We can share

The first question:

Question 1:

Anand Arun,

Sanjay Gandhi was a beautiful person, a man of immense integrity, individuality, adventure. He lived adventurously and he died adventurously. in fact, that's how one should live and one should die. He lived dangerously. the only way to live is the way to live in danger, because it is only in moments of tremendous danger that one transcends lower planes of being.

It has been reported in the newspapers and when Vivek read she asked me how it was possible - because dying in a plane crash his whole body was just a mess. All his bones were broken, his skull was broken, his brain had come out of the skull - but on his face there was great peace. She was puzzled. After such a horrible death, how one's face can be peaceful?

But there is a secret in it worth understanding. When one dies on a deathbed after a prolonged disease, continuously thinking and worrying about death, the face cannot be calm and quiet; the worry, the tension, the clinging to life will be there. But when one dies suddenly, when death comes like a surprise, suddenly the mind stops.

I have been in many accidents myself and the people who have been with me in those accidents have all experienced that in the moment when the accident is actually happening the mind disappears, because the mind cannot THINK about it. There is nothing to think about it, there is no way to think about it. The mind stops because the mind can only move in the vicious circle of the known, and the unknown has entered so suddenly that the mind is absolutely incapable of figuring it out, what is happening. In a deep shock the mind stops; for a moment there is a glimpse of the no-mind.

Sanjay Gandhi died in a better death than millions of people who die in their beds after a long, long disease, because they cannot use the opportunity of death. He may not have experienced meditation while he was alive, but he must have tasted just a drop of the nectar of meditation while he was dying. Death came with such immediacy, giving no time for the mind to think about it. Such a death is a beautiful death.

Many questions have been asked to me for the past week, since he died. I had not answered them for the simple reason because people who have not meditated. people who have not been here, who have not been my sannyasins will not be able to understand what I am saying.

Vinoba Bhave said on Sanjay Gandhi's death that he died an immature death. That is absolutely wrong. He was far more mature than Morarji Desai. Chronologically he was very young, only thirty- three, but chronological age is not the real age. He had far more perceptiveness, he had far more intelligence, he had far more clarity. He lived totally, he lived each moment of his life. And it was a very natural death to him; it belonged to his very style of life.

That's why I have kept complete silence about it. Now all the people who had to say something have said, I can say my word, which is going to be absolutely different. I don't feel sad about his death.

Yes, the country will miss him, but as far as he is concerned he died beautifully. The country has lost a great opportunity in him because he was a promise, a great hope, because he had the guts to go against the traditional, orthodox mind of this country. He was a man of steel - he could have fought against conventions, and he was learning how to fight. And he was succeeding. Slowly slowly his grip on the events was growing better every day.

The country has certainly lost an immense opportunity of becoming contemporary. He was a contemporary man; he had no hangovers from the past, he did not believe in the past. But as far as he himself is concerned he could not have died in a better way. This death is a logical conclusion to his whole life.

If dying at the age of thirty-three inevitably means immature death, then Adi Shankaracharya also died an immature death - he was exactly thirty-three. Then Jesus also died an immature death; he was exactly thirty-three. Then Vivekananda also died an immature death; he was also exactly thirty-three. Just living long means nothing; length has no meaning. Meaning comes from intensity.

It is not a question of quantity but of quality. How long you live makes no difference. HOW you live, how deeply, how totally, how intensely, how passionately - everything depends on that. And he certainly lived totally, intensely, passionately - and he risked everything for it; he was not in any way a coward.

People like Sanjay Gandhi are bound to die in some strange way. This country needs more people like Sanjay Gandhi. For centuries this country has been a coward country. The Himalayas belong to this country - the greatest mountains in the world - but for one hundred years continuously people have come from all over the world to climb the virgin peaks of the Himalayas. But no Indian has bothered: Indians believe in security, comfort - why take the risk? Many have died in trying to climb the Everest.

And when Edmund Hillary came he was asked "Are you people mad? Why you bother? What you are going to gain out of it? Even if you reach at the top of the Everest there is nothing! Why so many people from all over the world have tried to climb the mountain?"

