Osho – We live with momentary things. That’s why there is so much misery, because whatsoever is momentary is not going to satisfy. By the time you become aware that it is there it is already gone. This life is almost a flux: it is continuously moving, slipping out of your hands. Nothing is certain, nothing is stable. Everything is in a constant movement.

You cannot make your abode in this momentary world, on these shifting sands. If you make your abode on these shifting sands it is bound to collapse; it is absolutely inevitable. The collapse is going to happen any moment, and you cannot live at peace.

You fall in love, then there is fear about whether the love is going to remain tomorrow or not. Your lover may leave you or you may start thinking to leave your lover. So we start making arrangements to stabilise it, to make it something permanent, and in that very effort all joy is lost.

Lovers start trying to possess the other so that tomorrow it is still there, but in trying to possess love you are already destroying it. You are not even waiting for tomorrow to destroy it, you have destroyed it today… because nobody wants to be possessed, nobody wants to be thought of as a commodity. Nobody is a thing. To behave with a person as if he or she is a thing is to humiliate; it is utterly disrespectful. And everybody resists it, hence the fight starts.

The desire is for something eternal, but that cannot be fulfilled in the outside world. Somebody is poor and he thinks that if he becomes rich he will be happy. The moment he becomes rich he is not happy, he is simply more worried. Now he is worried about whether he is going to remain rich or not, because things go on changing. The market goes down, the prices change, the banks go bankrupt, governments become communist, so nothing can be certain. So there is a constant worry. When he was poor at least he used to sleep well; now he cannot even sleep, his sleep becomes a restlessness. He is constantly worried, nightmares surround him.

Through great effort a person reaches the highest post of the country, becomes the prime minister or the president… and then the fear. Almost the whole of his life is wasted in reaching the highest post, now he clings to the chair, afraid that others are pulling his legs. There is a long queue of people who all want to be the president or the prime minister . There is immense competition, cut-throat competition, and everybody is against everybody else’s necks. He cannot rest at peace. He has reached after such a long effort and now all that he can do is to cling to the chair, to somehow survive there.

This is what goes on happening unless we start looking inwards. The outside world is not going to satisfy because it is a changing world, momentary, and our innermost longing is for the eternal. And that cannot be fulfilled on the outside.
I am not against the outside world. All that I want my sannyasins to be aware of is that your desire is for the eternal and that cannot be fulfilled on the outside. So on the outside remain joyful with the momentary, don’t ask that it should be eternal. Nothing can be eternal on the outside. Enjoy the momentary as momentary, knowing perfectly well that it is momentary.

The flower that has opened up in the morning is bound to die by the evening. It has come with the sunrise, it will go with the sunset. So rejoice! I am not against the flower — rejoice! But remember, don’t cling, don’t hope, otherwise you will be disillusioned. Rejoice in the momentary on the outside, and search for the eternal in the inside.

That’s my message to my sannyasins. And inside you will find amrit, nectar, the immortal, the eternal, the divine. And once you have found that then there is nothing more to be found. Then all is bliss, then all is joy. Life is fulfilled. One has come home.

Source – Osho Book “Just the Tip of the Iceberg”

Osho – Deva means divine, uparati means indifference to the non-essential – a divine indifference to the non essential. And that’s the whole work of the seeker. We are caught up in the non-essential, the mundane, the trivial. For the moment it looks so important, and the next moment it appears as if it had not happened at all.

When one looks back, one is always surprised: the same things that had looked so important, look utterly futile… and one was ready to die for those things! Just some abusive word from somebody, and the mind becomes focussed on it out of all proportion and is ready to kill or to be killed. After a few minutes, when things have cooled down, it looks so stupid. Even to talk about it, even to say ’I got so disturbed by it’ looks silly. But almost ninety-nine percent of our whole life consists of such things, hence it is a wastage.

