---
section: Library
booktitle: "The Imprisoned Splendor"
booktype: "Diaries"
bookcode: "IMPRIS"
dategiven: "21 June 1980 pm"
place: " in Chuang Tzu Auditorium"
chapternum: "Chapter #21"
chaptertitle: "None"
acode: "8006215"
shorttitle: "IMPRIS21"
audio: "No"
video: "No"
esttime: ""
displaytitle: "The Imprisoned Splendor: Chapter #21"
---

```style
.sutra {
  font-style: italic;
  white-space: pre-wrap !important;
}
```
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> [!info]
> Note
>
[NOTE: This is an unedited tape transcript of an unpublished darshan diary, which has been scanned and cleaned up. It is for reference purposes only.]


Richa means poetry born out of the heart of a Buddha -- not ordinary poetry, but poetry that flows through total awarenesss. The ordinary poet is as asleep as everybody else. His poetry is just a mumbling in deep sleep. Maybe he mumbles in a better way than others, his mumbling has a certain rhythm, a certain music to it, but it is still the mumbling of a fast-asleep person. He is dreaming; hence the poets are called dreamers.


Richa means poetry born out of a man who has become awakened, who is no more a dreamer; he can see, he is a seer. And because he can see, truth is available to him, so whatsoever he says is poetry, the way he lives is poetry. It is not only that he has to compose poetry, then it will be poetry; even his silence is poetic. He walks, talks, eats, sleeps, but all these actions have a poetry surrounding them. They have a deep harmony. Each of his acts is beautiful, it is divine.


There are many poets in the world, but the true poets are rare. Out of one hundred only one is a real poet. and out of a real poet, richa is born. Hence the poetry collected in the Vedas, in the Upanishadas, is called richa; the Koran consists of richas, the Bible consists of richas. It is the highest form of the experience of beauty and its expression.


Bliss is our treasure but we are completely oblivious of it. We have forgotten all about it, that we are carrying the greatest treasure within our being, and we are begging for small things. We are born kings and have become beggars. This is a very strange situation. We have completely forgotten who we are.


The whole purpose of sannyas is to make you aware of your own treasure, And you have not to go to seek is anywhere else, because it is within you at the very core of your being, Even if you want to lose it you cannot lose it, It is intrinsically part of your being, it is your very being; hence inseparable, nobody can steal it. If you want to give it to anybody you cannot do that either. It is born with you, it dies with you, you bring it and you take it away with you. But between birth and death you live like a beggar.


One can live like an emperor, one should live like an emperor. But only Buddhas can live like emperors Even Alexander the Great remains a beggar for his whole lifes always desiring more and more. That is the style of begging. Desire is begging. To live desirelessly, to live in the moment, to enjoy the moment to the full is to live like an emperor.


One may have everything of the world, one may not have anything of the world -- it is really irrelevant, it does not matter. What matters is self-knowledge. Meditation is the key to self-knowledge.


Put your total energy into self-enquiry, because that is the greatest adventure one can go on. And it is only through it that one comes to fulfilment, contentment.


The only victory worth calling victory is the attainment of bliss. Everything is only a toy to play with, to remain occupied with -- except bliss. Money, power, prestige -- these are toys for grown-up children, who are basically childish, who have not really grown. Of course, chronologically they have become grown-ups, but not psychologically; psychologically they are immature. They are still concerned, too concerned with futile things, with unnecessary things, while the most necessary is being left undone. Time is so short, and tomorrow is not certain; all we can be certain about is this moment. Even the next moment may come or may not come.


There is a famous story in the life of a mystic Eknath. A man used to come to see Eknath, always enquiring about great metaphysical things. One day he came very early in the morning. Eknath asked 'Today you have come so early -- is there something urgent?' The man said 'Yes. I always wanted to ask one thing but I cannot ask it in front of others, so before others come I have come. My question is a little silly, but whatsoever it is, it has been tormenting me for years. Since I have seen you this question has persisted in me and I will not get rid of it unless I ask it, Permit me to ask.'


