Darshan 5 September 1977

Ananda means bliss, svatma means the innermost self, the innermost core, the being. Bliss being - that will be the meaning of the name... and there is a message in it for you. I give names as messages. You will have to unfold it, live it, and by and by the name will become a reality. Right now it will only be a name, but if you work on it it will become your reality. It will not be any more a name, not just a name. This is the message - that there is no need to improve upon yourself. Drop the idea of improving, drop the idea of progressing. Drop the idea of becoming. Be! This is the greatest illusion that humanity suffers from - that one has to become something, only then can one be happy.

That 'something' may be anything - more rich, more powerful, more spiritual, more religious, more artistic. But one has to become something, then one will be happy. So happiness is postponed and then postponing becomes your habit. When you have more money, then too the problem will be the same; you will postpone. You will say, 'How can one be happy with only this much money ? More is needed. When I have more I will be happy.

One can go on postponing. And life is very short; it is really short - seventy, eighty years. Out of seventy years one third is lost in sleep. Another one third is spent in just putting body and soul together - work, bread and butter. Another one third is spent in small trivia - driving from the house to the office, from the office to the house, saving, cleaning, taking a bath, eating....

Life is very short, and if postponing becomes your habit then there is no possibility to be blissful ever.

One can easily postpone for these seventy years. And the postponing is a by-product of the idea that one has to become somebody, then one can be happy; that is utterly meaningless. One can be happy as one is, one can be happy only as one is! There is no need to wait for the second moment, for the next moment. Right now, everything is available that can make you happy. Everything that is needed to be happy is already given. It has been with you all along.

That is the meaning of svatma - being. Being is more significant than becoming. Becoming is the world; being is god. Becoming needs time; being is a timeless phenomenon Becoming is desiring

and, naturally much anxiety, struggle, and frustration, and in the end, frustration . After so much struggle, one only arrives at a frustrated state of mind.

Being is non-desiring, no striving, no effort. One simply starts enjoying oneself and the existence that surrounds one. This is the message in your name - that you be. And Once you start feeling that one need not become anything... It is neurotic; the very idea of becoming is neurotic. One has just to be herenow and then tiny tiny moments, precious moments, win start dropping on you like a shower, a fine rain.

Suddenly one day sitting in your room doing nothing, it is there. Suddenly you become utterly aware of the silence in the house... not a thing stirring. Or the bird there. crying... or the sun rays dancing on the floor... or the moon that is just peeping through the Window. For a moment you are in utter bliss.

And the strange thing is: when bliss is, you are not. For that moment you are not, only bliss is, overwhelming bliss, for no reason at all. It has been all along; it is just that you were not alert.

And you were not alert because you were striving to get something, to become something, to reach somewhere. There is nowhere to reach.We are already at home!

[Osho suggests some groups.]

Try these three groups... although trying is a not a very good word. And that's why I have given you a name that means to be. Trying is never being... the effort!

There is a very famous zen anecdote: A zen master is standing with a handkerchief in his hand talking to his disciple. Suddenly he drops the handkerchief and asks the disciple to try to pick it up - to try to pick it up. The disciple simply picks it up and gives it to the master and the master says, 'No, that is not the thing.' He drops it again and he says, 'Try to pick it up.'

Now the disciple is a little puzzled: what is the matter? He did it again and it happened six times.

The master dropped it for the seventh time and he said, 'No, I am not satisfied. Try to pick it up again.' Then it dawned on the disciple, he laughed - yes, he had missed.

The master is saying, 'Try to pick it up,' and the disciple says, 'How can one try to pick it up? Either you pick it up or you don't pick it up. Trying to pick it up is just meaningless! What can you do trying to pick it up?'

And the master says, 'Precisely! So you got it!'

And in life people go on doing that - trying... trying to love. Either you love or you don't love. Trying means somewhere in the limbo; you will be neither here nor there.

So, just participate in these groups and be. If striving comes, relax and remember. Just repeat your name 'svatma' inside. Whenever you start feeling something is coming up, stirring, and you want to try something, just remember the name 'svatma'. Make it a mantra; just repeat two, three times inside, 'svatma, svatma, svatma'... It means being, non-striving, non-trying. Relax into it. And something is very much possible but you will have to be in this mind: a non-striver's mind.

[The new sannyasin says: I believe in christianity and I have the problem about christening. I got my name through christ and in the name of god, Jesus and the holy spirit - and I want to take this name now. For me it's difficult.]

Don't take it! Be a christian! If you are achieving something, if you are growing, be a christian with my blessings. If you are not achieving anything, forget all about it; then it has not happened. If christening has happened - if you have really received the name of Jesus and god - then why are you here? For what? - just to waste your time and my time? If it has happened, it has happened; then there is no need. If it has not happened, then why cling to it? Then this is another christening; this is the new christening. If one medicine has not helped, you move to another medicine.

