---
section: Library
booktitle: "The Shadow of the Whip"
booktype: "Diaries"
bookcode: "WHIP"
dategiven: "27 November 1976 pm"
place: " in Chuang Tzu Auditorium"
chapternum: "Chapter #18"
chaptertitle: "Know You are the Universe"
acode: "7611275"
shorttitle: "WHIP18"
audio: "No"
video: "No"
esttime: ""
displaytitle: "The Shadow of the Whip: Chapter #18"
---

```style
.sutra {
  font-style: italic;
  white-space: pre-wrap !important;
}
```
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Deva means divine and niseema means without any boundaries -- unbounded, unlimited, infinite. And this name is to remind you continuously that nothing is limited. All limitation is imposed by the mind, otherwise everything is unlimited. It begins nowhere -- it ends nowhere. It is almost as if you stand at a window and look at the sky -- the frame of the window becomes the frame of the sky. But the sky is unlimited -- it is your window that gives it a limitation. The mind is very limited, existence is unlimited.


So whenever you look through the mind you will see boundaries, definitions. Whenever you can see something without the mind, all boundaries disappear. Hence the insistence of all the great meditators that one has to achieve a state of no-mind, because only then you know the real as it is. Otherwise you know something as it is not, as the mind manipulates it, as the mind makes it appear. You know that, but that is not real.


If you look at a tree it looks limited. But if you penetrate a little deeper, the roots have gone into the earth, they are joined with the earth, and the leaves are joined with the sun, with the sun rays. Every leaf is continuously in a tremendous play with the air. Without the air, without the sun and without the earth, the tree won't exist. It can't exist for a single moment.


So to define the tree is not right. In the definition of the tree, the earth has to be there, the sun has to be there, the air has to be there. And then there are more subtle layers....


Now even scientific researchers show that if you love the tree, when you come to it, the tree feels very happy. It sways... it welcomes you... it spreads its arms towards you. So even it is connected with love.


If you come to the tree with hatred and you want to cut the tree, it shrinks, becomes afraid, hates you from its very guts. Now there are scientific ways to know it. And not only when you hate the tree does it hate you -- even that somebody is coming with the idea to cut the tree... the very idea is enough! So it means that the tree is connected even with ideas.


And not only that.... When you are going to cut a particular pine tree, the other trees will also be antagonistic to you. You are not going to harm them, but the rosebush will be angry at you. You are going to cut the pine tree -- they have lived together for so long. They have an affinity, a family, a communion. The garden will miss the pine tree -- the whole garden will miss it.


If you go deeper and deeper, you see that things are so interconnected that it is difficult to define anything. That's why God is indefinable -- because God simply means the totality of all the interconnections, of all the positive interconnections, impossible interconnections -- past, present, future. The totality of all the interconnections is what God is. It is impossible to define.


But the mind tends to define, categorise, label. The mind says, 'This is a man, this is a woman' -- and this is all nonsense because in every man there exists a woman, and in every woman there exists a man. This is utter nonsense to say, 'This is a man, and this is a woman.' Maybe there is a little difference of emphasis that's all. Because each child is born out of two parents, man and woman; the child inherits both. Your mother goes on living in you, your father goes on living in you, so how can you be just a woman?


And you cannot be only that which you look on the surface. There are layers upon layers of your being not even known to you, so how can you define?


Just a few days ago one old woman came -- of course old, so an old pattern of thinking. And she said, 'I am very much impressed by you Osho, but I cannot take sannyas because I have accepted Jesus as my teacher. I am a Christian and I am an orthodox Christian. I am tremendously impressed, I love what you say, but I cannot follow you, I cannot come with you.'


I told her, 'If you really love Jesus, you have to come with me. If you are really a Christian, how can you avoid me, how can you escape? But if you are not a Christian, it is another thing. Then you can go on playing with the label "Christian", and "Christ", and this and that.'


By giving you this name, Niseema, I would like you to go deeper into things, and to drop the old habit of the mind. Nothing is clear-cut -- that's the beauty. That is the mystery of life -- that nothing is clear-cut. Everything penetrates everything else and everything is a member of everything else... everything is overlapping everything else. It is almost like waves on the surface of the ocean. Have you ever seen a single wave? It is impossible to see a single wave on the ocean. Whenever a wave exists, it exists in a great pattern of waves.
You cannot exist alone. You exist in this universe!


