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 Translated by Swami Satya Vedant
Discourses given by Osho at Cross Maidan, Bombay
28th December, 1970 - 7th January 1971
Continued from previous issue...
The second point Krishna is making that, if one thinks that such as renouncing the objects and the possessions, by denying things, he can similarly renounce the world and would then be able to realize god, he is mistaken. It doesn’t work that way. God-realization is not a matter of bargaining. It is not that if you were to give up this or that you will realize god.
Once a monk came to me. He said, “I have left the house, my wife, my children, my business, then why have I not seen god yet?” I asked him, “How would you price your house, your business, your wife, your children? Do you have any figure in mind?” He said, “What do you mean?” I said, “If we can be sure about the total worth of things you have given up, we can then complain to god that here is a man who is investing so much for you and you are still hiding from him!” The man has given up his home, and he wants god in return? Actually, the very idea of getting in return for something brings business in; it has nothing to do with religion.
The one who has renounced says: “I have left everything and yet no sign of god.” But who asked you to leave everything to find god! And, how much worth is it all that you have given up? And, what will you do when death will knock on your door? Will you leave all you have or would you keep carrying it with you? At the moment of death everything will drop on its own accord. And all those possessions, which were already there when you had not appeared in the world, would remain when you are gone. And yet you believe yourself to be the renouncer!
So, can you really leave something, which existed before you came and which will continue to exist after you are gone? The very idea of ownership is crazy. And remember: even in renouncing something one feels he owned it. When one says, “ I have renounced” he is implying his ownership. The truth of the matter is, one owns nothing – then how is one ever going to renounce?
Hence, Krishna is saying: “you don’t realize god by renouncing anything.” God-realization is a totally different thing. It doesn’t happen because of renunciation; although, it is possible that once god is realized, renunciation happens automatically. This happens; because, when one has seen the infinite, he will not want to go after the insignificant, the trivial. When one has found diamonds, he automatically drops rocks and pebbles.
So, it is not that one attains god by renouncing everything -- no, that’s not the case. But, because of god-realization, often one becomes free of all possessions. Realizing god brings the supreme most joy, it is the ultimate experience of bliss.
Here, Krishna is making a very categorical statement. This statement is very valuable. If understood, it can bring a revolution in one’s life. Krishna is saying: “do not give up action.” It is not possible to drop action. As long as one is alive, there is no way one can cease to act. Even a monk will have to work -- if not running a shop, he will be on the road begging. What difference does it make? Is begging in any way less of a job than minding the shop? As far as work is concerned, there is hardly any difference. Instead of building a house, he will build an ashram. Is building an ashram less of a job than building a house? Work is part of both.
One cannot run away from work. If indeed one cannot escape from action, then such running away would only lead one into being a hypocrite. Doing something, which is impossible to do, creates hypocrisy. Suppose if Arjuna were to run away from the battlefield, what will he do next? He will certainly do something, and whatever he will do, it is action. So, one thing is clear: it is not possible to escape from action. Then is there no way out?
Krishna opens a new door, a new dimension. He says: keep doing your job, but free yourself from being a doer. Krishna’s teaching can greatly revolutionize one’s very being. He is saying: keep working, you cannot get away from doing; but you can certainly stay away from being a doer.
Let the work go on, just drop being the doer. Drop the doer from within; drop the idea that you are doing. That’s why Krishna is telling Arjuna again and again: “Those who you think will be killed by you, I am telling you they are killed already. You are being naive to think that, they will be killed by you. You are only a means -- even without you, their death is certain.” So all along, Krishna is saying: “drop the idea that you are the doer.” And Arjuna’s problem is, he thinks he is the doer. If he ran away, the war will be spared. Not necessarily. Arjuna is not alone in this war.
It is not necessarily true that the war would be averted if Arjuna ran away. The war depends on many other things.
People thought, after the First World War there won’t be a second world war -- but the second did happen. Then people began to think now there will not be a third world war, because now Hitler is dead. Even Mussolini is no longer alive, why would there be a third world war? But what difference does it make? How will you stop Mao’s rise? Names don’t matter -- if not Hitler, then Mao will be. If not Mao, then somebody else; if not, then someone else -- x..y..z.. anyone will be there.
A war is such a vastly complex phenomenon, that if Arjuna thinks by his escaping it can be avoided, he is being a great egoist. He is thinking: “this great war is going to take place because of me.”
People think the whole world is moving because of them; everyone carries this idea. Whether they are young or old, followers or leaders, they all have this idea that the world is working because of them. That, without them, the world will fall apart. But Napoleon leaves and not a rock moves. People like Alexander the great come and go, and not a leaf takes notice of it. Hitlers come and go, Churchill, Nehru, Gandhi come and disappear -- the world moves on.
