Darshan 6 November 1976

[To a sannyasin leaving for the West.] Continue to meditate. There are many temptations for dropping meditation, and they are not all from the outside; many are from the inside. The mind tends to be lethargic and it can always find good reasons, so don't listen to the mind. Even if the reason seems to be perfectly right, be irrational but continue to meditate, because only those moments which have been used for meditation are the saved moments - all else is lost. This one understands only at the end, but then it is too late; you cannot do anything about it.

This is one of the human dilemmas: that we become wise when all time and energy is lost. When time and energy was there we were foolish. The mind is very foolish and yet very rational. In fact its foolishness consists of its rationality. Sometimes the mind will say 'What is the point? Nothing is happening.' Sometimes the mind will say 'There are better uses of your mind - there is a good movie, there is a good concert, or friends are meeting to gossip. Why waste time in sitting silently doing meditation? You can do it tomorrow. ' That tomorrow is very risky. The mind always says 'You can do it tomorrow' but tomorrow never comes.

So for these nine months make it a point not to be tempted by the mind. There is no need to repress the mind - just don't cooperate with it, at least as far as meditation is concerned. Twenty-three hours be with the mind - it is more than enough - and tell the mind, 'Only one hour I want for meditation; twenty-three are yours. But don't encroach on that one hour.' And don't allow it to encroach on that one hour. And remember, if the twenty-three hours given to the mind are not giving any satisfaction, what is going to happen if you give one hour more? It is not going to make any substantial difference.

And the results of meditation come very slowly. It is a very very slow-growing tree, because it is the tree of eternity. And once results start coming you will know that every moment that you had put to

meditation has come to fruition. But before those fruits arrive there is much labour, much arduous effort. A gardener works for years, then a tree comes. He can simply hope and wait.

This word 'wait' is very beautiful. It comes from a jewish root, a hebrew root which means exactly what the word religion means - to bind together. And religion is waiting - waiting for the unknown...

not knowing exactly whether it is going to happen or not Nobody knows, and there is no guarantee.

It may happen, it may not happen, but still one has to risk.

One thing is certain, that if you don't make any effort, it is not going to happen; that much is certain.

If you make effort there is a possibility that it may happen, it may not happen. And the choice is between these two. If you don't make any effort, it is certain it is not going to happen. Nothing is going to happen without meditation - no beauty, no truth, no love. Nothing is going to happen - that much is certain. But the other thing is not certain. Only this much can be said - it is possible. So one has to be available... hoping for the best, and ready to accept the worst.

And don't go on judging every day whether something is happening or not. For nine months simply forget about the result. When you come back I will ask and then think about what has happened.

For nine months simply devote your time, at least one hour every day. If you can manage more it is very good, but one hour is a must.

This is your box, and this box will keep an eye on you - whether you are doing meditation or not!

(laughter) Mm?

... You can choose any, mm? But continue one for nine months. Go on hammering on the same spot with the same method so it goes deeper and deeper and deeper. One day the crust is broken and you simply start floating into a different dimension.... And come back!...

You have a centre there around you?

... So sometimes go there, mm? And keep contact with sannyasins. That is helpful, tremendously helpful. Whenever you feel alone, find some orange people. Just being with them will be helpful.

You will be recharged again.

And it is natural - when you are alone and the whole world is a totally different world and nobody is in tune with you, you feel lost in a desert. It is always good to find a group of kindred souls where everybody is seeking the same, everybody is moving in the same direction, and certainly a great affinity has arisen within the group; the group has grown a soul.

When people are moving in the same direction, with the same effort, with the same master, with the same method, they grow a group soul and that group soul is very nourishing. So sometimes when you feel starved and unnourished and you start feeling that you may be lost, that things are becoming too much - go, find a group. Just be there for one or two days and you will be charged again. You will again feel floating, again hopeful and out of that depression.

The world is big, and we have to make small pockets. That's why I am insisting so much for the orange clothes - so you will be able to recognise people wherever you are. Even on the road, suddenly in an unknown, strange town, you will see an orange person and immediately you will have

an affinity, a feeling that he belongs to you and you belong to him, and all strangeness disappears.

He is a member of your family. So keep contact with sannyasins, mm? And come back. Good!

[Osho gives sannyas to a seeker.] .... Very good. You are in the flow. Just a little more cooperation on your part, and nothing much else is needed. Things will start happening. You are just very close to the main road; just a few steps and you will be in the stream. And those few steps are not going to be difficult at all.