It does not say anything about Christ; it is not that Christ has failed. It is only that the type of christianity that you got from your priest has failed. Maybe the priest himself did not have it. How can he give it to you? All priests are not christs. Only a christ can christen. How can the priest do it?

If he had something he could have given it to you. He was just a formal priest: he gave you a formal religion. Good as far as it goes - good that you were not a communist and you were a christian - but that's all!

If something has happened through it, then. I am the last person to distract you from that. If nothing has happened this is going to be your first christening. Now I am sharing something with you which can become a blossoming in you. But that is up to you, because these things cannot be given if you are not receptive. If you want to cling to your christianity, cling; nobody is interested in taking you away. But has something happened through it? If it has happened then why should you even think of sannyas? - there is no need.

Now this is how the human mind works: you go on clinging to something which is not useful at all, which has not worked. And remember always, I am not saying that christ has failed; christ never fails! This is the only way he can succeed in you: if you become a sannyasin. Nobody will know that you are a christian, but christ will know. You are for the first time becoming a christian... not formally.

I am not a christian, I am not a priest to anybody. I am not representing anybody; I only represent myself. But something is possible....

If you cling to your old - you can, that's your business! But nothing has happened and nothing is going to happen through it. You have already been a christian for many years! Why not take another chance? Why not open another door? If this door has proved a wall and you have been knocking your head against it and nothing has opened, maybe it is not a door at all! I am calling you from another door, and whatsoever door you choose, if you can get out of your misery you will be in christ.

Christ has nothing to do with christianity. Deep down Christ has nothing to do even with Jesus - Christ is a state of consciousness. Jesus became Christ. Buddha is a christ, so is mohammed. And so you can be... but it needs risk!

Jesus was circumcised as a jew but he dared get out of the formal religion. He ventured beyond the boundaries of formal religion. He dared to be baptised by the madman, john the baptist. That's what I am doing to you. I am a madman! Can't you see the Jordan river around me?

But you have to think about it, mm? If you feel that you are losing something valuable, don't become a sannyasin. But if you feel you are going into something valuable... then only. You can think about

it, think for one day, mm? And then if you feel that you want to cling to your old, return the name, return the mala. And don't feel guilty about it; there is nothing, no problem.

With me, everything is allowed, mm ? And take it easy! Right? Good!

[Osho explains the meaning of anand purven - bliss of the East.]

The human mind is divided into these two hemispheres - not the human earth but the human mind.

The West has its idea of happiness - that is of possessing more, of having this and that. The East has its own idea of happiness - of being more, not possessing but being more alert, more aware, more conscious... being more. The directions are different: the western approach moves outward, the eastern moves inward. The East thinks in terms of peace, silence, at-home-ness in existence, with existence. The west thinks in terms of conquering, of possessing. The western mind is basically at war, in conflict, it is aggressive.

So become eastern; change from the western to the eastern. It is a change from the mind to the heart, from the male attitude towards the feminine attitude, from being aggressive to being receptive.

God cannot be grabbed. We can only receive him: we can become the host and we can invite him.

We can keep our doors open for him to come - that's all that we can do. That's what meditation is all about.

This will be a great change in you. So from this moment, think less of possessions, less of success, less of fame, less of being powerful. Think more of calm, quietude, tranquillity. And once you start thinking of the eastern approach, by and by you start relaxing. Because then there is no war, no war with anything at all - no war with nature, no war with society, no war even with yourself. Otherwise sometimes it happens that a person can even drop the world, drop possessions, start moving in, but starts fighting with himself; then the fight continues.

That's what has happened to many christian saints. They are no more fighting with nature, no more fighting with man; they start fighting with themselves. They become very aggressive with themselves. They can flagellate their Own body; they can hurt their own body, they can destroy their own limbs. This is aggression turning upon itself. First they were murderers, now they have become suicides, but the basic approach of violence remains .

So no fight that is the message of the east. Relax, rest - all is good. Nothing has to be destroyed; everything has to be celebrated!

[The new sannyasin says: Last year all these things you've said to me now were happening.... I was very aggressive and violent with myself.]

Right! It has been in the past - that I can see. Now the future has to be totally different, diametrically different. It has been there in the past; that is very visible, mm? All those footprints I can see. That's why I am giving you the name. Now you have to change radically - you have to become a new kind of man. Don't be a german any more! Good!

[Osho initiates someone, saying: Just feel that you are standing outside under the sky. It is sunny - the sun is shining bright; even with closed eyes you can feel the light. The light is filling you. You are open and the light in entering you; it is making you luminous.