Eknath said 'You can ask, you could have asked any time! All questions are silly, so it doesn't matter. Ask right now.' The man said 'You look so blissful that even emperors feel jealous of you, but deep inside me a doubt persists: maybe you are just pretending. Maybe inside you are the same as we all are; you are simply acting. Who knows? -- maybe the same desires, the same lust, the same greed, the same anger that haunts us may be haunting you too and you have repressed it. I cannot figure it out, I know it is not right to ask such a question, but what can I do? This goes on and on inside me.'


Eknath said 'I will answer the question, but not right now. Right now I have something more important to say to you and then you can repeat the question and I will answer it. Just let me see your hand.'


The sun was rising and Eknath said 'I just saw your hand... I may forget if I start answering your question, and this seems to be far more urgent, so let me say it first: your time is finished, only seven days more. The line of your age has come to its very end. Today is Sunday; next Sunday as the sun sets you will die. That's all the time that is left for you. Now you can ask what you wanted to ask. Please remind me again, then I can answer you.'


The man stood up, he started trembling. He said, 'I am not interested in any question at all. Right now I want to go home.' Eknath said 'But those questions have been tormenting you for years.' The man said 'Forget all about that -- who bothers about such things when death is so close?'


When he had come just a few moments before, he was young, with great strength; now he was almost old. Within moments it happened. When he went down the steps of the temple he was trembling; he had to take the support of the wall to get down the steps, He reached home, he told the family. Everybody started crying and weeping, he himself was crying and weeping.


Those seven days were hell. He stopped eating -- what was the point of eating any more? He stopped talking, he simply lay down on the bed. And when the last day came and the sun was just about to set, he was asking only one question again and again 'How much more time is left for me?'


Eknath came. The whole family started weeping and crying and asking Eknath to save him, to do somethings 'You can do miracles -- you are such a great saint.'


Eknath said 'Forget all about this. Don't waste time, there is not much time left -- let me talk to him!' He went in, he said to the man 'I have to ask you one question: in these seven days has greed, lust, anger ever bothered you?' The man said 'What are you asking a dying man when death is so close? Where is the space for greed, anger, and lust to arise?' Eknath said 'Then don't be worried -- you are not going to die. I have just answered your question! Get up, forget all about it! -- you will be living a long life. But I know that whether you live seven days or seven years or seventy years or seven hundred years, it makes no difference: death is going to come. Hence do that which is really essential. Since I have become aware of death, all these stupid ideas have disappeared from my being. I have not repressed them -- it is awareness of death that has transformed me.


'Get up from your bed, you are not going to die. It was just a strategy to answer you, otherwise you would not have understood.'


The man was transformed; these seven days were really a master device. The man touched Eknath's feet and told his family 'Now I have to become a disciple of Eknath, I cannot go on letting you think that I am dying. In fact I am dead: the man who used to be has died within these seven days. I am a totally new man, because now my enquiry is different, my interest is different; now I move indwards.'


Life is short, very momentary, but people are so foolish that they go on wasting it on unnecessary things. The only important thing in life is the attainment of bliss, and that's the purpose of sannyas. It has only one goal, only one target, and all your energies have to be poured towards it.


Become victorious over your own inner being -- that is true victory. And those who have known their own inner being have conquered all, even death.


These are two polarities in life: meditation and love. This is the ultimate polarity.


The whole of life consists of polarities: the positive and the negative, birth and death, man and woman, day and night, summer and winter. The whole of life consists of polar opposites. But those polar opposites are not only polar opposites, they are also complementaries. They are helping each other, they are supporting each other.


They are like the bricks of an arch. In an arch the bricks have to be arranged against each other. They appear to be against each other, but it is through their polar opposition that the arch is built, remains. The strength of the arch is dependent on the polarity of the bricks arranged opposite each other.


