---
section: Library
booktitle: "The Golden Wind"
booktype: "Diaries"
bookcode: "GWIND"
dategiven: "26 July 1980 pm"
place: " in Chuang Tzu Auditorium"
chapternum: "Chapter #26"
chaptertitle: "None"
acode: "8007265"
shorttitle: "GWIND26"
audio: "No"
video: "No"
esttime: ""
displaytitle: "The Golden Wind: Chapter #26"
---

```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[NOTE: This is an unedited tape transcript of an unpublished darshan diary, which has been scanned and cleaned up.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.]


The search for truth is good as far as the beginning is concerned, but a moment comes when you have to go beyond it because the very search is a tension, a strain. The very search keeps you engaged, occupied, and truth is found only in a state of absolute non-occupation, in total relaxation. Then there is not even a search for truth. That is the paradox that has to be understood.


Sannyas begins as a seeking, as a searching. Jesus was talking to beginners when he said 'Seek, and ye shall find; knock and the doors shall be opened unto you, ask and it shall be given.' It is perfectly right for those who are just in the beginning. Lao Tzu says 'Seek and ye shall never find, seeking is the sure way of missing.' He is also right, perfectly right, as right as Jesus. And there is no contradiction. He is talking to the adepts, he is talking to those who have already gone deep in the search. Ultimately it has to be said: now drop seeking. First bring it to a climax, to the peak tension of search, and then from that peak relax, forget all about truth -- and suddenly you find it within yourself. Both are true.


Now, the Taoists don't believe in Jesus, they will argue against him; and the Christians won't believe in Lao Tzu, they will argue against him. Both are in a state of ignorance. As I see it these are two aspects of the same coin.


But I want you to remember the end; the beginning has already begun. Sannyas is an initiation, a beginning of the journey. But if you can remember the end then you will never go astray.


Prayer begins in bliss and ends in an explosion of fragrance. Bliss is the seed, prayer the flower, and then naturally when the flower opens there is fragrance. That fragrance is called Christ consciousness, Buddha consciousness, Krishna consciousness -- they all mean the same thing. They only indicate one thing, that the consciousness has become a fully opened lotus. But first remember blissfulness.


Many people pray but their prayer goes wrong from the very first step. They pray out of misery, confusion, sadness, frustration. They pray to get something, their prayer is nothing but a disguised form of desire. It is not thankfulness, on the contrary it is a complaint. True prayer is simply thankfulness for all that has already been given to you. True prayer is a dance, a rejoicing because life is so beautiful and existence is so exquisite and each moment is such ecstasy.


My sannyasins have to become singers, dance, rejoicers. The materialists have always been condemned by the so-called spiritualists as people who believe in drink, eat and be merry. But I say to my sannyasins 'Eat, drink and be merry.' There is nothing of materialism in it, in the beginning of spirituality because only a cheerful person can thank god. Thankfulness can come only when you are feeling a kind of fulfilment, joy.


Live your life with such intensity and passion that you can feel thankfulness, then everything is on the right track, in the right direction. Once you are blissful prayer is bound to follow; a blissful person cannot remain unprayerful. And when there is prayer the flower is opening.


If one can manage blissfulness then everything else follows of its own accord: prayer and fragrance, prayer and fulfilment, the flower and the sharing of the beauty of the flower with existence.


Ordinarily man is just a heap of flowers. The flowers are not interconnected, they don't have any organic unity; he is not an orchestra. Many instruments are being played but everybody is playing solo; hence there is great noise but no music. And all his instruments are beautiful. All that is needed is to create an organic unity between them, a harmony.


Sannyas me ans transforming the heap of flowers into a garland. When you make a garland all the flowers become joined by an invisible, hidden thread. That's what meditation is. It helps you to bring your body, mind, heart, and soul into a kind of deep harmony. And once your whole existence is in harmony, great bliss arises, great benediction.


That's what religion is all about. It has nothing to do with god, nothing to do with heaven and hell. Those words are all theological nonsense. Basically religion is concerned in creating integrated individuality, it is a science of integration. And once you are integrated you are a conqueror, you are victorious, you have succeeded. You have used the opportunity that life gives to you. You have not wasted it and lived in vain.


