Darshan 18 August 1976

Deva means divine and madira means wine, divine wine. And become that! Be so ecstatic - because if one is not ecstatic, the same energy tends to become negative. If you don't move into happiness, the same energy becomes unhappiness. It is the same energy. Either you change it into ecstasy or it becomes a depression, a load. And that's what I am seeing has happened to you. You have much energy but it has become a load on you. So while you are here, forget everything. For a few days, just be mad with me!

[A sannyasin, present with his five-year-old son says: I would like to talk about the relationship with my son. He is a very beautiful and rich child, but I feel he demands too much energy from me and needs much attention. I am in a struggle between feeling guilty and sacrificing myself. Is it possible to have a balance?]

Yes, it is possible. Just one thing has to be understood. If you allow children, they can become very dictatorial; they can really exploit you. That is harmful to you and it is not good for them either, because once you allow yourself to be exploited and you have to give attention and love beyond your limits and you start feeling that this is too much, then somehow you will be taking revenge. Later on the child will grow into a world which is not going to bother about him, and he will always expect the same from everybody else. His expectations will be too much, and they will create frustrations. He will condemn you then - and it is logical too - and say, 'My father destroyed me.'

Give love, but don't allow yourself to be dominated. The distinction is subtle but has to be understood. Give love when you feel like giving. When you don't feel like giving, then don't be bothered, because you are not here just to fulfill your son's desires. And you are giving him a wrong example - he will do the same to his children.

And always remember - sacrifice is not good, because you cannot forgive and you cannot forget once you sacrifice. You will never be able to forgive the son.

But he cannot be made responsible. He is not alert, he is not so conscious. You are more conscious.

Your responsibility is the greater. Give your love but don't be dominated. Make it clear.... And children are very perceptive. Once they know, once it becomes clear that you cannot be coerced, they become practical. I have never seen children very philosophical. They are always very down to earth. They know what is possible - and only then do they do it. If it is impossible, they won't do it.

Once I was staying with a friend, and the couple went out and told me that their small son is there, so I have to look after him. I said, 'Let him play.' He fell from the stairs and was hurt.

He looked at me, and I sat there like a buddha (much laughter). So he looked at me, watched closely, and then thought, 'It is useless; to cry or to weep is meaningless, because this man seems to be almost like a statue.' He started playing....

Half an hour later when the parents came back, he started crying. So I said to him, 'This is illogical because now there is no problem. If there was Pain or some hurt, half an hour has Passed - you should have cried before.' He said, 'What was the point? I knew well that you were not going to be bothered. I had to wait!' Children are very very practical.

So you have to be alert. You are doing something wrong. And once they know that you can be coerced easily, they will coerce you. So just give your love as much as you want, but not under coercion. It should be voluntary. For a few days it will be a little difficult because you must have made a habit, but the sooner you mend it, the better - better for you, better for him.

So from this moment become a little alert about it. For ten days, don't allow him to force you, and then tell me how things are going. He will understand tomorrow. Children are never foolish, never stupid. Stupidity comes only later. Up to the age of seven, children are very intelligent. In fact stupid children are not born - only intelligent children. Then by and by stupidity is learned; it is not a natural thing.

He will understand tomorrow. Just make it dear. Just as two plus two is four, make it clear to him.

He will try the old tricks but he will see that they are not working and he will drop them, mm?

[A visitor says: I've come and I've listened to certain eastern philosophers, and I feel myself in a bind right now. I see on one side that people are speaking about life being a struggle, and on your side I see you saying that life is not a struggle, and instead of swimming, to float.

I'm caught in between these two things.]

Mm mm, try both. For one year try struggling, and when you have failed - as it is going to happen - then come to me. It is certain. Nobody has ever been able to succeed through struggle. You can succeed in earning money, but that's not success at all. You can succeed in becoming a richard nixon or something, that's not success at all. But you cannot become a jesus or a buddha. You can accumulate many possessions, bank balances, but you will remain unhappy. You will never know what bliss is. You will miss the whole meaning of life.

