You can be showered by flowers of bliss

Question 1:

Devageet, there are many things which have to be understood before you can see the answer to your question arising within your own consciousness. There are questions I cannot answer, but I can manage a situation around you, around your question so that the answer arises within you. And only such answers are significant. It is a roundabout way. I could have said the answer directly, but then it wouldn't be your answer. And I want every answer to be your own.

Just as the question is yours ... it has an individuality, a certain beauty, a certain aliveness. It comes out of your heart, just as a flower comes out of the juices of the tree. It is not something imposed from outside. It is something that grows from the very roots up to the top.

Just as your question is yours, my whole effort here is that your answer should also be yours. So while I am answering you, this is the first thing to be understood: my answer is only a device to trigger your answer. I don't want my answer to become your answer, which will be borrowed and dead.

Your question is very significant. It is not an ordinary question out of curiosity. Its significance also lies in its depth, in its existential meaningfulness. This question cannot be asked by each and everyone. Unless you have touched a certain depth within your being, only then is this question possible. Every question shows the heart of the questioner. Just by looking at your question, I can see what is happening within you. It must look very strange and absurd, because you are saying, "When I look at my life, it is richer and more fulfilled than I could have ever expected."

This is the first thing to be remembered: whenever something beyond your expectations is fulfilled, you will always find a deep desire to die; because who knows, tomorrow may not bring the same contentment, the same joy, the same beauty, the same experience. It is better to die at this peak rather than in any despair, in sadness, in misery. Why not die in a moment of celebration? Why not make death also a celebration? But that is possible only when you are at the peak of fulfillment; it is not possible when you are in the valleys and in the darkness.

So whenever you feel fulfilled, contented, so contented that you could never have expected it, you will find arising in you a natural, very spontaneous desire: that this is the right moment to die - at the highest peak of your life. What more can there be? Why go on living? It is risky to live, because one can always lose this height. It is risky to live because one can become accustomed to this joy, this happiness; one may start taking it for granted; it may become just an ordinary thing. One may forget that it is extraordinary and happens only very rarely to very, very few human beings. You may not be aware of all these considerations. But these are the reasons why the desire to die at such a moment arises.

You are saying, "I am filled with gratitude for all the love, understanding and sheer joy that being with you has brought me. Why then, Beloved Osho, do I think of death so longingly?" It is one of those contradictions of existence, those mysteries of existence. For example, the poor man is never frustrated, because he has something to hope for: tomorrow may bring good news; there is some possibility that tomorrow he may not be poor. It is the rich, the super-rich man, who becomes frustrated, because tomorrow is not going to be something different or new, something more than he has already. Tomorrow has become absolutely hopeless; hence the frustration.

People in poor countries don't suffer so much as far as the mind and consciousness is concerned.

As the country becomes rich, logically one would expect that the people should become happier, more contented. Now the misery is gone: starvation is not there, medical care is there. Everything is good: you cannot expect more. But suddenly, there is a sadness that starts settling in the rich countries, in rich societies. And the sadness comes because they start forgetting the misery of starvation and they cannot see the future bringing any new meaning, any new flowers. Everything will now be static, routine.

Hence more people commit suicide in rich countries than in poor countries. Logically it should be vice versa: in poor countries people should commit suicide; but they do not because they still have hope. Life today may not be meaningful, but who knows about tomorrow? Things change. They have seen poor people becoming rich, they have seen all kinds of changes happening.

There is no need to feel hopeless, because all possibilities are open. They just have to make an effort, and if they fail - it doesn't matter - they must make more effort. But the idea of suicide does not arise at all.

I have moved amongst the poor for decades. It is almost impossible to find a poor man asking about suicide, about meaninglessness, about frustration, about anguish, about angst. These are not their questions at all. These questions arise only at a certain stage of affluence, luxury, comfort. More people go mad in the rich countries than in the poor. The ratio is large, the difference is great.

Even if in a poor country somebody does commit suicide or go insane - which is very rare - his reasons are totally different from the reasons of a rich man. The poor man may commit suicide, but not out of frustration, not out of meaninglessness, not out of discontent. He knows nothing of contentment and he is not tired of his discontent, because there is always a possibility that discontent may become contentment, the poverty may change.

