Meditation for Transformation
By: Swami Chaitanya Keerti

I came across an interesting meaning of the word "development": develop means unveil. Velop is veil and de-velop means unveiling. And we already know the meaning of envelop: veiling. Osho gives a similar meaning to meditation: that which comes out from within, emerging from within, an unfoldment.

Generally what people understand by education is accumulation of knowledge that we acquire from outside - from our teachers, books and other sources. This is not the real education; this is merely collecting information. No doubt, information is very important in our life. Even what I am giving you is also information. What we do with it depends on our capacity to understand. And that capacity differs from person to person. The real development or growth of the individual depends on this inner capacity. So it is possible that some people may be more educated as far as accumulation of information is concerned, they may be very scholarly. This scholarliness is the development of the computer called mind only.

They may have more megabytes or gigabytes of memory than the other people. This is not the total development of the individuality. The real health of individuality will be missing, as the real health is the flowering of wholeness, it is never partial. Meditation is the education of the innermost being. Meditation is being in touch with our roots, our source within, and the unfoldment of wisdom that does not depend on knowledge accumulated from outside. It is not tuition from outside; it’s an intuition—knowing that happens in the BEING.

Some people call it a gut feeling. But it is actually the BEING that knows it for sure. The purer the being the better the knowledge. This knowledge is true wisdom. It may not get you high profile jobs and elevated status in the society, but you would certainly become a richer being with tremendous amount of inner strength.

Meditation is your connectivity with your inner source. The more you meditate, the more you are - qualitatively speaking. The more you spend time with your own being, the more illumined you become. The more you seek the other the poorer you become—you actually become off-centre.

Meditation is centering within. Yes, by centering I don’t mean you will stop relating with others. Sure you will be relating but not out of any desperation or craving, but out of the feeling of sharing your richness of being. You will be sharing your love, wisdom and illumination. Beggars have nothing to share. Only rich people like Buddha, Mahavira, Meera, Guru Nanak and Osho can share because they have discovered some inexhaustible treasure of illumination within their being. They share their being through their discourses or songs. They share with their presence. That’s the meaning of having darshan of the Enlightened Ones. Their aura, their vibrations penetrate your being if you come close to them in satsang with them. This kind of education used to take place in the ashramas of the sages or in the sanghas (communes) of the Buddha in ancient times and we used to call these places the Gurukulas.

Now we have millions of schools, colleges and universities, but it is rare to find real education. We are certainly riding high on the information highway; our heads have become the heads of elephants with loads of information. But what is missing is the transformation of the individual into really enlightened beings. Everybody is speeding with the speed of light to become a Bill Gate or a Bill Clinton and the whole world and even India, this land of the sages is seeking satsang or darshan of these Bills, but nobody is interested in the Buddha. That’s the reason why no Buddha is born these days. The world full of Bills and without Buddhas is in great imbalance.

This world with so much information and so little transformation is a miserable world.

It needs to balance itself with bliss. Meditation is the door to inner bliss.

The writer is the Editor of the Osho World Hindi monthly.

find original in the internet: www.delhi123.com/lifestyle/

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The inner light
by Swami Chaitanya Keerti

Yoga and meditation turn the key
YOGA and meditation have become famous in the West these days and their popularity is growing day by day. This popularity is mainly due to the benefits that body, mind and soul accrue by practising them. At the same time, a lot of misunderstanding prevails about yoga and meditation.

Teachers of meditation who have gone from India to the West are there to look for job opportunities just as a lot of technocrats reach out to the West in search of jobs created by the boom in Information Technology. There is a similar boom in the meditation market. At the same time, teaching yoga and meditation has become just any other job with a difference though; the package includes religion and respect.

Because of the western materialistic attitude, everything has to be packaged in a business-like fashion. That’s why it was easier and quite tempting to make Eastern meditations and allied sciences as a lucrative business. The health-conscious Western society that is ever ready to pounce on anything that provides solace and comfort has been showing an increasing interest in whatever the Indian yoga teachers have put on offer. Due to the compulsions of communications, lack of true understanding of the subject and greed, Indian teachers have not been successful in imparting the right kind of understanding of yoga and meditation to the West.


