Darshan 22 April 1976

Prem means love and sadhu means two or three things. One is, being unattached to the world, a deep non-attachment, a renunciation. It also means goodness ... a very good man whose goodness is not just a discipline of morality but which has arisen through his being; whose goodness is simply his nature, spontaneity. Of course if goodness comes that way, one becomes unattached to things, to the world.

Prem Sadhu will mean love and spontaneous goodness.

Prem means love and gyan means knowledge - knowledge that comes through love.

There are two types of knowledge. One needs no love - the scientific knowledge. You need not love the object you are going to know. In fact if you love, scientific knowledge will not be possible. For scientific knowledge an absolutely non-emotional attitude is needed. You should not be loving. You should be completely aloof, indifferent - not for or against. So for scientific knowledge a detached attitude is needed.

Religious knowledge is totally different. If you are detached you will never be able to know what religion is. You have to be deeply in love with it because this is a knowledge that comes through deep participation. You cannot remain out of it. The knower becomes part of the known. In fact the more the knower dissolves into the unknown, the more he comes to know. A moment comes when the knower is completely lost. Only then knowledge is perfect.

This name - Prem Gyan - will mean knowledge that comes through love, personal knowledge; not objective but subjective knowledge. All that is beautiful comes through love and all that comes without love is dangerous. It will bring Nagasaki, Hiroshima. It is going to be destructive because in the first place it has not been through love.

If the seed has not been loving, the fruit is going to be poisonous. That's why the whole scientific effort, and such a tremendous effort leads nowhere but to deeper and deeper misery - to war, to technology, to ecological destruction. In fact it is sabotaging the whole life rather than enhancing it.

Sooner or later ... the last part of the twenty-five years of this century is going to bring a revolution in the scientific attitude. It has to learn something from religion;p only then science can be a help to humanity, otherwise it is going to destroy everything.

[Osho recommended to a sannyasin who was returning to Germany that she continue at least one meditation a day.]

Just make meditation part of ordinary life. Don't think in terms of your doing something religious.

Just as one takes a bath every day, takes food and goes to sleep, so meditation should become just an ordinary part of one's life. Then it grows faster. When you make it something special, it becomes an ego-trip.

And there is no need to be serious. about it. Enjoy it, and if you enjoy it you will find it is going deeper every day. Let it be a fun. And anytime - but at least once in twenty-four hours. It will cleanse you, prepare you, cleanse you of the past and integrate you for the future. Every twenty-four hours we go on accumulating much dust, and meditation is just an inner shower; it cleans away the dust.

When you are feeling good, healthy, and a well-being is surrounding you, you gather less dust. When you are feeling very very good and somebody says something which otherwise might have irritated you, it will not irritate you so much. When you are feeling good you can forgive easily. When you are feeling bad it is difficult to forgive. In fact when you are feeling bad you try to find some excuse somewhere so you can be angry, irritated, and you can throw the responsibility on the other.

But when one is feeling good one is not worried. The same situation which ordinarily creates anger will not create anger. The same situation which ordinarily does not create much enjoyment, much joy, will create much joy.

If you continue meditation, by and by it cleans you every day of the past, and prepares you for the future. It gives you a deep rootedness in the present... it is therapeutic.

[An actor said he was now trying to work differently, presenting ideas from his unconscious spontaneously to the audience. He said he tended to be self-conscious and asked for Osho's help.]

Much can be done... much can be done. But before you can do anything for others, you have to do it for yourself, otherwise you cannot be spontaneous.

Spontaneity is possible only when you have attained to a certain inner flow of energies, otherwise you can be spontaneous but it will not be impressive; it will not be a performance.

Two things have to be looked to when you are doing it for people. You have to be spontaneous, and at the same time it has to carry some meaning for people. Because it has to carry meaning, people have to plan, to rehearse beforehand, so that they can see and feel whether it is going to have any meaning for people or not.

If you are going to be absolutely spontaneous you will have to go deep in meditation - and not alone.

Your whole group will have to go into meditation and then a tremendous quality will arise in your work.

But for that, very great preparation will be needed - more than what you do in rehearsal because that is superficial preparation. Unless you are prepared very deeply, you cannot be spontaneous.

You can be spontaneous but it will not be a performance.

[Osho suggested that he do a few groups here which would open him up more. Osho said for him to participate in the group rather than being an observer; not to try to learn but to forget all about performance... ]

... so you can get into the feel of your own being.

If you are in touch with your own being, you will always be able to touch other people's hearts.

In fact that is secondary. If you are deeply in touch with yourself, you will immediately become in touch with others' hearts and being. If you can feel very happy in some spontaneous act, others will also feel happy. But the basic problem is you. Happiness is infectious... silence is also infectious.

Spontaneity is infectious, but it has to be there in the first place. And you cannot fake spontaneity.

In these groups forget about performance - just be a human being.

That is a problem with people who do acting, drama, dance, performance. The problem with them is that they remain manipulating. They go on watching out of the corner of their eyes - 'Yes this is good; this can be done. This is not good; it cannot be done. This will appeal to people; this won't.' If you continue that, you miss the whole point.

First be really spontaneously human. Get in touch with your feelings and let them explode. Once it has happened you can create a situation in which, with others also, it can happen.

The idea is very very good - but much effort will be needed for it. It is not ordinary; much effort will be needed, and you will really have to grow. Then it is not only performance - it is going to be an inner growth.