One has to be very alert and aware. One has to save oneself for god. If we lose our energy in just collecting stones on the beach, by the time we come on the treasure we will not have any energy. We remain beggars when there is no treasure, and we will remain beggars when there is every possibility to become an emperor.

One has to be very conscious of what one is doing with one’s energy, of where one is putting it, because once gone it is gone forever. And the time that is passing will not come back; nothing can be recaptured. Once this awareness settles in, a great difference arises.

Just think: if you are going to die tomorrow, then how many things will be important and how many things will be unimportant? It will change your whole gestalt. Just a moment before you were thinking to make a new house, to start a new relationship, to have one child more, to do this and that. There were a thousand and one plans in the mind, all running around.

The moment you become aware that tomorrow you are going to die, all those thoughts simply disappear; they become irrelevant. Something else, that you were not thinking of at all, becomes relevant: ’What is death? Am I ready to face it? Have I done anything to go into it silently, lovingly, in a kind of welcome? Am I ready to face my creator?’ Something new becomes important, something that was not at all in the consciousness surfaces and becomes central. All that was in the consciousness and all those desires that were clamouring for your attention are no more relevant – that is just the market noise.

And this is how it is. Tomorrow is not certain: tomorrow may be, may not be. Death is always waiting tomorrow. About only one thing can we be certain, and that is death; all else is uncertain. To become a sannyasin means to put things in their right perspective, to bring a balance, to put priorities right.

Source – Osho Book “Don’t Look Before You Leap”

Osho – Deva means divine and ayama means dimension, the divine dimension. And that is the goal. One has to move into the divine dimension by and by. So become less and less interested in things.

Become more interested in persons. Even while relating with things, relate to them as if you are relating with persons. Even if you take a book in your hand, take it with such respect that the book is no more a thing. You confer a personality on it. You eat food…. Eat with such reverence that food is not just food; it becomes a sacrament. Even the shoes should be used with tremendous respect. By and by you will be able to see even about things, that they are not just things. They are also people.

And just the contrary is happening in the world. People are treating people as things. A husband tends to treat his wife as a thing, something to be used. The wife goes on treating the husband as a thing. This I call the materialist dimension – when you treat a person as a thing. When you start treating even things as persons, the dimension of the
divine opens its door for you.

The dimension of the divine is nothing but a capacity to feel the presence of god everywhere, howsoever hidden. In a rock he may be fast asleep, but he is there. In a man he has come a little of age, has become more alert. In a buddha or a jesus he is totally alert, fully awake. But between a buddha and a rock there is a bridge. The rock can become a buddha one day. And one day buddha was also a rock.

Every sinner has a future and every saint has a past – and that is the bridge. So I give you this name, deva ayama, so you can start figuring out how to change from the materialist dimension towards the divine dimension. It is just a shift of consciousness. One need not escape from the world. But one needs to look into things so deeply that everything attains to a centre and becomes a shore.

So this is going to be your path. Treat every person with tremendous respect – even your child, because he too is god’s only begotten son. He is also a manifestation of the divine. In a thousand and one forms the same energy is manifested.

And when you start looking into others and you drop the materialist illusion about people and things, you will become capable of looking inwards more and more. Whatsoever you do to others, you will do to yourself. If you have a deep respect for people’s souls, your own soul will come.

Source – Osho Book “Dance Your Way to God”

Osho – Dhyan means meditation. Pathik means pilgrim, a traveler. Meditation is an inner journey. It is moving from your circumference to your own center. We live on the circumference and we have lived on the circumference for so many lives that we have become completely oblivious even of the fact that a center exists.

A man living on the circumference is a man without soul, is a man without roots, is a man who remains a victim of accidents. His life is at the mercy of a thousand and one accidental causes; his life has no intrinsic value. He is just like driftwood — he knows not where he is going, he knows not from where he is coming, he knows not where he is.