People think that yoga means a union or yoking of "body and mind." Now this is half-baked. Yoga is not just the yoking or union of body and mind. When one is feeling undivided within, one is in yoga. To use Osho’s phrase, "an individual is one who is indivisible." Akhand Purush (not divided in parts) rather than Advait Purush, is the yogi. Meditation is the way and alchemy to attain that state of being. It is not just a kind of concentration or rhythmic breathing as it is commonly misunderstood. To differentiate between meditation and concentration, I take the example of a torch and a lamp. A torch channels light in a certain direction, it is focused. This means concentration. A lamp gives light to all directions, lights up the whole room, and no corner remains in the darkness. This is meditation.
According to many yoga teachers, it is the "union of the individual soul with the universal spirit," called Brahman in normal tradition. But this again is fallacious. There is no individual soul — all ’soul’ is universal. There is personal ego that appears to be the soul. In meditation this gets dissolved and one feels oneness with the universal soul.

The goal of yoga is that it is not physical discipline, health or body awareness alone, but "mastering the universe and controlling the whole of nature." But then, what is man? A mini universe! It’s all the same. J. Krishnamurti is right when he says: You are the world. One who understands one’s nature — and this understanding happens in meditation — becomes a Swami, master of oneself, one’s own nature". It is not any control but understanding of oneself in entirety. Another misunderstanding prevalent is that yoga is only "quasi-religious," which is not true. Yoga is a spiritual science of the inner dimension. It is not half or full. It is a total science of the transformation of the individual. It is not a religious ritual. It is a scientific methodology of transformation and Patanjali is the first known scientist who developed it as a system.

Someone in the West wrote, "aside from the Eastern spiritual component, yoga is sometimes used in occultism as a technique to achieve an altered state of consciousness during which one can channel or manipulate forces." This is not right, though it is true that some so-called yogis indulge in all kinds of tricks to manipulate forces and impress others. Yoga is basically for one’s own transformation and attaining to Sat, Chit, Anand — Truth, Consciousness and Bliss.

find original in the internet: www.indian-express.com

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A couple of Osho's Rolls Royces are up for re-sale and the price it seems is equivalent to the price of a bungalow in Koregaon Park. Any takers?

Guru Poornima has just gone by and like many other gurus, Osho too was remembered fondly, by his disciples, across the globe. His unique meditation techniques and his novel philosophy of Zorba, the Buddha, has made him internationally well-known, with his name and works, not blurred by the sands of time.?

More interestingly, his mind-boggling fleet of 92 Rolls Royces was the ultimate stamp to gurudom meant for the rich, which proclaimed the philosophy, that you can spiritually grow by blending materialism into it, harmoniously. More than a decade after his death now, his Rolls Royces, are still the talk of the world, adorned as they are with a 'heritage tag' of a name that created a storm all over the world. Apparently, all the 92 Rolls Royces, were sold to a texas automobile dealer after disbanding of the ranch commune, but some of them are up for re-sale now, taking advantage of the 'heritage value.'.?
Tea Lounge came across an e-discussion group, wherein this message was punched on June 29, from one Alan Wade. ''Subject: Osho Rolls Royce - For Sale.?
1984 SILVER SPUR 4-DOOR SEDAN?
- beautifully custom-painted!?
- superb condition, less than 6K miles!?
- original title, OR license plate, ownership docs?
- currently located in Boca Raton, Florida?
- can email digital photos?
For more info and to give your suggestions on how to let the Osho community know about this, please email: a1awade@yahoo.com?
Another message was punched by one Sw Prabhunikat which states - ''Osho's 'Black Kimono' Rolls Royce for Sale.?
'' A beautiful legend of the Japanese, 'The Black Kimono', has been transferred from pen to paintbrush, on an automobile as its canvas. A 1982 Rolls Royce Silver Spur is adorned with rich inspiring colors to create a brilliant work of art.?
''The Black Kimono car is inspired by the Kimono patterns of Itchiku Kubota in "Opulence". On the top of the car is a headpiece highlighting one of the gold and silver robes in the book. The design captures the rays of light emitting from the metallic materials. The body of the car is psychadelic in color, inspired by the kimonos themselves. Transparent acrylic colors overlap base-tinted hues, to give depth to the car's surface, an effect similar to light passing through silk.?
''A collection piece driven in America by the Indian Mystic OSHO (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh), this rare automobile has only 6300 miles on it, and has been meticulously preserved and maintained. This one of a kind artpiece is now available for purchase in Los Angeles, California. The price is equivalent in amount to a bungalow (house) located in Koregaon Park, Pune, India, near Osho Commune International.'' Any takers amongst our city vintage car enthusiasts??

