Chapter 28

Marga means the path, the way, and deva means the divine - the divine path.

We are just to be a path for the divine to come... just a passage for Him to come to us, just a door.

and the whole effort is not how to travel the path, but how to become the path. The traveller is false.

You are not to seek... you are just to wait and give way....

[A sannyasin said that she was in a relationship but was beginning to wonder if she should do some groups.]

A relationship is good, but it is not going to help much. It is good but it doesn't go very far, because the relationship depends on you.

If you go deeper in your being, your relationship will go deeper. If you become more alert, your relationship will become more alert. If compassion arises in you, in your relationship also there will be compassion. But if it is not happening to you, your relationship will remain superficial and it will reflect your misery and your confusion. All that you are it will reflect. A relationship is a mirror... it simply goes on reflecting you. Whatsoever you bring to it, it simply reflects. that's why almost all relationships turn into miserable hells.

[Osho went on to say that at the beginning things go smoothly because each person is showing only their pleasant side, but by and by the ugliness appears, and that two miserable people together create more than double their misery.]

Nothing is wrong in relationships. It is natural, human, good - but nothing is going to happen out of it. So don't wait in it; let it continue but go on working. Growth groups will be helpful.

It always happens that whenever you are in love, you forget everything, as if everything is solved; nothing is solved. Sooner or later everything will come back, mm? So love is good but it solves nothing. If something is solved within you, then your love will become very very different - it will have a totally different quality.

Anand means bliss and deva means god - god of bliss. Everybody is a god of bliss. You may have forgotten it, but one has to remember it again.

So feel blissful, feel divine... never feel less than a god. Once you start feeling that, you recapture your nature, you reclaim it.

[A sannyasin asks about setting up a commune in a house in Poona under therapist Veeresh's guidance and about order and discipline in it.]

It will be good. It will be good if some discipline can be brought to it. And you will have to be disciplined yourself, otherwise it will not happen.

It is good to have freedom, but one has to be continuously aware that freedom should not become licence. When it becomes licence, it is self-destructive. It doesn't help growth - it simply wastes energy.

Discipline is against licentiousness, it is not against freedom. In fact it makes you more capable of being free. In the beginning freedom was good, but now that time is over and [the commune should settle in a disciplined way, mm? So it may be a little hard to change it immediately, but go on changing it.

And the second thing you have to remember, [The commune] should not in any way become an alternate ashram - that has to be remembered. It should not become an ashram against this ashram, otherwise rather than helping, it becomes a hindrance.

So Veeresh's idea is very good. You just work it out, plan the whole thing. A few people may leave - let them leave, because they are of not much use. And those who remain there under discipline will be able to grow.

[A sannyasin said that fear prevented her from letting go. Osho said that once she dropped the fear, confusion would disappear, and that fear was more basic to her than confusion.]

Yes it is fear... fear distracts. It creates confusion too because you are moving into the unknown.

Being with me is moving into the unknown. Nothing is clear for you, cannot be. You have to trust me.

... I know you do, but the fear is there... a certain trembling inside. Not that you don't trust me; you don't trust yourself - and that creates the fear. Because of that fear the mind gets confused. So the real problem is how to drop the fear.

Your confusion is not of the mind - it is more of the heart, and the energy is around the heart. Once you drop the fear there will be a sudden jump. So after the Primal you do this experiment again

before me. Primal will help bring the fear out, and then you will be able to move more relaxedly. It is there, but somehow you manage it. It is very subtle and you may not even be aware of how you are managing it. But it will go - Primal is going to help.

And keep this (the box) with you. You can try a few times alone, by yourself. Put the box on your head and try it. Once you get into the spirit, this box can be a great experiment. It can make your whole body tremble like a leaf in a strong wind. And you will feel so bathed, so fresh after it, and all confusion will disappear. You try!

[An australian sannyasin who had just returned after a visit home had been interviewed on television in Australia about sannyas. She said: They asked what your message was, and how it was for me.

The hardest thing that I had to deal with - not just at the interview but all throughout - was that it was felt as a very selfish thing to be doing. People said that you've got talents to teach and to work with people, and here you are going off and dropping out in India. And I felt that really difficult. I just felt well, this is right for me; this is all I've got, and this is all I feel I've got to work for. But they didn't really want to know. It was hard! My father said I should get a proper job and enough of this!]

