Silence has its own fragrance

Question 1:

Sarjano, words like yes and no are very flexible. They are not opposites, they are two extremes of one single energy. Hence sometimes a very strange phenomenon happens. It is said about women that when they say no they mean yes - the flexibility is so great - and when you were saying no, you were meaning yes.

I can understand why the no arose in you, because love knows no limits. For those who love, even too much love is too little. You wanted to say no, because you are capable of loving more.

But that capacity is infinite: At no point does love feel that it has come to a full stop - there are always possibilities, potentialities, and space available to grow more. Your no is not no, it is really a preparation for a greater yes.

So I want to say to you: Sarjano, you love me too much. And even if you say no, it does not matter.

It simply means even too much is too little - and you can see that you can love more. Too much is not the end, so your no is, in a disguised form, nothing but yes. You cannot deceive me by words.

You are saying, "Last year in Bombay You said that since I have met You there has never been a no in me." I still say so. But you are puzzled, because you feel, "YES, OSHO, THAT IS TRUE. AND YET, THE OTHER NIGHT I SAW MY HEAD SHAKING IN A DEEP NO TO YOUR WORDS." It is because your love is greater than any words can contain. But your no is not negative, it is another form of saying yes.

"WHEN YOU SAID I LOVE YOU TOO MUCH, I FELT FOR THE FIRST TIME A NO IN ME, SO TOTAL, SO DEEP. FOR A MOMENT I HEARD MY HEART SINGING, NO, NO, NO - IT IS NOT TOO MUCH...." You were not saying no to me, you were simply saying no to my statement that you love me too much.

Suddenly you became aware that you are capable of loving more - this is not too much. I agree with you: you are capable of loving more. Still, it is too much. It will become even vaster, deeper, greater; but that is not going to change my statement. And you have understood yourself, without being clearly aware of it, when you said, "It is not too much. There is space in my being to love you much more. So I guess You were joking, or using poetic license, or a metaphor."

No, I was neither joking, nor using metaphors, nor poetic license. I was simply describing the simple fact that your love is too much for me. But for you, it may appear too little. That is the perennial experience of all lovers. The loved one feels it is too much, but the lover feels it is nothing: "I have not put my whole being into it yet."

"I don't like to say no to You...." You have never said no to me. Even when yesterday, the no was arising in you, it was nothing but preparing ground for a bigger yes.

You are challenging me, that "If You dare to repeat that I love You too much, I will start to laugh and say, ?No, Osho, no!' Again and again, ?No, Osho!'"

You can laugh, and you can still say, "No, Osho, no." But it will mean only "Yes, Osho, yes." And I repeat again and again that you love me too much, Sarjano. Language is a very slippery matter.

I am reminded of a small incident. In a monastery, only one hour was given to the monks who lived in the monastery, to go out in the garden. But it was called one hour for praying in the open, under the sky. Two friends were very much troubled by one thing - both were smokers, and since they had entered the monastery they had not smoked: it was prohibited.

One of them said to the other, "Perhaps it is prohibited inside the monastery, but in the garden...? I think we should ask the abbot, the chief monk." Both agreed, and the next day one came out angry, enraged, humiliated, insulted, because the abbot had refused absolutely. He had used the words, "absolutely no". As he came out, he became even more furious, because he saw the other sitting under a tree smoking so joyfully. He could not believe it.

He said, "Have you asked, or are you smoking without asking?" He said, "I asked - -but why are you looking so red with anger?" He said, "This is strange: has he agreed?" The monk who was smoking said, "Yes - he said, ?Yes, absolutely yes!'" The other man said, "This abbot seems to be crazy. To me he said, ?No, absolutely no!'"

Still the other man went on laughing and he said, "Just cool down, sit down, and tell me what you have asked." He said, "I have asked simply, ?While outside in the garden, can I smoke?' And he said, ?No, absolutely no!'" The one who was smoking said, "Now things are clear. You asked a wrong question. I asked ?Can I pray while smoking?' He said, ?Yes, absolutely yes!'"