There are many types of people. There are a few people who are very far away from the river. To come to the river, to relax, to let go, they will have to walk miles and miles. Then there are people not only far away from the river - they are rushing even farther. Their back is towards the river, and even if they want to reach to the river, they rush in the opposite direction, so each of their efforts becomes their undoing. Then there are people who are very close to the river but who cannot surrender, cannot be in a let-go. So they may be just on the bank but they are as far away as anybody else.

I have come across a few people who are standing in the river and yet untouched by the river - stiff, frozen, protecting themselves... protecting themselves against the river of life. Crying and weeping and asking for more life, afraid of death and praying to God, and standing in the river - not allowing themselves to be taken by the river to the ocean. You are very close... just a few steps. So it is not going to be a difficult journey at all.

You just have to remember: easy is right. So don't strain. While you are here, do things without any strain. Almost let them happen rather than doing them. Allow them to happen. The action mode is not your mode, the reception mode is your mode. Just become a receptacle.

This will be your name: Ma Anand Mudita. Anand means bliss, mudita means joy. And both have a different meaning. Anand is bliss, mudita is joy. Joy is something that you have to do, and bliss is something that happens when you are joyous. So they don't mean the same thing. In the dictionary they mean the same but in actual life they are totally different. Mudita is to be practised; blessing happens. One has to remain joyful, one has to learn the ways of joy, and one has to go on moving in the direction of joy as much as possible. When you are moving in the direction of joy, one day you will suddenly see a dove descending on you - that is bliss. For that you cannot do anything. It is beyond human hands... it is beyond human reach. It comes as a gift.

So joy is human, bliss is divine. Joy is a preparation, a prayer, and bliss is the fulfillment of the prayer: the prayer has been heard, one is rewarded. Joy is the way that man has to approach God's temple, and bliss is the gift that God gives to those who come closer to Him.

So be joyous. Let joy be your secret sadhana, your discipline. Whatsoever you do, do it joyfully, in a humming way, singing and dancing. If you are preparing food, prepare it singing, joyfully, as if you are preparing for the greatest of guests... as if God Himself is to come and be a guest While eating, eat joyfully, because in fact within you it is God who receives the food. It is He, it is His life. It is His hunger and it is His satisfaction. We are just vehicles.

So bring joy to small, very ordinary, mundane things. Cleaning the floor, do it joyfully, because this floor belongs to God, belongs to His earth.

Eckhardt used to say to his disciples, 'I am ecstatic because I walk on God's earth. I am ecstatic because I walk in His moonlight. I am ecstatic because I drink from His rivers. I am ecstatic because I am a small particle in His being.'

Once you understand this, suddenly it is very easy to be joyful; there is no need to be miserable.

Misery is a misunderstanding, a mistake. Joy is understanding - erasing the mistake, putting things right. In joy you have to put yourself together and you have to create a centre which always throbs with joy. Whatsoever happens in the outside world makes no difference - inside one remains joyful.

And then one day something happens which is from the beyond. It penetrates your soul, goes to the very core.

[A visitor said he wished to make a film on indian spiritual teachings: I'm continuing my sadhana, and I think my main difficulty is reconciling the action with the natural desire to be peaceful and quiet. I would rather meditate and contemplate than act, and that requires overcoming some inertia.

I wondered if you might have any suggestions.] Mm mm. You are unnecessarily creating a conflict between action and peace. There is no need.

Action can become as meditative as inaction. And that will be the right course for you to follow, rather than waiting for some time when you can be totally at ease and relaxed. It may not come; there are a thousand and one things to be done. And this whole attitude may be just a simple device to postpone. It may be just a trick of the mind. The mind says, 'How can you be peaceful, quiet and calm unless you live a quiet and calm life? And your work is such that it is not possible - so when it is possible, then. ' It may be just a trick. There is no need to divide life into two parts.

Action can be meditative and inaction can be as tense as anything else. Just by sitting silently nobody becomes silent. In fact when people sit silently they become more full of turmoil than ever.

When people go to the temple or to the church and just sit silently and try to pray or meditate, those are the wont moments in their life - when all thoughts and all waves and all desires simply jump upon them. There is almost an attack... it becomes a war.

In fact action and inaction are just like in-breathing, out-breathing. You cannot only in-breathe, otherwise you will die. You cannot only out-breathe, otherwise you will die. There has to be a balance between in-breathing and out-breathing. In fact both are the same. So when you are doing something, do it meditatively. Even if you are hurrying, hurry slowly. And it can be done, because it is something that you bring to the action - it has nothing to do with the action itself You can see people sitting silently and very tense, and you can see somebody else going to his work but non-tense. It is some inner quality that has nothing to do with the outer thing.

