Test It In Life

We will have a few questions from Yoga Sutra 26.

We all have some time to ask: how much time do we need to be in the presence of an enlightened person?

Similar question was asked to Osho – YOU TALK A LOT TO US ABOUT HOW IMPORTANT SATSANG IS, BEING IN THE PRESENCE OF AN ENLIGHTENED, LIBERATED MAN. YET A LOT OF YOUR SANNYASINS SPEND MOST OF THEIR LIVES AWAY FROM YOU.

IF IT WAS UP TO YOU WOULD YOU HAVE ALL OF US LIVE HERE IN POONA WITH YOU ALL THE TIME?

To which Osho replied –  No. Because to be in the presence too much can be an overdose. Rather than helping it can hinder you. Everything should always be in proportion and in balance. It is possible when something is sweet that you can eat more of it than you should. You can forget your need; you can overstuff yourself. And satsang is sweet, it is the sweetest thing in the world. In fact it is alcoholic… you can become a drunkard. That will not liberate you; that will create a new bondage.

Being near a Master can either become a bondage or a liberation, it depends. Just by being near, there is no necessity that you will be liberated: you can get indigestion; and you can become addicted to the presence. No, that is not good.

Whenever I feel that somebody needs a space of his own, whenever I feel that somebody needs to go away from me, I send him away. It is good to create hunger, then satiety goes deep. And if you are with me too much you may become even oblivious of me. Not only indigestion, you may completely forget me.

Just the other day Sheela was saying that when she was in America she was closer to me. Now that she is here she feels thrown far away. How does it happen?

She was much, troubled, puzzled. It is simple. When she was in America she was constantly thinking about me, of coming here to be near me. She was living in a dream. In that dream she felt close to me. Now that she is here, how can she dream? I am there in reality; dreams are no longer needed. And I am so much here that she has started forgetting about me – that’s why she is feeling so far away.

Things are complex. Sometimes I send you away to feel me more. It is needed. A separation is needed so that you can come close again. There must be a rhythm of being with the Master and not being with the Master. In that rhythm many possibilities open because, finally, you have to be on your own. The Master cannot be with you forever and forever. One day suddenly I will disappear – “dust unto dust.” You will not be able to grope for me. Then, if you have become too addicted to me and you cannot be without me you will suffer, unnecessarily suffer. And I am here not to give you suffering; I am here to make you capable of more and more bliss. It is good sometimes that you go far away in the world, have your own space, move in it, live in it.

And whatsoever you have gained here with me, test it in life, because an ashram is not in life. An ashram at the most can be a discipline; it is not an alternative life. At the most it can be a school where you have a few glimpses. Then you carry those glimpses in the world – there is the criterion, the test. If they prove real there, only then were they real.

Living in an ashram, living with a liberated man, living in his energy field, you may many times be deceived that you have attained something. It may not be your attainment; it may be just because of the magnetism that you touch new dimensions. But when I am not there and the atmosphere of the ashram is not there and you move in the ordinary day-to-day world, the world of the market, the office, the factory – if you can carry the goal that you have attained here and it is not disturbed, then really you have attained something. Otherwise you can live here in a dream, in an illusion.

No, if it were possible for me to have you all here, then too I would have sent you. I would have actually done as I am doing now; there would have been no change. This exactly is helpful as it is.

Don’t feel hurt when I send you away – you need it. And don’t feel too elated when I tell you to be here – that too is a need. Both are needs. And don’t make a fixed principle, because things are very complex, and every individual is unique.

Sometimes I allow somebody to be here because he is so dead he takes a long time to evolve. Somebody evolves so soon – then within weeks I say, “Go.” So just being here doesn’t feel elated, and don’t feel hurt if I send you away.

Sometimes I retain somebody because he is very balanced and there is no fear yet that he will eat too much, fall victim of the disease of overdose; then I allow him.

Sometimes when somebody, I feel, has attained something, then too I send him away; because only the world can be the proof of whether you have attained or not. In the isolation of an ashram, in a different atmosphere, you may have glimpses because you become part of the collective mind that exists here. You start riding on my waves; they may not be yours. But when you go home you have to ride on your own waves – may be small, but better because they are your own, truer to you, and finally they alone have to take you to the other shore. I can only indicate the way.

A Master should not become a bondage; and it is very easy for a Master to become a bondage. Love can always be converted into bondage. It can always become an imprisonment. Love should be a freedom; it should help you to be liberated from all fetters and bondages. So I have to keep myself continuously alert: who has to be sent, who has to be allowed to stay here, and how much.

A rhythm is needed – sometimes being with me and sometimes not being with me. A day will come, you will feel the same. Then I will be happy with you.

Whether with me or not with me you remain the same; whether here in the ashram, meditating, or working in the marketplace you remain the same – nothing touches you; you are in the world but the world is not in you: then you make me happy. Then you are fulfilled.