Hillary said, "Just because it is there. It is a great challenge. Standing there, unconquered, it is a challenge to human spirit. It has to be conquered - it is not a question of gaining anything. Just a challenge to the spirit of man..."

Indians can't understand this. That's why they have lived for two thousand years in slavery. They will not climb the mountains, they will not swim in the ocean they will not glide in the sky. They will move very mathematically, very calculatingly.

Sanjay Gandhi was a good beginning; he was a pioneer in this way. He was always interested into adventure. He could not fit in any school, he could not fit in any conventional pattern of life. I loved the man.

We need many more people who can die in adventures. Their death raises the spirit of the people.

If they live they bring new quality, new perfume to people's life; if they die, their death also brings a new fragrance. Hence I am not sad about him. I am certainly sad about the country. It is really a misfortune for the country, a great calamity, far more greater than the death of Jawaharlal Nehru, Sanjay Gandhi's grandfather, because Jawaharlal had lived his life, he had done whatsoever he wanted to do. There was nothing else that he could have done even if he had lived ten years more; he had blossomed. He was a poet, not a politician; he was also adventurous. Something of him has entered into Indira Gandhi, his daughter, and something of him was very much in the bones and the blood and the marrow of Sanjay Gandhi.

Sanjay Gandhi's death is far bigger a calamity to the country because he had yet to contribute much. He had just begun to open his petals; he had yet to become a flower. He was still a potential.

Certainly he would have been a great prime minister of the country if he had lived - he may have proved the greatest prime minister this country has known up to now - he was showing every indication of that.

Hence, as far as the country is concerned, Anand Arun, it has been a calamity. But as far as he himself is concerned he lived beautifully, he died beautifully. And the peace that was on his face which must have looked miraculous to everybody - not only to Vivek but to everybody... Whosoever must have seen his face must have wondered why he looked so calm and quiet and serene.

You have to understand the psychology of such accidents. The mind is very clever about day-to-day affairs; it continues its chattering. It stops only when there is some shock, something which is not digestible, which the mind cannot take in. That's, in fact, the attraction of adventure. The people who go on mountain climbing know it, what really is the attraction. The attraction is not just climbing beautiful mountains with a scenic panorama surrounding it - that is not the point. Far deeper there is a psychology of it. When you are climbing a mountain there are thousand-and-one dangers.

When you are surrounded in dangers your mind stops. You become suddenly aware. There is great alertness and a serenity. You have to take each step very carefully, consciously. That is really what meditation is all about.

In my childhood days I used to take my friends to the river. There was a small path by the side of the river. To walk on that edge was very dangerous; just one step taken in unconsciousness and you will fall into the river, and that was the place where the river was the deepest. Nobody used to go there, but that was my most loved spot. And I will take all my friends to come along with me to move on that narrow edge. Very few were ever ready to go along with me, but those few had really a beautiful experience. They will all report, "This is strange, how the mind stops!"

I will take my friends to the railway bridge to jump from the bridge into the river. It was dangerous, certainly dangerous; it was prohibited. There was always a policeman standing on the railway bridge because that was the place from where people used to commit suicide. We had to bribe the policeman, that "We are not committing suicide, we have just come to enjoy the jump!" And slowly slowly he became aware that these are the same people - they don't die or anything, they come again, they come again and they are not interested in suicide. In fact, he started loving us and stopped taking bribes. He said, "You can jump - I will not look at that side. Whenever you want you can come."

It was dangerous. The bridge was very high and to jump from there... And before you will reach the river there was a time between - the gap between the bridge and the river - when the mind will suddenly stop.

Those were my first glimpses of meditation; that's how I became more and more interested in meditation. I started inquiring how these moments can be made available without going to the mountains, to the river, to the bridges; how one can allow oneself to move into these spaces without going anywhere, just by closing one's eyes. Once you have tasted, it is not difficult.

Sanjay Gandhi died beautifully. He will be born on a far higher plane because he died in a moment when the mind was no more functioning. He died the death of a meditator without knowing what is happening. Of course it was not a conscious meditation, but still there was something of meditativeness in it. His next life will be of a higher quality. Maybe his next life will become more concerned with the INNER adventure; this life was more concerned with the outer adventure. He was an extrovert.

