Darshan 2 September 1978
Deva means divine, surupa means beauty - divine beauty. This is one of the most fundamental things to be remembered always - that the innermost core of everything is beautiful. Even when the circumference is not beautiful, then too the center is always beautiful. But because we cannot see the center and we become acquainted only with the circumference, sometimes we start thinking:
this is ugly, that is bad, this is sin and that one is a sinner. That simply shows that we have not been able to penetrate to the very core of the person or the thing. If you look deep down in a sinner you will find a saint, and if you cannot find a saint that simply shows that you have not yet reached to the core of it.
When the eyes become really penetrating the whole existence becomes beautiful; even ugliness is transformed into beauty.
One has to go on working and digging and transforming oneself to the point where everything is known as beautiful, nothing remains ugly. When ugliness simply disappears, when one cannot see sin existing, and the whole existence takes on the quality of holiness, that is the moment of enlightenment. Then suddenly the joy is infinite, because then one lives surrounded by beauty; wherever one is there is heaven.
Even if you throw a man like Buddha or Jesus into hell, you will not be able to torture him there. You will not be able to make him miserable there; he will find something utterly beautiful there too. There too Jesus will thank God for the beauty of hell, and Buddha will be able to meditate amidst all the fire of hell; those flames will become petals of lotus flowers. It depends on the vision, it depends on how you look at things. There are people for whom even flowers are thorns, and there are people for whom thorns have become flowers.
Sannyas is an initiation into this art of transforming the whole existence into a beatitude. And that is the meaning of your name - let it become your life too.
Deva means divine, abhinavo means new, newness, freshness - divine newness. The word "new" comes from the same root: navo. Life is constantly renewing itself; not even for a single moment is it the same. If it appears the same to us, that simply shows that we have missed seeing the change that has happened. Maybe the change was too fast and we could not see it; maybe the change was so quick, and we were not alert - we were asleep. Maybe we were occupied with something else.
That's what is happening: because the mind is constantly occupied with the past or with the future, it goes on missing the change that is happening right now.
Everything is changing. Trees are growing, so are the mountains; rivers are flowing and so are the mountains. Everything is in a flow - nothing is stagnant. The child is growing, the young man is becoming old, the old is moving every moment into death. Death is becoming life, and life is becoming death; day's turning into night and the night is turning into day. It is constant - the wheel goes on moving, but we go on missing it because we are never herenow; hence the boredom. We think everything is the same.
In the morning you leave the home, and by the evening when you come back do you think that it is the same woman that you left in the morning? It is not, it is not possible. Much water has flowed down the Ganges. The woman has become eight hours older so much has changed in her. She is not the same woman that you think you left, but because you are so occupied you never give her a look.
In fact, if a person is told to recall the face of his wife, he will not be able to remember it because for years he has not looked at the face of the woman. And if he recalls it at all it may be the face that his woman had thirty years before, when they got married, when they were in love, and when he had seen the woman for the first time. But it can't be contemporary, not at all. It cannot be of the immediate moment.
People start taking each other for granted. They start taking everything for granted - the trees and the stars and the sun and the moon - then life becomes a boredom. Then they are utterly bored and dragging and they don't see what the point of it all is.
Life can become a celebration, but one has to see the newness, the constant renewing energy of life. Each moment it brings something new into existence which was never before and will never be again. Each moment the old disappears and the new is born. Only in meditation can one see it, because in meditation one becomes unoccupied.
That is the definition of meditation: to become unoccupied, to be empty, not to be occupied at all.
And these are the two occupations: the past and the future. The moment you are not occupied you are out of time; then you are herenow, in this immediate moment. And when eyes open to this immediate moment, it is simply unbelievably beautiful. It is a constant wonder. There are surprises and surprises at each step, with each breath. Then life takes on a new color, a new vigor. Then you are also fresh, because nothing ever gets old.
To remain in this freshness is to be spiritual. Then one is always young. Even in death one is young, even in dying one is fresh. Even the moment of death will bring only new surprises, that's all. New doors will open, new mysteries will be revealed. Then life is a joy, and death too.
This is the alchemy of transforming life. So start becoming more and more unoccupied and available to the present.
[A sannyasin, who teaches yoga, says she finds it too strict and rigid. Osho checks her energy.]
Your feeling is right. The energy is going so beautifully - not only fine but divine. Anything forced on your body will create a split. No need to do anything like that. Go on doing the way you feel like doing; your yoga is also perfectly good. Your awareness is going well, your energy is going well. Iyengar can be a disturbance in this moment, because he has no insight as far as energy is concerned. He is a good teacher of body postures, but that is an outer form of yoga - not its internal spirit, not its interiority, but only the external. It is good for the beginner - a well-trained body is helpful - but now it will be a hindrance. Now you need a more fluid body, more flowing, no rigidity.
So just meditate, do a few groups, and continue your work as you are doing. Now my feeling is for you not to go to any teacher in yoga. It is very rare to find a yoga teacher and a spiritual man together. For centuries it has not been happening, because the people who become interested in yoga get lost in the physiology of it. They never reach the point where they should start meditating.
They become too obsessed with the physical well-being that yoga brings, but that is just body. It gives good health, a good body, a good body feeling, but that is nothing if you don't use it to go somewhere else. Yoga is only a porch, not the real temple. And once you have started enjoying something of the inner temple, then it is better not to force anything upon yourself.
Now you will be able to develop your own yoga, so go on teaching and inventing and become more inventive, creative. A real yoga teacher has to be as inventive as a poet; he has to continuously devise. There is no need to always follow the old pattern. See the person, listen to his rhythm, his body, his energy, and find something for him that will suit him. Because all those yoga postures and the whole system is just an outer form; it is not meant to be followed exactly, literally. One has to understand it and then one has to listen to one's own body.
And your feeling is perfectly right - it is good that you asked and you didn't go; otherwise your energy could have been disturbed. Anything enforced on you will create a split and will be a disaster. And you know more than enough; with that knowledge you can go on inventing. Now be a teacher on your own - forget all about learning from others. Learn from people you teach... Learn from their experiences, learn from their growing energy, their changing energy, learn from their deepening awareness. Listen more to the disciples you teach, their experiences, their growth - watch it.
A teacher has to be like a gardener: he has to look around the plants to see how they are growing, whether they have enough space or not, if more water is needed or less, if more sun is needed or less, if a little bit of pruning is needed or not. Look to each plant with no prejudice, with no fixed idea of how things should be.
That is what is wrong with all traditional yoga teachers: they have a fixed idea about how things should be. The man has to fit with their idea; they don't change their idea to fit with the man. They are disciplinarians; it is a kind of regimentation, and basically inhuman.
So you need not go anywhere - just meditate. Things are going perfectly well. Now teach yoga and teach more meditations to people. Let yoga be just the beginning and then slowly slowly persuade them towards meditation. And you can be of great help.