In poor countries, the people who commit suicide are either retarded - they cannot manage to live; their minds are not able to cope with life and its situations - or they commit suicide because they are blind, crippled, paralyzed. But these are not the reasons in a rich society.

The same is true of your spiritual life. Devageet, you feel it as a question. I feel it as the sheer outcome of your joy, fulfillment, contentment. To me it is a beautiful experience, not a question, not a problem to be solved, but something to be understood. It is indicative that you are coming closer and closer to the ultimate sachchidanand, to the truth, to the explosion of consciousness, to the highest peak of bliss. Just before one is coming close to home, one starts feeling as if one has arrived. But it is only "as if." It is so beautiful that one cannot think things can be even better.

But I want you to be still discontented. I want you to hope still, because I know there is much more that is possible for you than you can conceive. I can conceive, because I have known much more and I know that there is no limit to growth. But this point comes to every seeker and searcher at some stage. And this has to be passed, otherwise it can become a danger. It has to be transformed into an indication. It is simply an indication that you have come to the very limit of your mind.

But you are more than your mind, and beyond the mind, there are no limits at all. Then there are skies upon skies, and as you move over one peak, you have another peak immediately confronting you. This existence is inexhaustible. And when I am saying this, I am saying it with absolute authority, because I have passed the moment about which you are asking. I have also felt at one time, "What more can there be? Why go on unnecessarily breathing, why go on every day getting up, knowing perfectly well that what has to happen has happened?" Now it is sheer habit that every evening you have to go to sleep, every morn- ing you have to get up. What is the point of it all?

But I have lived through a very strange space. I have never accepted any limit to anything. When this moment came to me, I insisted that I could not accept that this is all. Life must be much more.

And what is the harm in searching? You can die tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. What is the hurry? Why today?

So the first thing is: you are free to die any time. There is no problem, but it is better to inquire more, to investigate more, to explore more ... And I promise you that soon you will be surprised to find that at the moment when that desire to die was so strong, you were simply passing through the boundary line of your mind, going beyond the mind into the no-mind. And, in fact, once you have passed this point, you will know for the first time what real life is.

Fulfillment, contentment, feeling richer are all irrelevant. Life is much more. It cannot be confined to these small words: gratitude, love, understanding, sheer joy. Once you have passed through all of them, you will be surprised that there is so much to existence for which no word exists in any language, and which mind has no capacity to understand. Certainly it is not contentment - contentment is a very poor word. It is not just joy, it is not just love. It is so much more that I can only say that these words are like a teaspoon and you are trying with the teaspoon to empty the ocean.

It happened ... One of the great philosophers of Greece, Plato, was a contemporary of Diogenes.

They were continuously in controversy because Diogenes was a mystic and he knew things which Plato could not even dream of, although Plato was a great philosopher. And in the books and the histories of philosophy, you will find Plato, you will not find Diogenes. But the real thing was with Diogenes, not with Plato, who was a great thinker, a giant intellectual. Diogenes was a simple, childlike, innocent man, but he knew something which thousands of Platos together could not know.

One day, when Plato was on a morning walk by the side of the sea, he saw a man. It was early in the morning, a little dark - the sun had not risen yet. He could not figure out who the man was. This man was Diogenes and in a spoon he was bringing ... He would go to the ocean, take the water in the spoon - he had made a small hole in the sand - pour the water into the sand, and then go back.

Plato, standing there, saw him doing it. He looked like a madman. For a moment he thought, "I should not interfere." But such is the mind - it becomes curious: "Maybe he is not mad; perhaps he is doing something meaningful and I am not aware of it. And what is wrong if I ask him?" So he said, "Please forgive me for interrupting. I don't want to interrupt you - you may be involved in some great work - but what is going on?"

Diogenes said, "I am trying to empty the ocean."

Plato said, "My God, with this teaspoon?"

And then the sun was rising and Diogenes started laughing and said, "Plato, what else are you doing?" Then Plato recognized Diogenes. He used to live naked, but that day he was covered with a cloth, just to hide himself, so Plato would not know him at first. Otherwise he might not have interrupted.