He wanted to come here. Many times I had been informed that he wants to come, and this time he had seen all the slides of the ashram. For two hours he was with Laxmi, with Indira, talking, inquiring, was very much interested and wanted to come.

But my feeling was that this life he was more of an extrovert. But this sudden death will bring a transformation into him: he will become an introvert in his next life, and that is something of immense value.

Indira Gandhi must be in great pain. She cannot understand how we celebrate death here. She also wants to come, has been thinking for many days to come. Now she has settled that in August she will be coming, but now the death of Sanjay may again postpone her coming. She is interested in meditation, but she is, obviously, too much occupied with the world, with the problems. And this country has so many problems, almost insoluble.

I his country is in such a situation that if you solve one problem you create ten others immediately.

It is a mess! If you really want to solve the problems, people go against you. She told Laxmi that, "I perfectly agree with Osho that population has to be reduced, and it can be reduced only forcibly. But we have tried and that does not work because the country is a democratic country: people become enemies, then you can't come back into power again." And whatsoever Indira and Sanjay together did in five years, Morarji Desai undid within three years. Now the problems are again the same - or even far more worse.

China now has the greatest population in the world, but by the end of this century India will have the greatest population, because China is not a democracy and they are using every possible way to prevent the growth of population. And they are succeeding.

By the end of this century India will be the greatest populated country in the world and, of course, it will have the greatest problems - almost impossible to solve. They can be solved right now, but to solve them means you have to fight with the people for their own sake. They will be against you.

They are against me for the simple reason because whatsoever I say can be of help, but it goes against their traditions, against their conventions, against their orthodox mind.

Sanjay created more enemies in the country than friends for the simple reason that he REALLY wanted to help the country. He was far more interested in the well-being of the country than becoming a popular leader. If you want to be a popular leader you have to be a follower of your followers; you have just to say what they want to listen. He created more enemies than friends, he was the most hated person, for the simple reason because he had great dreams to help the country.

And he had a clear vision - and he was on the right track.

All the idiots of the country deep down will be feeling very happy, that "It is good that he is gone!"

Now they can continue living their old stupidities and superstitions.

I was shocked to know that on his funeral they were chanting Vedic mantras; that is not right. He would not have liked that at all. He was not a believer of any religion. He certainly believed in service and he believed that to serve is the only way to come closer to God - and he was right! And they were doing all kinds of foolish things, and Indira was in such a shock that she simply looked dazed, didn't say anything. The Indian priests, the Indian priesthood, immediately took over the chants; in their hands...

And the people who were against him are now praising. People are so stupid, so unconscious, so mechanical; the!.! don't know what they go on doing. If they had supported this young man he would have been a blessing to the country. But they tried in every possible way to prevent him. There were at least hundred cases against him in the courts. He was running from one court to another court, for last three years. He has been harassed as much as anybody can be harassed, but he faced all that harassment without any strain, without any tension; he accepted it as part of his life.

If you want to change people, if you want to bring a radical change in their life, if you want to bring a revolution, you have to accept all these things as your destiny; they are inevitable.

We need more people like him, particularly in this country. More young men should die climbing the mountains, flying in the sky, diving deep in the ocean, exploring the unknown - first outwardly and then inwardly too.

My work is totally different - it is inner - but on the fundamentals Sanjay Gandhi would have absolutely agreed with me. I believe in adventure. Of course I am not interested that my sannyasins should go climbing the mountains because I know of far bigger mountains that are waiting inside you. And I would not encourage you to fly in the sky because there is a far bigger sky within you, far more unknown, far more unexplored, unmapped, uncharted. But the fundamental is the same.

The quality of adventure to me is a religious quality, it is a spiritual quality. Whether you use it outwardly or inwardly, it doesn't matter. But I love all adventurous people, and I love all those who are courageous enough to live in insecurity - and he lived in insecurity - and of course, in insecurity you are always living with death. That's what insecurity means: that each moment of life is also a moment of death.

Anand Arun, you ask me to say few words on Sanjay Gandhi and his death.

Death is an illusion, death never happens - only the form changes. And because we become too much identified with the form, that's why we feel so miserable. To know that you are not the body, not the mind, is to know that there is no death, that you are eternal. Everybody is part of eternity.