Daniel is a beautiful word. It is not really a word but a whole philosophy. Daniel means, god is my judge.


Now, it contains in essence the whole of religion. It means surrendering yourself to god. It means not living the isolated life of the ego, it means becoming one with the whole.


And that's what sannyas is too: it is saying yes to existence. And then there is no fear. When you drop your ego all fear disappears; then whatsoever god wills you do. You are no more responsible because you are no more. Then it is all up to him.


With this trust a great revolution happens. You don't exist as a separate entity any more. It is like a dewdrop slipping into the ocean. Of course it loses something, it loses its limited definition, its identity, but it gains tremendously -- it becomes the whole ocean! So the loss is not much, the gain is infinite.


Meditation is two things together. It is a death and a resurrection -- the death of the ego and the birth of the soul. And it happens simultaneously: here you die and here you are reborn. I cannot say 'Here you die and there you are reborn;' it happens simultaneously, in the now. There is not even a gap of a split second. It is as if the clouds disperse an d suddenly the sun is there. It was always there, it was only hidden behind the clouds. Your real life is already there, just hidden behind the cloud of the ego. Ego is a dark cloud, but just a cloud; nothing very substantial in it. It can be dispersed very easily, and the art of dispersing it is meditation.


Meditation means becoming aware, alert, watchful. The more alert you are, the more you become aware that there is no ego. You are, but you are not separate from existence, you are part and parcel of it.


This feeling of oneness with existence brings great ecstasy because it means you are eternal; you have always been here and you will always be here. That means immortality.


If the ego dies we disappear as mortal beings and we appear as immortal beings. So die to be reborn' That's the meaning of the Christian symbol of the cross. But Christians have missed the meaning of the symbol as all religions have missed the message of the founders. Buddhists have missed Buddha, Christians have missed Christ, Mohammed ans have missed Mohammed. It is a very strange phenomenon that the followers are doing something totally opposite.


They go on calling themselves Christians but they are really killing the very spirit of Christ.


Christ was not crucified by the Romans and the Jews. They could not kill him, they only killed the body. But if you want to know where exactly he has been crucified, the place is the Vatican; he has been crucified there by the popes. And they have been continuously killing him.


The cross has nothing to do with a literal meaning, the cross simply means meditation. It simply means dying to the ego; hence the story that after three days Jesus is resurrected. Between death and resurrection there is a gap of three days. Those three days simply represent the body, the mind an d the heart.


First the body dies. You start dropping the idea of a separate body; you can see the stupidity of it. Each moment existence goes on pouring new energy into you -- how can you think yourself separate? If your breathing is cut off you will be dead. And it is not only breathing; every day you are taking in food and water, and existence goes on pouring into you. Every day you are dropping out everything that has died; life goes on pouring in and dead things are being thrown out of the body. The body is like a river, continuously getting more life and dropping all that is dead. That represents the first death, the first day.


Then the mind, which is a little subtler, thoughts -- they also come from the outside. Just as air and water and food come from the outside your mind goes on collecting thoughts from everywhere. The mind dies as a separate entity.


And then the most subtle thing happens on the third day -- they are just symbolic these three days -- feeling, emotion, the heart dies. And then there is resurrection. In the East we call it the birth of the fourth, turiya: turiya means the fourth.


When these three have disappeared, have become one with existence, suddenly you become aware of a being which is not yours, which is universal. That is resurrection.


My idea of prayer is not the ordinary idea of so-called religions. Hindus, Mohammedans, Christians -- they all go on praying. But that is not my idea of prayer and I don't think it is the right kind of prayer.


Prayer does not need any words. What is there to say to god? -- he knows it already. What is there to ask? -- he has given it already. And if something is not given, that simply means it is not needed. He is wiser than you, but people go on advising him: Do this, do that, give me this, give me that -- as if god is not wise enough. All your prayer is just advice, and people go on persisting every day. It is a kind of nagging, nagging god 'How long will you not listen? I will go on asking morning and evening.' Mohammedans are the most persistent -- five times a day. They must have driven god mad. Christians are better; at least they do it only on sunday. Hindus are even better; they do it only once in a while, on the festival days, otherwise they don't bother much.