Struggle gives many things - but they are only things. It never gives you the source. It never gives you you. Everything else is possible, but not your innermost core.

So for one year, you can try. But do hard work so you are finished in one year. Otherwise people struggle for their whole life and by the time they understand, no time is left. And if you understand, you can see clearly that there are a few things which cannot be attained through conquering, because in the first place, the very effort to conquer creates tension in you. It destroys your relaxation, and happiness is possible only in a relaxed state. Happiness is possible only in a no- tense state. Happiness means that. So if you struggle, you will become more and more tense, more anxious, more in anguish, and of course you will become more and more hungry for happiness and further away from it. Every day you will see that you are struggling so hard to reach the goal but the goal is receding far away.

What I am saying is a simple truth. It is not a philosophy. It is not metaphysics. It is a simple fact that we are part of life. In fact there is no need to conquer anything - there is nobody else to conquer.

With whom are you going to fight? You will be fighting with yourself.

And tomorrow is not certain. It may come, it may not come. The struggle always presupposes that the tomorrow is certain. Today you have to struggle - tomorrow you will be happy. That tomorrow never comes - all that comes is always today. And again that mind says, 'Struggle! Sacrifice today for tomorrow. Tomorrow you will be happy. Tomorrow is paradise, tomorrow is heaven.' Today is a struggle - and today is all that comes. Who can say that tomorrow is certain?

What I am saying is that right now you can enjoy life; there is no need to postpone. Only this moment is certain because it has already arrived. You can drink out of it as much as you want, as deeply as you want. It is available to you - this moment you are wasting in struggling, in tensing yourself.

Relax and be.

I am a hedonist. I believe in happiness, but I don't believe in pursuing happiness. Happiness is a by-product. Whenever you are relaxed and in the moment, you are happy - whatsoever the reason.

If you love singing, when you sing you forget the future. When you are singing, you are no more efforting. You enjoy... you simply relax into here and now, and suddenly you are happy. It is not singing that is bringing happiness. The happiness is happening because through singing you have relaxed into the present moment. If you are a painter, paint, and you will be happy.

The only condition for happiness is that you relax in the present. You can just lie down on the sea beach and relax and you will be happy.

Before alexander came to india, he went to see diogenes. They were poles apart - alexander is the great conqueror, the great alexander, and diogenes is a beggar - but even alexander had to go to diogenes because he had heard so many legends about this man and his happiness and tremendous joy, and the benediction that was felt in his presence.

He went to see him before he started his journey towards india. It was just morning, a winter morning, and diogenes was Lying on the river bank, naked, taking a sunbath. Alexander stood there and watched. He must have felt tremendously jealous of this man - so relaxed, so non-tense, so radiant. And there was nothing with him, not even clothes; he was naked.

Alexander was really impressed, and he said, 'Can I do something for you. Whatsoever you say, I will do.' Diogenes laughed. He said, 'You came a little late. Now I don't need anything. All that I

need is happening. You came a little late. But one thing you can do - just stand a little by the side because you are preventing the sun.' That was all he asked from alexander - just to stand by the side.

Alexander was thrilled because he could not believe that he was saying to somebody, 'Whatsoever you want I am going to give to you,' and the man simply says, 'Just stand a little by the side.' He said, 'If I have another chance to be born, I would ask god to make me diogenes instead of alexander.'

Diogenes said, 'But there is no need for it - to wait for another life. The beach is so big, you can relax here. Just this moment be a diogenes, because there is no need to postpone that far. If god is going to give you another life, you are going to ask him to make you diogenes, but why? This very moment you can become him if you understand.'

Alexander must have laughed a hollow laugh. He said, 'You are right, but I cannot do it. I have to go and conquer india.' Diogenes asked, 'What are you going to do after you have conquered india?'