I have heard that once a great politician lost his way while he was driving — he had gone for a pleasure drive. He asked an old man who was sitting under a tree, “Where is the way to the capital?”
The old man said, “I don’t know.”
Then he asked, “Where does this way lead to?”
And the old man said, “I don’t know.”

Of course the politician became very angry. He said, “You don’t seem to know anything at all. Are you some kind of idiot or what?”
The old man laughed and said, “But I am not lost! I know where I am and you don’t know even that! So who is an idiot?”

It is very rare to find a man who knows where he is. People are somewhere, certainly, but absolutely in a state of sleep — like zombies they go on moving. Sannyas means making a deliberate effort to become conscious. That’s what meditation is all about — a great effort to create the fire of awareness in you. It is there; it has just to be discovered, helped, nourished, nurtured. The center is there.

Once we have found it, we are centered, we are rooted. Suddenly we have a soul, we know where we are, and we know who we are. And that is the greatest moment in a man’s life. There is nothing else greater than that — to know “Who am I?” With that, the doors of the ultimate mystery open up. Then God becomes available in all its splendor and beauty. Then life is no longer a drag, it becomes a dance! Then life is no longer momentary, it becomes eternity. Than there is no death.

Then you live beyond time and beyond space, and that is true life. Jesus calls it life in abundance, overflowing life, life in spring, in a state of celebration. And that’s my whole teaching here — how to make your life a celebration.

Source – Osho Book “No Man is an Island”

Osho - Truth is a discovery
And naturally all that we know about truth
Has to be dropped
Because we have not discovered it.

Anybody else truth is not your truth
And can never be your truth.
To believe in others’ truths
Is to remain in bondage.

Meditation is the way of dropping
All knowledge, all belief, all that is borrowed
So that you can discover on your own.

Unless truth is found by you
It cannot liberate you.
Meditation simply is a method
Which does two things.

First, it destroys all knowledge,
Leaves you like a child, utterly innocent
In a state of not-knowing.
This is the negative part of meditation,
And then the positive follows on its own accord,
Then great wonder arises in you
And that wonder leads to discovery.

Source – Osho Book “No Man is an Island”

Osho – Aseem means the unbounded, the infinite. Start living in the infinite, because that is our true reality. The idea that we are finite is just an idea, it does not correspond to reality; hence it creates much misery. Once you start thinking of yourself as finite you are constantly in struggle with the infinite.

By being finite we become many, by becoming infinite only one remains. Then there is no possibility of any conflict, and when all possibilities of conflict cease there is peace. Peace cannot be attained. only by mental efforts; it needs a new spiritual vision.

Don’t think of yourself as the body – not that you are not the body: you are the body plus. Never end anywhere. Go on thinking of yourself in bigger and wider terms. You are the sun too because without the sun you would not be alive. You are the earth too; that’s what you go on eating every day. You are the air too; without it you are gone. You are this whole universe, this whole universe crisscrosses in you. You are just the crossroad of millions of things passing through you.

It is just as if you go on drawing lines through one point: the point will become thicker and thicker and thicker; more lines pass and the point becomes very thick – that is the ego. Start taking lines away and slowly slowly the ego disappears. One day you come to know that the ego was only a construct of crossing lines. It was not a reality, just an illusion.

When you think of yourself as finite you become the ego; when you drop the finite the ego disappears, and the disappearance of the ego is the arrival of god. Think of yourself as the universe. In the beginning it looks crazy but soon the heart starts flowing that way.

Because it corresponds with reality, it comes easily, spontaneously; one day you suddenly see that you are connected with everything that exists. You cannot exist without them, they cannot exist without you; it is a great interdependence. And the sheer complexity of it is a mystery….

Source – Osho Book “Don’t Bite My Finger, Look Where I’m Pointing”

Luther Burbank

Question – I am sure you will not say to a seed, “take a sudden jump and flower,” But why do you like to say to a man, “take a sudden jump and be a buddha”?