Plato was simply stunned, he could not answer. Diogenes said, "That's what you are trying to do.

Your mind is nothing but a teaspoon and with it you are trying to exhaust the oceanic existence.

What I am doing is just to remind you ... I know it is not possible. You should also remember that what you are doing is impossible."

Devageet, it is fortunate to come to such a point when one feels so happy that one would like to die.

But my suggestion is: wait a little, because I know something more than that. I have passed that point, and the day I passed that point, life for the first time opened all its mysteries to me. Since then, not for a single moment has the desire to die arisen in me, for the simple fact that now I know: there is no death. There is more life and more life and more life. And there is no end to this inexhaustible existence.

Hymie and Becky are having a holiday in Florida when one night a hurricane hits the coast. Becky gets extremely upset and cannot sleep a wink. Hymie, however, is sleeping soundly. "Hymie," cries Becky shaking him awake, "this house is rocking as if it will blow away."

"Relax," says Hymie, "go to sleep. We are only renting it."

All the houses that you have rented have blown away many times. This time also you are renting a house, and it will blow away one day. But you are going to continue.

You are an eternal pilgrim.

Your pilgrimage is not going to end anywhere.

Pilgrimage itself is the goal, there is no goal to pilgrimage.

The elderly man goes to visit a physician for a check-up. The doctor notices that his hands are shaking like leaves in the wind. "You must drink a lot," says the doctor.

"No, I don't," says the old guy, "I spill most of it."

Come to such a point, Devageet, when you start spilling most of it. Don't be contented so early. It is not even the beginning yet.

Question 2:

Vimal .... A writer had been out too late the night before, and in the wrong places. Nursing a magnificent hangover, he stops at a small restaurant for breakfast. "What will you have?" asked the waiter.

"All I want is two fried eggs and some kind words," says the bleary-eyed writer.

Presently, the waiter returns with two pale-looking fried eggs. "Here are your eggs, sir," he says.

"And now for the kind words: don't eat them."

Question 3:

Anand Surendra, one has to learn a little patience. Everything that has ever happened to any human being is going to happen to you, because you have all the potential. You contain all the Gautam Buddhas, all the Jesuses, all the Socrateses. You contain the whole potential of humanity within you. And if you can see in me a certain clarity, beauty, grace, and if you can feel grateful and vulnerable, then you are on the right track. That's how one starts growing slowly.

It is true when you say, "Osho, I also realize that I am still not seeing your total radiance and splendor."

But you are fortunate even to see a glimpse, because there are millions of people in the world who will not be able even to see the glimpse. On the contrary, they will only see everything evil that man has ever imagined - no glimpse of splendor, no glimpse of clarity, no glimpse of grace, but only a fear, a danger; danger to their morality, danger to their religion, danger to all that they think is valuable.

There are millions of people who would like to destroy me. It is really a miracle that I am still alive in spite of those millions of people whose deepest desire is expressed by the United States Attorney General. He told a press conference that all he wants is that, "Osho should never be seen by anyone, never be heard by anyone. In short, I want him to be completely silenced."

The way he said it was so absolutely violent that the journalist who was interviewing him asked, "Do you want him to be murdered or assassinated?"

And for a moment the Attorney General remained silent and then said, "Not exactly. But we have more sophisticated methods to silence him." Now he is not simply speaking his own mind. He is expressing the minds of many.

So you should be happy, not sad that you don't belong to those millions. You should feel fortunate, not frustrated that at least you are capable of seeing a faraway glimpse of the Himalayas. Just a little patience, a little closeness, a little more love, a little more gratitude, a little more openness, and you will start moving towards the ultimate splendor. It is not my property. It came into existence when I was no more. It is the property of existence itself.

So don't be at all sad. There are many present here who have come far closer than you, who have looked into me more deeply than you. They are not in any way more special than you. They have just been patient - years of patience, years of silence, years of meditation, and this is nothing compared to the eternity of time.

And one day you will find that you have come so close that you can touch the beauty, you can touch the truth, you can dance in the music of eternal consciousness. You can be showered by flowers of bliss.

Yes, Sat-Chit-Anand - truth, consciousness, bliss. All are possible to you. In fact, they are your birthright. You just have to claim them ... and the claim needs a little patience.

