Celebrate Simplicity

[A sannyasin who is leaving for the west says: My heart tells me to stay and my head says I have to go back and attend to my business, to work and make money. And it's not even that it's a conflict.]

Mm mm, it is not a conflict, that I can see. Just a friendly quarrel between the head and the heart; just two friends fighting, almost a loving nagging. That's very good, because any conflict is destructive.

So don't make it a conflict. My suggestion is that you go.

This is one of the very intricate secrets co be understood. I can say to you to stay, but if you stay, your mind will think of going, and that can be a burden. Then the whole beauty of staying is lost. So I would like you to go so that the hankering of the mind is finished. Soon there you will see that it was foolish to go, but let that be your experience. Then next time you will be coming more in tune and the head will be less antagonistic.

Always when there is something like this, it is better to go through it. Avoiding is always very costly.

In the beginning it seems cheap, but this nagging from the head will become more pronounced. It will gather more and more energy in its favour and soon it will be almost a hammering, and that is destructive. Whenever it is a question of deciding between the head and the heart, always give a chance to the head first because it is more superficial.

The heart has a more permanent world. The head is almost childish, curious. It is better to fulfill its curiosity and then let it know that it was foolish, so that it learns a lesson. The heart is something very permanent, almost eternal. You can come back again to the heart easily; it will wait. There is no hurry for it. The head is always in a hurry. The hurry is very symbolic.

The constant hurry of the head says that the head itself is aware that its existence is momentary.

One thought passes this moment. If you don't do it right now, the next moment it may not be there.

So the head is constantly in a hurry.

Going there you will be closer to me. The further away you will be, the closer you will feel and the heart by and by will see the foolishness and stop. Then the whole energy will be available to the heart. Then come back - and next time coming back will be deeper. It is going to be deeper every time.

It is good not to create any conflict. The heart is very patient. If you decide for your head, the heart will never give you any trouble, but if you decide for the heart, the head is going to give you trouble. It is very violent and it is not patient at all. The heart can wait because it knows the beauty of waiting.

The head cannot wait; it is impatient.

So go and do what the head is saying to you, and then come back, mm?

[An ashram gardener says she is having bursts of anger throughout the day. Osho had previously told her to use the energy in work, and rather than throwing anger on people, to dig holes a little deeper, a little more vigorously!

She was doing this but found anger always arose in the same situation: when she was told to do something by someone in authority.]

Authority is a problem because of you. Try to relax about it. Make it a point that you will always follow the authority for the coming month. Let this be your attitude, that whatsoever it is, even if you see that it is wrong and otherwise would have been better, you follow the authority absolutely. Even if the authority is inconsistent, and that one day one thing is said to you and when you are half-way through the work, something else is said, then that too is okay.

This should be your idea - that you have to follow the authority, and then both things will be satisfied.

You are fulfilling your idea, nobody else's. And of course the authority is to be followed, so there is no problem. Try it and it will be a tremendous insight for you.

These are subtle egos in fight. We rationalise them, but they have to be dropped. So do this and after one month, tell me.

Deva Arjava. It means divine simplicity. Arjava means simplicity and deva means divine.

I have given you the name Arjava so that simplicity can become your goal. Try to be simple in everything. Drop all complexities and then many things will follow spontaneously. If you are simple you cannot lie because a lie can never be simple; it has to be complicated. The very nature of a lie has to be complex. Only truth can be simple.

You have to remember a lie. You need not remember the truth; there is no need to carry it in the memory. But a lie has to be remembered continuously, otherwise in some unaware moment you might utter the truth. It may just be in small things that you lie. Someone may ask if you believe in God and you say yes without considering that you can't believe if you don't know. That is a lie.

Nobody will say it is a lie - they will say you are a believer. But how can you believe in something which you have not known?

Belief comes through experience, and unless you know, there is no possibility of believing. How can you trust something which has not even penetrated your consciousness and with which you have not come in any contact? It can only be a concept, verbal. Belief is of the heart; it cannot be verbal.

