In Focus

• Sannyas: A Lotus In A Swamp By Swami Satya Vedant
• SANNYAS By Swami Prem Sarito
• What is sannyas By Ma Anand Bhagawati
• The Infinite Beauty of Sannyas By Swami Chaitanya Keerti
• Sannyas is for the adventurous soul By Ma Deva Priya
• Sannyas: A process of becoming more clear, centered and collected
  By Ma Prem Gitamo
• What is Sannyas By Swami Deva Rashid

“So, it will be ok in white clothes?” With a sweet smile on his face, Osho asks me at my very first darshan on the first day of a ten-day meditation camp in 1975, at Shree Rajneesh Ashram in Poona. Working in Chicago, I took a short leave and came especially to see ‘Bhagwan’ and attend the meditation camp.

Utterly overwhelmed by his luminous and gracious presence and soaked in his compassionate and sweet voice, I simply looked at him and nodded my head in affirmative. And then, with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, he says: “But you will have to get into orange soon…hmmm?” Once again, in the similar state of how a child looks at a wonderful scene, I nodded looking at him in affirmative. And thus, Osho places mala in my neck and gives me the name Sadhu Satya Vedant and initiates me into Neo-Sannyas while I bow down at his feet not really knowing what had happened, or what was happening (all out of compassion, Osho would give those early days sannyas in white clothes as well so that it may be easier to work in one’s job and hence the name had ‘Sadhu’ in the beginning. As one changed to orange clothes the name would begin with ‘Swami’). 

And that’s how I was reborn and set on a totally new journey into the unknown. However, so that we may have some perspective, my understanding is that among the myriad gifts Osho has given, three are the most outstanding: Meditation, Sannyas, and the Commune. Meditation, for self- awareness; Sannyas, for self-commitment; And the Commune, for self-contribution.

As I have learned over the years, Meditation is to first work on oneself – becoming alert, total, and silent. Sannyas --working with other fellow sannyasins through insecurity, acceptance and commitment. Commune – working in a collective environment through the spirit of ‘what I can do, and how do I do it’?  A commune is not seen as a last resort or a place of refuge. Rather it functions as a place for the invigoration of sannyas. As a Mahayogi, Osho has given his sannyasins a three-fold vision of Yoga: meditation, for yoga within oneself; sannyas, for yoga between sannyasins; and commune, through an internal and external surrender causing a yogic convergence of sannyasins regardless of race, religion, color, sex, and nations.

Perhaps, it was the last aspect that was clearly emphasized by Osho when later once addressing me at a darshan I heard him say: “…So now dissolve yourself completely in the commune. Not even a trace of you has to be left behind, because if the surrender is total, then this life will be the last life, then there will be no need to come back again. Now there is no more birth for you -- enough is enough!”

Briefly, let me share what this incredible journey has meant for me focusing on the following. How has sannyas worked for me? In many ways; but essentially, it has given me clarity to see and courage to be. But it would be futile to define an all-inclusive vision of Neo Sannyas. In fact, Osho says, definition is never possible about anything that is alive.

Definition is possible only about something that is dead, which grows no more, which blooms no more, which has no more possibility, potentiality, which is exhausted and spent. Then definition is possible. Such as, one may be able to define a dead man, but one cannot define a man who is alive.

“Life basically means that the new is still possible,” explains Osho. “The old sannyasin has a definition, very clear cut; that's why he is dead. I call my sannyas 'neo-sannyas' for this particular reason: my sannyas is an opening, a journey, a dance, a love affair with the unknown, a romance with existence itself, in search of an orgasmic relationship with the whole.
OSHO
The Heart Sutra, Ch.10

In view of how significant and momentous Sannyas is, Osho has made a very insightful statement. He declares, “In the coming fifty years many sannyas traditions will suddenly disappear from the world. There was a Buddhist sannyas tradition in China which suddenly became nonexistent. Lamas are going away from Tibet, they cannot survive. There was an old tradition of Christian monks in Russia which ceased to exist. And it will become very difficult for sannyas to survive in any part of the world. Hence, in my view, such a precious flower like sannyas should not get destroyed. Sannyas as an institution may disappear, but sannyas as such must not go away.”
OSHO
Translated from the Hindi: Chetna ka Surya, p.101

According to Osho, the only way one can save sannyas is that the sannyasin should not run away from life – he/she should become a sannyasin right in the middle of the marketplace. A sannyasin may run a shop, do any manual work, work in office -- wherever, but should not escape from where one is. Livelihood of a sannyasin should not depend on society. One should be a sannyasin wherever one is, whatever the individual may be.

