Chapter 20

[A sannyasin is meeting Osho for the first time. He was 'sniffed out' of an earlier darshan. He says:

I love you.]

[chuckling] I know, I know. Now you will smell of me!

Shreyas... It is one of the most beautiful words in India. It means 'the ultimate good'... and that's the only approach towards God. If you become good you become godly, and when the good becomes total, you become God Himself.

In the East we say that there are two paths: one of desire - that path is called 'preyas', and one of desirelessness - that path is called 'shreyas'. Basically all desires are holding one down to the earth; they don't allow you to fly into the sky - and man is born to fly into the sky. He has wings. We may not have used them, we may have even completely forgotten them, but they are there waiting and ready... just waiting for when you are going to take off.

So just three things I would like you to remember. One: never see bad in anybody - see good. Even when the bad is too much, try and find the good. Because it is impossible to find a man who has no good in him; even the devil has something divine in him - hence the word 'devil'; it comes from 'divine'. Even the devil is a fallen angel. He was not meant to be so. His destiny was different. So the first thing is to go on seeing the good.

The mind ordinarily looks for the bad, for the fault, for the error, for something to condemn. If one wants to drop the mind, one should start looking in the other direction. Try to see the good. And whatsoever you see, grows in you. That is the secret. If you go on seeing the bad, your very attention towards the bad creates bad impressions in you. Then you go on living on a level where bad can be

seen. See the good and you start becoming good. See the holy all around, and you start becoming holy.

A saint is one who has stopped seeing the evil.

[Osho recounted the story of Rabiya, a Sufi mystic woman, who came across a passage in the koran that said 'Hate the devil'. She crossed it out saying that this could not have been from Mohammed, for how could one hate the devil when one couldn't see him anywhere?]

So the first thing is never to see evil anywhere. That is the meaning of Jesus saying: 'Judge ye not.'

And the second thing: whenever there is a choice in the mind between good and bad, always choose the good. The mind cannot enforce anything on you; it is your choice. The mind has no power. At the most it can give you all the alternatives. At the most it can just give you the total view - this is good, this is bad - but the choice finally is yours. So whenever there is an alternative, lean towards the good, even if it is difficult in the beginning.

To choose the evil, the bad, is easy. It is downhill. In fact no gas is needed. You can put off the engine and the car will roll down. Goodness is uphill. Much energy is needed, effort and struggle.

So always choose the uphill task. Never choose the easy; always choose the good. Then one grows. And it is moment to moment work. Each moment the alternatives are there, each moment you have to decide. One cannot decide once and for all. It is an on-going process.

But by and by, the more you choose good, the more you enjoy it. A moment comes when there is no need to choose. You simply naturally, spontaneously, start moving towards that because you have known the view from the peak of the hill. Now who longs for the valley and the darkness of it?

And the third thing is that goodness arises only when you are quiet, silent, peaceful. That is the right soil for goodness to sprout. So go on creating the right soil. Be more silent, collected, calm.

Whenever you find a tension arising, immediately relax, because tension is the beginning of evil. In the West they say that an empty mind is a devil's workshop; that is absolutely wrong. A tense mind is a devil's workshop. An empty mind is, in fact, the very shrine of God, but it should be really empty.

So become more and more relaxed. The moment you find something creating a tension, a nucleus around which tension is arising, relax. Exhale deeply, relax, and laugh at the whole ridiculousness of it. By and by one becomes more centred. And that is the right soil for goodness to arise in.

... It is hard work, but when I love somebody, I give them hard work.

[A sannyasin who has just returned from the West, said she left some unfinished business there and wonders if she should go back for three weeks.]

No, I don't think it is time to go. Later on - after two or three months - but not now. First get settled here again, then I will send you and I will disturb you again. And that is your work - not to get disturbed. Settle here, and when I feel that you are settled and feeling at home, I will say that now you can go.

It is good to settle and get unsettled and then come to an understanding where nothing can unsettle you. You can come, you can go? and everything is the same; whether you are here or in Austria makes no difference. But that is possible only after you have been unsettled many times. First you had become attached to here too much so I had to send you back to Austria. Then you were not willing to go. You had gone reluctantly and you wanted to come back within three weeks, but you never came. You took too long and then you became attached to being there. Now you are here and thinking of going there again. I will not allow you to go.

Enjoy everything that is available. When here, be here; when there, be there. One should start living totally in each moment and one should not compare. That's how one grows. But the trip has been good. I can see that you are more relaxed.

It is always good to come to an understanding with the parents. It is one of the basic things. Gurdjieff used to say, 'Unless you are in good communion with your parents, you have missed your life.'

Because something very deep-rooted.... If some anger persists between you and your parents, you will never feel at ease. Wherever you are, you will feel a little guilty. You will never be able to forget it and forgive it. Parents are not just a social relation-ship. It is out of them that you have come. You are part of them, a branch of their tree. You are still rooted in them.