There are only two illusions in the world, and they are not really two but two aspects of the same illusion. One is ego, which is false; it gives you the false idea that, "I am separate from existence."

And out of this illusion arises the second illusion - the illusion of death. You are not separate from existence, hence how can you die? The wave is not separate from the ocean; it cannot die either.

Yes, sometimes it manifests and sometimes it rests and goes into unmanifestation.

There is no death, Anand Arun, remember it. But I am not saying to believe in me; I would like you to experience it. There is no death. There is only life and life eternal.

The second question:

Question 2:

Gopaldas,

There are many things to be understood. The first thing: nobody is born as a Christian or a Hindu or a Mohammedan. You are simply born as a pure consciousness with no adjective attached to you.

You are brought up as a Hindu, as a Christian, as a Mohammedan; that is another matter. That has nothing to do with your birth; that is conditioning by your parents.

And it always happens that whenever you are conditioned by others you feel a deep resistance against it. That is natural; nothing is wrong in it, not at all, because that child wants to remain free and by making him a Christian or a Jew or a Hindu the parents are drawing a small circle around him. They are making him defined; he was born undefined. He was born infinite; now they are making him finite. He was born open, open like a lotus flower; now the parents, the society, the educational system, the church, they are all trying to close him, to make him a prison cell. Nobody likes it - nobody can like it - it is against nature, against Tao.

Freedom is our natural love, hence the child starts resisting. He has to repress his resistance; he cannot assert it because he has to depend on the parents. He is utterly helpless; he cannot live without their support. It is a question of survival for him, hence he has to compromise; he compromises with the parents just to survive. By the time he is capable of standing on his own feet he is already conditioned. Now the walls are too thick around him, and living within those walls for twenty-five years, which is almost one-third of one's life, and the most important one-third, one becomes attached to the walls. One starts accepting them, one starts even becoming attached. But that resistance somewhere in the unconscious continues. If some opportunity arises to go against your condition you will not miss the opportunity.

That is what happened to you, Gopaldas.

You say: I WAS BORN A CHRISTIAN...

Nobody is born a Christian - you were brought up as a Christian and you must have carried a deep resistance against it. Coming in contact with Hinduism you became convinced of its rightness.

What type of contact was this? It was only intellectual. And of course, the eastern religions are far more appealing intellectually than the western religions for the simple reason because the East has explored consciousness for a longer time than the West. Eastern science is childish, so is western religion. Eastern religion is very mature; western religion is very childish.

The greatest religions were born in India - Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism; they contain the highest flights of human consciousness. Mohammedanism, Judaism, Christianity are far behind; intellectually they cannot be very much convincing. They will look very primitive compared to Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism.

You must have become intellectually convinced. But intellectual conviction is not real conversion; it remains in the head. You simply change from one prison into another - maybe a little bigger, a little better, with more facilities - but the prison is still a prison. If you are really rebellious you will not change one prison for another, you will simply get out of all prisons.

That's why you are becoming very much confused here, because I am not here to convert you into another religion - for that, Gopaldas, you will be very willing. My sannyasins don't belong to any religion at all; they have a kind of religiousness. They are religious without any religion.

Religion is for me a quality - not a philosophy, not a theology. I am against people moving from Christianity to Hinduism or from Hinduism to Christianity. I am against all these conversions; they are simply stupid.

A Polish captain called all his men to the barracks.

"Right, men! Today we are changing underwear. Kozlowski, you change with Zabriski! Pilsudski, you change...."

Now finally the Polacks have decided to change the underwear, but now they are changing amongst themselves, so what kind of change is this? It was far better to keep your own underwear - at least it had your own dirt! Now you will be carrying somebody else's dirt.

Gopaldas, are you a Polack?

A Polish man walks into a doctor's office with third degree burns on both sides of his face. The doctor, in amazement and concern, asks what happened. The Polack explains that he was at home ironing clothes when the telephone rang. Without thinking he put the iron to his ear instead of the phone.

"But how did the other side of your face get burned?" asked the doctor.

The Polack answered, "He called me back!"

It was enough that you were a Christian - only one side of the face was burned - now what kind of nonsense is this, that you became a Hindu?