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Madding crowd
Swami Chaitanya Keerti
  
For more than fifty years, India and Pakistan have been fighting because they did not listen to the wisdom of the "mad" people. Life is a mystery: Sometimes mad people prove wiser than the so-called sane people. Now as the Vajpayee-Musharraf meeting date nears, I have chosen to tell them a story (told earlier by Osho in his discourse on Sat Chit Anand) that proves the point and also should help both of them draw a reasonable agenda of discussion.
Thus goes the story. When India was divided into two nations, India and Pakistan - a rumor was heard that there was a madhouse just on the boundary. Neither India nor Pakistan was interested to take the madhouse. But something had to be done. It had to go somewhere. Finally, the chief superintendent of the madhouse called all the mad people and asked them, "Do you want to go to India?"
They said, "No, we are perfectly happy here."
The superintendent said, "You will be here. Don't be worried about that. Just tell me do you want to go to India?"
They all looked at each other and they said, "People think we are mad! Something has gone wrong with our superintendent. If we are going to be here, then the question of going to India does not arise. Why should we go to India?
The superintendent had a tough time explaining the matter to these insane people. He asked if they would like to go to Pakistan.
They said, "No, not at all. We are perfectly happy here. Why should we go anywhere?"
"Actually you are not going anywhere," assured the superintendent," and added, "You will be here, whether you choose India or Pakistan."
"It seems to be very strange. If we are not going anywhere, then why should we even be asked about it? We are here," said the people.
It was impossible to convince them that it is not a question of physically moving to India or Pakistan. It is a political question: Under which country, within which boundary do you want to remain?
Finally it was decided by the officials that the madhouse should also be divided into two parts. One will be in India, one will be in Pakistan. They raised a huge wall, just dividing the whole madhouse in two.
And I have heard that the mad people still climb up on the wall, talk to the people on the other side and say, "We cannot figure it out. We are here, you are here, but you have gone to Pakistan and we have gone to India just because they have raised this wall. And the strangest thing of all is that they think we are mad.
It is a mad world. All boundaries are absolute nonsense. Anything that divides man from man is inhuman, uncivilised, uncultured. But nobody asks whether nations are fiction, and because you never ask you start believing in the reality of nations. Then arise the question of responsibility towards the nation. You even have to sacrifice your life for the nation, which is a piece of fiction. No such thing exists anywhere. There is no India, no Germany, no Japan, no America. It is a single planet, one humanity.
But because of the fiction, people go on killing each other. Real people are killed for an unreal idea. Responsibility towards the nation has been the cause of all the wars. If all those people who had gone to the wars had refused: "We are not going to kill anybody for a piece of fiction and we are not going to be killed on that account, there would have been no wars, no politicians." The world would have been a peaceful, beautiful place to live in.

find original in the internet: www.dailypioneer.com

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The Guru-Disciple Relationship
By Swami Chaitanya Keerti, Osho Rajyoga Meditation Centre, New Delhi.

Once Osho was asked: What is the guru-disciple relationship?

In his discourses compiled in The Great Challenge, Osho replied:
First of all, a guru is not a teacher; a guru is a person who has attained a religious mode of living. Religion is not information, it cannot be taught because religion is a way of living. The very presence of the guru is a communion. And to one living in contact with him, something is communicated -- though not through words. The relationship is so intimate that it is less like teacher and pupil and more like lover and beloved.

The guru must himself be enlightened, he must have 'attained', because one cannot communicate that which one has not realised. Religious experience can be communicated only when it is first hand. A teacher need not be self-realised, but a guru must be. A teacher can give second hand information from scriptures or traditions, but a guru cannot. A guru is a person who has realised truth. Now he is the original source; he himself has encountered reality, he is face to face with it. And the disciple comes in contact with a first hand knowledge because whatsoever is said or communicated to him by the guru is on his own authority.