When parents die, something very deep-rooted dies within you. When parents die, for the first time you feel alone, uprooted. So while they are alive, everything that can be done should be done, so that an understanding can arise and you can communicate with them and they can communicate with you. Then things settle and the accounts are closed. Then when they leave the world - they will leave someday - you will not feel guilty, you will not repent; you will know that things have settled.

They have been happy with you; you have been happy with them.

The love relationship starts with the parents and it also ends with them. It comes to a full circle. If somewhere the circle is broken, your whole being will remain uneasy. That's why you look so relaxed.

Something like a wound has healed. One feels tremendously happy when one can communicate with one's own parents. That is the most difficult thing in the world to do because the gap is so big.

The parents never think that you are grown up so they never directly communicate with you. They simply order you: 'Do this' or 'Don't do that.' They never take account of your freedom and your spirit, your being... no respect. They take it for granted that you have listened to them.

A child feels very annoyed from the very beginning, because whenever the parent says 'Do this', 'Don't do that', he feels that his freedom is being cut. He is being repressed. He resists, resents, and that resistance continues like a wound. The gap becomes bigger and bigger. It has to be bridged. If you can bridge your relationship with your mother, suddenly you will feel that the whole earth is bridged. You are more rooted in the earth. If you can bridge your relationship with your father, you are at home with the sky. They are symbolic, representatives of the earth and the sky.

And man is like a tree which needs both the earth and the sky.

So be here and when you have settled and completely forgotten Austria and have become afraid that now I will send you back immediately inform me and I will send you, mm?!

[to a new sannyasin] Forget the old name. Erase it from the memory as if it never belonged to you.

It was a fiction or a dream; it was somebody else's story.

So, make a discontinuity with the past. That is the symbolic meaning of changing the name - so that you can break away from the past and can start afresh with a new nucleus, a new identity. It is always easier to drop out of the old than to modify and change it. That is more difficult.

Anand means bliss and deepesh means god of light: god of light and bliss. And light is going to be your constant remembrance. In the night, if you see stars or the moon, then sit and just watch and just allow the moon to penetrate you. Just be open to the stars, to the moon, to the sun, to any source of light; even a small lamp or candle. Just burn the candle in the room, sit silently. Be bathed with the light and let the light enter you. Open your eyes, close your eyes, open your eyes, close your eyes; inhale light inside.

And one exercise will be very helpful to you. When you are looking at the moon or the stars or the sun or the candle, make a rhythm between closing the eyes and breathing. When you exhale, open the eyes, when you inhale, close the eyes. When you exhale and air is going out, you also go out.

Open the eyes. When you inhale. and the air is going in, close the eyes and you also go in. So the eyes should be in a rhythm with breathing... and that will give you a tremendous experience. Light will start exploding within you....

Will it be easy to pronounce: Deva Prashanta? Deva means divine and prashanta means deep silence - a divine, deep silence. And you have to be careful about that, mm? Just keep silent as much as you can. Walk silently... don't be in a hurry; there is nowhere to go. Eat silently... don't just go on stuffing; there is no need to be in any hurry. The whole of eternity is there waiting for us.

In the West there is too much hurry because of a certain christian concept that there is only one life and that with death you are gone and will not be able to come back again. That has created a very crazy idea in people's minds. So everybody is in speed, running fast. Nobody is worried about where you are going; just go faster, that's all. So nobody is enjoying anything, because how can you enjoy at such a speed? The whole of life has become a hit-and-run affair.

To enjoy anything one needs a very relaxed attitude. To enjoy life one needs eternity, otherwise one cannot enjoy life. How can you enjoy when death is going to come so soon? One tries to enjoy as much as one can, but in that very effort all peace is lost, and without peace there is no enjoyment.

Delight is possible only when you are savouring things very slowly. When you have enough time to waste, then only, delight is possible. When there is no scarcity of time, then only, delight is possible.

The eastern concept of reincarnation is beautiful. True or not true, that is not the point. Do you understand me? It is not the point... but it gives you a very relaxed attitude towards life. That is the real thing. I am not worried about metaphysics. It may be true, it may not be true; that's not the point at all. To me it is irrelevant. But it gives you such a beautiful background.

So move slowly, move silently, and allow life to happen. Don't run. Otherwise it is almost as if you are in a fast-running train and beautiful scenery is passing by - the moment you can see it, it is gone. That's how the mind is functioning, the modern mind - always in speed. So by the time you can see, it is gone. So slow down.

Live life as animals live, as trees live, as if there is no death. Then a luxury arises. That is the eastern concept of luxury. You may not have a big palace to live in and you may not have four or

seven cars, but the eastern concept of luxury is that we have enough time to rest, to relax and be lazy.

So relax and get more and more in tune with silence. Wherever you see that silence is - the night is silent - listen to the silence. Just in the middle of the night sit in your bed and listen to the night and its silence... the music of that silence. And whatsoever can make you silent, move towards that.

Make friends with people who are silent. Listen to music that gives you silence, not excitement.

Read any book that gives you silence, not excitement.

In the time that you are here relax completely, and whatsoever you want will happen. Now that is my work. Just listen to me and follow!