This is the ultimate polarity: meditation means the art of being alone, and love means the art of being together. The whole person is one who knows both and who is capable of moving from one to the other as easily as possible. It is just like breathing in and breathing out -- there is no difficulty. They are opposite: when you breathe in there is one process, and when you breathe out the process is just the opposite. But breathing in and breathing out make one full breath.


In meditation you breathe in, in love you breathe out. And with love and meditation together your breath is complete, entire, is whole.


For centuries religions have tried to attain one pole to the exclusion of the other. There are religions of meditation. For example, Jainism, Buddhism -- they are meditative religions, they are rooted in meditation. And there are Bhakti religions, religions of devotion: Sufism, Hassidism -- they are rooted in love. A religion rooted in love needs God as the other to love, to pray to, Without a god the religion of love cannot exist it is inconceivable -- you need an object of love. But a religion of meditation can exist without the concept of God; the hypothesis can be discarded. Hence Buddhism and Jainism don't believe in any god. There is no need of the other. You just have to know how to be alone, how to be silent, how to be still, how to be utterly calm and quiet within yourself. The other has to be completely dropped, forgotten. Hence these are godless religions.


When for the first time Western theologians came across Buddhist and Jaina literature they were very puzzled: how to call these godless philosophies religions? They could be called philosophies, but how to call them religions? It was inconceivable to them because the Judaic and Christian tradition thinks that to be religious God is the most essential hypothesis. The religious person is one who is God-fearing, and these people say there is no God, hence there is no question of fearing God.


In the West for thousands of years it has been thought that the person who does not believe in God is an atheist, he is not a religious person. But Buddha is atheistic and religious. It was very strange for Westerners because they were not at all aware that there are religions that are rooted in meditation.


And the same is true about the followers of Buddha and Mahavira. They laugh at the stupidity of other religions that believe in God, because the whole idea is absurd. It is just fantasy, imagination, nothing else; it is a projection. But to me, both are true together.


My understanding is not rooted in one pole; my understanding is fluid. I have tasted truth from both sides: I have loved totally and I have meditated totally. And this is my experience, that a person is whole only when he has known both. Otherwise he remains half, something remains missing in him.


Buddha is half -- so is Jesus. Jesus knows what love is, Buddha knows what meditation is, but if they meet, it will be impossible for them to communicate with each other. They will not understand each other's language. Jesus will talk about the kingdom of God and Buddha will start laughing: "What nonsense are you talking? The kingdom of God?" Buddha will say just "Cessation of the self, disappearance of the self." And Jesus will say, "Disappearance of the self? Cessation of the self? That is committing suicide, the ultimate suicide. What kind of religion is this? Talk about the supreme self!"


They will not understand each other's words. If they ever meet they will need a man like me to interpret; otherwise there can be no communication between them. And I will have to interpret in such a way that I will be untrue to both! Jesus will say "kingdom of God" and I will translate it as nirvana -- then Buddha will understand. Buddha will say "nirvana" and to Jesus I will say "Kingdom of God" -- then he will understand.


Humanity needs a total vision now. We have lived with half visions for too long. It was a necessity of the past, but now man has come of age. My sannyasins have to prove that they can meditate and pray together, that they can meditate and love together, that they can be silent as possible and they can be as dancing and celebrating as possible. Their silence has to become their celebration, and their celebration has to become their silence. I am giving them the hardest task ever given to any disciples, because this is the meeting of the opposites.


And in this meeting all other opposites will melt and become one: East and West, man and woman, matter and consciousness, this world and that world, life and death. All opposites will meet and merge through this one meeting, because this is the ultimate polarity; it contains all the polarities.


This meeting will create my man -- Zorba the Buddha. That's my name for the new man. And each of my sannyasins has to make all the efforts possible to become such a liquidity, a flow, so that both poles belong to you.


Then you will have the taste of wholeness. And to know wholeness is the only way to know what is holy. There is no other way.
			

> [!info]
> Copyright 1964-1990 Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)
>