Krishna is telling Arjuna: drop this foolish idea that things are happening because of you. The cause is much larger. The web is vast and complex -- it is known in other words as: the destiny. It is not dependent on one individual. It is a web made of innumerable causes.
To Be Continued...
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A Divine Abode
In my leaving darshan I told Osho that I wanted to open a meditation center in Kansas City and he gave the name Devalayam, Devalayam means ‘divine abode’. I bought a couple of series of discourses on cassette tape and several books and the center was on its way.
It was difficult at first returning to Kansas City. I was seeing friends that I had passed through so much with and yet I felt myself to be in a very different place than when I had left three years earlier. Of course there was a bit of the missionary in me who wanted to share as much as possible. I didn’t find much interest in hearing about Osho even from my good friend that had first heard about Meher Baba with me many years ago on the Country Club Plaza.
I remember very clearly that I said to myself “Okay Bhagwan, I give up you take over.” Very soon after that giving up I was sitting at some kind of spiritual gathering outside in my orange clothes and mala and this guy sits down beside me. He was interested in whatever it was that I was into. He was in a therapy group and had heard of Rajneesh.
I found a house, or I should say that a house found me, for a center. The house had some orange in it. I don’t remember if it was in wallpaper, paint or carpet but it spoke loud and clear that this was the house for Devalayam. Soon afterwards this fellow that I had met moved in. We were holding meditations both at a local church gym and at the house. A small group was forming. In the daytime I drove school busses with a Yogi Bhajan Sikh.
One night around midnight the doorbell rang and Mark had forgotten his key. I opened the door standing naked and he had brought an older woman home who was interested in listening to some discourses of Osho. They came in and I set her up with a few discourses and
she stayed through the night until sunrise listening. Her name was Joyce Schlossman. She was the ex-wife of a very successful car dealer in Kansas City, Schlossman Ford. Joyce was in the same group with Mark and wanted to be a therapist herself.
Soon after I got the house I was on my way to visit another old friend and passed by the Nelson Adkins Museum of Art and saw a Chinese girl teaching Tai Chi in the grass. When I passed by again on my return trip she was still there, so I asked if she was taking students and she gave me the details of a new class that she would be starting soon. Before long Mark, myself and another member of the Sikh community, who by the way had their center just two blocks up the street from Devalayam, were learning Tai Chi from Pearl. Pearl was nineteen at the time and was a student at the Kansas City Art Institute. I’m pretty sure that I had fallen for her the first moment I saw her flow in Tai Chi.
Another therapist had called me to find out about the meditations. He had read Only One Sky and was very impressed. He had a practice down on the Plaza and was very much into the Baha’i movement. Soon there was a growing group which I tended to. I would go down once a week and have a raw vegetable lunch with Cliff the therapist on the plaza and counsel him. Rather ironic really – I this high school dropout twenty-six year old dressed in strange clothes counseling this white haired highly respected Psychologist during his lunch hour.
Mark took sannyas pretty early on and was making plans on going to Poona. Joyce soon became Ma Prem Kaveesha and I gave her, her mala at Devalayam. Kaveesha had other friends that would come to the center and buy books and tapes and sometimes I would make house calls and deliver the goods and counsel. Kaveesha’s best friend was Joyce Price. Coincidentally
Joyce was the mother of Donna Price who had visited me in Madagascar. Joyce did not however like Osho and in fact resented the fact that he had somehow taken her away.
Soon another young fellow started attending the meditations regularly and before too long moved into the house when Mark (now Prakash) left for Poona. He also took sannyas and became Sanmarg. Sanmarg left for Poona just a short while before I left in the Spring. I never saw him again, but I saw news of his father. He had been estranged from his father when he was living at the house. His father was a TWA pilot and was the pilot that was held hostage with a gun at his head at the Beirut airport in a very famous photo.
I continued my Tai Chi lessons with Pearl for months and gave her a copy of one of Osho’s books No Water, No Moon. She had it for months and had never said a word, so finally I asked her if she was enjoying it and she was. I had not talked to her about Osho all that time. Finally after months of my surrendering to her Tai Chi tutelage I asked her out. Our first date was to a performance by Marcel Marceau, which was interesting because she said that she felt comfortable with me not saying anything. We did enjoy time in silence.
Kaveesha had gone off to Poona and while there Bhagwan had told her that she would be his Tantra leader. When Kaveesha returned she shared her energy and her presence with many others and a few more of her people took sannyas.
Spring happened and Pearl and I were living together. She became Ma Prem Sagara and we made plans to go to India together. It would be an overland trip through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and into India.
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