Osho – Because a seed is a seed and cannot understand, and a man is not a seed and can understand. But if you are a seed you won’t listen; if you are a man you will understand. It depends on you because you may look like a man — you may be just a seed or even a rock. Appearance is not the real thing. You all look like man, but rarely is one a man.

The word “man” is beautiful. It comes from a Sanskrit root manu. Manu means “one who can understand.” Thence, from that same root, comes the Indian term man, manasvi: one who can understand. “Man” is a beautiful word. It means “who can understand,” “who has the capacity to understand.” So I cannot say to a seed, “Take a sudden jump and flower,” but I say to man. And this is the irony, that sometimes even a seed can hear it and the man won’t hear.

Have you read anything about Luther Burbank, an American lover of trees and plants? He did this miracle: he talked to seeds, he talked to his plants, and he talked continuously — that’s what I’m doing — and a moment came when the plants started hearing him. He was working on a cactus for seven years — continuously talking to the cactus, saying, “You need not be worried and need not be defensive, because there is no danger to your life.”

Every cactus has thorns to protect himself. That’s his armor. Insecure in a desert; a cactus lives in a desert in very deep insecurity and danger. How a cactus survives in a desert is a miracle, and some cactuses survive even for two thousand years, very old cactuses. In a desert there is no water; life must be a very deep struggle. They live only on the dewdrops. That’s why they don’t have leaves, because leaves evaporate too much water. That is their trick so the sun cannot evaporate water from them. The water is so scarce. Cactuses have no leaves, only thorns; and deep inside their belly they go on accumulating water. For months together if there is no water they will live; they are really only accumulators of water. They don’t have anything extra — no leaves, nothing. And there has never been any species of cactus without thorns.

This man Burbank was mad. Friends started thinking. “He has gone crazy.” Even his whole family started thinking, “Now this is too much: every day sitting near the cactus and talking. saying, ‘You need not be afraid; I am your friend. You can withdraw your thorns. There is no insecurity — you are at home with a friend, a lover. You are not in a desert. And nobody is going to harm you.”

Seven years is a long… but it happened. After seven years a new branch sprouted out of the cactus without any thorns. That was the first human contact with the world of trees. It is a rare phenomenon — just by talk.

That’s why I go on talking, persuading you you can jump. knowing well that maybe seven years or seventy, or who knows? You will even start thinking about me: “He is crazy, goes on saying things every day; nobody listens.” But if Burbank can succeed with seeds. cactuses, trees. why not me?

Source – Osho Book “The Yoga, Vol5″

Osho – One of the most beautiful and the profoundest prayers is found in the Upanishads. It is the smallest prayer ever uttered yet it contains all the scriptures. The prayer is: Asto ma sadgamay — lead me, lord, from the world of untruth to the world of truth. Tumso ma jyotirgamay — lead me, lord, from the world of darkness to the world of light. Mrityorma amritamgamay — lead me, lord, from the world of death to the world of the deathless. This is the whole prayer, just three sentences. Translated exactly it simply means from untruth to truth, from darkness to light, from death to deathlessness — and this is the whole enquiry of a sannyasin. It is a three-dimensional enquiry.

We have to drop all that is untrue. The moment we drop the untrue the truth is revealed of its own accord. You need not go anywhere in search of it, it is found within. The moment we become aware of our inner darkness that very awareness creates light. Awareness is light and when the light is there darkness starts disappearing. And the moment there is truth and there is light suddenly one becomes absolutely certain of one’s immortality. There is no way to die. Death is the greatest illusion. Nobody has ever died, people just believe that they die. It is a belief, it has no relationship to the truth. Those who know, know that life is eternal, always ongoing; there is no end to it — no beginning, no end. It has always been here, it will always be here.