This word universe is beautiful -- it means unity: uni means unity. We exist in unity, and the unity is multi-dimensional. We are joined with the past. You are joined with your father, with your mother, with your mother's mother, your father's father, and so on and so forth up to Adam and Eve, and to God who created Adam and Eve. You are joined to all that is ever going to happen in the world. You may disappear, but you are joined, because you will create a certain ripple which will continue.


I may be gone, but I am creating a certain ripple that will remain. You may be gone, but you loved somebody and that love created a ripple that will remain and remain and remain. It can never disappear, it will have its own repercussions... it will go on vibrating. You throw a small pebble in the lake and ripples arise. The pebble settles very soon at the bottom, but the ripples continue. They go on moving towards the shore -- and there is no shore to this existence.


I am talking to you.... In this moment something is transpiring between me and you. I will be gone, you will be gone, but that which is transpiring will abide. So these words will go on echoing, reechoing. The speaker will not be there, the listener will not be there, but what is transpiring between the two in this moment has become part of eternity. And there is no shore, so these ripples will go on and on and on.


Now scientists say that if we can invent something more speedy than the speed of light, we can catch many things from the past. For example, Krishna talked to Arjuna -- those vibrations must be somewhere, passing near some star. If we can reach and catch them there, we can listen to it again.


Jesus can be photographed still. The only problem is how to invent a vehicle that goes faster than light. Some day it may be possible. For example, Krishna (the ashram's photographer) is taking a photograph. When he takes a photograph it takes time for the light to reach to the plate. When his photograph comes it is not exactly of the present; it is of the past. A split second has passed -- so a thousand years have passed; that makes no difference. If we can run ahead and from there we can take a photograph, we can take Jesus surrounded' by his disciples by Lake Galilee, talking to them and telling his parables. Nothing is lost!


This is the meaning of universe -- it is a unity. Whatsoever has happened, has happened, whatsoever is happening, is happening, and whatsoever will happen... they are all connected.
This is the meaning of niseema. So feel this more and more.


And just by feeling it, you will feel tremendous joy arising in you. Limitation is misery. To think of oneself as a woman is to become miserable. To think of oneself as a Christian or a Mohammedan is to become miserable. To think of oneself as this or that is to become miserable. Dropping all identity, one becomes blissful.


So let your sannyas be a great dropping of all the identities. Know that you are the universe. This is the meaning of saying that you are God....


[The Encounter group is at darshan. One group member says: You gave me a message last time that I should take more initiative... I find it more difficult than I thought it would be.]


Mm mm. I was also thinking it would be difficult. It is difficult to take initiative because to take initiative is to take risk. One never knows where it will lead and what will happen. And the basic fear is that if you take the initiative, maybe the other is going to reject.


The fear of rejection is there, so people don't take initiative -- they simply wait. They simply wait for something to happen: somebody will turn up, somebody will knock at the door. Then you live at the minimum. Maybe some day somebody turns up but you will never live at the optimum.


And to live at the minimum is not to live at all -- live at the optimum. So make each moment an adventure. Take the risk! At the most you can be rejected. What is wrong in it? -- nothing. At least you will have the satisfaction that you tried. I'm not saying there is a guarantee that you will succeed, but to fail is better than not to try -- at least you know that you tried.


And if you fail you are not responsible for it -- you tried your best. Then when God encounters you finally in the final encounter -- you can say to Him, 'It is you! I have tried my best. Whatsoever I could do, I did. And if I failed, you have failed, not me.' And that is something worth saying. But if you have not tried at all how will you face your God? What will you say?


The opportunity was given but you were afraid -- afraid of what? At the most, the worst possibility is that you may be rejected. So accept the worst and hope for the best... and continue. You will start enjoying.


Once you take the risk, by and by you start enjoying the thrill of initiative. In fact, if each time you take the initiative you are accepted, there will be no thrill. The thrill comes because there is a possibility, fifty/fifty.... Maybe you go to somebody and you tell him, 'I love you.' Mm? There is a thrill, because who knows? He may say, 'Forget all about it. I am not interested.' Or he may say, 'Thank you! I was also waiting, and I was afraid to take the initiative.'


If each time it turns out to be 'yes', it will be meaningless. If whomsoever you approach says 'yes', there is no thrill. That moment between yes and no is the moment of thrill, of sensation, aliveness... throbbing. That is the moment when you burn like a flame. So try!