And I know this man who initiated you, the founder of Krishna Consciousness Movement, Prabhupad. He certainly had some talent in attracting stupid people all over the world. He must have been a Polack himself for many lives! I have never come across any Hare Krishna Movement person who has any kind of intelligence. Now from Christianity you fell into another ditch.

Two Polacks arrived late at a concert where pianists of many nationalities are playing. Since they did not have a copy of the program they could not tell which pianist was from what country.

Suddenly one of the Polacks said, "That is the Polack pianist."

"How do you know?" asked the other.

"Simple. He does everything like the others, but instead of pushing the stool closer to the piano, he sits and pulls the piano closer to himself!"

And do you know what happened to the Polack parachutist? He missed the ground!

It is good, Gopaldas, that now you are feeling a little confused. That shows the beginning of intelligence, because unless you have some intelligence you cannot be confused. You cannot confuse a rock: confusion means some indication of intelligence. Don't be worried - you are still a little bit alive. A fragment of you is still intelligent, and that is enough. We will take hold of that fragment and from there we will start changing you - not converting you into another religion but simply making you aware that religion has nothing to do with beliefs, Hindu, Christian, Mohammedan.

Religion is a revolution - a revolution from mind to no-mind, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. Religion is a radical change of your inner gestalt. What you did was just substituting your old beliefs with new beliefs. But I don't think that makes any difference. You worshipped Jesus Christ, now you will be worshipping Krishna; but the worshipper is the same, the worship is the same. You have not changed - you cannot change this way. You can go to the church, you can go to the temple, but you are the same person. Just by changing from church to the temple, do you think there will be any transformation of your consciousness? It's not so cheap. It needs tremendous inner work, it needs great awareness. It is not a question of placing one belief instead of another, one image instead of another, finding substitutes.

The basic question is how to get unidentified with the body, with the mind, how to know that you are just a watcher. a watcher on the hills, above the clouds, unidentified with any cloud, totally beyond, beyond the beyond.

My sannyasins don't belong to any religion although all religions belong to them. They are vast enough: they can absorb whatsoever is beautiful in Jesus and they can absorb whatsoever is beautiful in Krishna. Why change Jesus with Krishna? - because Jesus has something beautiful which Krishna has not got, and Krishna has something else which is beautiful which is missing in Jesus. And you will be far more complete if Jesus, Krishna, Mohammed, Moses, Zarathustra, Lao Tzu, Ko Hsuan, Kabir, Bahauddin, all become part of your inner being. There is no need to be so miserly. Your consciousness is so vast it can contain the whole universe, it can contain the whole sky. Even the sky is not the limit!

That's my whole effort here: to make you more and more available to all aspects of religiousness.

Krishna has something beautiful - the flute, the song, the celebration - which is missing in Jesus.

But Jesus also has something immensely significant - the cross, the sacrifice, the readiness to die so willingly, with a prayer on his lips that, "Forgive, father, all these people, because they know not what they are doing," with such compassion, with such forgiveness. There is no need to drop Jesus.

Why not make space enough that they all can be part of you? They are aspects. And you will be missing Buddha - the serenity, the calmness. And you will be missing Bodhidharma - the laughter.

And you will be missing Meera - the dance.

Why choose? Why be this or that? Why not love all that is beautiful? You can love the roses, you can love the lotuses, you can love all kinds of flowers. These are all flowerings of God.

Gopaldas, you Will feel a little confused because you would like me to give you another substitute, and I don't give you another substitute. I make you spacious, I make you more open to ALL possibilities.

A religious consciousness can contain all that has happened up to now, that is happening now, and that will ever happen in the future. That vastness is the real change that brings you into the shrine of God. And God has many doors - Jesus says: My God's mansion has many rooms - he can contain contradictions.

You are worried because you will see many contradictions here. When I am speaking on Meera I will be speaking for love. When I am speaking on Buddha I will be speaking for meditation. When I am speaking on Tao I will be speaking on transcendence of love and meditation both. And you will be confused, you will think that I am contradictory. I am not contradictory, I am simply vast enough - I can contain contradictions. And my whole effort is to make you also capable of containing all contradictions in such a deep synchronicity that the opposites become complementaries. Then your inner noise disappears and a melody arises. That melody, that harmony is prayer.

