Upanishads, Talks on the Isha Upanishad. I Am That Chapter 6: Absolute Love, Absolute Freedom, Question 1

The first question:

Question 1

OSHO,

SITTING FRETFULLY, SQUIRMING ENDLESSLY, DOES THE SPRING STILL COME AND THE GRASS GROW BY ITSELF?

Anand Daniel,

THE SPRING still comes. It does not depend whether you are sitting silently or fretfully, whether you are sitting or not sitting at all. It does not depend on you; it comes on its own accord. And the grass goes on growing, but if you are not sitting silently you will miss it. It will come, but you will not be able to feel it. It will come, but you will not be able to experience it. The grass will grow, but you will not grow.

The sun rises, the night disappears, but the light is only for those who have eyes and only for those who open their eyes: otherwise you will remain in darkness. The sun will be there, the light will be there, but you will not be bathed in its light; you will remain the same.

The whole question is whether you are closed or open. Silence opens you; the inner noise keeps you closed to existence, within and without both. The outside is a beautiful world: the whole sky with the stars, the flowers, the birds singing, the clouds floating, the rivers, the mountains. And the inside world is even far more beautiful, because the outside is the manifest part of the inside and the inside is vaster than the outside. The unmanifest is unlimited, the manifest is bound to be limited. The unmanifest contains all the future possibilities; the manifest contains only that which has become actual in the past. The unmanifest contains all the universes that will ever happen in the coming eternity. Of course, it is far bigger than the outer.

Between the two is the mind. Between the within and the without there is a wall -- a China Wall -- of thoughts, desires, memories, expectations, frustrations. And because of the thick wall and the constant noise that is bound to be there... each memory hankering to be listened to, each desire nagging you to be fulfilled, each imagination forcing you to be realized, each expectation torturing you, goading you so that you can succeed in fulfilling it. The noise is great; there is great conflict. The desires are antagonistic to each other.

If you want to be powerful, of course you will have to choose a few desires and you will have to leave a few desires. There are desires to be famous, desires to be wealthy, desires to be powerful, and desires to be healthy, and desires to be loved, and desires to be creative; they all cannot be fulfilled simultaneously. And whenever you choose. the unchosen desires will nag you; they will try to drag you towards themselves.

This chaos cannot allow you to see either the beauty that surrounds you or the beauty that resides in you. it cannot allow you to see the rainbows on the circumference and it cannot allow you to see the source of all joy, of all truth, of all beauty within you -- the kingdom of God within you.

You ask me, Daniel: SITTING FRETFULLY, SQUIRMING ENDLESSLY, DOES THE SPRING STILL COME...?

Certainly... the spring comes, but not for you. You are not available, you are not there. You are so much occupied, so much engaged, you can't see out, you can't see in. Your eyes are covered with layers of desires and thoughts.

The grass certainly goes on growing, because the grass is sitting silently doing nothing -- but you are not sitting silently, doing nothing. If you can sit silently doing nothing like the grass. you will also grow.

That's the way how the ignorant becomes enlightened: becoming silent... just now... just a moment of silence, a pause... and you can hear the songs of the birds and you can suddenly feel the silence. Then there are no more five thousand sannyasins here: the Buddha Hall is empty, and that emptiness is a great experience. It is ecstatic!

The spring is felt suddenly -- it can be felt right now! Then nothing distracts you. This noise of the plane is not a distraction; it will even deepen your silence, it will become a contrast to the silence, it will help define the silence.

The outer noise is not a distraction; but the mind inside remaining continuously in an insane state is the only distraction.

And there are foolish people who renounce the world in search of silence. The world does not disturb you; what disturbs is your mind -- and they don't renounce the mind. When a Hindu becomes a monk he still remains a Hindu. Do you see the absurdity? He has renounced the Hindu society, but he still carries the idea of being a Hindu! If you have renounced the Hindu society... then this idea of being a Hindu was given by the same society, how can you carry it?

Somebody becomes a Christian monk, but he still remains a Christian -- a Catholic, a Protestant... The mind is so stupid; if you look at its stupidities you will be surprised, amazed! How can you be a Catholic if you have renounced the world? But people renounce the world, they don't renounce the mind -- and the mind is a byproduct of the world! The child is raised by the Hindus, then he becomes a Hindu, because the parents are cultivating Hindu ideology -- or Christian, or Mohammedan, or Jain.

Just the other day I was talking about how Jainism destroyed the beautiful concept of the Upanishadic ashrams. When I passed around the Buddha Hall going back, I looked particularly at my Jain sannyasins -- they were not looking happy! Even my sannyasins! But whenever I criticize Hinduism and I have seen the same sannyasins -- so joyous. Of course Hindus feel offended. Even my sannyasins somehow deep down go on carrying their mind.

I don't teach you to renounce the world, I teach you to renounce the mind. And that's what is meant by this immensely beautiful Zen saying:

SITTING SILENTLY, DOING NOTHING,

THE SPRING COMES AND THE GRASS GROWS BY ITSELF.

All that is needed on your part is just to be absolutely silent And that's exactly the meaning of the word upanishad: sitting silently, doing nothing, by the side of a Master -- that means by the side of spring -- allowing the spring to possess you, to take you along with it like a tidal wave.

Your inner being is not something that has to be developed; it is already perfect. No spiritual development is needed, only it has to be discovered. And once silence falls over you, you start discovering it. It is the noise and the dust that the mind creates that goes on hindering the discovery.

Upanishads

I AM THAT

Chapter-6

Absolute Love, Absolute Freedom