Alexander said, 'I will conquer asia.' 'And then?' Alexander said, 'The whole world.' Diogenes said, 'The last question - and then?' Alexander said, 'Then I would like to relax and be happy.'

Diogenes started laughing. He said, 'You are a fool - because I am relaxing without conquering the whole world! What is the point of it an, if in the end one is going to relax and be happy? Why not right now?' It must have been a very embarrassing moment for alexander the great.

To me, life consists of now and here. So there is no space and time enough to struggle. There is only enough time to celebrate. There is only enough time to live and love and dance and sing. There is not enough time to prepare. There is not enough time to have rehearsals. The actual drama is already happening. It is not going to wait for you. The world is in a celebration. You can stand by the side... you can remain just a spectator. My invitation is to become a participant.

And this is the whole game of desire. Desire says, 'Tomorrow,' understanding says, 'Now.' These so-called spiritual people you are talking about who say to struggle, make effort, will power and all sorts of dale carnegie-type nonsense, and positive thinking, are just playing upon your greed, playing upon your ego. They are persuading you into ego trips in the name of spirituality, religion, god. They are not going to make you other-worldly. Their other world is no-thing but an extension of this world. And I am ready to allow you to be other-worldly this very moment. And I don't talk about the other world because this is the only world there is - but there are two ways to live in it.

One way is that of desire, imagination, dreams of tomorrow, of the future. Another is that of reality, of this moment, responding to this moment. There are not two worlds, there are only two types of people. One type - greedy, full of desire - create a future, and they go on wasting the present.

Non-greedy, without any desire for the future, the other type enjoy tremendously. They are not at a loss.

Look at me... try to penetrate into my eyes. I am not giving any metaphysics. I'm just trying to point out facts, simple facts.

I'm not weaving theories and speculations around facts. I'm just indicating naked facts - this is how life is. If you really want to live, live now. If you don't want to live, you can postpone. No person of understanding can afford the future, because how can you? The future is not yet there - and you will be a loser.

So if you can understand.... Tremendous intelligence is needed to understand what I am saying.

And about what others are saying, no understanding is needed. Even to stupid people these things look relevant, logical, rational, reasonable. What I am saying is almost irrational. I am saying that you are already there - you have arrived. Where are you going? It looks absurd! It is apparently so because you think, 'I - and arrived? Long is the journey, far away is the goal. Somewhere on some star, one day I will reach certainly, but right now?'

So these people look logical. Their logic is very ordinary. It fits with your reasoning. If you want to listen to me, you will have to drop your reasoning. You can come to me only if you are ready to drop your head. That's what I call sannyas. It is a sort of beheading.

But still I say to you, try. If you feel that there is some appeal in struggle, effort, try. Who knows?

You may be the exception. That which has never happened, may happen to you - who knows?

And you can find that type of people anywhere. They are in the majority. They run all the ashrams, they run all the monasteries, they run all the universities. I am a lonely voice. But if you can see, the truth is very clear. There is no confusion about it.

Meditate a little more. I can see. a beautiful sannyasin hidden behind you.

[A sannyasin says: I escape from everything. And I don't do anything properly.]

Mm! Do the escaping properly. I'm not against it - I'm not against anything.

[She answers: Yes, but I am.]

Then you create problems. Don't do it. If you are against it, don't do it. If you are for it, then do it properly. Both are good.

You go on saying you don't want to do it. That's not right, because in fact you do that which you want to do. This is a false statement. And this is the trick of the mind: you do something, and you don't want to accept that you wanted to do it. You are not ready to be responsible. You don't feel ready to be responsible for whatsoever you have done. You want to avoid the responsibility so you say, 'I did it, but I never wanted to.' Now this is absurd. Why did you do it if you never wanted to? Then who did it?

If one is honest, things are clear. You want to do a certain thing - do it, and then take the responsibility for it. If you are escaping, you want to escape; nothing is wrong in it. Accept it, and then I can teach you how to escape properly.

