Question 1

Maneesha has asked:

BELOVED OSHO,

IT SEEMS YOU HAVE CLOSED OFF ALL ESCAPE ROUTES FOR US. AM I RIGHT IN FEELING THAT ENLIGHTENMENT IS LESS AND LESS AN OPTION, BUT, RATHER, THE ONLY EXIT?

It is the only exit, Maneesha. It is not an option. You cannot avoid it. You can delay, you can postpone for centuries, but finally you will end up a buddha  -- so why unnecessarily wait? That's how I became a buddha. When I saw that one has to become a buddha, this life or another life... when this has to happen, then why unnecessarily waste time? I simply dropped the idea of searching for Buddha and became a buddha.

The family in which I used to live at that time were suddenly surprised. They said "You are behaving very strangely!"

I said, "I have to. Last night I became a buddha."

They said, "This is not a joking matter... are you serious?"

I said, "I have to be!"

They shrugged their shoulders, they said, "But how did you become a buddha?"

I said, "That is not the question. Once I understood that it is the destiny of every living being, last night I thought: Why unnecessarily wait?"

And since then, if I have tried to take even one holiday... It is not allowed. Once you have become a buddha, I warn you, then there are no holidays. Once a buddha, forever a buddha.

So Maneesha you are right, but it is not me who has closed all the routes, it is existence itself. It gives you as much rope as you want. But why unnecessarily remain miserable? Why unnecessarily remain in anguish? If you can become a buddha and have all the blessings of existence available to you, then why not this moment? It is not me, it is existence itself asking you, "Why not this moment?"

Look at Zareen: she has come back to her place, has thrown away her migraine last night, and is again sitting behind Maneesha. Beware of Maneesha! because migraine is her old habit. She may throw it any moment. And it is very easy when the gibberish starts  -- everybody is throwing all kinds of bullshit. So remember one thing: go on throwing your bullshit with your mouth, and with your hands go on protecting yourself. Otherwise, only bullshit is exchanged and you go happy to your home thinking that it was great.

A little change is good. But it is somebody else's bullshit, so remember it: when you are deeply involved in throwing all your nonsense, keep protecting your mind with both your hands; otherwise you may get new rubbish, new rotten eggs, but you will remain the same. So be clever. Forcibly move away everything that is being thrown to you.

Maneesha, existence does not allow any option except enlightenment. It goes on forcing you towards enlightenment. It has infinite time available to it, so it is not in a hurry. But you should understand  -- what is the point of postponing it for tomorrow? That is what Buddha used to say: tathata, thisness, suchness, herenow  --  try to see a simple point that you are a buddha. And a mirror is in front of you! If a master cannot be a mirror to you, then either the master is not a master, or you are blind.

Just a few days ago Hasya had gone to New Delhi for a press conference. She was showing a small video there about the ashram and its activities. She was very much puzzled that the journalists who had come, when I started speaking, started looking... somebody this way, somebody that way, somebody downwards. She could not understand what was the matter. Then the Delhi friends told her, "You don't know, they all think that even to look into the eyes of this man is dangerous, or to hear his voice. You will be hypnotized."

Thousands of people want to come here. But they will come only when I am dead, because then I cannot hypnotize them. Then they will bring flowers and offerings, too. Right now it is dangerous. And you know it is dangerous! Even though I am hiding my eyes, it does not matter. The energy that hypnotizes passes through the glasses. Just last night, Avirbhava and Anando have shown you: the energy knows no barrier. I have started wearing these glasses just to console people, so they can look towards me without fear  -- and I am going to do whatever I am supposed to do!

It is existence itself that brings you to a master. It is your own urge that impels you towards a master. There is no exit. Even if you go far away from me, it will not make any difference; I will haunt you wherever you go.

Zareen had gone to her house, but I haunted her there. In the morning she was back. I inquired of Anando, "Just look to see whether Zareen is back on the gate or not." She said, "Why?"

I said, "I have been haunting her the whole night! I hope that she is well enough and back at the gate where she is needed."

Once you have become part of my caravan there is no way out, there is only a way in.

Now Sardar Gurudayal Singh is repressing his desire. He wants to laugh even while I am speaking. But he has to suppress it because it will be very embarrassing, particularly for an old disciple. So he keeps suppressing it and waiting for his time. And his time comes....

Pope the Polack dies and goes to heaven. He is met at the Pearly Gates by Saint Peter, who asks the Polack if he has any questions before he comes in.