[A visitor said that though he had been in contact with thinkers and philosophers and had read extensively, he could not discover why he was, what he was doing here.]

Nobody can ever come to understanding through books. Books can only talk about and about. They cannot deliver you the real thing. But that is nothing to complain about because that is the very nature of words. Words cannot carry the meaning. If I say something to you, only that word reaches you, but the meaning that I wanted to give to you remains with me.

Unless you meditate deeply, understanding will not arise. Nobody else can give it to you; you have to earn it. Through arduous effort, struggle, sacrifice, you have to earn it, only then problems will disappear.

The basic problem of why you are here, which has come to your mind, will disappear only when you have reached to the very core of your being, never before it At the core you will know that you have always been here. It is not a question of why you are here. You have always been here in different forms.

The form has been changing but you have always been here. The form will go on changing but you will always remain here. You are part of this whole. The river falls into the ocean, and again the ocean rises and becomes clouds. Again it becomes a river and falls into the ocean, then becomes clouds again. It goes on... it is a wheel.

You have been here many times. You will be here many times. In fact you have been here for eternity, and you will be here for eternity. There is no beginning and no end to existence... it is eternal.

I can say that to you, but it will not bring understanding. When you come deep within yourself and you open the innermost shrine of your being, when you enter into that innermost shrine, suddenly you will realise that you have always been here - sometimes as a plant, a rosebush... sometimes like a bird, a cuckoo... sometimes like an animal, a tiger - in millions of forms... and now as a man.

Sometimes you may be a god... sometimes enlightened like a Buddha. This goes on and on. There is no question as to why you are because the question basically will mean why is existence at all? - because you are existence.

This form that is surrounding you is not you - it is just your house. For the time being you are in it, but you are the formless abiding in the form. Just as you go on changing clothes, people go on changing bodies, changing minds. But something is absolutely eternal in you - that has to be searched for. That's what meditations are about, so meditate more.

Reading is not going to help. Meditation is going to help... Aikido (which the visitor had said he was studying) is going to help. It is very meditative; you can go on working through it.

[A sannyasin said: It's very difficult for me to surrender... I'm always alone and I don't like it.]

Mm, mm.... Firstly, the problems are not separate. Because you are afraid of love, you are also afraid of surrender. Surrender is a deep love, a total love ... more total than any love.

If you are afraid of love you will also be afraid of surrender because that is dissolving yourself completely. That is the fear in love also, that makes you want to escape. You want to protect, secure yourself, and remain safe... and every love is an invitation to danger. It is an adventure and one never knows where it will end and what will come out of it.

Very clever people, very calculating people, never get into love. They become misers. That miserliness will bring only misery, because if you don't love you won't get it. You will remain alone, and that loneliness will not flower.

A person needs a relationship, because a relationship gives situations to flower and grow. There is sometimes pain also, but pain is part of growth. So don't be afraid of pain. I'm not saying that all and everything will be just flowers and flowers. There are many thorns in love and one has to suffer - but they are worth it.

Just gather courage... and don't wait because time will be passing and you will become more and more addicted to your habit of escaping from people. Just dare a little. Next time somebody

approaches, don't escape; rather, you approach somebody. Why wait for somebody to approach you?

In the beginning you will feel very nervous and very afraid, but once you have the taste of it the fear will disappear. And if you can move into a loving relationship. that will help surrender most.

Always remember that the mind is naturally divided. It always says two things together: Surrender, don't surrender. Love, don't love. Do this, don't do that. Now it is for you to choose. You are not these two minds. You are the awareness that is watching both. One mind is saying to surrender, another mind is saying don't surrender. Now you have to judge. You have to look into these and to think of pros and cons. You have to meditate on it.

If you don't surrender, what is going to happen? If you surrender, what is going to happen? Just think about it, meditate on it. If you feel that it is good to be on your own, then be on your own; don't be worried. But you have been on your own and where have you reached?

If you have been on your own and you have not reached anywhere, then try surrender too. Give it a try. Who knows? maybe it will be helpful. And if it is not helpful, you are always free because nothing can be absolutely binding. You can be on your own again. You can come with me for a little while, you can be with me on the path for the time being and if you feel that no, you would like to be on your own, go on your own.

Particularly with me there is no problem because my whole effort is to make you so strong that you can be on your own. In fact I ask your surrender just to make you ready to be on your own. So there is no problem. I am not against you. My asking for surrender is just so that you don't create any trouble and disturbance and so I can work faster.

But think about it, mm? First think about love and then about surrender.

[A sannyasin said she was having difficulty in her relationship with her parents - that they had virtually disowned her as she had become a sannyasin and was living with an Indian.

Osho first talked about what she felt was a problem in relating to people and being accepted. He then talked about her relationship with her parents.... ]

And about your parents, don't be worried. Are they Catholics? Mm... so they must be troubled.

Send them my books on Jesus, mm? And tell them that I am a Catholic (laughter).Tell them that I am a little eccentric about orange but otherwise I am a Catholic. We will persuade them, don't worry!

Don't hurt them in any way. They are not understanding what is happening to you, what you are doing here. So write them good letters, quote the bible (chortles of mirth) so they will think, 'She is becoming a real Catholic!' Persuade them.

One has to learn salesmanship, mm? Then we can sabotage them from within! (gales of mirth)