Accept it. Just be that way. That may be your path for coming to god. There are many types of people. A few people go zig-zag. There is nothing wrong in it.

[She said that she was not even doing properly the meditation bhagwan had given her to help a chronic pain in her shoulder.]

Then enjoy the pain also. Because when you go zig-zag, there are problems you will have to face, which are not faced by people who go straight. There are pleasures to find when you go zig-zag;

there are pains also. There are pleasures when you go straight; there are pains also. They are always in the same proportion everywhere, and one has to accept both.

This is how the problem arises: you want to enjoy the pleasure of it, and you want to drop the pain part; that is not possible.

[She answers: No, I always look for the pain.]

Then why call it pain? Call it pleasure. Change the language. Say that here (touching his own shoulder) I always feel pleasure; don't call it pain. If you look for it and it doesn't come and you miss it, it is pleasure.

What I am trying to make clear to you is - be honest, and then there are no more problems. For an honest person there are no more problems. I am not saying that an honest person is never dishonest. I am saying that if an honest person is dishonest, he knows that he wants to be dishonest.

Finished! That's his honesty. Do you understand me?

The honest person is deliberately dishonest, consciously dishonest. He has no complaints about it.

He does not create a problem about it. He does not create rationalisations around it. He never says, 'I wanted to be honest, but somehow...' No. He says, 'I wanted to be dishonest and I have been. I am perfectly happy because whatsoever I wanted, I have done.'

Just try to be true. And when I say these things - 'Try to be true' - I'm not saying don't lie. I'm not saying that. I am saying if you want to lie, then lie - but be true. Know well, perfectly, that you are Lying. If you become so clear, things will start changing. The very awareness brings transformation.

Awareness is transformation.

If you are honest, by and by you will see that there is no point in being dishonest. It is just foolish.

Simply seeing into facts, things change, Lying drops, dishonesty drops.

This escaping will continue if you don't recognise it and accept it. Accept it. Give it recognition and do it deliberately. For ten days, whatsoever you do, do it deliberately. For example in the morning if you don't want to come to the meditation, don't come - deliberately. Don't say, 'I wanted to come but I was feeling a little sleepy.' What is the point? Simply say, 'I never wanted to come - that's why I felt sleepy.' It is simple and clearcut. Say, 'Whether I was feeling sleepy or not was not the question.

Even if I was not feeling sleepy I would have found some other excuse - but I was not going to come.'

Just see the fact of it, and your complexity will be reduced to simplicity. Then if you want to come, you come. If you don't want to come, you don't come.

But then your path is very clearcut. If you choose the zig-zag path, that's your path. You enjoy it, you dance on it. Then you are no more divided. For ten days, try, and after ten days, report, mm?

Good.

[A sannyasin says: I was tired of pushing myself and I wanted to get ill - and I got ill. Then this old fear came up that I'm not normal because I don't want to work, or felt I had no energy to do anything.

I don't want to force myself any more.]

Don't force.

... you are perfectly normal! There is nothing wrong in you.

... The problem arises because you don't want to work, but still you want all those things which people get by working. For example if you work, people respect you. If you don't work, you are a vagabond, a bum, lousy, lazy. You should enjoy these things then.

In my childhood I never liked to do anything. I would simply sit and sometimes I would be sitting just in front of my mother, and she would say, 'Nobody seems to be in the house' - because she wanted somebody to go to the market and fetch something for her and I would be just sitting in front of my mother! (laughter) But it was almost inconceivable that I would go to the market, so they all thought, 'This man is lazy.' My grandfather used to say, 'I'm very much worried about you. Who is going to feed you? How are you going to earn a living?'

And he was right... his worry was right. But I accepted that. That's perfectly okay. When you are lazy, you are lazy. Then if they call you lazy, they are not insulting you - they are simply labelling you, categorising you, that's all. There is no criterion of who is normal and who is abnormal. One has to listen to one's own nature. You may be the lazy type.

