't give you any scripture.
I don't give you any discipline.
Those are all non-essentials. I simply concentrate my whole work on making you more conscious. Consciousness is the key to transform the whole of humanity.
And yes, Gurdjieff is right: if even two hundred people are aflame, enlightened, the whole world will become enlightened, because these two hundred torches can give fire to millions of people. Those people are also carrying torches, but without any fire. They have everything, just the fire is missing. And when fire passes from one torch to another, the first torch is not losing anything at all.
The enlightened consciousness is an infinite reservoir: it can give to you and yet it remains the same. Its quantity does not decrease, because it is not a question of quantity at all; it is a question of quality. Qualities can be shared without losing anything.
You can love as many people as you want—that does not mean one day you will go bankrupt, and you will have to declare, "Now I have no love." You cannot go bankrupt as far as love is concerned. Yes, you can go bankrupt as far as money is concerned. Money is a quantity; love is a quality. What to say of enlightened consciousness? It is the highest quality possible; there is nothing higher than that.
Don't be afraid, worried that if I am gone, then what will happen to my words. I will not be gone before I have sown the seeds of those words in you. They are not mine! They are nobody's. They are coming out of existence itself—I am simply a vehicle. You can become a vehicle. Everybody is capable of becoming a vehicle. Hence, I am not depending on old strategies; they have all failed. I am depending on living human beings.
And that is the only way to save humanity without becoming a savior, to save humanity without creating in them greed for heaven and fear of hell. The only way to save humanity is to give them some taste of what it means to be enlightened, a little fragrance, so they can feel the invisible.
And I am absolutely certain, utterly happy, that I have got the right people: people who are going to be my books, my temples, my synagogues. This is the reason I call this the first religion, because it depends on living human beings, not on dead holy scriptures, traditions, beliefs.
I am giving you the taste of my being, and preparing you to do the same, on your part, to others. It all depends on you, whether my words will remain living or will die. As far as I am concerned, I do not care.
While I am here, I am pouring myself into you. And I am grateful that you are allowing it to happen. Who bothers about the future? There is nobody in me who can care about the future. If existence can find me as a vehicle, I can remain assured that it can find thousands of people to be its vehicle.
I am simply giving you a little opportunity to become vehicles of the whole. false16
I have been asked again and again, "What about the future? What will happen to sannyasins, their children, when you are gone? You should write the discipline, the code, the morals; you should give them the ideals."
But I will be dead—and I am against the dead ruling the living. The living should find their own life, their own discipline, their own morals. And they will be living in a different time, in a different age, in a different atmosphere. Nobody should look backwards, and nobody should try to control even those who are not born.
Just live your life with as much joy and celebration, as a gift of God. Dance with the trees in the sun, in the rain, in the wind. Neither do the trees have any scriptures, nor do the animals have any scriptures; neither do the stars have any scriptures, nor do they have any saints. Except man, nobody is obsessed with the dead. This obsession I call one of the greatest mistakes which has been committed over thousands of years. It is time it should be stopped completely.
For each new generation, leave the space open to search, to find the truth, because finding the truth is less blissful than searching for it. The pilgrimage is the real thing, not the reaching to the temple. mess202
My approach to your growth is basically to make you independent of me. Any kind of dependence is a slavery, and the spiritual dependence is the worst slavery of all.
I have been making every effort to make you aware of your individuality, your freedom, your absolute capacity to grow without any help from anybody. Your growth is something intrinsic to your being. It does not come from outside; it is not an imposition, it is an unfolding.
All the meditation techniques that I have given to you are not dependent on me—my presence or absence will not make any difference—they are dependent on you. It is not my presence, but your presence that is needed for them to work.
It is not my being here but your being here, your being in the present, your being alert and aware that is going to help. enligh11
What to do when you die? Stay together and run the risk that the movement will turn into a stale sort of religion, or dissolve and be open for the call of another living Master?
If you have heard me there is no need to worry. If you have not heard me then there is every need to escape from here. Then I am not for you.
But think of this moment. Don't be worried about the future—that is none of your concern.
The second thing: each religion becomes a Church by and by. It has to, by the very nature of things. While the Master is alive it is one thing; when the Master has gone it is quite another. But for those who loved the Master, the Master is always there. For the people who loved Raman Maharshi, the Master is there. They still have the same feeling, when they go to Arunachal, his place, his mountain, and when they sit near his samadhi, it still has the same fragrance, the same freshness, the same presence, the same radiance. And Raman still answers and Raman still instructs and Raman still comes into their dreams, into their visions. For them there is no need to go anywhere; they have found their Master.
There are others also who go to Raman's place—but he is no longer present there. They think that he is dead, they know that he is dead. It is only a graveyard now, an old temple, relics. They cling to the sect. They still cherish the idea that they are followers of Raman. They are the dead people. It is good if they find some new Master—because with the old they missed. They should find a new Master.