 From what I have learned from Osho, the cornerstone of neo sannyas is AWARENESS. Awareness spread over the physical, mental, and spiritual levels. Neo Sannyas is also unique because it totally eliminates the dichotomy of body and spirit, this world and the other world. It inspires and encourages a sannyasin to be a materialist-spiritualist; it shows the way toward becoming what Osho says: Zorba the Buddha!

The vision of Neo Sannyas for Osho is yet another manifestation of his message for the emergence of a “New Man,” homo novus. The “old man”, he says, followed the ideal of renunciation; while the New Man’s ideal will be not renunciation but “rejoicing.”

The “new man” the neo sannyasin, for Osho, lives a non-divisive life of totality transcending duality and escaping schizophrenia. Osho’s foresight is that the “new man” will give birth to a totally new world because his very being will be qualitatively and radically different from the ways humanity has lived in the past. Osho declares:

“Once we have brought this new man into existence, the earth can become for the first time what it is meant to become. It can become a paradise: this very body the Buddha, this very earth the paradise!”
OSHO
Darshan Diaries, Zorba the Buddha, Ch.1

I find the essence of the vision of neo sannyas is alive and spreading globally. It is also my experience that while living a life of a neo sannyasin one is constantly redefining what it means to be meditatively committed to synergizing the material and the spiritual, the local and the global, the inner and the outer by being all-inclusive and open to making a positive contribution to individual and collective growth. Osho gives a clarion call:

“My sannyasins have to become the first rays of the sun that is going to come on the horizon. It is a tremendous task, it is an almost impossible task, but because it is impossible it is going to seduce all those who have any soul left in them.”
OSHO
Darshan Diaries, Zorba the Buddha, Ch.1

- Swami Satya Vedant

Sannyas is the most significant event that has ever happened to me. The first step was to drop out from the material world of career, marriage and middle class comfort at the age of 42, half a lifetime ago. There followed eight years of seeking and process until I was ready to sit in front of Osho. A miraculous transformation occurred and over the next four years in Poona One I became a Swami, Master of own Being. The beginning of a divine dimension where all is peace as Osho put it.

Since then the path has been turbulent but in comparison with the chaos of my previous life there has been a substance, a grounding which has totally supported me and my aspirations. Not a belief system, not a faith because there has been much doubt, but through letting go and my own experience most of my questions have been answered and a tangible peace has entered my soul.

What sannyas means to me invites comparison with my earlier life and the lives of non-sannyasins around me. This can be a trap leading to the kind of superiority complex we sometimes had on the Ranch so I need to proceed in all humility.

Prior to sannyas I was motivated by ambition, getting ahead, keeping up in a kind of race to maintain or improve my chances of reaching the top. Working long hours, playing all the competitive games and putting down everyone who didn’t agree with me, my life was a pretense chained to my past, superficial and easily exposed to anyone who would ask me who I was, what I was doing, my hopes and fears etc.

I was full of knowledge, acquired attitudes, strategies, patterns and tactics for getting through life, like avoiding risk, staying cool, hiding in the past and worrying about the future, hanging on to the Romantic Dream, being reasonable, logical, judgemental, feeling trapped, punished, not good enough and so fucking serious.

 To take sannyas is to take a risk, to jump into a world of integrity denied by Society and deep fears have to be overcome. Trust, Awareness and Compassion are rarely practiced in the world today. Peace and Freedom are off the radar screen of most World Governments and Law Agencies. Corruption, cheating, secrets and all the cunning needed to survive are the norm and the media glorify violence and condemn sex. Only a tiny fraction of the world’s population has ever considered the kind of dedication needed to take sannyas or attain Enlightenment.

Sannyas for me was dropping into another world of living without structure, with no dependence on the past or my personality, a morality that came from within and an openness to experience which I had never dared to face. Poona was a Buddhafield of the kind of energy that was palpable, filled with the most attractive and intelligent people I had ever met, learning to trust themselves and staying centered in their Beings. I experienced a profound sense of freedom that came from surrender.

As a sannyasin, I find I can deal with most of the negativity, pessimism and cynicism expressed around me and stay relatively cool. Rarely do I go down in these situations and the sannyas sense of humor keeps me afloat. Being in the world but not of it is a concept I had never heard of way back before Osho. I can be compassionate in my dealings with friends and neighbors who have not had the good fortune to explore the world of sannyas. Even handling the crises of sannyasins who have somehow missed the boat and seem unable to go through life with grace, I seem to be able to help without getting bent out of shape. It doesn’t always work  One guy got pissed off and called me a preacher. So here’s a preacher joke….