Secondly, a guru is not aware of his guruship; he cannot be. A guru cannot claim that he is a guru - there is no claim like that. A person can only know whether or not he has fulfilled the condition of egolessness; otherwise he cannot encounter truth. Truth is encountered only when the ego is absolutely absent. I always say that in religion, in spirituality, only disciples exist - because the guru is not present; he is only a presence. His very non-claiming, non-egoistic, non-teaching attitude, and his living the truth, are the communion. So a person who claims to be a guru is only a teacher, he is not a guru.

There is no word in English to translate the word guru because the relationship between guru and disciple is basically Eastern. No such relationship has ever existed in Western culture and tradition, so no one in the West can understand what a guru is. At the most they can understand what a teacher is.

The relationship between guru and disciple is so intimate... it is like love. The reverence that is felt is like love, but with one difference: love is parallel, and reverence is for one who is above, one who is higher. Love creates friendship because the lover and the loved one are on the same level. Reverence too is a kind of love but with a great difference: it is not on the same level; one person is higher. If there is a loving intimacy with the higher personality, the halo of reverence is created around a guru. But it is neither expected, nor demanded.

Only disciples exist - because they choose to be disciples. A guru does not choose, he acts. His teaching and his living are two aspects of a single existence. His very sitting, standing, walking, his talking, his silence -- everything is an indication. Something happens through the guru's very existence and the disciple always has to be ready to receive it. A disciple means one who has an open mind, a receptive mind so he is not just learning but receiving. That is why trust is a basic component of being a disciple.

The relationship between the disciple and the guru is a relationship of intimate trust. That doesn't mean blind faith, because the guru never expects you to believe in him. But the very nature of the unknown is such that you cannot go a single step further without trust. Trust is required of the disciple because he will not be able to take a single step into the unknown without trusting the guru. The unknown is dark, the field is uncharted - it is not bliss, it is not the ultimate -- and the guru is always saying, "Jump into it! Do it!" But before you can jump, trust is needed or you will not jump. And knowledge can only come through a jump.

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Osho’s Message for PM Vajpayee and President Musharraf

For more than fifty years, India and Pakistan have been fighting because they did not listen to the wisdom of the mad people. Life is a mystery: some times mad people prove wiser than the so-called sane people. The following story told by Osho in his discourse on Sat Chit Anand proves the point.

   

Thus goes the story:

When India was divided into two nations, India and Pakistan, a rumor was heard that there was a madhouse just on the boundary. Neither India nor Pakistan was interested to take the madhouse. But something had to be done. It had to go somewhere. Finally, the chief superintendent of the madhouse called all the mad people and asked them, "Do you want to go to India?"
They said, "No, we are perfectly happy here."
The superintendent said, "You will be here. Don't be worried about that. Just tell me - do you want to go to India?"

They all looked at each other and they said, "People think we are mad! Something has gone wrong with our superintendent. If we are going to be here then the question does not arise of going to India. Why should we go to India?"
The superintendent was in a difficulty how to explain to these insane people. He said, "Then would you like to go to Pakistan?"
They said, "No, not at all. We are perfectly happy here. Why should we go anywhere?"

He again tried to explain to them that, "You will be here, whether you choose India or Pakistan. You are not going anywhere."
Then they said, "It seems to be very strange. If we are not going anywhere, then why should we even be asked about it? We are here."

It was impossible to convince them that it is not a question of physically moving to India or Pakistan. It is a political question: "Under which country, within which boundary do you want to remain?" Finally it was decided by the officials that the madhouse should also be divided into two parts. One will be in India, one will be in Pakistan. They raised a huge wall, just dividing the whole madhouse in two.

And I have heard that the mad people still climb up on the wall, talk to the people on the other side and say, "We cannot figure it out. We are here, you are here, but you have gone to Pakistan and we have gone to India - just because they have raised this wall. And the strangest thing of all is that they think we are mad."

It is a mad world. All boundaries are absolute nonsense. Anything that divides man from man is inhuman, uncivilized, uncultured. But nobody asks whether nations are a fiction, and because you never ask you start believing in the reality of nations. Then arise questions of responsibility towards the nation. You even have to sacrifice your life for the nation which is a fiction. No such thing exists anywhere, no India, no Germany, no Japan, no America. It is a single planet, one humanity.