They cannot understand - it is natural. And I can understand it is hard for you, but it is harder for them. They cannot understand... they simply think that you have gone crazy. They may not say so, but they feel that something has gone wrong, because they live in a world, in an established pattern, where everything is judged according to money.

If you are making money, you are doing something good. The more money you are getting, the more valuable is your work. But out of sannyas you cannot get any money; in fact whatsoever you have got will be lost. So it is a disvalue. It has no market value - it is not a commodity. God has never been a commodity. And God has always been for crazy people; people who are not satisfied with power, prestige, money; people who really want something of the eternal - and are not concerned with the ephemeral, the illusionary.

But the world is settled with the illusion, and whenever somebody escapes from their circle, they all start crying loudly and making much fuss, saying that you have gone mad.

This is just to protect themselves, because if you are right, they are all wrong; you both cannot be right. If you are right then they are all wrong, and that is too much to accept. Their whole life is at stake, and of course they are in the majority. So of course they can simply prove that you have gone crazy, out of your mind.

And they will try to persuade you that you are talented; to become a teacher and this and that. But the greatest talent is just to be, and out of that being if something comes, it will come. If teaching comes out of it, it comes. But then you will not be a teacher; it will not be a job. It will be a vocation, not a profession. You will simply love to teach. You will find somebody and you will teach - and you will thank the person who allowed you to teach him, that's all. If you feel like painting you will paint; but in the very painting of it is the result.

I was just reading about a poet who was telling his friends that he was writing a book. Nobody was interested. They asked 'poetry?' - and the subject was politely dropped. Many years he talked to

people about the book he was writing, that it was almost completed, this and that, but nobody was interested.

Then the book was published and became very famous, and an award was given for it. Then all those friends started coming and appreciating the book. The poet writes that he was surprised, because when he was writing it nobody was interested, but when it became an award-catching thing they were all for it, they all started praising it. But it was not because of the poetry but because of the award.

People are interested in the results, not in the actual process of creativity. If you paint and don't earn money, you are crazy. If you earn money without doing anything, then you are talented. The most successful person is one who earns much money without doing anything. And the failure is one who does much and earns nothing. I am a failure! (chuckling) They cannot understand because much is at stake; they have invested their whole life. So feel compassion for them. Your whole being should express your joy - that is the answer. Don't try to convince them - you cannot. If you try to be logical, they will be logical and you illogical. If you try to convince them, they will convince you.

You can convince them only if you are happy... so happy that they start feeling a certain guilt - that they have been missing something, and you have got something. So dance when they criticise, touch them with deep love. That will be a deep shock to them. When your father criticises, hug him and do a beautiful dance. Let him think that now she has become completely crazy! But he will feel the energy. He has to feel it - he is your father, he loves you. He will feel that something has happened... something tremendously beautiful, something of the beyond. This is the way you will be able to bring him to me - you will become instrumental.

They are all on the way... just go on being happy!

[An sannyasin who was leaving with her daughter asked if it was necessary for her to wear her mala outside her clothes, as she didn't feel quite ready to expose it to all her friends just yet...

That is the purpose of it - so that many people ask. That's the very purpose of it, so that you can talk about me. Don't hide it!

(to the daughter) And if she hides it, bring it out immediately. That's why I am sending you with her!

Whenever somebody is there, you bring it out! Create as much trouble as possible for her!

(to the mother) Don't be afraid of people - this is fear. It is not a question of your liking; it is a question of fear. Don't be afraid of people - who are they?

(to the daughter) Whenever somebody is there, you just start talking about her sannyas!

Sudhindra means god of awareness, and prem means love - god of awareness and love. These two will be your constant remembrances.. for others, have love for yourself, have awareness.

Awareness should become an arrow pointing towards yourself, and love should become an arrow pointing towards others. If you can become this two-arrowed being, everything is achieved. Love for

the whole existence, and awareness for one's being are the same, two aspects of the same coin - and they help each other.

If you try just to be aware and not loving, your awareness will become dry, almost stale... it will not be alive and dancing. If you try love and forget awareness, it becomes like a drunkenness, an addiction. And both have been tried. People have tried love, but then they feel they are lost in it, they lose their moorings, their roots. Then frustrated by love they try awareness, the opposite pole.

Then they become closed, like walking tombs; absolutely dry... no lead, no flower comes - the tree is dead.

Both miss. If both can be managed together, one remains in the world and not of it.