There is a Sufi story: A king stopped his horse. He was passing by a nursery that belonged to a poor gardener. And he looked at the poor gardener - he had stopped for a special reason. He had wanted to stop many times. He used to pass through that beautiful place where the nursery of the poor gardener was - it was the most beautiful way to the palace.

Today he could not contain his curiosity. The curiosity was that the man looked so old ... certainly he had passed at least one century. Perhaps he was one hundred and twenty or even more. He looked so old and yet he was preparing small plants and working the whole day on those plants.

And those were plants of trees which take at least one hundred years to grow to their full height.

Their lifespan is long - they live at least four thousand years. After one hundred years, they are still just children. They can count on a lifespan of four thousand years, but only after one hundred years do they start flowering - not before that. And after one thousand years, they start giving fruit.

The king was puzzled: this man seemed at least one hundred and twenty years old. "Is he mad, or what? He cannot expect to see the flowers of these trees, to say nothing about the fruits. And he is working so hard in his old age, the whole day in the hot sun" - it was a desert land.

He stopped and went close to the old man and said, "I watch you every day, and I see how hard you work, but a question ... Every day I go on repressing it, not wanting to interfere. But you will have to forgive me - I want to ask one thing: Do you think you will be able to see the flowers of these plants?"

The old man laughed. He said, "No, I will not be able to see the flowers of these plants. But do you see just behind my hut those huge trees, thousands of years old? They are the same trees. They are giving me fruits, they are giving me flowers."

The king said, "I can see them, but I still don't understand. What do you mean by bringing those trees in?"

The man said, "If my parents or my forefathers had also thought that they would not be able to see the flowers, to say nothing about the fruits, there would not have been those trees. I am not thinking about myself. I am thinking about my forefathers and about my future children. I owe them something.

"If my forefathers were so patient that they could be happy that some children whom they could never know would enjoy the fruits and the flowers of these beautiful trees ... Do you think I am a worse human being than my forefathers? Can't I think also of someone, far away in the future, being thankful towards me?"

The king wrote in his biography: "The old gardener has shocked me with his patience and with his infinite love and compassion and trust."

Somebody, some day, is bound to see the flowers. And as far as your inner growth is concerned, it is not a question of somebody else seeing the flowers. You are going to see and can't you be patient - just a little patient?

Just today I received a letter from one of my old sannyasins in Holland, Amrito. He is a famous Dutch writer, with all possible qualifications, degrees, honorary degrees. He has written many books, including at least eight books on me. Today I received a letter saying he is writing another book on me and is coming for my blessings in just a few days. The title of the book is, TEN YEARS OF PREPARATION. Ten years ago he became a sannyasin, and still he calls those ten years just a preparation.

This patience is needed. In a hurry, you can get only seasonal flowers. They come and go. The deeper your patience, the greater will be your growth. Surendra, there is no need to be frustrated or to be sad. Not even a single sannyasin, if he is honest and sincere in his search, is going to fail.

Success is absolutely sure and guaranteed.

But you have to remember that it is not the path of the curious, it is not the path of information gatherers. It is the path of those who are ready to go through the transformation, who are ready to drop their personalities, their defense measures, who are ready to open their hearts to receive the light that is rising on the horizon. It is simply a case of receptivity, sensitivity, sincerity and an honest search.

Your success is sure.

Miss Bradshaw, a comely high school teacher, had saved money for several years and was finally aboard a sleek ocean liner for her long-anticipated trip to Europe.

Aboard ship she wrote, "Dear Diary ... Monday: I felt singularly honored this evening - the captain asked me to dine at his table. Tuesday: I spent the entire morning on the bridge with the captain.

Wednesday: the captain made proposals to me unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. Thursday:

tonight the captain threatened to sink the ship if I do not give in to his indecent proposals. Friday:

this afternoon I saved one thousand and six hundred lives."

Just wait ... And it is only a question of saving your own life, not the lives of one thousand and six hundred people. Here I am not the savior; here everybody is a savior - not of anybody else, but of himself. For the first time in the whole history of mankind we are making a new effort to give the respect and the dignity and the responsibility to every person to save himself.