But I'm not certain that you are a lazy type. My suspicion is that you are not a lazy type - hence the problem arises. When you are lazy, your energy starts boiling. You don't know where to put it and what to do with it, and you don't want to work. Not that you are lazy. It is simply that you have something against work, some notions. But as I see it, you are an active person. If you are lazy, you can become taoist very easily. Then whatsoever I am saying is nothing but a lazy man's guide to enlightenment. But you are not; that creates the trouble. But we have to see.

I never want to impose anything on you. Man is unpredictable. So simply accept your laziness and rest and enjoy. If you feel too much energy, do something which is not like work. Go for a walk, go swimming in the river. Run for two, three or four miles. Dance, jog - do anything. Just play and enjoy it. If you are really an active person, sooner or later you will discover that laziness is not for you. You will become ill if you are an active person. Laziness will make you ill because your own energy will boil and will create inner turmoil in you. It will go sour.

So for a few days simply relax with no idea of who you are and what is normal and what is abnormal.

There is no need to be worried about it. Just wait, enjoy. For fifteen days, simply watch. Fifteen days in laziness and then fifteen days of activity. Watch both the ways. Whatsoever feels good is in tune with your being. And that is the only way to find out. What others say is irrelevant. What you feel deep down is the only criterion. And don't condemn. If you find that you are a lazy person, don't condemn. Lazy persons are beautiful persons!

[Osho said that lazy people were never harmful, did no violence in the world, and that the world would be better if there were more lazy people.... ]

... and soon the lazy man's world is going to come, because by and by technology will go on relieving people of work. The next century is going to be a totally new beginning. The lazy man will be the most appreciated man. So in your next life.... Prepare from today! Become lazy. In the next life the world is going to belong to the lazy man. In fact scientists say that in the twenty-first century when technology has taken over all the work, it is going to be difficult to keep active people silent, happy, healthy. They will create trouble. They will demand work. They will create mischief.

The lazy man is going to be appreciated tremendously because he will not ask for any work.

[Osho said that in the past, before the world was so prosperous, active people were needed and were depended on; the lazy man was condemned.... ]

But soon the days are coming when the wheel would have gone the full circle and the lazy man's spoke is going to be on top. He will be given nobel prizes - nobel prizes for doing nothing, a nobel prize for not asking for any work. It is difficult to conceive of now, but it is coming.

So there is no question of whether an active person is normal and an inactive person abnormal; nothing of the sort. Simply look into your own being. Whatsoever feels good and healthy and makes you feel more wholesome, enjoy it; that is normal to you. There is no other criterion, no standard.

Each individual is a standard unto himself.

So forget the commandments. You have to find your own commandments. Every person has to become a moses unto himself, and bring his own commandments. For fifteen days simply be lazy and watch - and be a very objective observer.

[A sannyasin says: I feel your breath on me, and feel that I am willing and able to serve you.]

You will. You will do much for me. Many things have to be done there (in the west). And you are ready. Just start working, helping in your own way whatsoever you can do, because humanity needs many things. It is a very critical time... a great crisis, an unprecedented crisis in human values.

Either man will be completely destroyed or will have to completely change.

So just start working with no plan, no outward strategy. Just go by your feeling. And you are surrendered to me so I can start working through you.

[Osho gives him a name for a centre in North Carolina.]

I will give you a name for whenever you go. The name: indiradhan. It means the rainbow. Dhan means bow and indira in indian mythology is the god of clouds, rain, thunder, light-ning. So the rainbow is his bow, indira's bow.

And I give it this name - indiradhan - because it will be very very representative of my attitude towards life. I accept all colours. I am not in any way negative towards anything. This is a totally positive approach. From the lowest to the highest rung - everything has to be accepted and enjoyed and man has to become a meeting of heaven and earth. A rainbow is a meeting of heaven and earth - a bridge, and with all the colours.