It is devotion, it is commitment.

We very rarely lie consciously, but we continuously lie unconsciously. Somebody asks if you love them and just to be polite you say 'Yes, you are such a lovely person'. And you don't mean any harm; in fact you are trying to be polite. But all lies harm - maybe not today but tomorrow. The seed will take time to sprout, but if it carries poison in it, the fruit will carry the poison.

So if somebody asks 'Do you love me?' think it over, meditate over it. It is going to be a great assertion, a great statement. If you don't know, simply say, 'I don't know' Or say, 'I will think about it.

I have never thought about it.' If you are in love with somebody and you say 'I will love you forever and forever', you are lying, because tomorrow is not yours, so how can you promise?

You can say 'This moment I love you.' Yes, that can be true. You love, and you know it and feel it; this moment it is true. But how can you say something about the next moment? Your future is also not yours yet. You are encroaching upon destiny. And then if tomorrow you suddenly find that love has simply disappeared and your promises prove false, what will you do?

You will get entangled in lies. You will pretend that you still love or you will throw the responsibility on the other person and say, 'You destroyed the love, otherwise I was going to love you for always!'

So remember to be simple in all possible ways. Even sometimes when you are not speaking, you can lie. You don't want to say something and you keep quiet. That too is a lie, and you have created a complexity in your being. And it is not only with talking or keeping silent. If you are walking down a lonely street and you are walking in a certain way, if somebody else comes along, you will change.

That means a lie has entered. You were different, your reality was different just a moment before because there was no observer and so there was no question of performing. Now an observer has entered into it. Immediately you start performing. You start being false. He is a stranger, he may not even talk to you but just go on his way. He may not even be looking at you, may not even be aware that you are there, but you have lied.

So a lie is not a question of a relationship. You can lie alone, but that creates inner knots in your being. So just be simple and let simplicity be your continuous meditation. Sitting, walking, eating, meeting people, just go on watching. I don't mean to make it a strain; be very very relaxed. If you are simple there is no need to be strained. You are not trying to prove anything; only a liar is trying to prove something or other.

A simple man is there in his total nudity, in his facticity. He has nothing to prove. If he is good, he is good. If he is bad, he is bad. He accepts himself, that's why he is simple.

He has no grudge, no complaints. And he never wanted to be otherwise. If he meets God he will thank Him for making him this way. That is the meaning of simplicity: if you come across God you can thank Him for the way He has made you. You are happy and grateful. You don't have any idea.

no image. You accept the simple facticity, the truth of your being.

Jesus says 'Blessed are the simple, blessed are the meek. Blessed are the humble because theirs will be the kingdom of God.' In fact I would like to change his statement a little. He says 'Blessed are the meek for theirs will be the kingdom of God.' I say 'Blessed are the meek, for theirs is the kingdom of God'. It is not anything that is going to happen in the future. The future tense is not right.

Already the kingdom of God is theirs; they are blessed. It is not that in some future, in some coming life, in the other world, the kingdom of God will be theirs. There is no cause and effect relationship.

They are blessed. The kingdom is theirs. There is no therefore in it. They are not earning it. They are simply enjoying, rejoicing, celebrating it.

So, celebrate simplicity. That is the meaning of the word 'arjava'.

[A sannyasin says: I've been thinking about following and leading and realising that leading is what seems most familiar to me. I've been saying to myself that it's alright to follow.

And I was thinking earlier on, that if you'd said to come, I couldn't have - my legs just went numb!] Everything is going well. These are growth problems.

When somebody starts growing there are problems. There are two types of problems. The first type is because you are stuck somewhere, blocked somewhere. There is another type of problem which is brought about by growth but it is healthy. The first type is unhealthy.

When you start growing, new avenues open, new ways. You have never travelled on those paths so problems are bound to arise. For example if you have been a leader and you have created an image of being a leader, then sooner or later you will see that if you want to grow, this image has to be dropped.

