Darshan 15 September 1977
Deva means divine, samoda means delight - divine delight. And let that be your climate - live in it, breathe in it. It is only a question of remembering, and it comes. And you can do it very easily. You can easily become miserable, you can easily become blissful; it is one's own creation. And once you have learned the fact - that it is one's own creation, heaven or hell - then there is no point in being in misery, no point in choosing hell. We go on choosing hell because we are not aware that we are the creators. We think we are forced to be in it, somebody else is doing it, and we go on finding scapegoats. We go on avoiding the real factor that is behind it: it is us. When you are in misery, remember, you have created it, and you can uncreate it immediately because it is just imagination.
So these are the three steps towards inner realisation....
First: recognition of the fact that the misery is our own creation. People are such great artists in creating misery - they have become so skillful. That's all that they create; they don't create anything else. And naturally, life after life they have been in the profession of creating misery for themselves; they have become proficient. They are not amateurs; they are professionals.
The first thing to recognise is that the misery is of our own creation. In that very recognition it starts disappearing like smoke. It is no more solid. How can it be solid when you see that you are creating it ? How can you go on creating it when you recognise the fact that you are creating it! In that very recognition something clicks; the misery is apart and you are separate. The bridge is broken. And that is one of the greatest steps.
The second step is that we can create our joy, our delight. If we can create misery, then why can't we create joy? That follows like a shadow to the first. In fact to create misery is more difficult than to create joy. If we can do the difficult job then the second is easier, far easier, because it is far more in tune with our nature; that's what we desire.
Misery we don't desire and yet we create. It is against us, so if we can create that which is against us then the second thing is child's play: to create joy, delight. That is the second step - when you create a climate and you live in it; you create your own world. You paint your own world, you sing your own song. For the first time you become individual and for the first time you become free; now nobody can disturb you. If you want to get disturbed, that's another thing; that too is your choice.
But you are never a victim again so you never make anybody else feel guilty for it.
And the third step is that when you have understood that you create the misery, you create joy; then you must be separate from both because the creator cannot be his own creation. You can paint a picture but you cannot become the painting. You can write a novel but you don't become the novel. You can sculpt a beautiful statue but you don't become it. The creator can't become his own creation.
So if we are the creators of misery and joy, of hell and heaven, of pain and pleasure, then the third step follows very logically. One day suddenly you recognise the third too; it follows the second. They are in a chain: How can you be miserable or how can you be joyful? You are separate. You are a separate reality, you are a witness. And that's what we call nirvana, enlightenment....
So I am giving you two steps; the third will follow. First, the place where you are, where everybody is - the miserable place, suffering. And this is the step you have to take - samoda. You have to become delight. And the third will come on its own: whenever you are ready, it comes. It comes like a benediction.
Then misery and joy both disappear... then there is utter silence. You can't define it as joy. No, not even that is possible. It is so much more than joy, it cannot be confined to the word joy, bliss, no. No word will be able to express it; it is just a wordless silence. Ecstasy but with no movement. Nothing moves in it because nothing is in it. It is total silence, total absence.
First misery disappears, joy, delight arrives; then joy disappears, the witness arrives, and finally the witness is gone. That is nirvana, that is the great nothingness.
[The new sannyasin says: I had an accident and I was unconscious for about eight hours. I felt very different afterwards... but I don't know where I was.]
Mm mm, it can happen sometimes. Sometimes it can happen in an accident that the whole structure of the mind can change. And for better... sometimes for worse; an accident is an accident. And my feeling is that it has been good for you; it has not been devastating. It has put your mind on the right track.
[The sannyasin adds: First I bothered about losing memory, because I can't remember that period at all.]
That eight hour period? No, that you cannot remember because when you become unconscious that means nothing is recorded. That is a blank, a gap. You can only remember it as a gap. You cannot remember the content because there is nothing recorded.
It is like the tape recorder: if the electricity goes we will go on talking but nothing will be recorded, but the gap will be there....
So those eight hours you have not recorded. The mind is a machine: it records only when you are receiving consciously. It records a few things unconsciously too; they may be there. But it depends how deep the unconsciousness was. If it was like a coma then almost nothing is recorded. The mind functions no more because the senses function no more. They are the messengers to bring things; they are not bringing. The postman doesn't come so the letters are not delivered.
But my feeling is that your energy is perfectly good; that accident must have helped you. And some day meditating you may fall again into unconsciousness. If it happens, don't resist. This time it will be far more beautiful. And once something has happened, it is more possible that it will happen again. And sometimes in an accident, rare opportunities open.
Once I was travelling with a friend and there was an accident. Our car fell down from a bridge, twenty feet down, mm? upside-down. I had been talking to this man; for years I had been telling him about meditation and he was a very very learned scholar. But he would always say, 'Whatsoever you say, I cannot think that there is a possibility of a mind without thought. How can the mind be without thought?' And he would argue... And of course, there is a point: how can the mind be without thought? Content is needed; the mind can only be minding about something. It is very logical.
Consciousness can only be of something. If there is nothing then how can you be conscious? Of what? The very word consciousness means conscious about something. Content is needed so that you can be conscious of it; consciousness and content go together. That is very very psychological, logical... but it happens. And I would explain to him but he was too much in his mind. And that day it happened!
Just for a few seconds we became aware that the accident was going to happen, mm? We were coming down a hill and the driver lost control, something went wrong in the car, and for a few seconds we were aware that something was going to happen because the brake was not working, the steering was not working. The car was going on its own; now wherever it was going, nothing could be done. And it was really a steep hill! So for a few seconds his thoughts stopped, because in such a strange situation you cannot think; what to think about?
You cannot go on thinking your ordinary thoughts because they are too trivial in such a moment - when death is just there waiting for you down the hill. Within moments you will be gone! The very shock of it is enough to stop the process of thinking. When he fell and when I pulled him out of the car, he was laughing. He said, 'But is this the way to prove it? Couldn't you have done better? It was too dangerous!'
Nobody was harmed. It was really dangerous - the whole car was destroyed - but he had a glimpse.
Since then he has not argued about it; he knows it. That accident proved a great revolution in his life; a radical change happened....
He was not driving - he was just sitting with me. Somebody else was driving; we were just the passengers. But he came to see the point - that consciousness can be, and without content. So that accident was a blessing. And I thanked the driver and said what I had been trying to tell this man for years and was not able to, he had simply done!
If he had died in that moment he would have born on a very high plane. Nothing was wrong - even death would have been good - because in that moment of no-thought he would have died in a kind of
satori. He was saved, but he changed. Since then he has never argued, he dropped argumentation.
He became a totally new man.
So that accident was good. It will happen sometime again, deep in meditation one day. It will be almost like it but on a higher plane. Maybe it can be paradoxical too: on one plane you become unconscious; on another you remain conscious. Then it is far more beautiful, because then you go on seeing what is happening. The body becomes numb and goes off, the mind becomes numb and goes off, but you are still turned on. You are still there, hovering like a presence. No more identified with the body and the mind... almost a holy ghost!
This is possible - that's what I feel.
[A sannyasin asks how he can combine living here and living in Europe as he is involved in many things there.]
Yes, it can be done; there is no problem. It can be done and it can be done perfectly well....
You can go and come and go and come. Mm? One day you will do that too - you will pack and you will never go back - but till that day comes there is no need to force it. This is your home; whenever you feel like coming, you come. Be here and then you can go. And don't create conflict.
I am against all kinds of enforced things. Then things start going wrong. If you force yourself to be here then something within you will have to be repressed, and that is not good; there is no need.
I am against all kinds of repressions. If you have the desire to go, it is perfectly good. The desire in itself is not wrong. There may be something that you need to fulfill there and which can only be fulfilled there. Because there are a few things which can be fulfilled only in the marketplace... and they are part of growth.
So nobody should be taken out of the marketplace unless he is really ready. If something is lingering, it has to be finished, completed. And there is no hurry either.
Just keep in mind that this is your home and there you simply go to fulfill something, that's all. Then sooner or later you will be back one day, finished, but no need to create any tension around it.
Be here only when you feel like being here. Anything that you would have to do against any part of your being is disruptive and creates a kind of guilt.
For example, if you force yourself to be there, you don't come here and you want to come, that will be creating guilt. You force yourself to be here and don't go there and you want to be there; that will be guilt. You can simply float. And whenever you become guilty about something... And by guilt I mean whenever you do something against yourself - that you never wanted to do in the first place and are doing for some other motives, forcing, the spontaneity of your being is lost - you will feel guilty.
This gland in the throat is called adam's apple, because adam ate the apple and he could not swallow. it.
It got stuck in the throat because he was feeling divided: half of him wanted to eat and explore and half of him was afraid. And he did it in a conflict. So don't create more adam's apples, never! Do things totally so you can swallow them and digest them. It is perfectly good!
Prem means love and sameda means offering - love offering to god. And that's what you have to become, an offering.
Literally it means... In ancient India there were fire rituals called 'yagnas'. India has worshipped fire for centuries. Fire has been the first most important invention of humanity. It is through fire that man has survived, so it became very very sacred.
And sameda is the special wood chosen from the forest for the fire ritual. It is an offering to the fire god... and god is fire. Hence the colour orange has been chosen for sannyas; it is the colour of fire.
God is fire, and we have to become like wood so we disappear in god, the fire consumes us. We are no more, and the day we are no more, that is the first time we are. By losing ourselves, we find; by dying we are reborn. So it is one of the most important words I am giving to you as a name.
[A sannyasin says he has been feeling very miserable. Last night he stayed up to look after his son who was sick. He has heartburn often and thinks it is repressed anger. Osho checks his energy.]
Nothing to be worried about.... Just ordinary cycles of misery and happiness. I don't see that there is really any cause for it. One thing you have to understand about it is that the mind functions in a cycle.
There are three cycles in human existence. The first is the physical. It takes twenty-three days to complete, and it affects a broad range of physical factors, including resistance to disease, strength, coordination, and the other basic body functions, and the sensation of physical well-being. The second cycle is emotional. It takes twenty-eight days to complete, just as it takes twenty-eight days in the feminine body for the menstruation to come. Just now science is becoming alert that even man has a kind of monthly period and that after each twenty-eight days it happens. The feminine period is visible and physical. Man's period is not visible and not physical; more pyschological, more emotional, but it happens. The emotional cycle governs creativity, sensitivity, mental health, mood, perception of the world and ourselves.
When a woman is in the period, for three, four, five days she is in misery, sad, negative, dull, dead, feeling very low, jumpy, shaken. But women become accustomed to it because it is so visible. By and by they learn that it has to be so, so by and by they are not so miserable. It is an every month thing and so visible, so things settle. But man's problem is more difficult. The period is there - the male period - but it is not visible and you don't know where it comes from and when it goes.
Right now my feeling is you are in a menstruation period, so for three, four days, you will suffer.
This is one cycle. It will be good if you read something about bio-rhythms - a new science that is developing; bio-rhythm. And it will be very helpful for you.
This is a twenty-eight days cycle in the body; it follows the moon. So whenever there is moon you will be more happy, and when there is no moon you will be less happy....
And then finally, the third cycle. The third cycle is the intellectual cycle. It takes place over a thirty-three day period. It regulates memory, alertness, receptivity to knowledge and the logical
and analytical functions. The first half of each period is positive and the second half, negative.
Sometimes you have a period in the negative phase and the others in the positive, and vice versa.
When all the three cycles are in the positive, peaks of joy and ecstasy happen. And when all the three are in the negative, one lives in hell. Heaven means all the three are in the positive and hell is the other end. And to be free of both is nirvana, moksha, absolute freedom.
So it has nothing to do - at least about you I am certain - with any cause. Those are just excuses; that boy's illness was just an excuse. If he were not ill then you would have found something else.
So don't be angry with him. And it has nothing to do with anger. You have just to understand your phases, and you have to be a little more watchful. Start keeping a diary about these negative phases. Within three, four months, you will be able to make your chart, and then you can predict that next monday you are going to be in a bad mood, and then be alert.
In ancient days yogis used to make such charts. The science of bio-rhythm was well-known and practised in the yoga and sufi schools. And these charts were very helpful because if you know that for the first week of every month you become very very negative, then a few things can be avoided.
In that first week don't do anything for which you can repent later on; don't fight, don't get angry.
The people who are really following those charts will not move out of their rooms. They will not do anything for those seven or four or three days, because whatsoever they do will be wrong.
And then you know when your positive mood comes. That is the time to relate, to go to people, to meet, and nothing will go wrong. You will be in a different state altogether.
So start keeping a diary from tomorrow morning. And by diary I don't mean that you have to write all kinds of details; just the diary of negative and positive moods - morning, afternoon, evening, night - four points. Every day note down how you were feeling for three months; then make a chart. Just look at that chart. When your positive moments are there, those are the moments when you should meditate, love, sing, dance, go swimming, relate to people, do something creative. And you will be much benefited, because suddenly god is available in those moments - you are very close.
When you are in a negative mood then don't do anything... just the necessary. And remember that the mind will tend to find some cause but don't look for any cause; the cause is inside you.
Watching this way, within six, eight months you will be able to become a witness, and then nothing disturbs. Then you know it is just part of nature - nothing to do with you. Seeing it, you start transcending.
No, nothing is a problem. And you are a moon type, so you have to be very watchful about the moon. Mm? you can become really excited. Use that excitement too. The moon can drive you mad - hence the word 'lunatic'; it means moonstruck, lunar, from lunar the lunatic. Many more people go mad on the full-moon night, many more people commit suicide and murder on the full-moon night, and many have become enlightened also on the full-moon night! It depends on how you use it. It is great energy released.
Man is still a part of the ocean, and just as the moon affects the ocean, it affects man. Eighty percent you are ocean water - still: with the same chemicals, the same saltiness, and everything.
With eighty percent ocean water you are bound to be affected by the moon; you will be in a rage of energy.
If you don't use it rightly it can become destructive. For example, if in the full-moon night you can't sleep then it is better not to sleep. Why not sing, play, dance; why bother about sleeping ? It is not the night to sleep. It is the night to dance, celebrate. Next day, exhausted, you can go to sleep. If you try to sleep and you cannot sleep then it becomes misery.
There are tribes in India - primitive tribes - who will never sleep on the full-moon night. One is not meant to sleep. They will dance the whole night - they will dance like crazy - and the next day will be a holiday. Their holidays are according to the moon, not according to the sun; they don't have sun days. When the full moon has come, the next day is the holiday; then everybody has to sleep.
The whole community will sleep because the whole night they will drink and dance and celebrate and it will be an orgy of joy.
And my own observation is that people can reach to the highest peak of joy on the full-moon night.
They are at the lowest ebb on the no-moon night.
So you just watch - I don't see that there is any problem. Good!