It is hard. It is hard only because you have not tried it before. Once you enjoy it, once you have learned the taste of it, it will be hard not to take the initiative. It is just an old habit, that's why. In this group, try more.


One has nothing to lose. What have you got to lose? Nothing to lose except your misery. So if you fail you can have your misery back... nothing to be worried about. Who can take your misery? If you want to be miserable you can always be, nobody can take your misery. But if you simply go on sitting, waiting for something to happen, it may happen, it may not happen. And even if it happens it will be the very very minimal.


Because this is my feeling: when you move enthusiastically towards life then enthusiastic people move towards you -- the same challenges the same. If you simply sit, then a lazy bum some day may move towards you. He may be sitting by your side -- sitting and feeling tired -- and you are also tired, and he will say, 'Hey! What are you doing there? Wanna fall in love or something?' (laughter) So you will find some bum... some lazy fellow -- just like you! And then too you will both sit. Now who should initiate? Who should hold the hand first? And who should say, 'I love you,' or this and that?


Many people I see that way -- sitting closed, not knowing what to do... from where to begin. So if you remain closed in that way, you will find some day that some. closed person has landed upon you. Before it happens, take initiative. When you take initiative and you are enthusiastic, moving, full of energy, riding radiantly on the wave of life, then you will find some adventurous people. Somebody who is courageous will become interested in you.


I have seen it happen -- even a very homely woman can become very beautiful if she has initiative. And a very beautiful woman can become very ordinary if she has no initiative. Initiative gives you a glow. Certainly a corpse cannot take any initiative. So when you don't take any initiative, by and by you will become more and more corpse-like.


Have you seen it? Once a woman gets married she starts becoming ugly, fat, loses proportion, loses charm. What happens? She is settling. The old enthusiasm, the old urge to explore, to take the initiative, to find someone, is finished. She has arrived, so now what is the point?


In a society where divorce has a bigger rate, women are more beautiful than in a society where divorce has a very low rate. In a society where women have the possibility of getting married again and again, they keep younger. In India, after twenty-eight, thirty, the woman is finished. In America she keeps young at least up to forty-five. And you can even find a woman of fifty who is still young. The reason? Still the initiative is possible; things have not settled.


The day marriage disappears from the world people will be more beautiful because each day there will be a possibility. You follow me? If the marriage completely disappears you cannot afford to be fat you cannot afford to be ugly, you cannot afford to be stupid. You have to be on guard, alert, throbbing with life. You have to remain attractive -- you cannot afford to be unattractive. You cannot be lazy, otherwise you will not be in the flow of life -- you will be thrown out, discarded... thrown in some out of the way place. You will no more be a part of the main current.


If marriage disappears people will be more alive because they will be less settled. More opportunities will be there, and things will be changing more. There will be more of a flux-like quality, liquidity, movement. But people don't want to take initiative. Immediately they find somebody -- anybody whom by chance they can grab -- they settle immediately.


Don't be in such a hurry to settle. You have not even grabbed anybody and you are trying to settle. Don't settle. This settlement is a suicide -- move out of it. Be more playful. Life is fun! Don't be too serious about it -- there is nothing to lose!


The only losers I have come across are those people who have never tried -- otherwise all are winners; whoever tries is a winner. Even if you lose, I say you win something. Maybe you don't win the first prize, you win the second or the third or there are always booby prizes... something (laughter). Try! What other group are you going to do ?


[Another group member says: The group's been very hard for me. The leader comments: She is tremendously strong -- no matter what happens she still won't show. Osho says to the leader:]


She will not be hard... Two days are still there -- two days, so she will be very soft. She is very soft inside -- just a strong will. So once she can surrender her will to her heart, she can become as soft as is possible for a human being.


There are two types of possibilities: one is, a person is soft because he has no will -- but his softness cannot be very big, it will be very tiny, very small. The quantity cannot be very explosive. He is soft because he is weak, the softness comes because of the weakness. These people will be very sentimental, emotional. Anger will come easily, love will come easy, and nothing will be abiding. It will be just a mood. These people will be very flux-like, they won't have any integrity. Soft they will be -- but their softness is part of their weakness. That softness is not going to help much.


