Chapter 2

Deva means divine and punyatam means holy, pure, simple. You have to forget the old name and remember the new. And remember the idea behind it of purity, simplicity. A person can be pure and not simple; then purity is not worth anything. You can force purity on yourself but because you force it, it will not be simple. It will be very complex. It will always carry the repressed as an undercurrent and you will be sitting on a volcano.

So when I say pure and simple, I mean it. Purity is only when it is simple, when it comes spontaneously, when it is not enforced, when you don't practise it but just allow it to flower. It is like a child. He is pure, simple, but his simplicity is not that of discipline. Once you try to discipline something, your head becomes powerful, and simplicity is of the heart. The head cannot give you simplicity.

I was just reading this evening about Pope John. He was a simple man, very simple - so simple that many of his colleagues used to think that he was not holy. Because he was so simple they thought he was not great... not a saint at all. Before he became pope, he was a nuncio in Paris. His colleagues were very worried about him because he would mix with ordinary people and would be found in places where he should not be. He would not follow any rules and regulations of his office.

They thought him a little of a nuisance in the high circles... snobs. They used to think that he was a nuisance and not worthy of the post he was holding. He loved gossiping and telling anecdotes and stories - and sometimes rough ones too. In the diplomatic circles he would start saying something and ladies would feel embarrassed. But he was a very simple man, just like a peasant.

Then he became pope. Everybody all over the world was very surprised at how this man could have been elected. They tried to condition him. They taught him how to behave, how to talk, saying, 'You

are pope, one of the most important persons in the world, and whatsoever you say means much.'

They taught him the etiquette and formalities. But he would always forget.

The first important person to come to him was Jacqueline Kennedy. They were very worried because Kennedy was the first catholic president of America and America was one of the greatest and most powerful nations, so Pope John had to talk and behave rightly. For seven days they conditioned him, and he would repeat whatsoever they were saying. Then the master of ceremonies was very happy and everything was settled. Then when Jacqueline Kennedy came, Pope John forgot everything.

He opened his arms wide and cried, 'Welcome, Jacky !' !

This is something very simple, peasant-like, child-like. You cannot manage it. Once you manage it, you destroy it. So what I meant by punyatam is that from this very moment, start thinking in terms of being a child - as if you don't know the world and don't know the ways of the world, as if you have no experience... as if you are just a clean slate with nothing written on it. And whatsoever gets written on it, wash it, clean it every day so it remains pure, clean. Remain clean of the past.

Prem means love and dhanya means blessed - blessed by love. Love is the only blessing there is, and those who love are the only ones who are blessed. All others simply live a life of curse. Nobody is cursing them; they themselves are responsible. If one wants to live a life of tremendous bliss and blessing, one should be more loving - not loving to a particular person, just loving.

[Osho suggested that the new sannyasin do the forthcoming ten-day meditation camp as an introduction to the various techniques used.... ]

Do the camp madly. Once you come to know which meditation goes deep inside and takes you like an arrow and reaches to the very core of your being, once you have known one meditation, then there is no problem. Then you can go on working on that meditation, and within three to six months much starts happening.

The most basic and important thing, and the most difficult, is to find the right technique. There are a thousand and one techniques, but only one technique will fit you. So to sort it out, figure it out...

these techniques are such that one is bound to fit you. There are five types of people, so I have chosen five - one for each type. Everybody belongs to one type or other, so one is going to fit you.

Once it fits then.I know everything about what can be done and how you should proceed.

[A visitor said she had done Vipassana and found it difficult, but very good:

It is good but it is hard. It is hard - not because the hardness is there in the meditation; it is hard because we are repressed so much. If you are so repressed and you have simply to sit and not to do anything, it becomes impossible, it becomes maddening.

We remain occupied so our madness remains occupied; our insanity remains involved somewhere or other. If you are not doing anything, put on the radio or the TV or visit a friend or just read the newspaper or rearrange the furniture in the room so you remain occupied. One never becomes aware that one is not yet capable of just sitting silently. This is what insanity is.

If a person is not capable of sitting silently, what more can you expect of a person? This is the simplest thing in the world - to sit silently not doing anything. But it seems to be the hardest. The hardness is coming because you have not done any catharsis.

This camp will be very helpful. Do this camp and do a few groups here which will help bring out all that is repressed in you, to cathart it, to act it out. Once your insanity is vomited, you will suddenly become capable of sitting silently and you will not feel any trouble arising You will simply be surprised that it is such a simple thing. Why weren't you able to do it? If you are not able to do it, then just in trying to do it the whole energy is wasted. Then it is not really Vipassana.

You are just trying to force something and you are remaining in conflict, continuous conflict, in trying to be. The legs are aching, the back is aching and the body feels uncomfortable and there are so many thoughts and this and that and you are trying somehow to hold yourself together. The whole time is wasted in that. You never have the glimpse of what Vipassana is.

Vipassana is possible only when two basic necessities have been fulfilled. First, a deep catharsis of the mind so you don't have many thoughts. They are simply not there; you have thrown them out.