Your no, Sarjano, is nothing but yes. You are not satisfied with too much, you want more. And now you cannot laugh, and you cannot say, "No, Osho no" - you will have to say, "Yes, Osho yes".

Even when you were saying no, you were saying yes - you were just not alert why that no was arising in you.

Question 2:

Milarepa, it will appear absurd to the logical mind, but the fact is that blissfulness has its own perfume, silence has its own fragrance, just as love has its own taste, its own sweetness. Although you cannot eat love and you cannot taste love, you know perfectly well that love has a sweetness.

Silence also has its own flowers, its own fragrance. And the enlightened man's consciousness can be approached through any of your senses. You can see it in his presence, in his grace, in his eyes; in his gestures you can smell it. You can hear it, just a small whisper, as if a breeze has passed through the pine trees - subtle, but absolutely certain. You can taste it.

The night Jesus departed from his disciples - you must all remember the last supper - he talked to them for the last time. And what he said seems to be very strange. He said, "You have to eat me and you have to drink me. And unless you eat me and drink me and digest me, unless I become your blood, your bones, your marrow, you will not be able to find me." Certainly he was not speaking to cannibals. He was talking about this subtle phenomenon which is available only to disciples and devotees.

When I go out, you have been through a great shower of love, peace, silence, song, music and dance. Your whole being is cleansed. You feel the freshness, you feel the profundity, so tangible that if your eyes are closed you may think I am still present here - but in a certain way nothing changes, only my body moves away from here.

I am always present - wherever love longs for me and a heart beats for me, wherever a consciousness searches for me, I am available there.

Both Gautam Buddha and Mahavira, the greatest masters the Indian tradition has produced, made it a rule that their sannyasins should move in groups of five. In the beginning I could not figure it out - why five? And for twenty-five centuries Jaina monks and Buddhist monks and nuns have moved...

the group cannot be less than five - it can be more. Now it is a dead tradition: they follow it, they don't know its meaning. I have asked many Jaina monks, many Buddhists; they say, "We are simply following the scriptures."

But as I became aware that the enlightened consciousness has all the qualities which your five senses can experience, then I had a clue. Buddha himself, and Mahavira himself, too, used to make up the groups of five sannyasins - to move, to spread the message. It was not at random, it was not any five, just because they were friends. They were chosen by Gautam Buddha and Mahavira themselves.

And my own experience is, they were chosen for this simple reason: that one was more sensitive as far as his eyes were concerned, and another was more sensitive as far as his ears were concerned, and another was more sensitive as far as his taste was concerned. Those five people were almost the five senses, together the most sensitive five, so whenever they will meditate in silence, it will be far easier for the consciousness of Gautam Buddha or Mahavira to be present amongst them.

Their senses became the doors. It is very difficult to find a person whose every sense is functioning at the maximum. We know it perfectly well: there are people who cannot smell anything, their nose is dead; there are people who are called "colorblind."

For example, George Bernard Shaw did not realize until the age of sixty that he was colorblind. It was just a coincidence that on his sixtieth birthday some friend sent him a suit as a present, but he had forgotten to add a matching tie. And Bernard Shaw liked the suit very much. He wanted to wear it on his birthday when all his friends were going to be there. So he asked his secretary, a young woman, to go with him to find a matching tie.

The secretary was puzzled, because the suit was green and Bernard Shaw chose a yellow tie.

She did not think that this was a good match; it would look very odd and awkward. Even the shopkeeper said, "Sir, this tie won't go with this suit." Bernard Shaw said, "Why not? They are of the same color."

That day he realized that between green and yellow he could not make any distinction. He was blind to the color yellow: it looked like green. You will be surprised to know that almost ten percent of people are colorblind. It is not a small percentage: out of every ten persons, one person is colorblind.