But because of the fiction, people go on killing each other. Real people are killed for an unreal idea. Responsibility towards the nation has been the cause of all the wars. If all those people who had gone to the wars had refused: "We are not going to kill anybody for a fiction and we are not going to be killed for a fiction," there would have been no wars, no politicians. The world would have been a peaceful, beautiful place to live in.

For further information please contact
Swami Chaitanya Keerti
Osho World Foundation
New Delhi 110049
Ph. 91-11-626 1616

printed in wisdomworld.com

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The Guru Awakens & Heals the Mind
By SWAMI CHAITANYA KEERTI

INDIA celebrates Ashadh Purnima, the full moon of July as Guru Purnima. It is the day when all disciples come together to express their gratitude towards their Guru. This is something uniquely Indian.

It is unlike a student-teacher relationship, which is very formal. A teacher imparts knowledge to students and gets paid for it. A guru does not merely impart knowledge to his disciples; he shares his being and illumination with them. The disciples learn the deeper meaning of life by living in Guru's presence. The Guru does not have to teach with his words; he guides with his own life. Hence a teacher does not command the same love and respect that a guru does. Teachers often complain that their students are not as respectful to them as they should be. Respect cannot be forcibly demanded - it arises naturally.

When a teacher evolves into a guru, he commands natural respect - not just respect, but love and devotion too. The disciple becomes so devoted to the guru that he can sacrifice his life for him, though a true guru never expects any sacrifice. The guru shares his Being, his love and light with his disciples unconditionally. Osho says: "The very concept of guru is Eastern; the word cannot even be rightly translated. When we translate it as 'master' much of its meaning is lost, because a master means a teacher - the guru is not a teacher. In the western consciousness nothing like the guru ever existed. That phenomenon is eastern... it is something basically eastern. It has to be understood".

Describing the role of the guru, Osho says: "The role of the guru is to give you a glimpse of the real - not a teaching, but an awakening. The guru is not a teacher: the guru is an awakener". He has not to give you doctrines. If he gives you doctrines, he is a philosopher. If he talks about the world as illusory and argues and proves that the world is illusory, if he discusses, debates, if he intellectually gives you a doctrine, he is not a guru, he is not a master. He may be a teacher, a teacher of a particular doctrine, but he is not a master, not a guru.

Something about the meaning of the word, Guru. 'Gu' means darkness and 'ru' means dispeller. One who dispels your darkness is your guru. The first basic requirement of living with guru is meditation. Meditation is not a few deep breathing exercises; it is a way of life. Meditation is the medicine for all the social sicknesses that people suffer from. That's why these two words - meditation and medicine - have the same root: medi. The guru gives this medicine of meditation to his disciples and makes them healthy.

Talking about this health, Osho explains that Sanskrit word for healthy is 'swastha'. 'Swa' means self and 'stha' means rooted. You become healthy when you become rooted in your self. You are sick when you lose connection with your self, your own being. Meditation reconnects you with your self and makes you healthy. That's why it can be called a medicine. Meditation is the panacea for all the inner ailments. It is the art of living a really healthy life. Buddha calls himself a Vaidya. Guru Nanak says the same. All the enlightened ones of the East do not call themselves as philosophers but physicians. They are not ordinary doctors. They are the physicians of the inner dimension. They cure the sickness of the mind. Buddha says: "Don't ask me any silly questions of philosophy, I am not a philosopher. Tell me about your real sickness and I will give you the cure. Let me uproot your sickness."

Basically, a man of enlightenment makes our vision brighter by removing dust from our eyes. He teaches us the methods of cleaning the mirror of our mind and leading our life with clarity. Meditation is nothing else but clarity. Meditation is a way of living our life in total awareness. It is not that we pray or meditate a few minutes in the day and then continue living life unconsciously in the regular mechanical manner. No. Meditation is moment-to-moment awareness. It remains there all the time it becomes us. Meditation is an intelligent response to the moment

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Ma Vivek, Osho's attendant later known as Ma Nirvano

Osho sometimes mentions Vivek, his caretaker, in his discourses.