Another question – I HAVE BEEN HERE FOUR WEEKS NOW AND I STILL CANNOT COPE WITH THE MISERY ON THE STREET OTHER THAN BY CLOSING MYSELF OFF. SO WHATSOEVER I LOOSEN UP IN THE ASHRAM SEEMS TO GET LOST WHEN I CYCLE HOME. PLEASE SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THIS.

Osho replied –  I have already said so, and I have answered this question. If you are here for some inner search then, please, for a few days while you are here with me forget the world. But it seems that it is difficult. So now there is only one way – get miserable, as miserable as you want. Go and sit with the beggars on the streets and cry and weep and be miserable, and be finished with it. If you want hell, go into hell. This is a very egoistic attitude. You must be thinking that this is compassion. This is foolishness – because just by getting miserable, no beggar is helped on the street. If there were a hundred miserable people, your getting miserable makes them one hundred one. How can you help by being miserable? But this is some deep ego which feels good: “I am so kind, so compassionate. I am not like other hard people, stony; I have a heart. When I pass through the streets I get miserable because I see so much poverty around.”

This is pious egoism – looks very holy but is deep down very unholy.

But if you have to pass through it, pass through it. What can I do?

You are here to seek your own self. Don’t miss the opportunity. Beggars will always be there; you can get miserable later on. They are not going to leave the world so soon – don’t be afraid. You will always find them. If nowhere else, in India you will always find them. Don’t be worried: you can always come to India and get miserable; there is no hurry about it. But I will not be here forever, remember.

Next time you come, beggars will be there – I may not be here. So if you are a little alert, use this opportunity to be with me. Don’t waste it foolishly. But if you feel that you cannot get out of it, then the only way is forget me and go and be with the beggars and get miserable – as much as you can. Maybe that’s how you may come out of it. You need help; go into it. I will be waiting. When you are finished with it, come on.

HOW IS ONE TO STOP WORRYING?

Now, “how to stop worrying?” What is the need to stop worrying? If you start trying to stop worrying, you create a new worry: how to stop worry. Then you start worrying about the worries; then you double them. There is no way.

And if somebody says, as there are people…. Dale Carnegie has written a book HOW TO STOP WORRYING AND START LIVING. These people create more worries because they give you a desire that worries can be stopped. They cannot be stopped, but they disappear – that I know. They cannot be stopped, but they disappear! You cannot do anything about them. If you simply allow them and don’t bother a bit, they disappear. Worries disappear, they cannot be stopped – because when you try to stop them, who are you? The mind which is creating worries is creating a new worry: how to stop. Now you will go crazy, mad; now you are like a dog chasing its own tail.

Watch a dog; it is a beautiful phenomenon. In winter in India you can watch anywhere dogs sitting in the morning sunning themselves, enjoying. Then they suddenly become aware of their tail just by the side. Such temptation, they jump.

But then the tail jumps farther back. Of course this is too much for a dog to tolerate, this is impossible. It hurts: this ordinary tail, and playing games – with such a great dog? He goes mad – round and round he goes. You will see him panting, tired, and he cannot believe what is happening. He cannot catch this tail?

Don’t be a dog chasing your own tail, and don’t listen to Dale Carnegies. That is the only method they can teach you: chase your own tail and go mad. There is a way – not a method – a way worries disappear: when you simply look at them indifferently, aloof; you watch them as if they don’t belong to you. They are there; you accept them. Just like clouds moving in the sky: thoughts moving in the mind, in the inner sky. Traffic moving on the road: thoughts moving on the inner road. You just watch them.

What do you do when you stand by the side of the road waiting for a bus? You simply watch. The traffic goes on; you are not concerned. When you are not concerned, worries start dropping. Your concern gives them energy. You feed them, you vitalize them, and then you ask how to stop them. And when you ask how to stop them, they have already overpowered you.

Don’t ask a wrong question. Worries are there, naturally; life is such a vast and complicated phenomenon, worries are bound to be there. Watch. Be a watcher and don’t be a doer. Don’t ask how to stop. When you ask how to stop, you are asking what to do. No, nothing can be done. Accept them – they are. In fact look at them, watch them from every angle, what they are. Forget about stopping, and one day suddenly you realize just by watching, looking, a gap arises. The worries are no longer there, the traffic has stopped, the road is empty, nobody passing….

In that emptiness, God passes by. In that emptiness, suddenly you have a glimpse of your Buddha nature, of your inner plenitude, and everything becomes a benediction.

But you cannot stop it. You can accept it, allow it, watch it, with a very indifferent, unconcerned look as if they don’t matter. And they are simply bubbles of thought; they really don’t matter. The more you become concerned with them, the more they matter. The more they matter, the more you become concerned. Now you create a vicious circle. Jump out of the circle.