He may not know his whole life - and eyes are the most important factors.

Musicians know perfectly well that there are people who have an ear for music; all people don't have the ear. In a factual way everybody has an ear, but to have an ear for music is a totally different thing. You need a very deep sensitivity about sound and about silence.

There are many people who don't have much sensitivity about taste, or about touch. You may have come across people... if you shake hands with them it feels as if you are shaking hands with the dead branch of a tree: you don't feel any energy, any warmth, any love being transferred. And with other people, when you shake hands with them, you know there has been a dialogue: your hands have spoken to each other things which you cannot say.

Buddha and Mahavira, were both very alert in choosing people to make small groups of five; each was perfect in at least one sense. The five together were perfect in all five senses. Buddha promised his disciples, Whenever five of you are together in deep silence and meditation, the sixth also will be present - I am the sixth.

So if you are sensitive - and meditation makes you more and more sensitive - then even when I am gone and its only my physical body that is no longer here, your sensitivity will not let my consciousness go away so easily. I will remain amongst you for a little while.

There are many of you who don't want to go away from Chuang Tzu immediately, because it is an experience in itself - in my absence you are still feeling my presence. So people linger on a little, laughing, dancing, or sometimes singing, or sometimes just sitting surrounded by an unknown energy, an unnamed energy... but yet somehow familiar.

It all depends on your love, on how much you love. Love destroys distance, and if love is total, it destroys distance totally. Then even when you are alone - no need for five persons - you will feel me with you.

Just today I received a letter from Emerson. Emerson is Hasya's son; Hasya is my international secretary. I was feeling that something is bound to be strange about Emerson, because Hasya was phoning continually to many friends here, giving them the same message, that Emerson was coming, take care of him. It is perfectly okay, Hasya is a Jewish mama: although Emerson is thirty years old, for almost two weeks she has been phoning continually and not to one person... the same instructions to many different persons: "Take care. Emerson is coming."

When I heard this - that so many people are receiving the message - I said, "What is his age?" And when I came to know that he was thirty, I said, "My God!" I used to think that Hasya must have gone beyond her Jewish mind. She has dropped all Judaism - that is one thing - but to drop being a Jewish mama... that is difficult. There are mothers and mothers in the world, but no mother comes close to the Jewish mother.

Now, a thirty year old son - and also, she is coming to take care of him in just three days. Yesterday I saw him and I felt really sorry for him and sorry for Hasya. Hasya deep down wanted him to understand me, but he was so dead, so insensitive. Today he wrote me a letter. He is in love with Kendra, one of my sannyasins. The letter was long, but the essential part was, "Osho, I hate you."

The reason for his hate is that, first, I have taken his mother. Now he is in love with Kendra, and he says, "I know perfectly well that Kendra has you as her first priority. I'm not even her second priority... her second priority is another sannyasin." - I think he must be thinking of John - "I am the third priority: it hurts." And he wanted me to say to Kendra that she should go with Emerson.

I have replied, that all my sannyasins live in absolute freedom. I don't say to anybody to do something or not to do something. If Kendra wants to be here, it is her choice; if she wants to be with John, it is her choice; if she wants to go with you, that is her choice. Whatever she chooses, my blessings are with her. As far as you are concerned, I cannot say anything to you, because a man who says, "I hate you," will not be able to understand anything. Hate is the most difficult barrier for understanding, just as love is the greatest opening for understanding.

He is puzzled - because he is very rich, a billionaire - about why Kendra wants to be here, even when she cleans the floors, does manual work. It is beyond his comprehension - because he thinks money can buy everything, and he can give Kendra everything she wants. But it will be a great problem: even if Kendra goes with him out of compassion, he knows deep down that he is the third on the laundry list. How long can he tolerate Kendra? He will take revenge. Right now he will be very persuasive - but he cannot forgive her for putting him into third place.