These groups help to vomit, to throw, to release all that is repressed inside: anger, hatred, jealousy, whatsoever. And the second is Rolfing. It gives the body a new flow, a new energy, a freshness, a flexibility. These two things done, one for the body and one for the mind, Vipassana comes as easily as your shadow follows you. Just like that. So be here for a little time. Do the camp and then a few groups, and then I will tell you to do Vipassana.

I tell people to do it at the end when they have done everything else. Then they are ready. You have done it without being ready. Then it is hard.

[A sannyasin says:I have a problem. If I have to write I sometimes get cramp and it bothers me so much that I can't write.

Osho checks his energy.]

Leave it as it is until after the camp, and then every day for one hour, try to write, deliberately creating the cramp, waiting for it to come, forcing it to come. Do this for seven days, and I don't think that even for the first day you will be able to bring it. But for those seven days you have to try hard to bring it, because everything depends on your effort, so don't deceive yourself. Just don't think superficially, 'Yes, I am trying to bring it,' and deep down you are not. Then there will be trouble. Bring it, force it, and even pretend sometimes that it has come.

There is nothing wrong physiologically. It is just fear. Because you are afraid it will come, it comes.

It is an auto-hypnosis, so the only way to break it is to bring it deliberately. Then there is no fear. You will really want to bring it and then suddenly you will be puzzled as to why it is not coming. You will see that the hand is flowing because there is no problem. The energy is really flowing more than ordinarily. It is just that some inhibition, some fear has got hold of your mind. Now whenever you write, that fear is there. You know that it is coming and you try hard not to allow it. You are fighting against it, hence the cramp.

Don't fight. And after seven days, report back to me. It will be gone... it is nothing.

Ravi means the source of light and dasa means a servant - a servant of light. It is also the name of a very famous indian mystic, Ravidasa.

The sun is going to be your centre of worship, so never miss the early morning when the sun is rising. That is your time. If you miss that, you will miss much of the whole day. If you can imbibe the morning vibe of the rising sun, you will feel very very alive, flowing, high for the whole day. It will function almost like acid. So never miss the morning.

Early in the morning wait for the sun. Take a bath half an hour before and just sit outside and wait for the sun. It will pay you tremendously. When the sun rises just utter a few words that come to your mind, or remain silent. Don't use a formalised prayer... just anything that you feel in that moment.

Just a 'hello' will do; or you may not even say anything. Just look at the sun, bow down. In deep prayer touch the earth... anything that you feel, but never ritualise it. And never repeat it, never prepare it. Never think beforehand, 'I am going to do this.'

Once you ritualise any prayer, it is dead. Once you rehearse, you have already missed. So that has to be remembered, because that temptation comes to every mind - to make a ritual, because a ritual comes easy. You repeat it every day and you become more and more efficient. You become a sort of an expert. Then consciousness is not needed and you can do it robot-like. That's how it is going on in temples, mosques, churches; everything is ritualised. Ritual is dead religion. Religion is alive ritual - and when I say 'alive ritual', I mean what comes in the moment. You create it. Your worship, your prayer, your ritual, comes out of your being. It is a response.

It will change every day. There is no need to make it change because then again you come in.

Sometimes you will see that it is the same as it was before, but still it is not the same. There is a subtle difference, because it can never be the same. No moment is ever repeated.

Says Heraclitus, 'You cannot step in the same river twice.' One of his disciples said to him, 'Master, I tried. Not only are you right, but I was puzzled very much because I could not even step once. The river was flowing continuously and by the time you reach the bottom of the river, the river that you had touched on the surface is no more there. It is different water.'

The disciple said, 'Master, you are right, but I tried. You say it is difficult to step twice. I say it is impossible to even step once, because the river is flowing constantly.'

Heraclitus laughed and he said, 'You are right. You got it! That's what I meant.'

So never make anything a ritual. Every morning move thrilled with the new sun, not knowing what is going to happen. You may dance, you may sit silently, you may have a little chit-chat with the sun.

You may say something or you may simply listen to what the sun is saying to you. Nobody knows...

nobody needs to know. One simply moves full of wonder, wondering what is going to happen...

thrilled.

This, Hindus call 'brahmamuhurt' - the moment of the morning; they call it the moment of God, and for a few people that is the moment of God. They can confront reality sooner in that moment than ever. And that is your moment. Hence I give you the name 'ravidasa'. So become a servant of light, and wherever you see light, even an ordinary light, feel prayerful.

You may see sometimes in India that somebody puts on the light and people will bow their heads or will say 'Jai Ram, Jai Ram'; they will remember God. That has become a ritual now, but if it is not ritualised, it has tremendous significance.

Light is a symbol of God, so wherever you see light, feel worshipful. The temple is there. Look at the mysteries of light - just a small flame, but the most mysterious thing in the world and the whole of life depends on it. The same flame is burning in you. That's why continuous oxygen is needed, because the flame cannot burn without oxygen. Hence the emphasis of Yoga to breathe deep to breathe more and more oxygen so that your life burns deeper and the flame is more clear and no smoke arises in you... so that you can attain to a smokeless flame.