“I never slept with my wife before we got married” said one priest to another. “Did you?” “I don’t know” said the other, “What was her maidan name?”

- Swami Prem Sarito

To me this is sannyas:

“Forget the past, forget the future, this moment is all.
This moment has to become your prayer,
Your love,
Your life,
Your death,
Your everything.
This is it.
And live courageously, don’t be cowards.
Don’t think of consequences;
Only cowards think of consequences.”
OSHO
The Book of Wisdom, Chapter 14, Question 1

- Ma Anand Bhagawati

"Do not go to the garden of flowers!
O Friend! go not there;
In your body is the garden of flowers.
Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus,
and there gaze on the Infinite Beauty."

Says saint Kabir, the mystic of paradox.

This is what exactly is sannyas--an inner flower, a lotus, blossoming in meditation. Meditation is the soul of sannyas, and fragrance of love its expression.

For thousands of years, the East, specially India, has known sannyas. You could say that there's nothing new about sannyas. Yes, there's nothing new, but there's something eternal, undying about sannyas. Each time an enlightened mystic appears on the earth, he gives new life to sannyas. There's was Sannyas in Upanishdic time, Krishna's time, it was very life affirmative and playful. Then there was sannyas in Buddha's time and Mahavira's time, and Adi Shankara's time: Sannyas took a new turn towards renunciation. Again there was a great revolution in sannyas with the arrival of saints like Kabir and Guru Nanak: Sannyasin could come back to world and stay in the thick of the world. Kabir himself continued working as a julaha, a weaver, and keep singing his divine songs to raise the consciousness of people. Guru Nanak liberated people from all kinds of hypocricies and pretensions prevalent in the name of sannyas.

Sannyas reached its climax, an ultimate glory and dignity when Osho opened its doors to all by introducing it in the most radical form--with meditation in the marketplace, and embracing life in all its colours. Osho gave it a rebirth as Neo-Sannyas.

In The Perennial Path: The Art of Living, Osho says:

"The sannyas like love cannot become an institution. Institutions are made for security. Sannyas is a personal experience, like love it blooms and spreads. In an institution it is devoid of all its beauty, interest and mystery. An institution becomes like a prison for the sannyasi if he cannot return to the samsar if he so desires. But the state of sannyas is one's personal decision, one has the freedom to experience it fully and courageously and without any regrets. I know hundreds of sannyasis who are miserable because they cannot return to the samsar. I wish to emphasize on this state of the sannyasa. Just as science is the gift of the West to the world, sannyas is the great gift from the East, along with the greatest individuals of Asia like -- Buddha, Mahavira, Christ and Muhammed."

And in another discourse, he tals about phony sannyas: "The phony sannyas is escapist. It teaches you not to enjoy ,life, it teaches you not to love music, it teaches you not to cherish beauty. It teaches you to destroy all the sources that beautify your existence. It teaches you to escape to the caves, ugly caves, to turn your back towards the world that God has given as a gift to you.

The phony sannyas is not only against the world, it is against God too, because to be against the world is to be against the creator of the world. If you hate the painting you are bound to hate the painter. If you dislike the dance, how can you like the dancer? God is the painter, the world is his painting. God is the musician, the world is his music. God is the dancer, NATARAJ, and the world is his dance. If you renounce the world, indirectly you are renouncing God."

He concludes: "The sannyas that teaches you how to live in the world and yet float above it like a lotus flower, like a lotus leaf, remaining in the water and yet untouched by the water, remaining in the world and yet not allowing the world to enter into you, being in the world yet not being of the world, that is true renunciation."

Osho invites the people of the whole world to meditate being in the world and celebrate their life, making this world a more beautiful place to live in. A sannyasin can change the very atmosphere around him by transforming himself with meditation and by sharing his love with others. And to him, meditation is not something serious, not holier-than-thou crap. It is playful. It is FUN!

- Swami Chaitanya Keerti

Sannyas for me has been a beautiful journey of this life. It started when I was four months old. Osho blessed me and gave me the name Priya. I was one year old when I first attended the meditation camp in Mount Abu in 1970. Obviously I have no memory of it but the feelings are very strong of being around him. As a little girl I was very attracted to him. I was pulled towards his presence. I remember playing with hair on his chest and feeling very warm and secure there.