And his puzzle is, why are people here? He was asking my personal physician, Amrito, "Why are you all here? I cannot understand." One has to be somewhere or other. The same question can be asked, "Why are you in Hollywood? Why are you in L.A.?" One has to be somewhere or other.

I wanted to tell him a story: once Mulla Nasruddin was caught in the cupboard of the bedroom of one of his friends. The friend was very angry, but Mulla is a man who has his own logic. The man was very angry, and he could see... because he had been out when Mulla was with his wife, and when he came in Mulla was hiding in the cupboard. But he could not ask the right thing, he simply asked, "Why are you here?" Mulla said, "This is a strange question - one has to be somewhere! Do you want me to be nowhere? - you are asking an absurd question. One can ask me anywhere, ?Why are you here?'"

But Emerson must be very insensitive. He could not see your joy, he could not see your songs, he could not see your blissfulness, he could not see your silence, he could not see your love, he could not see anything: he was simply asking, "What are these people doing here?" And what is he doing in Hollywood? Earning more money?

These people are certainly not earning more money; they are earning more being, earning more love, they are earning more sensitivity, they are earning more spiritual growth, they are earning more life - and finally, they are earning God.

They have a thousand and one reasons to be here, and to be in Hollywood you have only one reason: earning more money. But what are you going to do with money? At the age of thirty he is as dead as someone should be at the age of ninety; all his senses are gone. Perhaps he is only available to more money and more money. And if he thinks that by having more money, he can have love, he can purchase love, he can purchase truth, virtue.... Anything that is really valuable is not purchasable, anything that is valuable has no price on it and anything that has a price on it, is only for very mediocre minds.

For those who don't know the flight of an eagle because they can only hop on the ground, the question arises, "What is that eagle doing far away there in the sky?" Hopping here on the earth is enough for them; flying from place A to B, from B to C, and going far away beyond the horizon, and disappearing into the sky, is beyond their imagination and their dreams.

Looking at him I was afraid about Kendra, because if you live with anybody who has been dead so long, you are going to be dead. Never be in the company of the dead! Seek out the company of the more joyful, the more dancing, the more living - because life is infectious, just as death is infectious.

I am happy to see that he has not been able to affect Kendra; she is still happy and dancing and singing and joyous. Kendra, help him. He is not completely dead, but soon he will be - because thirty is the age when people start dying. He has almost died before his time. And I am worried and concerned about Hasya. She will be coming here, and she is very alive, very joyful - a very happy human being. It seems Emerson is copying his father. Hasya had to leave her husband... now I know what must have been the cause; that man must have been a dead weight on her soul. She needs a dancing partner, not a dead weight or a golden cross hanging around her neck.

Emerson has chosen to be with his father, and not to be with his mother, because the father is very rich, and all his money is going to be in his hands. He will be one of the richest men in America when the father is gone. But I am concerned about the son; the son is going before the father.

If he can be here just for a few months, perhaps seeing so many alive people, living in this dancing vibe, in the presence of all these meditators, something that is dormant within him may start growing.

He may be born again. This place can become a rebirth for him - but for that he will have to be a little courageous, and Kendra will have to be a little stronger. If she can keep him here, his hate for me I will change to love. That is not a problem, that is a very simple thing, because hate is the same energy. He hates me because I have taken his mother and now I'm taking his girlfriend. But being here he can have both the girlfriend and the mother, and more important is that he can save himself from dying.

Money kills people, becomes a weight on their heart. I'm not saying that people should not have money. They should always remember only that there are higher values than money. Use the money to reach to the higher values; make money the stepping stone. It cannot purchase those values, but it can become a stepping stone.

Question 3:

Antar Rituraj, your wife recognized me too soon. Seeing the picture, she said, "There is an enlightened man." And that's where she stopped. She did not bother to understand what enlightenment is. If she has recognized someone as an enlightened man, then she should have come, at least once, to be with me. But she seems to be very knowledgeable.