So try two things. One is: whatsoever you are doing, do it as if it is God's work. Then you will be less tense because it has nothing to do with you. If it succeeds, God succeeds. If it fails, God fails.

The moment we become the doer, tension arises. Tension is the shadow of the doer. It has nothing to do with the doer - it has something to do with the idea of being a doer.

If you are doing, there is bound to be tension and anxiety and turmoil, and the peace will be lost.

When God is the doer you simply say, 'I am just a servant. Whatsoever life leads me to do I will do.

' Once you relax your concept of the doer, the ego, there is a quality of peace to whatsoever you do.

You can even go to the war front and fight and kill and be killed, and there will remain peace - it will remain undisturbed. And this is true peace.

The peace that comes sitting in a himalayan cave may not be true. It may be just the peace of the Himalayas; it may not have anything to do with you. It may be just the coolness, the beautiful snow peaks, the silence, the eternal silence. It may be the Himalayas, but not you. And the Himalayas are big and vast. They can overpower anybody.

There is a very famous story in India. A monk lived for thirty years in the Himalayas, and he became as quiet as the snow peaks and as cool as snow. He was almost a zero, a nobody. Then a desire arose in him and he thought, 'Now there is no need to be here. Whatsoever I had come for has happened so now I can descend back to the plains.'

There was a great fair, a religious gathering, a kumbha mela, so he descended to the mela. There were millions of people, and nobody knew the man - it was such a big crowd. When he entered the mela, somebody stepped on his toe and within a second all those thirty years disappeared - that peace, that coolness, everything. He jumped on the man, and was ready to km the man. He became so angry, 'What? Don't you know who I am?'

Then suddenly he realised, 'What am I doing? What happened to my peace?' And then he bowed to the man and touched his feet. The man was puzzled as to what had happened, because just a single moment before he was about to kill him, and then he touched his feet and said, 'You revealed a bigger truth to me than even the Himalayas could reveal. I am the same old man. Now I am not going to the Himalayas. I will live in the marketplace and try to be silent. ' If silence is possible in the marketplace, then it is yours, something that you have earned, and it cannot be lost. Just go on dropping the doer and let the work be God's.

And the second thing which I think you have been doing, and which can be the tension and the reason for all your tension, is that you are trying to be aware. Rather, be lost in the act, because in that effort to be aware there is again an effort, and there is a certain subtle doing in it. When you try to be aware, in that very effort there is tension. As I see it, this will be better for you - that you leave the action to God. Just become a vehicle, and then whatsoever you are doing, get completely lost into it. Be drunk with it! And then you will see by and by a silence arising around you within and without, which has nothing to do with your sadhana.

In fact, sadhana itself is a tension: 'Doing something is wrong; one should not get into it; one should move to a peaceful place and relax.' And when you condemn something and still you have to do it, there is conflict. So my suggestion is, if you try it for six months you will have a taste of a totally different quality of being.

Drop the doer and let the doing be total, and you be drowned in it - be a drunkard. And for six months, you see what happens.

[A sannyasin says: Something happened in the Enlightenment Intensive group but it's so vague, I'm not sure what it is. I'm not sure exactly, but I feel some different energy or... I can't explain but.... ] No, I understand. Right - it can happen sometimes in the Intensive group. The process can go so deep that when you come out of the group you cannot come out so easily - it continues. And it is very beautiful. Certainly it is very vague - it has to be. One is entering a new territory; one is becoming acquainted with a new kind of energy. One is moving without any map, and the eyes are

not attuned to this new phenomenon, so everything looks vague. It is almost as when a child is born:

he opens the eyes but he cannot see because his eyes will need training; he has never seen before.

So you can see the child - that his eyes open - but he doesn't see much... just blurred colours, no shape, everything like a flux, unfocused, because his eyes are not yet focused. A great alignment is needed before he will be able to see. It will take months, then by and by he will be able to focus. The first thing he will be able to see will be his mother's face. And once the mother's face has focused, then other things by and by will fall into line.

Exactly the same happens when you enter the inner world. Again you are a child, again you are just born, again eyes are not trained for it - hence this vagueness. It has nothing to do with the energy that is surrounding you. It is very clear. It is a point from where reason has to be completely dropped, otherwise it won't allow you to go further. Don't analyse and don't be bothered what it is; there is no need. You are not required to label it and you are not required to categorise it. There is no need to create any clear picture about it.