I was too young to know the actual meaning of sannyas and meditation. I was hardly seven years old when I went to Pune and took sannyas in 1976. It was a natural feeling to be initiated by him and to be closer to him. And I always wanted to be a part of his orange group and wear the mala. I loved everything about him, not only his physical presence but his commune throbbing of happy and joyous people. I used to feel elated as I would enter the gates of 17 Koregaon Park. It was a different life – a life of freedom, intelligence, independence, bliss- a life that was not being lived anywhere else in the world.

I often visited Pune for a few months every year as and when I would get my school holidays. It used to be the best time for me as I would love wearing the robe and hang out in the beautiful tranquil landscape of the commune. I used to love doing the kundalini meditation even though I would fall asleep in the last stage of silence - the guards would come and wake me up. The kirtan celebrations at Daddaji’s house were enchanting. The Radha Hall which used to be next to Osho’s Lao Tzu house and is now the bookshop used to be the place where the musicians would create music in the evenings. They would have a candle in the middle and play on their different instruments. The ambience and the vibrant energy were so heavenly that I was magnetically drawn to it. I also loved attending the music group with Anubhavo and Anita singing Osho songs.  This created a wonderful heart space enveloping the entire Buddha Hall. As I was small I could not understand all what Osho said but still I loved to go for the morning discourses and be in his presence.

The seeds of meditation were planted very early in my childhood. These seeds flowered as I became a part of the commune in Rajneeshpuram, Oregon, USA. I was 12 years old by then. It was a different phase of Osho’s work. There were no more flowing robes but rough tough clothing suitable for hard work that was needed to transform a muddy ranch into an oasis. Work was meditation and I learnt a different meaning of sannyas. With twelve hours of hard work the city was abuzz with ecstasy. It was about being in harmony with the sangha - the commune was the focus. We all had left our countries, families and committed ourselves to the Buddha field. With thousands of people from different countries working together and living a communal life was very challenging indeed. It was a device created by Osho where totality and surrender were the central themes. Only the ones who loved him absolutely and had the longing to be with him at any cost could survive this unique experiment of Rajneeshpuram.

As Osho says: “The greatest courage in the world is to drop the known for the unknown. It is only for the adventurous soul. Sannyas is not for all; it cannot be. It is not for the herd mentality. It is only for the few -- the few lions who can rush roaring from the known into the unknown.”

My sannyas took many flavors as I grew. After four years of the ranch I went out in the world to study and pass my high school. Those two years of separation from him were very painful. I understood his vision of a multidimensional life but missed his presence. Soon he called me back in Pune two in 1988 where I studied and did all my degrees as well as lived and worked in the commune. That was a complete life in every way. It was being in the world and yet my roots were in sannyas. I lived those years of his vision of Zorba the Buddha – rich in all dimensions. I did extremely well in my education, lived a wild life in the commune, worked and meditated and lived in his presence. It was really a rich and juicy life.

Even after he left his body the commune meant a lot for me. It was my home I had loved. It was a vast gathering of friends with whom I had gone through many intimate experiences and shared the same longing. I had always loved Osho’s vision of the commune – where meditation brought thousands of us together.

As my yearning for the inner grew I discovered his Hindi discourses which I was unable to understand when I was young. I was completely mesmerized by his poetic sonorous voice and his command over the Hindi language. There was suddenly so much treasure that I had to explore. I started listening to various series of discourses and finding a space in me that took me to another dimension of sannyas.  Now sannyas for me means more of exploring my interiority, moving towards my center, to find what meditation is all about. Living now in Dhramsala at Osho Nisarga, in the serenity and majesty of the Himalayas where I organize and participate in different meditative groups and therapies, I feel fortunate to have the space to be rooted in my inner stillness.

And my meditation voyage still continues unfolding my wings to fly high in the open sky. It is an unending journey.  

- Ma Deva Priya

I am a not, or i am all.. Neither am i a mother, a wife , an employee or a master to those subservient  to me. Either I am all  or a nought.  I am this tree  standing besides me, this wind caressing the face and this chair on which i sit. Not only this, I am also this thief who is planning to rob a bank and also the sage meditating in the jungle.

This is what sanyas means to me, a groping for the thread that makes me one with the universe, the virtuous and the sinful, the alive and the dead, the awakened ones and  the asleep. Sanyas is the groping in the dark with the master giving instructions on how to pass thru the door  from the confinement and me struggling to understand, trying to wake up.