One of the great sages of India, Maharishi Ramana, was dying, and a disciple asked him, ‘Bhagwan, after your death where will you go to?’ And even at the moment of death — he was suffering very much physically because he had a cancer of the throat; even speaking was difficult, even drinking water was impossible — he burst out laughing. The doctors could not believe it, because to laugh like this was almost impossible, his throat was completely choked, not even a single drop of water was entering. But he laughed and it was a belly laughter and for many days he had not even spoken. But at the last moment to this enquiry he said ‘For my whole life I have been teaching you but you don’t listen. You are still a fool. You are asking me where I am going? I have never gone anywhere, I have always been here and I will always be here –because there is only one time, and that is now, here. There is no other space and no other time. Now and here — these two words contain the whole existence.’

Begin by dropping all that is untrue, all that you have believed but you have not known — that is untrue. Drop it. And become aware of your inner unconsciousness so that awareness starts dispelling the darkness. And then the third happens on its own: one suddenly enters into a new dimension, one goes beyond time. And to go beyond time is to go beyond death. To know that life is eternal is the beginning of rejoicing.

Source – Osho Book “Going All the Way”

Osho – A temple is under construction. I pass by it and think: ”The temples are many; perhaps the number of persons visiting them has gone down; but then why is this new temple being constructed? And this is not alone. There are many other temples under construction. Few temples are built everyday. Temples are constructed and the number of persons visiting them is going down. What is the mystery behind it? I thought a lot, but could not get at the reason.

Then I asked an old mason who was constructing that temple. I thought he might know the mystery behind the construction of many new temples because he had constructed many of them. That old man started laughing at my question and then he took me behind the temple where the stones were being chizzled. There the idols of God were also being made. I thought: Perhaps he would say that the temple was being constructed for those statues of God. But this would not satisfy my curiosity. Because then the question will be why these statues were being made.

But no; I saw mistaken. He did not say anything about the statues. He left them behind and moved on. In the end, and after everything else, some artists were working on a stone. That old man showed me that stone and said: ”It is for this that the temple is being constructed and temples have always been constructed for this”. I was stunned and started repenting over my foolishness. Why could not think of it earlier. On that stone, they were engraving the name of the person who was getting the temple constructed.

Thinking about it I was returning homewards when I saw a procession on the way. Someone had renounced the world and taken to sannyas. The procession was in his honour. I also stood by the roadside and started seeing it. I looked at the face and the eyes of the person who had renounced.

The emptiness common in the eyes of a Sannyasi was not there in his eyes. In them existed the same pride and same greatness which can be seen in the eyes of politicians; But could it be possible that I was mistaken and only the effect of the conversation with that old mason was working? But I know many other Sannyasis also. The subtle form of pride that you can see in them is difficult to find elsewhere. Perhaps any action produced by the mind of man is not above that pride. Unless you can get free from the mind, there is no salvation from the sense of greatness.

Only a few days ago, a friend kept fasts for ten days. I was very much surprised to see his anxiety to advertise those fasts. But no, that was my mistake. That old mason had uncovered all the mistakes of my whole life. After the fast, that friend received lot of welcome and honour. I was also present there.

There a gentleman whispered into my ears: ”Poor fellow has borne the entire expenditure of this reception. I was startled that day; but because of that old man, I am wiser today and see no reason for surprise. On the contrary, one thought haunts me again and again. If advertisement is so useful in the world why will it not be in heaven? Will not the rule of heaven be the same as those of the world? After all, the heaven is also a creation of the same mind that creates the world. Is not the desire and conception of heaven the same as desire of the mind?

Then what is this God? Is He not an invention of man’s mind? He also feels insulted and angry, and out of revenge roasts his enemies in the fire of hell. He also feels happy through praise, saves his devotees from troubles and showers blessings on them. What is all this that he saves devotees from troubles and showers blessings on them? Is it not the reflection of man’s mind? Then why will not advertising succeed in his world also? He should also be counting fame as a proof? After all, what else could be the yard-stick of man with him? I was telling the same thing to a sannyasi.