For centuries this dignity was not given to human beings. Krishna was trying to save Hindus and Christ was trying to save Christians. Everybody was trying to save somebody else. And they have not been able to transform the world. Krishna has failed, Buddha has failed, Jesus has failed, Moses has failed. When I say they have failed, I don't mean they have failed in their own enlightenment. I mean they have failed in their promises to humanity. They were absolutely successful as far as they were concerned.

But the moment they started telling people, "I will save you, I am the savior, I am the prophet, I am the messenger, I am God's incarnation," then they misled people; because people stopped seeking, searching on their own. They just hoped that if they believed in Krishna, in Buddha, in Jesus ... then it would not be their responsibility to transform themselves into a new and higher state of consciousness.

This has not happened. In this sense I say, "All the saviors of the past have failed." And I don't want to belong to the failures. I am not a savior. I have saved myself - I think that's enough. Now you save yourself.

Question 4:

Anurag Saleen, you are a victim, but you are not alone. Almost the whole of humanity is a victim: victims of pretensions, victims of having masks, victims of not being natural, because being unnatural pays - society gives respect to the false. Society is not respectful to the authentic and to the real, because the false can be controlled, and society is deeply interested in controlling everybody.

But the authentic cannot be controlled, and society is very much afraid of those people who are authentic and real and themselves, because they cannot be enforced into any slavery, into any obedience, into being oppressed or exploited.

The desire for reward keeps society respecting the false. And because the false is respected, each small child slowly starts following the false. Parents teaching, teachers teaching ... the whole effort is to give you a certain mold that is acceptable to everybody. The end result is a phony world, where nobody is real, where smiles are false, where love is only a word.

Just today I received news from England. A survey has been made of people aged between five and twenty-five. A single question was asked: "What are the two values which you think the most significant and important in life?"

And it is shocking to see the answer, from the five-year-olds up to the twenty-five-year-olds.

The answers are: money and success. These two things are the most important in life: not love, not laughter, not meditation, not blissfulness, not even God. Money and success. But in a world where money and success are everything, you cannot be authentic - it is dangerous. You will have to repress your individuality and compromise at every step for success, compromise at every step for money.

I am reminded of a young man. His name was Subhash Chandra. He became a great revolutionary and I have tremendous respect for him, because he was the only man in India who opposed Mahatma Gandhi; he could see that all this Mahatmahood is simply politics and nothing else. Indians believe themselves to be very religious. It is just a belief - nobody is religious. And Mahatma Gandhi was playing the role of a saint simply to be the leader of the majority of the country. All those who thought they were religious were bound to be in favor of Mahatma Gandhi.

Just one single man, Subhash, opposed and immediately the phoniness was apparent. What happened was this: Mahatma Gandhi used to say, "I am beyond love and hate. I am beyond anger, violence," because that was his whole philosophy to go beyond violence and become nonviolent, become so loving that you love even your enemy.

Subhash was well known for not being in agreement with Mahatma Gandhi, although he was in the same party. There was only one party which was fighting for the freedom of the country, so all freedom lovers were in the party. And Subhash stood as a candidate to be the president of Congress, and immediately Mahatma Gandhi's phoniness was revealed.

On the one hand he was teaching that you have to love your enemy, and then seeing that Subhash, if he became the president of Congress, would be dangerous to his philosophy and to his leadership, he became a totally different kind of man. Subhash did not believe in hypocrisy, and there was a possibility of his winning. The only man who could defeat him was Mahatma Gandhi himself, but that would bring him down, very much down, from his great saintliness.

So what he did was this: he supported a certain man, Doctor Pattabhi Sitaramayya, as his candidate.

And he thought that because he was declaring him as his candidate, the doctor would certainly win.

But Subhash was very much loved by young people, by the young blood, and this fellow, Doctor Pattabhi, was absolutely unknown. He was an obedient follower of Mahatma Gandhi, so he would serve him, but he was not known to the country.

And Subhash was almost a lion: he fought and, unbelievably he won. Gandhi did not participate in the gathering where he was going to be declared the president. He forgot all his philosophy.