The third question:

Question 3:

Sagara,

I do my hardest work before breakfast. That is getting up!

Have you heard about the guy whose name was Will Knott, but who was so lazy he signed his name Won't?

I belong to the same category. I am a lazy man's guide to enlightenment!

The fourth question:

Osho,

Question 4:

Ramakrishna,

THAT'S HOW PEOPLE LEARN, but that s how people remain stupid. too. The only way practiced hitherto is that of imitating others. That makes you knowledgeable but it does not make you intelligent. It makes you more informed but it does not release your wisdom. It will make you efficient as far as outer world is concerned - you will become a better mechanic, a better technician - but as far as the inner dimension is concerned you will become more and more stupid if you imitate.

There are things which are learned by imitation: for example, language you have to learn by imitation, otherwise you won't know any language. Science has to be learned through others. But the inner world is totally different; it follows a totally different law. There imitation is a barrier not a bridge, a wall not a bridge. There you have to learn on your own.

But people go on doing the same kind of imitation in the inner world too, so they start imitating Buddha, they start imitating Jesus, they start imitating Mahavira, and they end up by being only carbon copies. They become more and more stupid. They cannot find their original face.

You can sit like a Buddha, you can close your eyes like a Buddha, you can use the same posture, you can sit under the same kind of tree, you can eat the same kind of food in the same quantity, you can sleep the way Buddha used to sleep, get up at the time Buddha used to get up - you can do everything in the minutest detail exactly like a Buddha, but it will be all acting; it won't make you an awakened one.

A little rabbit is ready to become an adult, so his daddy says, "Today I will show you how to behave with the ladies!" So they go and find in the garden six beautiful female rabbits.

"Look at me," says daddy rabbit. "Watch! Be aware!"

"Hello, madam," says daddy as he jumps on the first female. And then some time after his jerking is over he says, "Goodbye, madam!"

Then he jumps on the second one with a very polite, "Hello. madam," then "Goodbye madam!"

And so on and so forth, very very slowly...

When he is finished he goes to his son. The little rabbit seems very feverish. "Did you get it?" asks his father.

"Oh yes, yes, yes!" says the young one. And running at full speed without a single stop he goes on jumping, "Hello madam, goodbye madam, hello madam, goodbye madam, hello madam, goodbye madam, hello madam, goodbye madam... hello daddy, goodbye daddy!"

Imitation will make you very stupid, unintelligent. It is the way of the mediocre. Beware of it. In the inner world - and that is the world I am concerned with and that is the world you are here for - imitation won't help not at all. You have to drop imitating completely, totally entirely, because each individual is unique, so unique that if he imitates anybody else he will miss his uniqueness, and in that uniqueness is his spirit, is his very being. In his uniqueness is hidden his god.

Cannot you observe that Jesus happened only once? And for two thousand years, how many people have tried to imitate him? Millions. And how many have become Jesus Christ? Not a single one.

The same is true about Zarathustra, about Lao Tzu, about Buddha, about Mahavira, about Krishna.

Not even a single person has been able to repeat, and it is not that people have not tried; people have tried in every possible way. Millions of people have tried to be like Buddha - who would not like to be like a Buddha? - but they have all failed, utterly failed. Is it not a great lesson to be learned?

Just open your eyes and see that God never creates two persons exactly similar; he does not repeat.

He is really a creator.

It happened once:

A man purchased a Picasso painting. It was very costly, one million dollars, but he knew perfectly well that it is authentic - he knew it because he was an eye witness when Picasso was doing it.

When he had purchased he was so happy - he was a friend to Picasso - he went to show him the painting and to tell him that, "I have purchased your painting. Of course it has cost me a fortune, but I am immensely happy that I have got one of your original paintings with me."

Picasso looked at the painting and said, "This is not original - this is a copy."

The man was shocked. Then he has been robbed of one million dollars! He said, "But what are you saying? - because I have seen with my own eyes! I was staying with you in those days when you were painting this!"

And the woman who used to live in those days with Picasso also said that, "You must be joking because I also remember. You have done this painting yourself and your friend was staying with us."