Religion has become very colourless in the past. It has lost dance, song, poetry. It became just dry, dead theology. Life has to be infused into it again, so it must be life-affirmative. It must not be life-negative and anti-life. It must affirm and enhance life in every way. It must be creative. It should not call anything 'sin'. Yes, errors there are. Errors, yes, mistakes, yes, failures, yes - but there is no sin.

There are people who miss heaven, but there is no hell. At the most you can miss heaven, that's all.

That's enough punishment. What more is needed?

[An indian visitor said that he would like to ask what was the most important question in his life - and that was that he found it difficult to maintain ever-present awareness, that sometimes awareness came as a delayed response, and this was the problem for him.]

You are creating the problem, and people who try to be aware, almost always create the problem.

The first thing: awareness can only be of the moment. The very idea that it should always remain, that it should become a permanent state, is wrong. And why be worried about the next moment?

The very idea of permanence is part of greed. Greed is part of unawareness, so unawareness is playing a trick and creating a problem. It is not out of awareness that the problem is coming; it is out of unawareness.

This moment is enough. Be aware in this moment. I understand - next moment you forget, so forget!

Be aware of your forgetfulness. One has to be attentive even to one's unattentiveness. There are moments you are aware - then you are aware of awareness. It is not a simple awareness. It is complex; you are aware of your awareness. Then there are moments when you are aware of your unawareness, but awareness continues as a substratum.

So whatsoever happens.... Sometimes you forget - what can you do? There is no point in crying for the spilled milk. That which is gone is gone. If one moment has passed and you were not aware, and later you became alert that this moment has gone and you were not aware, don't waste any moment for it now, because this other moment is passing by. Just be aware of it.

And why ask for permanence? One person never gets two mo-ments together. You always get one moment. When that one is gone, another is supplied. So if you can remain alert in one single moment - enough! Whatsoever time will be coming in front of you, your torch of awareness will be there. Asking for permanent awareness is as if you are going for a long journey, a thousand-mile journey in the night, and I give you a small torch and you say, 'By this torch I can only see a few feet.

The journey is very long - one thousand miles. How am I going to manage? It is impossible. This torch is too small.'

But I will tell you to go four, five feet, and then the torch will be falling four, five feet ahead again. Just by a small torch, one can move into the darkest night, and one can go on moving for a thousand miles; there is no problem. But if you start calculating, and you sit down and put it on paper and you see that the torch is only capable of lighting four, five feet, and the journey is one thousand miles - impossible.

One moment is enough for your awareness. Then comes another moment. Your awareness is there.

Another moment will be lighted, then another, then another. The whole eternity can pass in front of you. Why be worried about making it permanent? That too is part of greed.

Life is momentary. Let awareness also be momentary. That's why buddha called his philosophy 'chhanikawada' - the philosophy of the moment. He said it is enough to be mindful of the moment.

Only the moment exists - all else is imagination.

So the past is gone. If you missed, you missed. Forget about it. There is no need to worry and beat your head. The future has not come. There is no need to bring it in. Just look at the moment that is

passing right now, and look with awareness. Still you will miss many times, but nothing is wrong in it.

When you miss, just note with full alertness that you missed - that's all. By and by you will miss less and less. Just take a simple note, observe it and finished! Go ahead. By these observa-tions, more and more awareness will be happening. And I'm not saying permanent. I'm saying more - because more has depth. Awareness is going to remain of the moment. It can be shallow, it can be deep.

That is a totally different dimension.

It will become more and more deep, more and more deep. It will become so deep one day that whatsoever comes in front of you will be lighted well. But don't think in terms of permanence. It can become eternal, but not permanent. Permanence is part of time. But we always think of making things stable. If something is fleeting we become worried. Then we think, 'What is the point of making so much effort and it is gone again, gone again?' Simply drop that worry.

Awareness is the key word and the key question. If you can open it, you have found the master key.

It opens all the locks. No other question is necessary then. But don't make it a greed. It will come.