Just let it be as it is. Simply go on watching, seeing it, enjoying it, delighting in it, and allowing it.

And wherever it leads, go, trust.

[The primal group was present. The leader said: It was an all male group... eleven men.

I have a question about what it is to be a man. I don't even know what the question is, but it's something like: what does it mean to be male?] Mm mm. It means many things, but fundamentally it means outgoing energy, aggressive energy - energy that takes initiative. Feminine means in-going energy, receptive energy that waits, never takes the initiative. So it is a play of out-going and in-going energy. They fit together because the out-going needs an in-going energy to fit and the in-going energy needs an out-going energy to fit.

They fit together; they become a complete whole. That is the symbol of yin and yang: one moving into another. The woman is the dark and the man is the white.

The white has clear-cut form. The dark is more infinite, without boundary. A woman is formless, a man is with form. That's why a man has a very clearly defined ego. Woman does not have a clearly defined ego. In fact without a man a woman is simply at a loss to know who she is. Only with the man, with the male energy, does she become defined; then she knows who she is. The man not only defines himself - he defines the woman he loves. And the woman is indefinable. Not only is she indefinable - when somebody falls in love with her, he too also becomes a little indefinable.

The woman is like the dark night - nothing is clear. You cannot sort things out, you cannot see what is what. There is quiet and there is calm. All things grow in darkness. The seed has to go into the darkness of the earth, and the child grows in the womb of the woman, in the darkness of the womb.

No light penetrates... no sound penetrates.

Man is like the day - clear-cut. You can sort him out but he is shallow. Form has to be shallow. If you want definition you have to be shallow. So man feels as if he is half; he feels shallow without the woman - that's why there is so much hankering for love. With a woman, he has found the roots in the earth again. Alone he seems uprooted. Woman seems completely vague without a man. Once there is a man who loves her, she gathers definition. She becomes more definite, determinate. Both

need each other. It is a game, and the game is universal. It may be positive-negative electricity, it may be day-night, it may be life-death. It is the same game - male and female energy.

Man is more like life and woman is more like death - hence the fear. Man loves the woman and is always afraid of the woman... is ready to worship her and is ready to km her... always enchanted, attracted, and always apprehensive and escaping. This is the whole charm, because the woman is like death. So howsoever powerful a man is - maybe he is a Napoleon or an Alexander - it makes no difference. He may fall in love with a small girl, but that girl will become powerful and overwhelm the man. Napoleon was so powerful - but nothing when he would come to Josephine; then he was nobody. That whisp of a woman would become tremendously powerful, because she is death, she is vast, she can surround you, engulf you. You simply disappear in her. But that is her beauty too.

So when you come tired, you can rest in her. When you are too worried, she can just overwhelm you, and you can become drunk in her warmth and be completely lost. She is like a sleep, a rest, a home.

Man is aggressive, so even when he loves there is some aggression and violence in it. The woman wants the aggressive man, the man of initiative. But that is the problem too. She would like to have the most aggressive man in the world, but then she would like him not to be aggressive because she is afraid of his aggression. She will love - these are the contradictions, and these contradictions make life beautiful and rich - she would like to love the most aggressive man, and yet she would like to turn him into being just a shadow to her. Now these are contradictions, difficult paradoxes. Very difficult to manage - but somehow life manages.

Man and woman are not only biological; biology is just one expression. Man and woman are not confined to the body; the body is just one expression. The whole existence is divided into man and woman. That's why Hindus have always laughed about Christians and Jews, because their god seems to be almost homosexual: God the father, and Holy Ghost, and Jesus - and all male. It looks half, it looks incomplete - the woman is missing.

The Hindus have always laughed at the whole idea. They cannot even believe how for centuries millions of people have believed in a god who has no feminine energy, who is simply male energy - monotonous, ugly. And that's why the jewish god is a little too cruel - always ready to kill and destroy and throw you into hell fire. It seems there is no compassion - maybe just, but not compassionate.

There seems to be no mercy; he seems to be merciless. The hindu concept of God is very different:

ardhanarishwar - half-man, half-woman. It seems to be truer, more scientific, closer to reality.

So the whole universe is divided into male and female energy, and they go on converging into each other. And that's how the leela, the play, continues. So there are many dimensions, but in everything you will find the same phenomenon. So meditate over it. Good.