In fact, Subhash proved to be a far greater man. Seeing that Gandhi was trying to create a split in the Congress - which would be a split in the movement for the liberation of the country - he resigned from the presidency, just so that the movement would remain one. He sacrificed himself completely; so as not to get into a fight, he moved out of the country.

He showed this sincerity from the very beginning. He was educated in England, belonged to a very rich family of Bengal, was going to be one of the top bureaucrats. He was trained for the Indian civil service in Britain, as were all top bureaucrats, most of whom were English. Very rarely was an Indian chosen - not more than one percent. Otherwise on some small excuse, Indians were rejected.

Shree Aurobindo was rejected and you will not believe on what grounds. He had come first in every subject, he was one of the geniuses of this century. Only in horse riding could he not succeed. But what has horse riding to do with being a top officer? This was a strategy: he was a scholar and he became world famous, but he was rejected.

Every method was tried to reject Indians. Subhash they could not manage to reject. All their strategies he managed to overcome, so very reluctantly Britain accepted Subhash for their ICS.

One thing more remained, which was a formality: every ICS officer had to appear for a personal interview before the governor-general. It was just a formality once you had passed the examination.

Subhash entered into the office of the governor-general.

Bengalis always carry an umbrella - one never knows why. Whether it is raining or not, whether it is hot or not; it may be winter and there is no need; they may have to carry it by their side, but they will carry it. An umbrella is absolutely necessary for a Bengali. If you see anybody carrying an umbrella, you understand: he is a Bengali. Now, there is no need to carry an umbrella into the office of the viceroy; at least you should leave it outside. But Bengalis will not leave their umbrellas.

Subhash kept his hat on, and carried his umbrella into the office. And he took a chair. The governor- general was very angry. He said, "Young man, you don't understand manners. Who passed you in the examinations of the ICS?"

Subhash said, "What manners?"

The governor-general said, "You have not taken off your hat and you have not asked my permission to sit down." The governor-general was not aware what kind of man this was. Subhash immediately picked his umbrella up and hooked the governor-general's neck into it. They were alone in the office, so ....

And Subhash told the governor-general, "If you want manners, then you should learn manners also.

You remained sitting. You should have stood first. I was a guest. You did not remove your hat.

Why should I remove mine? You did not ask my permission to go on sitting, why should I ask your permission? Who are you, do you think? At the most you can reject me for the ICS, but I will not leave it in your hands. I don't want to join the service." And he went out of the office, leaving the governor-general almost in shock. He never dreamt anybody could do such a thing.

Any person who has any dignity, any self-respect, society is afraid of. Society wants you to be obedient, to be servile, to be compromising, to be always ready in every situation to surrender. It does not want you to be rebellious. But individuality is intrinsically rebellious; you cannot do anything about it; the only way is to put it under a blanket of personality, to cover it from every nook and corner, and not allow it even a window to breathe.

So everybody is suffering inside. A closed, invisible wall of personality is surrounding you that does not allow you, Anurag Saleen, to gain your naturalness, your spontaneity, to have a belly laugh, even though here nobody is preventing you. In fact, it is impossible to go on holding yourself, controlling yourself, and not being spontaneous and relaxed. This is not your usual society. All these people are rebellious individuals.

But even here, you are carrying your mind, your unconscious, your conditioning. You will have to put it away. Others may not be able to help in your ultimate salvation, but others can help you have a belly laugh.

So whoever is sitting by the side of Anurag Saleen, please help her. Tickle her! It is just a question of breaking her barriers. So tonight, I am telling this joke for Anurag, wherever she is. If she does not want to be helped by others, she should relax and have a good laugh. Otherwise, if you see anybody who is not joining in, tickle. There may be others who will be helped besides Anurag.

Hymie Goldberg is drafted to fight in Ronald Reagan's latest war with Iran. However, he manages to convince the draft board officer that he is half blind and is sent home.

That evening, Hymie goes to the cinema and when the lights come on he notices that a member of the draft board is sitting next to him. Without a moment's hesitation Hymie taps him on the shoulder and asks, "Excuse me, Madam, is this the train for New Jersey?"

Now look for Saleen. And anybody you find who is not laughing, tickle them. Don't be shy.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.