Picasso said, "I know perfectly well that I have painted it, but it is still not an original because I have painted the same painting before too. Whether I have made the copy or somebody else had made the copy, it makes no difference; it is a copy, it is not original. Yes, I have painted it, but it is a repetition. I will not call it original."

God is not repetitive; he is always original.

Rejoice in the fact, Ramakrishna, that he has created you an original being. You are not supposed to be anybody else but yourself It is disrespectful towards God, it is ungrateful towards God - even the effort, even the desire to be somebody else. Feel thankful and grateful that he has never created anybody like you and he will never create anybody like you. Don't miss this opportunity by imitating.

And why people imitate? - because they don't trust their own intelligence. They are afraid that if they move on their own they may commit some mistake, so it is better to follow somebody who knows. That is the greatest mistake in life, to follow somebody who knows, because then you will never mature. One grows by committing many mistakes.

Commit as many mistakes as possible. Commit new mistakes every day - be inventive, be creative about mistakes. Just remember one thing: don't create the same mistake again; that is not intelligent. But if you commit the mistake for the first time it is beautiful, it is great, because that will help you to grow; that will help you to find out who you are. Just following somebody, even if you reach heaven it will not be worth reaching. You will reach like a child; you will not be able to enjoy, and you will remain foolish even there, and you will go on doing your foolish things even in heaven.

It is better to fall into hell but remain unique, remain yourself; then even hell can be transformed into a heaven.

After thirty years of happy marriage, Sadie was on her deathbed. The doctor had given up all hope.

Her loving husband, Saul, cried out tearfully, "Oh Sadie, oh Sadie, just tell me if there is anything I can do!"

From her deathbed Sadie whispered, "Oh Saul, oh Saul, I want you to do something for me you have never done in all these years."

"Oh yes, Sadie!" cried Saul. "I will do anything for you, my Sadie!"

"Saul, I want you to kiss me here between my legs."

"Oh Sadie, I can't do that!"

"Oh, but Saul, you said you would do anything!"

So bravely Saul said okay and proceeded to kiss her between her legs.

All of a sudden a great rosy glow came over Sadie. She became completely well and jumped up out of bed crying, "Oh wonderful Saul!"

But Saul slumped back on the floor crying and beating his breast. Sadie asked, "What is wrong, Saul?"

Saul said through his tears, "Oh, but I could have saved my mother and my sister too!"

Ramakrishna, be a little more intelligent. In the outer world, imitate, or whatsoever you want to, do.

But in the inner remain original, remain authentically your own self I would like to see each of my sannyasin a unique peak, incomparable to anybody else. That's why I don't give you any discipline: I want you to discover it. I will help you to become more conscious, but I will not tell you what to do; that has to come out of your own consciousness. I will not give you ten commandments, I will not make rules and regulations for you. You all hanker for rules and regulations because that is easy: I tell you, "Do this, don't do that," you need not use your own intelligence. It is perfectly good: you trust me and you go on doing whatsoever I say, but that will be only control, repression; it will not be freedom, it will not be consciousness.

And in the world of freedom the first step is the last step too. You have to begin from the first step. If the first step is taken in slavery, the last step will also be part of it. The first step has to be taken in tremendous freedom.

If you are here you are here on your own accord. If you are sannyasins it is your surrender, it is your own decision, it is your own commitment. I don't make any conditions on you and I don't want you to make any conditions on me from your side.

Just the other day I received a letter.. . The person asked for sannyas in such an aggressive way, as if he is doing some favor to me. And the way he writes the letter is not at all that of a man who wants to surrender, it is that of demand - each word is violent. He says, "Give me sannyas today. I cannot wait. Either say yes or no. I don't want to follow Arup's suggestions; I don't want to do anything told by somebody else. You simply tell me whether you are going to give me sannyas today or not. This afternoon I want the answer!"

Now is this a way to be a sannyasin? This is for the first time in my life I have said no to any person - first time! I have given sannyas to one hundred fifty thousand people; for the first time I had to say no. Sadly I had to say no, because this is not the way. If you make conditions, if you demand...

today it is sannyas, after sannyas there will be other things, that "Today I want enlightenment, this very afternoon!"