So I cannot make a categorical statement about what you are to do when I am gone. For those who have contacted me I will never be gone and for those who have not contacted me I am already gone. They should leave right now. They should not wait for my death. Yes, after death they have to leave—but I am saying they should leave right now. Don't waste your time.
It depends on you whether my religion will remain alive or not when I am gone. It depends on you. To a few it will be dead…to them it is dead now. To a few it will remain alive…to them it is alive now and it will be alive forever. So each one has to decide for himself. If when I am gone you feel that I am there to help you, I will be there to help you. If you feel I am no longer there to help you, naturally you have to choose another Master.
And I am saying that you have to choose right now. Why wait for that moment? I may not die so soon. People like me are unpredictable. I may die tomorrow or I may not die so soon. So don't depend on that. You just listen to your own heart. If your heart is growing with me, blooming, new foliage is coming, new buds are opening, then I am your Master. If it is not happening, then seek and search somewhere else with all my blessings. sufis116
Soon I will not be here either. And remember, I would like to remind my disciples especially: if you really love me, when I am gone I will direct you to people who will be still alive. So don't be afraid of that. If I send you to Tibet or if I send you to China or if I send you to Japan or to Iran—go. And don't say that because you belong to me you cannot belong to another real Master. Just look in the eyes and you will find my eyes again. The body will not be the same but the eyes will be the same.
If your journey is not complete with me while I am here, if something is still to be done, completed, then don't be afraid. By dropping me you will not be betraying me. In fact, by not dropping me and by not following the real, the alive Master, you will be betraying me. Keep it in mind. sufis103
I am with you, but there are a few people who pretend they are my mediums. And they tell people that, whatsoever they are saying, I am speaking through them. I am fully alive—I can speak on my own! Wait a little. Let me die, then you can do your business. You will do it, but not now.
But I can forgive these people because they earn a little money and they exploit a few people. I cannot understand the people who become victims of these persons. They can't see the point. I am here: what is the need of somebody to function as a medium, to tell them what I want to tell them? I will tell you myself. Am I not telling you enough? Do you want more? Year in and year out I go on speaking to you every day.
But there are a few people…they don't come to listen, they don't come here. They avoid the commune, but they go on sitting in the Blue Diamond,* and a few foolish people go on meeting them there. And they roll up their eyes and they pretend to go in a trance, and then they start talking nonsense. The more nonsense it is, the more philosophical it seems, the more metaphysical it seems. And they always get a few people to listen to them, to follow them. It is a strange phenomenon, but somehow the pseudo has an appeal. dh0905
*Note:the Blue Diamond: a nearby 5-star hotel
I am trying to help them to be masters of themselves. I am just a catalytic agent. I am master of myself, so I know how one becomes a master of oneself. I am simply sharing my experience with these people. They are not my followers, they are my fellow travelers. And they are absolutely free to do anything they want. No restrictions, no inhibitions, no repressions.
What can they do? The moment I am gone, they will also go on their way separately, because their connection with me is direct. They are not interconnected like Christians or Hindus or Mohammedans. They are connected to me directly. Each sannyasin has a direct communication line with me. The moment I am gone, his last barrier is also finished. Other barriers I had finished before—now the last barrier, the love towards me, is also finished.
He is now totally free. Utterly free—to be himself. last121
Once you are ready, you will be thrown into the open sky. A Master's house is just a training place where you get ready, but it is not the final home. It is where you get ready, and then the Master throws you into the sky because there is the final home, in total freedom—in moksha. A Master is helpful just on the way. Before the temple of the Divine, he will suddenly leave you. Before the temple of the Divine, he will push you in, and if you look back you will not find him any more, he will not be there—because with the Divine you have to be alone. The work of the Master is completed. until04
What do you foresee as the future of your sannyas movement? Do you see it as prospering, even when you're not here?
Sannyas movement is not mine. It is not yours. It was here when I was not here. It will be here when I will not be here. Sannyas movement simply means the movement of the seekers of truth. They have always been here.
Of course, they have been always tortured by the ignorant masses: killed, murdered, crucified, or worshipped. Remember: it is the same whether you crucify or you worship. Both are the ways how to get rid of those people. One is crucifixion, another is worship. Worship is more cultured. We say you are an incarnation of God, we will worship you. But we will not do what you say. How can we do? We are ordinary human beings. You were extraordinary—either you were a prophet sent by God, or a messenger, or the only begotten son of God, or you were a reincarnation of God—you could do miracles. We have created all kinds of miracles, only for one reason. To create a distance between us and the people who have been seeking the truth and the people who have ultimately found the truth. We were not ready to go with them. There were only two ways: either to kill them, destroy them, so we can forget them and forgive them. They were a disturbing element, a nuisance. We were asleep and having such beautiful dreams and a Gautam Buddha comes and starts shaking you and tells, "Wake up!" Naturally you get angry.