You can ask Vivek for two lives she has been falling in love; this is her second life with me. You ask her why, and it will be impossible to answer. She can cry or she can laugh or she can dance, but she cannot answer why
because there is no why in it.

Vivek was saying just the other day, and many times she has said it, that time flies so fast here that she cannot believe that she has been here for seven years. It looks as if just seven days ago she had come here.

Love is not a quantity. When somebody says, "I love you very much," something is wrong, because love is not a quantity. You cannot love less and more. Either you love or you don't love. The division is very clear-cut.
Just a few days ago a new book had come, and the first copy I always give to Vivek. I wrote 'With love to Vivek'. She told me, "Why not much love?" I said, "That is impossible. I cannot write that" because to me, more or less is not possible. I can simply write 'love'; 'much love' is absurd. Quantity is not a question, but simple quality.

Love affair is a love affair! It is not logical. When you love a person, you love his wholeness, you love him as he is. And to be with a Master the only way is to fall in total love. Hence you start liking everything of the Master yes, even his mispronunciations! Of course it is easy to love his beauty, his grace, his wisdom, but that is not enough unless you start loving him in his totality.
I know that if sometimes I don't mispronounce a few words, you miss when I mispronounce I can see the joy!
Vivek goes on telling me every day, "Don't say 'aunt', it is 'ain't'." And whenever I come across it, just to be compassionate to you, I again say 'aunt'.
And there is one more difficulty: there are a few things I cannot figure out. My whole life I have been unable to figure out what is left and what is right. In school when I used to go to the parade I used to write on my hands, "This is right, this is left." So whenever this question of 'aunt' and 'ain't' arises I am puzzled whether it is 'aunt' or 'ain't', or vice versa!
My mind is just a mechanism. For me now it is absolutely useless: it is just for your sake that I go on feeding it a little bit. Just for your sake I am speaking, otherwise now there is no point for me. In fact there is no point for me even to breathe! It is only for you that I am breathing, speaking, living. Those who have eyes will be able to see it.
Everything is a device. Remember it: you have to see the device to grow beyond it.
And as far as the pronunciation is concerned, it is a miracle that I don't mispronounce all the words, or that even when I mispronounce you can still understand&because language is very alien to my being now not English, but my own mother tongue is alien. I have become a stranger to my own mind; the distance is infinite between me and the mind. I am surprised myself that the mind goes on functioning. What I have known has been known in silence; no language can express it.
So it is just a miracle happening, that I go on speaking to you, conveying to you something which cannot be conveyed, expressing something which is inexpressible, saying the unsayable. And you have to forgive many things.
But everything is a device, remember&and as you get closer and closer to me, more and more subtle devices will be used. The day is not far off when we will be simply sitting in silence and there will be no question of language, words. Get ready for it, because that which I really want to communicate can only be communicated in silence.

Nothing can create enlightenment. You have fallen asleep, I am shouting. And sometimes I really have to shout. Just the other day Vivek was saying 'You were shouting so much this morning that I am shaken, jarred; my nerves are on edge.' Good, so I will have to do a little more shouting. Sooner or later how can you avoid waking up? How long can you avoid waking up?

One day just a few days ago Vivek asked me this question early in the morning: "Why do Jews have long noses?" I settled in my chair, in my posture. I made my towel comfortable, looked at the clock and I was just going to start a great discourse on the philosophy and the physiology of the Jewish nose. But then she became apprehensive and afraid. Naturally because once I take off, then it takes ninety minutes at least for me to land on the earth. So she said, "Stop! Stop! I happen to know the answer! You need not give me the answer!"
I was very shocked because I was already on the way. In a hurried way she said, "Because the air is free!"
It is a beauty. I loved it. It explains everything. The Jews have long noses because the air is free!

Just the other day Vivek was telling me a joke. She said, "Osho, do you know why the Jews have short necks?"
And I said (Osho shrugs his shoulders)
And she said, "Yes, that's why!"
When you love, what you can say except shrug your shoulders? And if you go on shrugging your shoulders the whole day you will have a short neck!