That will be your constant meditation - what I told you just now. Whenever you are sitting alone, not doing anything, just feel light entering you from above. Soak it in, drink it, let it sink into your heart.

Let it reach your whole body so that you disappear as a material body and you become a body of light. It will come very easy to you, and it will do miracles.

Deva udeepta. It means illuminated by god - deva means god, udeepta means illuminated. Mm?

and that is your meditation.

[A visitor says she feels Osho's spirit permeating her work as a movement therapist. She doesn't want to commit herself to sannyas until she can be here for a longer time.]

That's right - I understand your... Your idea is perfectly right. But there are things for which we should not wait... because one never knows! One can always wait for non-essential things because if they don't happen nothing matters, but one should not wait for the essential. One never knows - next time you come I may not be here; next time I am here you may not be.

So your feeling is perfectly right... but still, one should not wait for it. Become a sannyasin!...

There is no need to wait and there is no need to think that you are not centred yet. Nobody is ever absolutely centered, because to be absolutely centred means to die. Something remains wavering; that is part of life. That's why in the East we say that once a man has become absolutely centred he will not be coming again; this will be his last time... because absolute centering means death.

Nietzsche has said that when something is unripe it wants to live because it longs, desires, hopes.

It wants to become perfect, it wants to reach higher plenitudes of being. But when something is ripe it wants to die.... And he is right!

So if one wants a total surrender it will never be possible, because a part of the mind will always be shaking and wavering. One has to go in spite of it, and one has to take decisions. Even if one is not total, one has to take decisions, because time never waits. If you don't decide, time is gone and then it may be too late to decide or it may be irrelevant to decide.

There are moments... And you are in such a space right this moment - that's why I insisted.

Otherwise I would have told you to wait. It is a rare space in which you are. It is very easy for me to connect with you right now. It is not a question of your being centred. It is more a question of your being vulnerable. You are vulnerable at this moment, open.

From your side you may think that if you were more centred then you would have entered into sannyas more deeply. From your side only one thing is needed - that you should be open... and that you are! Much is going to happen, and it will start growing from this moment....

Ananda means blissful, meeta means a friend - a blissful friend.

You have to become a blissful friend: first to yourself then to others, then to the whole. If one can be friendly to the whole, nothing else is needed. In that very friendliness is enlightenment....

So become more and more friendly to your patients. to your friends, to the people you come across, to strangers. Let friendship be your flavour... and you will grow through it! Friendship will be your meditation.

And now, you will not be alone - I will be with you!...

Mm? you have to share me with many people - as many as possible.

[A sannyasin who is leaving to work as a teacher in the West says he is afraid of misguiding the children - he doesn't know anything.]

Love them! Feel delighted in making the aware of new things. Don't think of yourself as a teacher.

Think of yourself more as a guide who is taking them on a trip.

... That's what the obstacle is - to know. Be in this state of not-knowing. But naturally you have lived more in the world than they have; you certainly know a little more than they know. There is no need to become a knower, but you are a little ahead of them so you can guide them in a few things. You can make them interested in new things; you can help them explore.

That is the function of a teacher: to help the children to explore, to help the children so that their enquiry can become a little more systematic. It is not that you have to give them knowledge. You have to give them curiosity; you have to give them a thirst for knowing You have to create in them a great longing to explore this mysterious existence.

The real teacher is a mystic: he simply makes unknown dimensions available, that's all. He simply opens doors which were closed and invites people to enter.

So be playful - don't be serious - and your children will love you. Love them! Just be a help so that they can start moving on their own. Nothing to be worried about - I will be continuously helping you!

[A sannyasin asks the meaning of the words: The honey is in the lotus flower and the bee knows it.]

The lotus is a symbol of ultimate flowering, mm? - that is the most beautiful flower in the east And it almost resembles energy when it comes to the ultimate centre - the seventh chakra. There happens a kind of blooming, as if a one-thousand-petalled lotus has bloomed. So, the lotus became a symbol of spiritual unfoldment, and in that unfolding of the lotus there is bliss. That bliss is what honey is, and the bee knows it. You have to become the bee: you have to become the seeker of that ultimate unfoldment in your being. The goal is to be that lotus, and the beginning is to be the bee - the seeker, the searcher. So become a bee!

And the bee knows! If you really start sincerely searching you will know where it is, you don't need to be told. We are born with that tacit understanding of where it is, we all know about it. We may not use our knowing, we may not translate our knowing into practice, we may go on neglecting, ignoring it, but we know where it is. That knowledge is a given phenomenon - you are carrying it from your very birth. Once you start really longing, once you become really thirsty, nothing can hold you, you will reach. The bee knows where the honey is.

In the beginning you will be the bee; in the end you will become the lotus. You are both - the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega.