Darshan 13 October 1976

Prem means love and pradeepam means flame - a flame of love, a light of love or lamp of love. And sannyas is nothing but coming closer to me so that your unlit flame can be lit. Just coming closer to a flame is enough. In a certain moment the flame jumps from one flame to another. Suddenly there are two flames. Nothing is lost in the original flame. Out of one flame, out of a small candle, you can light a thousand candles. Nothing is lost in the original. That's the beauty of love - you go on sharing and nothing is lost. In fact the more you share, the more you have. So first be courageous enough to come closer to me so that your flame takes its own life, so that you are lighted again. And then help others... share your light with others.

Much is going to happen... a great potentiality is there in you. Never think that the actual is the end of life; the actual is a very tiny part of the possible. The possible is vast - the actual is very small. The actual has a definition. The possible is infinite; it has no definition. So live with the actual but always remain open for the possible. And there is no end to it. One can simply go on growing and growing from one perfection to another perfection, from one door of mystery to another door of mystery. The journey is eternal.

So remain alert about the possible. That's what has happened to the modern mind. The modern mind has lost track of the possible; it has become too involved with the actual. The vision is lost, the hope is lost. And if the modern man feels so hopeless, so meaningless, nobody else is responsible for it. The modern mind goes on looking only at the actual. The actual is very small. One gets fed up with it It is boring because it is repetitive. Once you raise your eyes to the possible, you are facing the infinite horizon. Then vast is the sky and infinite is the possibility. Then you are never in a fed-up mood, and you are never in a state of hopelessness.

The hopelessness arises if you are obsessed too much with the actual - and the modern mind is obsessed with the actual. That's the difference between a religious man and a non-religious man. I

don't call the non-religious, irreligious, because the word irreligious has a condemnation in it. Non- religious is a neutral word - no evaluation, just factual. The non-religious is one who has not yet become aware of the possible. The religious is one who has become aware of the possible. And that's what meditation is - a door into the actual towards the possible... a projection of a bridge from the actual to the possible. It is a great dream, but the dream can be fulfilled.

So dream with me now! Hence forward, dream with me, and come closer and closer and closer.

[A sannyasin who has trained in psychotherapy, was unsure as to whether she should study medicine or not. Osho suggested it would be better not to undertake the extensive training medicine required, but said that he could do much as a psychotherapist.] It will be good for your own growth also. Just remember two things. One is: psychotherapy is not yet complete, so don't depend on it totally. It takes people to a certain point - so help your patients to reach that point through psychotherapy, but whenever you feel that things have got stuck, then introduce meditation immediately. No need to introduce meditation in the early stage; it may not be of much help. First try to work through psychotherapeutic methods and give as much help as possible through that, but then you will always come to a point where you will feel that nothing much can be done through psychotherapy. ThaYs the right point to introduce meditation.

So don't go on repeating the same thing whether something is happening or not. Otherwise psychoanalysis goes on for years and then people simply get so stuck that they change the psychotherapist, that' s all.

In a different garb, different terminology, again the same game starts. And there are many people in the West whose whole lives are being wasted in therapy. Therapy can be very helpful but one needs to know its limits. If you know the limits you can be very helpful. If you forget the limits you can be very de'structive.

Then psychotherapy itself becomes like an occupation for the patient he starts depending on it. It becomes an escape so he can avoid life, because he says that he is under therapy and he is not yet healed and there are a thousand and one problems yet to be solved. Unless they are solved, how can he participate in life? And that can become a disease in itself.

Sometimes medicines can create a greater disease than what they were meant to cure.

Psychotherapy itself can become an illness, can become a neurosis. There are many people who are suffering from it. So the first thing to remember is that it is incomplete. And a scientific mind always remembers where there are limits. A scientific mind is never a fanatic mind. A scientific mind never claims more than that which is feasible.

Ordinarily the mind tends to claim absolute things - that yes, psychotherapy can do everything! Then not only is the patient in - the therapist is also in. So know the limits... and you will always come to experience them. When therapy stops and you feel that now nothing is happening, immediately introduce meditation, and suddenly there will be an upsurge of energy in the patient.

Deep down every person needs religion. Without religion no person can really be healthy. The unhealthiness comes into life because we don't know how to be religious. That dimension is

completely lost. We have forgotten the very language of being religious. Religion is now only a formal thing.

So when a person is psychologically ill, he is also religiously ill. On the surface it is a psychological illness; in the depth it is a religious illness. He is in a state of turmoil and he cannot figure out why he is, why this existence is, what the meaning of life is. These problems are so big that he cannot even raise them, so he raises small problems which he hopes will be solved. His basic problem is that he has not been able to feel the significance of life. He starts thinking, 'Maybe I am living with a wrong woman.' Now this is a problem that can be solved. But he is living with a wrong lifestyle; that is a big problem and it will be very difficult to solve. Even to recognise it needs courage. So people go on finding small problems. They are substitute problems; they are not real problems.

You can change the woman, and nothing will change. Another woman, and after a few days, the same problem. A person thinks that maybe it is the wrong job he is doing and that is why he is not happy; he should change the job. Or maybe it is the wrong car and the wrong house and the wrong neighbourhood; he should change all these things. The whole basic problem is that he is wrong.

So give a person psychological help to a point and then immediately introduce meditation to him.

Suddenly you will see that his psychological problems are just pseudo problems. His real problem has arisen, and that real problem is that he was seeking some meaning in his life - sometimes in the form of money, sometimes in power, prestige, love, rebtionships, this and that. The basic search is for meaning: how to make life meaningful, how to live so that you can feel that existence needs you. That's what meaning is - so that you can feel that you are needed.

There is a great need to be needed, and that cannot be fulfilled. There may be a man who needs you, but that cannot be very satisfying. You can have children - they need you - but you know that soon they will grow up and will be gone, and then? So women almost always become psychologically ill when the children have all left and gone to the university or to their own lives. Now meaning is lost.

They were living for these children; there was a certain sort of meaning. Now that is no more there.

If a person is in love with a woman he feels a certain meaning. . . that there is something to achieve.

Then when he achieves the woman, suddenly the meaning is lost Now what to do? Now they are both stuck together. Now there is only one way - to find another woman, to chase another woman...

to become occupied again. But this is a vicious circle; one goes on and on and on. And people who are very intelligent become ill sooner than those people who are stupid.

Remember that - that people who are psychological ill are more intelligent than the common lot, so be very respectful towards them. They are really the cream. They are ill because they can understand that their life has no meaning. There are millions of stupid people who cannot even feel that their life has no meaning. They are just mechanical parts. Things go on moving and people go on moving almost oblivious of the fact of why they are.

The more intelligent a person, the more possibility there is of him falling victim of a psychological mness. So psychological mness is really a symptom of a great intelligence, and a great respect should be shown to the patient. He is not in the same boat as a physically ill person; he is not really ill in that way. It is not right to use the same word for both. The psychologically disturbed person is a very intelligent, sensitive person who goes on feeling that something is missing, and then the

feeling becomes so throbbing and vital that he cannot do anything; he has to solve it. Then he finds pseudo problems and he brings them to the analyst, and the psychoanalyst tries to solve them.

You can help him to solve them but that is going to be temporary relief. He will be readjusted to the society again and within a few months, a few years, he will be back again. You never see any psychologically disturbed person permanently cured. Again and again he has to knock at the door of the psychoanalyst. What is the problem? Why cannot he be cured permanently? His problem is basically religious.

So on the surface you just console him, rationalise things, put things right. It is a whitewash: the surface looks good. He goes back into life and again problems arise because deep in the depth they are never tackled.

Introduce meditation if you feel that the person is an intellectual type, or introduce prayer if you feel that the person is an emotional type: both are the same. But immediately introduce religion and then you will be of tremendous help. And create this sense in the psychologically disturbed person - that he is not ill, that he is not neurotic or crazy, he is not nuts. He is an intelligent person who has become aware of a basic problem of life; he is sensitive. Give him the feeling that he is not m and immediately you will see that he is healing faster than ever. The very idea 'I am ill' creates illness, and the idea is absolutely wrong. Particularly for psychological disturbances it is totally wrong.

So let this be your work. If you feel that you are alone, you can have a few sannyasins to help you.

Make it an absolutely orange group and create a prayerful, meditative atmosphere. Let your clinic be more like a temple, and you can bring tremendous energy to help people. This is the second thing.

And the third thing. First I say that psychology is not enough - only religion can make it a complete whole - and the third thing that I would like to say to you is: man is not enough. So whenever you feel that you are not enough, when you feel that psychology is not enough, introduce medibtion. But even while introducing meditaton and prayer, there may be some times when you feel absolutely helpless - then invoke God. Have a small sitting with the patient, have a few sannyasins around and invoke God. Say, 'We are helpless. Now only you can help. Now only existence itself can help. We surrender.'

You can introduce a totally new dimension to psychotherapy in the West I would like many of my sannyasins to go and work on these lines. You can work out details. I am always there to help you.

So simply go... and go absolutely confident. Start working, and much is going to happen. It is going to give you an inner growth. It will be helpful for others, but that is not so important It will be helpful for you too; that is more important And whenever you need me, just keep this on your head...(Osho passed Neerjo a small wooden box containing several of his elegant grey-white beard hairs) close your eyes and remember me. Suddenly you will have an energy experience and you will be in contact with me. Good.

In reply to Osho's query, a visitor from Spain, said that she worked as a waiter; that waiting was hard.]

Mm, waiting is difficult, but if you can introduce meditation in your waiting it won't be so difficult, one can even enjoy it. So learn at least one meditation and continue it.

You need a deep inner contact with yourself - and that will become the contact with God also. We cannot be in contact with God unless we are in contact with ourselves. The only way to reach God is through yourself. And whatsoever dreams you have, they are beautiful dreams, but if you really want to actualise them, great work is needed to be done. Waiting is good, but just waiting won't do. You have to work also and wait, otherwise waiting can become just being lazy. Work hard and wait - both are needed. Working hard means that you really intend to do something, and waiting means that you know well that man is helpless. Unless God helps, nothing is possible. We work to show our sincere intention - nothing else. All spiritual pratices are nothing else. They don't lead you anywhere - they simply make your prayer meaningful. They simply show God that you really mean it. You are ready to do whatsoever you can, knowing well that just your doing is not going to help.

Our hands are very small and the sky is very vast How can we hold the sky in our hands? But we try. Knowing well we are bound to fail, we try. That effort shows that we are not asking out of laziness. We have done whatsoever we could - now we ask God to come and help us. And immediately whenever a person has done all that he can, God's grace becomes available and things start happening.

They never happen to a person who simply goes on doing and never asks God's help. They never happen to a person who goes on asking for help and never does anything about it. The grace comes to a person who has synthesised these two things - will and surrender, effort and prayer, work and waiting.