You say: Someone has dared me to ask you this impertinent question What do you do with Vivek? Anything I could possibly understand through telling?
It will be difficult.
Vivek is so close to me that she is constantly on the cross. She has to be; it is difficult. To be so close to me is arduous. The more you are close to me, the more the responsibility. The more you are close to me, the more you have to transform yourself. The more you feel the unworthiness, the more you start feeling how to become more worthy and the goal seems almost impossible. And I go on creating many situations. I have to create them because only through friction does integration happen. Only through harder and harder situations does one grow. Growth is not soft; growth is painful.
You ask me, "What do you do with Vivek?"
I am killing her slowly. That is the only way for her to get a totally new being, to be reborn. It is a cross to be with me, and hard is the task.
Let me tell you one anecdote:
An unruly, problem son of a Jewish family was causing his parents much heartache by his behavior. He had been expelled from a state school, so finally, in desperation, they sent him to a Roman Catholic school. On his return from his first day, he went straight to his room and began to do his homework. His father came back from work and asked, "Momma, well, tell me the bad news."
"No bad news, Poppa," said momma. "He came in as quiet as a lamb, and is now in his room doing his homework yet."
"Homework?" exclaimed Poppa. "He has never done homework in his life! He must be ill!" So Poppa went to the boy's room and said, "What is this Momma telling me, that you are doing homework? Why this change of heart, all of a sudden?"
And the boy replied, "Poppa, I am the only Jewish boy in that school. On the wall opposite my desk is a picture of the last Jewish boy they had there. Oi, you should see what they did to him!"
Jesus crucified.
To be very close to me is to be on the cross. So Vivek has to do her homework, that's all. That's what I go on doing to her. Of course, she has to do more homework than any of you.

You can ask Vivek how arduous it is. Just a few days ago she was saying to me, "You are worse than Gurdjieff!" Now that is a great compliment. Gurdjieff was really very hard on his disciples, and she says, "You are worse than Gurdjieff!" But I can understand: I am hard, I have to be hard. The closer you come to me, the harder you will find me.

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ON JULY 5, there will be celebrations all over the country in praise of Guru, the master. The guru is a concept of the East - something uniquely Eastern. The West knows teachers or preachers but there is no concept like that of Guru there.

Once I had to appear in the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) in Portland, USA. The officer, Mr. George Hunter knew that I was a Osho disciple and the first thing that he asked me was: What is the meaning of guru?

I told him what I had heard from my guru: "The word 'guru' is untranslatable. Neither does the word 'teacher' nor the word 'Master' have that beauty. In fact, the phenomenon of the guru is so deeply Indian that no other language of any country is capable of translating it.

The word 'Guru' is made of two words, 'gu' and 'ru'. 'gu' means darkness and 'ru' means one who dispels it. Guru literally means 'the light'. And you have the light within you, yes! If you come across a Buddha or a Jesus or a Krishna or a Mahavir, it will be of tremendous help to you in finding your inner guru, because seeing Buddha, suddenly a great enthusiasm and hope will arise in you: "If it can happen to Buddha" - who is just like you, the same body, the same blood, bone, marrow - "if it can happen to this man, why not to me?"

The hope is the beginning. Meeting with the Master on the outside is the beginning of a great hope, a great aspiration. Every disciple in the East has been singing in praise of his or her guru. Kabir's poetry is most famous and profound but Sahajo Bai has a real feminine touch.

Ram tajun guru ko na bisaaroon"(I can abandon God, but I would not forsake my guru", sang Sahajo, a mystic woman disciple of a saint named, Charandas, who had two very devoted enlightened disciples: Sahajo Bai and Daya Bai. Expressing her gratefulness to her guru Charandas, Sahajo placed her guru even above God.

Here's the translation of the complete song that Sahajo sang: "I can abandon God, but I would not forsake my guru. God is not the equal of my guru. God has given me birth into this world. My guru has freed me from the cycle of birth and death. God gave me five thieves. My guru freed me from them when I was helpless. God threw me into the net of family. My guru cut away the chains of attachments. God ensnared me in desire and disease.
My guru has freed me from all this by initiating me. God made me to wander in the illusion of doing. My guru showed me my being. God hid himself from me. My guru gave me a lamp to illuminate him. Above all, God created this duality of bondage and freedom. My guru destroyed all these illusions.

(The writer is the editor of Hindi edition of Osho World)

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