And he became very angry: ”What is all this you keep on thinking? No. Where is the need for advertisement in religion. All this is a game of ego. All This is a product of it. In ignorance, the self falls into pride”. When he said so I accepted it. Renunciation leads to knowledge. and because he ha I renounced his all, he must have found knowledge. How could it be possible to doubt his words? But in a short time he reminded me two-three times that he had renounced property worth lakhs of rupees and become a sannyasi. In other words, he was not an ordinary sannyasi. The Yard-stick of renunciation is also money.

I asked him: ”When did you renounce all this? He said: ”About 25 to 30 years ago”. At that time the shine in his eyes was worth seeing.

I felt afraid and said to him: ”Sir, perhaps your kick was not strong enough; otherwise, could the memory of that day be so green even after a lapse of 30 years?” What I feared ultimately did happen. His anger burst forth. But I consoled myself in the thought that this was an old habit of the sages. Was it not enough of compassion that he did not pour some sort of curse on me? At the time of my departure, I told him a story. I will repeat it to you. Think over it carefully. It is full of meaning.

A rich man offered ten thousand gold coins to Shri Nathji. But he started counting each gold coin before placing it in front of the idol. He would take them out of the bag with force and there would be a lot of tinkle. A crowd collected in the temple on hearing that tinkle. He started producing still more sound in counting the coins. As the crowd increased, his pleasure of renunciation increased. At last when he finished counting the coins and, with pride in his eyes, looked at the people assembled there, the priest told him: ”Brother, take these coins away. Sri Nathji will not accept such offering”.

The rich man was surprised. He asked: ”Why Sir?” The priest said: ”Can love be demonstrated? Is prayer a thing to be demonstrated? But in your heart there is the desire for advertisement. Such a desire is incapable to offer, such a desire is incompetent to renounce; such a desire is unqualified to love.

Source – Osho Book “The Earthen Lamps”

”What is the most essential factor in search of truth?

Osho – I said: ”Courage – courage to know the reality in the self. To know oneself as one is, is most essential. That is very difficult. But without that there is no understanding of the truth. What else is the greater penance than knowing oneself without cover and in nakedness? But that is the price one has to pay for attainment of truth. From that only commences the desire of man for truth. Being true to the self itself is the manifestation of the intense thirst for truth. How can he, who binds himself to the shore of falsehood, row his boat across the sea of truth?

The shore of falsehood will have to be given up. That shore itself is an obstacle to travel to the truth. That shore itself is the bondage. True, there is safety on that shore and the very desire for safety is the fort of falsehood. In our travel to the truth there should be no love for safety. On the other hand, there should be the unbeatable courage to discover the unknown. He who does not possess the courage to be unsafe, cannot discover the unknown. Without accepting the challenge of being unsafe, no one can either throw off the artificial covers nor can he be free from those convictions which he has put on for safety.

Is it not for the sake of safety that we appear what we are not? Are not all these deceptions merely our plans for safety? What are all these civilizations and cultures of ours?The proud looks like the humble; the greedy looks like the renouncer; the exploiter indulges in gifts; a killer has taken up the cover of non-violence; and the minds filled with hatred talk the language of love. This self-deception is very easy. When has acting in dramas been difficult? Then, in the market of culture, the good looking toys have always been sold at cheap rates; but may it be remembered that a bargain which is cheap on the surface proves very costly in the long run, because he who hides himself among the toys gets away and away from the truth.

Between truth and himself an unbridgeable gulf is created, because his soul is always afraid of loosing its cover. Then he goes on hiding himself: covers over covers and masks on masks. Falsehood does not come alone, its armies come with it for its protection. Such a net of falsehood and fear spreads out that it becomes impossible to lift our eyes above it. And how can a person, who suffers from the fear of losing his own artificial masks, muster strength to uncover the vessel containing the truth? That power is gained only by the courage to uncover himself.