"Yes, I have," replies the pope. "I always knew that I would go to heaven, but I often wondered what hell would be like."

"Okay," says Saint Peter. "You can visit hell if you want. But you must return after half an hour, or you will get stuck there."

So the Polack pope takes the elevator down to hell and finds himself in the lobby of a luxury hotel. He looks around and sees it is a beach resort, with beautiful men and women lazing around in the sun. There is a well-stocked bar, where the drinks are free, and a magnificent spread of multi-national food. A Brazilian band is playing a hot Samba, and everything is just far out!

The Polack wanders around in rapture for a while and then notices that his half an hour is nearly up. He makes a dash for the elevator and only just gets back in time.

The pope walks through the gates of heaven just as Saint Peter announces that lunch is ready. So the Polack pope sits himself down at the table.

After a few moments they are joined by Jesus, who brings in a plate of peanut butter sandwiches and a pot of herb tea.

"What is this?" cries the Polack, in dismay. "Down in hell, they eat pizza and ice cream, and drink French wine!"

"Well," replies Saint Peter, "it's not worth putting on a fancy spread for just the three of us!"

Young Spud Kowalski wins a fortune in the Polish National Lottery. When he comes home that evening, he finds his dad, Kowalski, sitting in front of the TV.

"Hi, Dad!" he says. "Guess what? I won the lottery today."

"I know," says Kowalski, "I just saw it on the TV. Fifty thousand dollars!"

"Well, Dad," says Spud, "you and mom have been so good to me over the years that I have decided to give you a cut. Here Dad, take ten dollars."

"Wow! Thanks, son," says Kowalski, examining the ten dollar bill carefully. "And now, let me give you some good advice."

"Okay Dad," says Spud. "I'm listening."

"Son," continues Kowalski, "don't just waste your good fortune. Settle down and get married properly  -- not like your mother and me."

"Gee Dad!" cries Spud. "You mean you and mom never got married? Do you realize what that makes me?"

"Sure I do, son," snaps Kowalski. "And you're a real tight one, too!"

Three sailors  --  a German, an American and a Polack  --  are in a pub drinking a few beers.

"Our submarines can stay under water for a half a year," brags the German sailor.

"That's nothing," says the American, swallowing his beer and wiping his lips. "Our nuclear submarines can stay under water for one whole year!"

"Hey," says the Polack sailor, spilling his beer. "That is really nothing. Our submarines dive down and never come up!"

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

(Gibberish)

(Drumbeat)

Be silent. Close your eyes, feel your body to be completely frozen.

Now look inwards, gathering all your consciousness  --  almost like an arrow, forcing towards the center.

At the center you are the buddha. On the circumference you may be anybody, Tom, Dick, Harry; on the circumference you are all different but at the center your essential nature is that of a buddha, the man of Tao.

Deeper and deeper  --  because the deeper you go, the more will be your experience of your eternal reality. Flowers will start showering on you, the whole existence will rejoice your silence.

Just be a witness, from the center, and you have arrived home.

To make it clear, Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Relax. Just remember that you are only a witness. The body is not you, the mind is not you. You are just a mirror.

And as you settle down into a mirror-like witnessing, the whole existence takes on a tremendously beautiful form. Everything becomes divine.

This evening was beautiful on its own, but Joshu's lion's roar has made it tremendously beautiful.

This very moment you are a buddha.

When you come back, bring the buddha with you. You have to live out the buddha in your day-to-day life. I am against renouncing the world  --  I am for recreating the world. The more buddhas there are, the world will have new skies, new dimensions, new doors opening... new mysteries, new miracles.

Collect as much fragrance and flowers as you can.

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Come back, but come back as a buddha  -- peacefully, gracefully. Sit down for a few moments just to recollect your experience of the space that you have visited and the splendor that you have experienced.

Every day you have to go deeper and deeper.

So always remember how far you have gone: tomorrow you have to go a little more. It may take two, or five, or twenty, or thirty years  --  but you are to become a buddha. As far as I am concerned you are right now a buddha, you have only to gain courage.

In those thirty years you will not be changing into a buddha  --  you are a buddha already. Those thirty years are just to drop the doubt, the doubt that you  --  how can you be a buddha? Even if I say it, even if all the buddhas try to convince you, deep down is the doubt: "My god, me? and a buddha?" But one day you will become convinced by your own experience. There is no real conversion without your own experience.

And Maneesha, I am not allowing you any exit.

You have been out for centuries.

Now you have to go in.

Okay, Maneesha?