There have always been a line of seekers of truth… I call it sannyas. It is eternal. It is sanatan. It has nothing to do with me. Millions of people have contributed to it. I have also contributed my own share. It will go on becoming more and more richer. When I am gone there will be more and more people coming and making it richer. The old sannyas was serious. I have contributed to it a sense of humor. The old sannyas was sad. I have contributed to it singing, dancing, laughing… I have made it more human. The old sannyas was somehow life-negative. I have made it life-affirmative. But it is the same sannyas. It is the same search. I have made it more rich. I have made it more grounded in the world because my whole teaching is `be in the world, but don't be of the world.' There is no need to renounce the world. Only cowards renounce it.
Live in the world, experience it. It is a school. You cannot grow in the Himalayas. You can only grow in the world. Each step is an examination. Each step you are passing through a test. Life is an opportunity.
I will be gone. That does not mean that the sannyas movement will be gone. It does not belong to anybody. Just as science does not belong to Albert Einstein. Why the search for truth should belong to somebody? To Gautam Buddha? To J Krishnamurti? Or to me? Or to you?
Just as science goes on growing and every scientific genius goes on contributing to it and the Ganges goes on becoming bigger and wider—oceanic; in the same way the inner world needs a science. The objective world has a science. The inner world needs a science and I call sannyas the science of the inner world. It has been growing but because it goes against humanities attachments, ignorance, superstitions, so-called religions, churches, priests, popes, shankaracharyas… these are the enemies of the inner search because the inner search needs no organization.
Sannyas movement is not an organization: that is why I call it `movement'. It is individual. People join. I had started alone and then people started coming and joining me and slowly, slowly the caravan became bigger and bigger. But it is not an organization. I am nobody's leader. Nobody has to follow me. I am grateful that you have allowed me to share my bliss, my love, my ecstasy. I am grateful to you. Nobody is my follower, nobody is lower. There is no hierarchy. It is not a religion. It is pure religiousness. The very essence. Not a flower, but only a fragrance. You cannot catch hold of it.
You can have the experience of it, you can be surrounded by the perfume, but you cannot catch hold of it.
Religions are like dead flowers you can find in Bibles, in Gitas… When they were put in the Bible they were living, they were fragrant, but now it is only a corpse. All holy books are corpses, dead flowers and nothing else.
Truth, the living truth, has to be discovered by each individual by himself. Nobody can give it to you. Yes, somebody who has achieved it can transpire a thirst in you, a tremendous desire for it. I cannot give you the truth, but I can give you the desire for it. I cannot give you the truth, but I can show you the moon… please don't get attached to my finger which is indicating the moon. This finger will disappear. The moon will remain and the search will continue.
As long as there is a single human being on the earth the flowers of sannyas will go on blossoming. last614
Existence knows only one tense—the present. It neither knows the past, because it is no more, nor does it know the future, because it is not yet. But the mind is always concerned either with the past or with the future, never with the present. Do you see?
Existence is only in the present. Mind is never in the present. In fact, the moment you are in the present, there is no mind in you, there is great silence. The whole sky of your inner being is without thoughts, without clouds. I call this the state of no-mind.
Only in this state of no-mind do you meet existence. And that meeting is the ultimate ecstasy. Once you have tasted it, you will never bother about the future. You know how to live in the present, so in the future also—it will be coming as the present, it will not come as the future—you will know the art.
And it is not that my presence is making people happy here; it is their own presence. Certainly they have learned the art of being in the present, but now they are absolutely independent of me. They are not my followers, I am nobody's leader—I hate such words!
To me, the most beautiful word in the human language is "friend." And the most beautiful experience in life is that of being friendly with someone who is authentically herenow. Because to be friendly with him, you will have to be here and now; otherwise, you cannot shake hands with the man, you cannot converse with the man, you cannot be with the man. The distance between you and him will be unbridgeable.
But once you have tasted the beauty, the benediction of the present moment, its eternity, its deathlessness, you simply forget all about the past, all about the future. You have the master key. Whatever door comes before you, you will be able to unlock it….
To me, unless you feel full of joy, bursting with happiness, you will not be able to have that great quality of gratitude towards existence.
That quality is authentic religiousness.
So rather than thinking about the future, about what will happen to this commune, think about your present. This time, just be here and don't go anywhere. Enjoy risking—it is great excitement—risking all for nothing, because we have nothing to offer to you except what you already have. bond35
A mystery school comes into existence with a master,
and disappears.
And that's how it should be.
In nature, in existence,
everything that is real….
A roseflower opens itself in the morning and
by the evening it is gone. upan01