In life many things happen only when you are a disciple and not a leader. In fact all that is beautiful happens only when you are receptive, not active.

A leader is active; a follower is receptive, passive. The leader is male; the follower is female. You have remained tuned too much with the male image of leading, manipulating, telling people what to do, ordering. One day or other you will come to the point where you will see that this is not the way to learn the deepest secrets of life.

You are too much of a scout leader. It is good; there is nothing wrong in it. But a scout leader is a scout leader. The leader is basically political. The follower is religious. When one is leading, the ego is strengthened, enhanced, fulfilled. One feels very good. The 'I' feels very decorated, enthroned, magnified.

When you are following you have to drop the ego. You have to receive. You have to become humble.

You have almost to come begging, head bowing down, surrendered. Then only that which is really sublime, happens. Then you become pregnant with the sublime.

This is a growth problem. And you have to understand it and relax your focused leadership. Drop it by and by. It is not that you need not use it; sometimes use it, when it is needed. But it should not become a constant pattern in you. When you are leading some group it is okay, but when you are out of the group, relax. There is no need for the leader to remain there, otherwise you will miss many things. You will miss love. You will miss truth. You will miss trust. You will miss the beautiful.

Somehow you will go on missing the divine, because for it you have to become empty, open, not knowing anything... and ready to receive and follow. So much ready that even if it goes against your intellect, you still go with it; you take the risk.

That's what I felt.... You said you had nothing to say, but I was feeling you had something to say.

That too is your ideal of being a leader. It is easier for you to answer; it is difficult for you to ask.

That's why your legs are feeling numb, because you are going somewhere where you will have to be receptive.

Many people feel nervous coming to me. They write notes to me saying that in the morning everything is okay, and that when they come to listen to me in the lecture they are flowing and perfect. But they say when they come to the darshan, somehow something starts trembling and they feel nervous.

In the morning it is okay because I am not talking to you directly. I am not addressing Bhasha, so you can think that I am talking to others. You can always say, Yes, this is how others are. You are right - others are fools.' You can always exclude yourself; there is no trouble in it. But when I am talking to you directly, you are the fool! You cannot escape from it.

That creates a trembling, a numbness. But you have to understand it and relax. Start doing a few passive things which will be helpful. For example just lie down on the grass and look at the sky.

Don't look for anything in particular; there is nothing. Don't start studying the constellations and the stars and their names, no. Just look with empty eyes... just looking, and that too, very relaxed.

Nothing else to do but simply enjoying; not concentrating. Things like this where you need not do anything; you are simply passive.

Just go and sit by the side of the music group. People are singing, you just sit silently; listen, be passive. Anything in which you are not to play the active role will do. For one month continuously enjoy passivity. The numbness will disappear and you will become more loose.

One should be fluid. When one needs to be a leader, one should be. When one needs to be a follower, one should be a follower. One should not have a fixed role because that's how people become imprisoned. The role becomes the imprisonment. Somebody is a leader and somebody is a follower. The follower cannot lead and the leader cannot follow; both are crippled.

A really alive energy will be flowing, whatsoever is needed. If the follower is needed, become the follower. If the leader is needed, become the leader. But you are neither. You are that fluidity, that loose energy which is available. You can mould it into any way. You don't have a fixed gestalt.

Then you are more alive. This is how it should be about all the polarities. One should be a man and a woman both, a woman and a man both. Sometimes you need to be a woman, sometimes you need to be a man. Sometimes you need to be in the head and sometimes you need to be in the heart. Sometimes you need to think and sometimes you need not to think... all the polarities.

Richer is the person who manages to flow in all the polarities. Of course he will not be consistent, remember. A really alive person cannot be consistent. He will be tremendously inconsistent - just like me.

He will say one thing and immediately contradict it because he has no role. Whatsoever the moment needs, he takes on a role. He wears a particular role, but that is for the moment. When the need is gone, the role is gone. Again he is fluid and available.