You were critical, you said, "They are all fake" - and you are 99.9 percent right - "and India's caste system and poverty are evidence of that," - that too, is a hundred percent true. Now you are asking, "I am a four-year-old sannyasin, and she is not. What happened?" You made a statement which became a question mark in your being. Her statement became a full stop: "There is an enlightened man," - and things are finished. But you were critical: "They are all fake, and India's caste system and poverty are evidence of that."

It became a question mark in you, because you were making a very cynical, very skeptical, very negative statement. You wanted to come and see whether your statement was true about me too, or not. Your question mark brought you here; she had no questions. Being with me you found that there is a 0.1 percent possibility of an enlightened man, of a man who has an awakened consciousness, and is not the cause of the caste system and poverty in India, but is fighting against it, and is suffering because of that fight.

You are not aware, how many summonses from how many courts go on coming... that somebody's religious feelings are hurt, and I have to be present in the court in Bengal, in North India, in Himachal Pradesh. All these thirty years the same people - whom I have been trying to awaken: You are suffering unnecessarily from the caste system, rebel against it! - these same people have tried to kill me many times. They have disturbed my meetings, they have thrown stones at me, they have even stopped my train. They would not allow the train to go ahead unless I was thrown out of the train.

The same poor people are so conditioned.... They are suffering from their conditioning, and I am fighting against that conditioning, and they think I am fighting against them! I am fighting for them against their conditioning, but they are so identified with their conditioning that it is almost impossible to make them aware of the distinction: that your conditioning is not you. And by birth nobody is a Brahmin.

I am reminded of a beautiful old story: One great seer in the Upanishads is Uddalak. His father sent Uddalak to a forest university where only seers were the teachers, and meditation was the basic teaching. And when Uddalak came bach home after ten, twelve years, his father - who was a learned scholar, well-respected and well-known - saw him coming and he ran away out of the back door.

His wife asked, "Where are you going? Your son is coming." He said, "I cannot face him; moreover, I cannot allow him to touch my feet; it will look very awkward. He has really become a Brahmin He has become a Brahmin because he has known the Brahma." Brahma is the ultimate life source. "I am only a Brahmin by birth; he has earned it. If he does not touch my feet, that will look awkward, if he does touch my feet, that will look awkward, if I touch his feet that too will look awkward. It is better that I should escape. I am not leaving you alone - your son is back. I will come back home only when I am also a Brahmin not only by birth, but by experience, by my own realization."

Nobody is born a Brahmin, and nobody is born a warrior, and nobody is born a sudra, an untouchable.

The poverty in this country is there because the religions of this country have been consoling the poor, just as they have been consoling the poor in other countries. Their explanations may be different, but the ultimate result is to console them: your poverty is not something bad; if you can patiently go through this fire test, in the afterlife you will be rewarded a millionfold.

So when you came to me, you found an enlightened man who was not fitting your definition. You cannot say to me that I am responsible for the caste system in India, you cannot say that I am responsible for the poverty in India. You had to change your definition. Your question became a quest. You became a sannyasin, a pilgrim, to find out the truth that makes one enlightened.

Your wife will remain in darkness, in unconsciousness. Now it is your responsibility and your love, that your wife should also become a seeker. Just seeing a picture and saying, Here is an enlightened man, is not going to help her. But she has a certain sensibility, a certain alertness - howsoever little.

If you love her, don't go on the path alone: help her also to be on the path. It will help you in return. Whenever your love is great you want the beloved also to come to know the ultimate joy, bliss and benediction. It may be your wife, it may be your son, it may be your daughter, it may be your husband, whomever you love. Your love is just a word... what else you can you give, if you cannot give an urge, a thirst for truth?

Invite your wife. If she can recognize me in my picture, there is every possibility she will recognize me looking into my eyes. Just don't be jealous of her - she is going to fall in love; you will become priority number two.

Okay, Vimal?

Yes, Osho.