A fearful mind is the enemy of the vision of truth. Who is the friend in that direction? Fearlessness is the friend; and fearlessness of mind is gained only by him who himself can lay bare the truth about himself and becomes free from fear. Fear keeps on increasing by covering the self and the soul becomes powerless. But if you uncover yourself and see, then fear gets drowned in the light of that knowledge and you discover new and several sources of power. It is this that I call courage; the power to uncover the self and to know it is courage. That is unavoidable for the attainment of truth. That is the first step towards Brahma.

There is a very interesting story: – A young man reached the hermitage of Rishi Haridrumat Gautam. He wanted to know the truth. He had a desire to know the Brahma. He placed his head on the feet of the Rishi and said, ”Oh; Teacher, I have come in search of truth. Be kind to me and teach me the knowledge of Brahma. I am blind and I want light.”

The name of that young man was Satyakama.
The Rishi asked him: ”Son, what is your Gotra? Who is your father? What is his name?”

That young man had no knowledge of his father. Nor did he know his gotra. He went to his mother, asked her and returned. And what his mother told him he repeated to the Rishi. He said: ”Oh! god! I do not know my Gotra. Nor do I know my father. My mother also does not know my father. I asked her, and then she said that in her youth she was playing with many respectable persons and used to please them. She does not know from whom I was born. The name of my mother is Jabali. Therefore I am Satyakama Jabal. This is what she has asked me to tell you also’!.

Haridrumat was very much moved by the simple true story. He embraced that young man and said: ”My dear, you are definitely a Brahmin. So much faith in truth is the very symptom of a Brahmin. You will definitely be able to find the Brahma because to him who has the courage to be true to himself, truth itself will come searching at his doors”.

Source – Osho Book “The Earthen Lamps”

Osho – We attach a lot of value to ourselves; and the more value we attach to our little selves, the more restless we become; and the more we suffer and the possibility of realizing Truth gets less and less.

He who is tranquil and filled with peace, can realize Truth. The first rule for obtaining tranquillity is not to consider that life which we lead, as real. Attach no more importance to it than you would to a dream. The moment life begins to appear as a dream, the mind becomes quiet. Until then, it is impossible for we attach such importance to trivial things. We take even dreams to be real and suffer on account of them. A man sees a ghost in his dream and gets up with a fright, his chest pounding; his sleep is broken, the dream is no more, yet it has seemed so real that the heart beats faster!

We are such, we even get carried away by theatrical performances. You will see many people wiping their eyes in cinema-houses; whereas on the screen there is nothing but the p1ay of electricity. Knowing full well that it is the current of electricity forming pictures on a blank screen, we yet laugh or cry or get frightened with the different scenes! The drama becomes a reality, whereas actually, the first rule in the quest of Truth is to consider as play, what we take to be a reality in life. Then only does Truth reveal itself.

There was a great thinker in Bengal by the name of Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar. He went to see a play. In the play, the hero is after the heroine. He does everything to harass and trouble her. Then one day, in the dead of night, he jumps into her bedroom and catches hold of her.

Vidyasagar could bear it no longer. He jumped on to the stage, took out his shoe and beat up the hero – completely forgetting it was a play on the stage! Everybody was shocked but the hero took the shoe and holding it to his chest, bowed reverently to Vidyasagar. He turned to the audience and said: ”Never have I received so great an honour. That anyone should be so carried away by my acting and that too, a great thinker like Vidyasagar! It is the biggest award I have ever received. I shall always prize this shoe.”

Vidyasagar felt ashamed. He went quietly back to his seat. Later on, he told his friends that the play appeared so real that he completely forgot it was a drama!

If a play looks real, man gets disturbed but if life appears a play, man becomes tranquil. Where is the need to be agitated by a dream? Then if poverty comes, it is a dream; even riches are a dream. Then sickness and health, honour and dishonour, are all dreams. As this truth becomes clearer to us, the mind starts to get restful. Truth is hidden because of our restlessness.

Source – Osho Book “The Beginning of the Beginning”