But she can become soft in a totally different way. There are people who have a will. If they want to be hard, they can be hard. If they want to be soft they can be soft -- but their softness will have a strength; it will not be part of their weakness. And then it is tremendously beautiful.


She can be soft and strong in her softness. If she decides not to be soft, then there is no way. But if she decides to be soft, she can become the softest person in the world. She has a very clear-cut will. The only question is that if the will is against the heart, she will remain hard. If the will surrenders to the heart, she can become a flower.


And this is a real softness. Mm? Weakness is just a simulation: it just appears soft because the person is weak, it is a sort of impotence. She will be from tomorrow, mm? I have put her head right on the way. (to the group member) Don't betray me.... I am promising them! (laughter) Right?


[Another group member says: I can't let go totally -- and of course that applies to other things also.]


I think you have some impossible concept of totality that is bugging you. We can create impossible concepts and then we can be very unhappy. Now you have a perfectionist's idea about totality.


And in fact, totality and perfection are just the contrary -- opposite goals. A perfectionist can never be total. And a person who wants to be total should never think in terms of perfection.


A perfectionist is an idealist. He has some idea, ideal, and he has to fulfill that ideal. So an idealist is always miserable because he always falls short. Whatsoever he does there is something missing -- and he has made some ideal which is impossible. And only the impossible looks to him to be the ideal, that which cannot be achieved becomes very attractive. It is an ego trip -- he has to do something which nobody can do. He has to do something which cannot really be done. He tries for it and he falls short of it again and again... feels miserable. Out of his misery he again tries... again tries... and his whole life becomes a wasteland. Now totality is a totally different question.


A person who believes in totalily is not a perfectionist, he has no ideal -- he simply believes in The natural Whatsoever happens is good. Everything satisfies him because There is nothing to com-pare.


Now you say that you are not capable of expressing your anger totally. What do you mean by totally? You. have some ideal -- that this should be this way. Whatsoever you are doing is enough! That's all that you can do right now. You cannot go ahead of yourself. You can only go the way and to the extent that you can go! All that you are doing is all that you can do.


This acceptance is part of the concept of totality. One accepts one's limitations and one knows that the impossible is not possible. And the possible is human -- it has flaws, limitations. Be human! Don't ask for the super-human. The super-human is always inhuman. Just be human, relax -- and in that relaxation more will become possible.


Now you are tense, you feel that you are not doing as you should do, but from where is this 'should' coming ? Maybe you are watching others, comparing, but that may be possible for them. They are not you -- you are not them. You are you and they are they.


Somebody is crying to his heart's desire and you cannot cry -- now a comparison arises that this is how one should cry totally. But this may be natural to the person and may be unnatural to you -- because you are not alike; nobody is like anybody else. Each individual is so unique -- and one has to be respectful of this uniqueness. That's what I call religiousness: respect your uniqueness! It is nothing to brag about, it is not an ego trip. It is a simple acceptance... a recognition that everybody is different -- just like fingerprints. Your fingerprint is different to mine, but there is no good, no bad. It is not that mine is better and yours is not good -- there is no comparison. Yours is yours, mine is mine.


So stop watching others. Start accepting yourself. And whatsoever is coming, that's right for you! Relax into it, and you will see more is coming. But that comes by relaxation, not by creating an ideal and a strained effort. No need! This is the idea in your mind -- a 'should' exists somewhere. You have some vague concept.


The philosophy of totality has no idea of perfection. It is very human. Relax for these two days, and whatsoever comes naturally is good. More is not needed -- there may not be any more! Always listen to your nature, and never try to impose anything on top of it -- that is very cruel, that is a sort of masochism. Then you become miserable, and when you become miserable you make more effort. When you make more effort, you are still more miserable... so on and so forth. Relax!


My whole effort here is to help you to accept yourself... whosoever you are! If I can take your guilt away from you, I have helped you tremendously. If I can take your ideals away from you, I have helped you tremendously. If I can make you simple and natural, ordinary, I have helped you tremendously. And just the opposite has been done by the so-called religious people up to now....


They create guilt. Whatsoever you do. they are ready to condemn it -- that this is nothing! Improve! They go on creating the tempo. And of course you feel that this is good for your ego, so you go on improving yourself. The ego is never fulfilled, and your life is wasted. For these two days, simply relax. Whatsoever comes is right....
Easy is right!
			

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