[A sannyasin from Ethiopia said he had difficulty in communicating with friends, as he felt that they tended to make him feel in the wrong, so that he would doubt himself even when he felt himself to be right sometimes]

The first thing: there is nothing like right or wrong. It depends. It depends on the standpoint. There is not something very solid about which one can decide that this is right and that is wrong. There are no such values. The same thing can be right to one person and wrong to another, because it more or less depends on the person. The same thing can be right in one moment for a person, and in another moment it can be wrong because it depends on the situation.

But we all carry a hangover, a hangover which has been implanted in us for centuries, as if there is something right and something which is wrong. You have been taught in aristotelean categories.

This is right and that is wrong. This is white and that is black. This is God and that is devil. These categories are false. Life is not divided into black and white. A lot of it is more like grey.

And if you see very deeply, white is one extreme of grey and black is another extreme, but the expanse is of grey. So one can see it as white and one can see it as black. It is as if a glass is there, half full, half empty. Somebody says it is half full and this is the truth and somebody says it is half empty and this is the truth... and they start fighting.

All arguments are more or less like that. Reality is more grey. It has to be so because it is not divided anywhere. There are no watertight compartments anywhere. This is a foolish categorisation, but it has been implanted in our mind. We always say that this answer is right and that answer is wrong.

This whole evaluation is absurd and nobody has the right to decide - neither you nor your friends.

You have to decide for yourself and they have to decide for themselves. So don't interfere in their life and don't allow them to interfere in your life. I am not saying that you will do something today and that tomorrow you won't feel that it is wrong. But I still say that yesterday it was right. You understand me?

Just the moment afterwards you can feel that it was wrong, but this is not you of the moment before.

One moment has passed; now your standpoint is different. Now you are looking at it in a different way. You have become more experienced. At least you have that experience that you did not have before you decided. It may look wrong. Tomorrow again it may look right.

So, right and wrong go on changing continuously. Then what to do? If somebody wants to decide absolutely, he will be paralysed, he will not be able to act. If you want that you act only when you

have an absolute decision about what is right, you will be paralysed. You will not be able to act in life. One has to act and to act in a relative world. There is no absolute decision, so don't wait for it.

Just watch, see, and whatsoever you feel is right, do.

[Osho said that whenever one suggested a way to others, it should be with the understanding that this is only your standpoint and may not be right for others. One should not try to impose anything on anyone. This, Osho said, was what he regarded as the religious quality.

If friends did not accept one s advice, one should not feel offended but be able to allow others to have freedom in their decision. Nobody in fact follows anybody else because the final decision has to be taken by the person himself. Even if one follows one s friend's advice, if things went wrong, the blame could not be put on the friend because it was one s own decision ultimately.

When friends offered advice, one should listen carefully.... ]

One of the great things to be learned is listening. Listen very silently. Just don't listen indifferently.

Don't listen as if you want them to stop and you are just listening to be polite because they are your friends. It is better in that case to tell them not to say anything because you are not in the mood to listen.

But if you are listening, really listen, be open, because they may be right. And even if they are wrong, listening to them will enrich you. You will know more sides of the same thing, more viewpoints, and it is always good to learn. So listen well but always decide on your own.

Once a person has this relative understanding and drops absolute nonsense, things become very clear and easy. Otherwise people are very absolutistic. They think in terms of absolutes: this is truth and whatsoever is against it, is wrong. This has crippled the whole earth - Hindus and Mohammedans and Christians fighting because everybody claims the absolute truth. Nobody has any claim on it. It is nobody's monopoly.

Truth is vast. Infinite are its facets and infinite are the ways to know it. And whatsoever we know is limited; it is just a part.

Never claim for the part as if it is the whole and then you will never be in trouble. Watch every word that you speak. Our language is such, our ways of speaking are such, that knowingly, unknowingly, we make absolute statements. Never do that. Use 'perhaps' more. Hesitate more. Use 'maybe', 'perhaps' more, and allow the other every freedom to decide on his own.

Try it for one month. You will have to be very alert, because it is a deep-rooted habit, but if one is alert it can be dropped. Then you will see that arguments drop and then there is no need to defend.

And always remember that it is possible that tomorrow you may think something was wrong, but you have changed.

That's why I say that repentance is impossible. The person who committed it is not the person who is repenting. They are two different moments, absolutely atomic and unconnected. So there is no point in repenting. There is no point in thinking again and again about the past. What has happened has happened. Whatsoever you think now is not the point.

[Osho said that it was just as when one was sitting for an examination. Once outside the room, when one was more relaxed, collected, one could review and repent for what one had done, but in the moment you were answering the paper, you were doing what was right in that moment.]

So each moment has its own validity. No other moment can cancel it. You cannot cancel the past.

Whatsoever you did in that moment was right in that moment. It was meant to be so. It was all that could happen and it happened; otherwise was not possible. You being you it was going to happen that way. So now there is no point in crying and weeping and repenting over it. Now you are more experienced. Next time remain alert so that the old thing is not repeated, that's all.

For one month, try, and then tell me. There is nothing to be worried about.