Sanyas, also means to me an offering, an offering of myself at my master's feet, becoming putty in his hands to do what he wants with me, trusting him with my body, mind and soul all together.

Its only, only thru sanyas that i have come to know what love is, earlier it was all words , air and bull.. When I started loving him, the first time I opened to Osho, it was like a bud turning its timid head towards the sun, my own perfume confusing me.

Sanyas to me is a school, in which i learned the joy of loving, of letting go, of dancing wildly and not caring two hoots about what anybody else would think. Of being on a path of discovering, seeing the mystery and the dance all around me and rejoicing in it.

Yes, celebration is another way, i can define sanyas. Celebration for me began after sanyas, celebrating the Master, loving him with my songs, dance and love, celebrating myself and since then the celebration has not ended. The senses are getting stronger and I can drink more deeply the beauty of nature and knowing myself to be a part of nature.

I love him, and this love is now perhaps the only centre in this rapidly changing life. Its a very intimate relationship I share with Osho, he knows me in and out and can look into me and see what I am thinking, feeling and i can look in his eyes and lose myself in them.

And lastly sanyas is about being aware, aware of whats going inside as well as aware of whats happening outside.

Sanyas is a process of becoming more clear, centered and collected. Of knowing the limitations of mind that prevent us from enjoying this moment. Since it is everything to do with oneself it is not time or space bound. It is as relevant today as it was in earlier centuries and will not loose an iota of its importance in the forthcoming time. Staying in a city or a jungle does not make any difference. Infact staying in a society can speed up the path to self-discovery as its easy to maintain a facade of auterity all alone and the real test is society. The society helps us discover the wounds of hurt, anger,  desire and these when exposed can be looked into.

Osho is the finger pointing to the moon. He is the mother whose long skirts i clutch at, gathering courage to walk alone.

Sanyas is not a renunciation , but rather the opposite, a deep enjoyment of the roles called upon me to play and playing them with finesse.

- Ma Prem Gitamo

Old sannyas was procrastination.  Why do today what you can put off till tomorrow?
Osho gives a shot of rejuvenating hormones to the old body of Hinduism. 
I love the ancient concept of sannyas; student then householder then contemplative and finally free-spirit.  It gives a shape to life that makes a space for both the worlds – the inner and the outer, the sacred and the mundane.  But here’s the catch.  They are not two!  They both are here and now.  Osho’s neo-sannyas is a life that lives the ever-present unity - right now.

I heard Osho refer to himself as an invitation to ultimate truth, an open door.  When he offered Neo-sannyas he was pointing to a cliff.  All that was needed was a jump.  A blind, free-falling, don’t-even-look-before-you-leap, trust in existence and in him. 
Renunciation?  The word means ‘to carry back report’.  So first you have to jump.

I keep a garden. Osho’s sannyas is the window on my garden and the garden too.  It is the cloudless sky beyond.  It is the orange marigold, the row of scarlet runner beans, the hidden earthworms and the rotting compost.  It is the blackbird singing in the willow tree at sundown and the ones who hear the song.  It is the frost that comes in winter and the rain in summer.  His sannyas began with bare earth.  It lives forever in the fruits and flowers and seeds.  Sannyas with Osho is apprenticeship to a master gardener, a master surgeon, a master thief and master clown all rolled into one.

Yes but what is sannyas really?

It is commitment to our inner growth.  It is a re-assignment of the old thinking mind to routine duties.  It is being in the world with all its beauty and its ugliness and not being anyone stuck there.  It is caring and not caring.  It is living by conscious awareness without labels.  Without rules.  Without boundaries.  It is . . . . shhhhhhhhhhhh

Sannyas is a Love Affair

Beloved One your call invited
me to move into your home perched
high on the cliff above the Sea of Stillness
i said i wasn’t ready yet.

You told me i could be a god like Zeus
the lover of all women
i went on hanging out with
flashers at the local bus stop

You said ‘i will love you for ever’
i went bright red and
turned away worried
what the neighbours might be thinking

You held me in your arms offered
me the freedom
of your spacious estates
i said i’d stay behind bars a while longer

Compassion made you make a gesture
that i couldn’t dodge
that knocked me conscious
of unconsciousness

Now the love affair is consummated
you’ve disappeared inside my skin along
with all the sunlight and the birdsong 
laughing at my fumbled jokes

- Swami Deva Rashid