To me prayer has nothing to do with words. It is a silent gratefulness; it is utterly silent, but a deep gratefulness. It is possible only if you learn how to be blissful, otherwise there will be nothing to be grateful for.


So I teach my sannyasins not prayer but bliss. Dance, sing, be blissful, be of great cheer. Let your life be a life of love and laughter and you will start feeling a subtle presence of prayerfulness in you. And that prayerfulness will not be Christian, Hindu or Mohammedan, it will be simply prayerfulness.


A true religious person cannot be Christian, Hindu or Mohammedan; he is simply religious. He has a prayerful being -- that's all.


It is only possible for a blissful person to trust in god. But for centuries our saints have been sad, they all carried long faces; hence I say that they were not religious. They were just egoistic people, they were using religion to fulfill their egos. They were pretenders.


True religion is bound to be a rejoicing. One needs not believe in god, one needs to believe in bliss, and then god comes in from the backdoor. And remember: god always comes from the backdoor like a thief.


You know who is translating for you - his name is Haridas! and Hari means a thief! Now I am coming in through the thief. He comes in from the backdoor and snatches your heart and runs away!
I have already done it with you! And whatsoever remains Haridas will take.
How long will you be here?
- I will leave on the fourth of August and come back in October.
- Come back because Germans are needed!


Hitherto the whole past of humanity has been in some way or other condemning life and its joys. It has been a life-negative approach, and to be life-negative is to be against God because life is God.


Hence I stand against all so-called religions; not against Christ, not against Buddha, not against Krishna, but certainly against Christians, Hindus, Mohammedans, Buddhists, because these people are all life-negative. They destroy something very delicate and valuable in you; they make you feel guilty about your joy. My effort here is to help you be free of all guilt and rejoice in life like small children. Rejoice in everything, even small things. If you start rejoicing, even a cup of tea starts having a sacred significance.


You can sip the tea in such a prayerful way, with such gratitude, with such meditativeness, that there is no need to go to any church. And in fact they won't allow you in with a cup of tea... or a bottle of beer! Beer is a little higher. For the beginners a cup of tea, for the adepts a bottle of beer.


My whole approach is to rejoice in everything and help others also to be happy, because bliss is divine.


Love is the only bridge to victory. But a very strange bridge it is, because the first requirement of love is surrender. It is victory through surrender; hence it has a tremendous beauty. It is non-aggressive, it is receptive; it wins not by conquering, it wins by being conquered.


Those who are trying to conquer God are fools, they cannot do it. The wise people have surrendered to God; they have invited him to conquer them, to possess them. God cannot be possessed by you but you can allow him to possess you. That's what love is: it allows one to be possessed. It is non-possessive, it has no desire to possess. Its only longing is to be possessed, totally possessed, so nothing is left in oneself of one's own.


That's what sannyas is all about: a tremendous and total surrender -- and in that very surrender victory happens.


Hari is one of the names of God, and one of the most beautiful. There are thousands of names of God in different languages of the world. Sufis have ninety-nine names of God. All are beautiful, but Hari is unique. There is no other name which can be compared with Hari. It really says something about God, and to say something about God is almost impossible. But it manages to say something about the unsayable: it says God is a thief.


And if you allow him, he is always ready to steal your heart. And the moment it happens you have come to know the greatest splendor of your life. All else is ordinary. When you have lost your heart to God, when his arrow has penetrated your heart totally, you have come to know that which is immortal, deathless.


To be stolen by God is the greatest honor. There can be nothing higher than that, that you have been thought to be worthy, that you have been chosen, that your heart has been thought to be precious enough for God to steal it.


The whole preparation of sannyas is so that God is tempted to steal you and your heart. And my sannyasins can rest assured: they are becoming more beautiful every day, and God is bound to be tempted. Many hearts are going to be stolen in these coming few years, twenty years; in the last part of this century millions of hearts are going to be stolen by God.


Harimurti means an image of God. So first let God steal your heart and then you also become a thief!
			

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