I don't make any demands on you; please remember not to make any demands on me. I am here just out of my joy; you are here out of your joy. We have met for no other reason. You are not here because of me, I am not here because of you. You are here because of you, I am here because of me. And it is beautiful that we have met - it is a coincidence that we have met.

We can share. I can share whatsoever I have, but it is not an imposition on you. You are not to follow it, you have only to understand it. And if out of your understanding something starts happening in you, then you are the source of that happening, I am not the source of that happening. You need not even be grateful to me.

The fifth question:

Question 5:

Mandira,

You go to the photographic department here and learn a little bit about trick photography - and there is nothing more in it. Krishna Bharti, Champa, they will be of immense help to you. Or if you want really a crazy man then go to Sarjano; he will teach you trick photography. It is all trick photography, nothing else - no SIDDHI, no flying, nothing else.

But stupid people become very much interested in such sheer nonsense. If transcendental meditators can fly, what is the need for Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to have an airplane? There is no need at all! We have met - I have met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi just by accident. I was having a camp in Pahalgam in Kashmir and he was also having a camp in Pahalgam. His disciples became very much interested and they wanted me to come to them and to talk to them, so I went there. We met. The man is simply ordinary, nothing special. And what he is teaching in the West is a very traditional thing in India; any stupid person knows about it.

Just by repeating a mantra you can create a false sense of serenity. It is just autohypnosis and nothing else. You need not go to anybody, you need not learn any Sanskrit mantra, you can just repeat your own name. Your name is Mandira - you can simply go on repeating "Mandira, Mandira, Mandira, Mandira..." Go on repeating. If you repeat it for fifteen minutes you will feel a tranquilizing effect; it is a nonmedicinal tranquilizer. It is good as far as tranquilizers go, but it has nothing to do with meditation. Transcendental Meditation is neither meditation nor transcendental. But now it is flopping, and because it is flopping, something new has to be invented. Now they have invented SIDDHIS and this is nothing but trick photography.

The last question:

Question 6:

Satyama,

I DON'T THINK anybody has taken any note about your nose - nobody has reported to me. In fact, when I gave you sannyas I didn't notice it either. I started thinking, reading your question, that "What nose she is talking about?" People are worried about themselves - why they should be worried about you?

Sant Maharaj has written to me that, "Osho, you are talking about that Prince Philip has a twenty- five-inch-long prick, and my prick is getting smaller every day, and I am worried! Am I becoming a child again?" Now, if Sant comes to see you, Satyama, will he be concerned about his own problem or about your nose?

Everybody has so many problems.. . Even a person like me who has no problems did not notice your nose then what to say about others? You simply forget!

In an old ladies' home things were pretty boring, so one of the inmates decided to create some interest by running naked through the commonroom. After she had done it one old lady looked up from her knitting and said, "Was that Millie?"

"Yes," said the old lady next to her. "What was she wearing?"

"I don't know," said the first, "but it really needs ironing!"

And you don't know about long noses...

The platoon is ready for inspection by the general. The captain walks up and down to check that everything is in order. Suddenly he turns to the corporal and says, "Could not that soldier with the long nose be put in the second row?"

"He is in the third row, captain!" replies the corporal.

Don't be worried about people. And a long nose has its own beauty! It shows intelligence! You see the Jews - from where their intelligence comes? Long noses and small pricks! Now Sant should be worried because as the prick will become smaller the nose will become longer - because somewhere it has to show! You being a woman, don't be worried at all. And be assertive as the liberated women all over the world say. Just exhibit your nose everywhere. Don't be worried. What is wrong in having a long nose? Just you can do better PRANAYAMA. You can have better and stronger lungs, you will live longer. Nothing is wrong in it.

A sex maniac walks up to the reception desk of a hotel. He is carrying a chicken under his arms.

"Do you have a room for the night?" he asks.

"Yes, sir," replies the clerk.

"Then make it a double, please!"

You missed it!

This is assertiveness. Why bother about people? If you love the chicken, you love the chicken!

It is your nose and God has made it long. He must have some hidden purpose behind it. Enjoy it.

Don't try to hide it. Exhibit it. And next time when you come, please inform me before you come so I can see also. I enjoy all kinds of unique things!