BELOVED OSHO,
I’M SO GLAD AND HAPPY TO BE WITH YOU. MY BELOVED MASTER, I’M SO GRATEFUL TO YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE STILL AVAILABLE TO ALL OF US WHO WANT TO DRINK FROM YOUR NEVER-ENDING SOURCE. IT’S SUCH A BLESSING TO BE SHOWERED FROM YOUR LOVE AND COMPASSION THAT I’LL NEVER FIND THE WORDS ANYWAY TO SAY THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU GIVE TO US.
SOON I’LL BE BACK IN THAT CRAZY WORLD OUT THERE, WHERE YOU WILL BE PRESENT ONLY IN MY HEART. SOMETIMES I WONDER IF IT’S STILL WORTH IT TO WORK OUTSIDE TO SPREAD YOUR TEACHINGS; I WONDER IF YOU STILL HAVE A DESIGN, A HOPE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS CRAZY WORLD, OR IF YOU JUST WISH TO STAY WITH YOUR SANNYASINS.
CAN YOU SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THIS?
The question has many questions in it.
First, the real gratitude can never find words to express itself.
The gratitude that can find words to express itself is just a formality — because anything heartfelt immediately goes beyond words, concepts, language. You can live it, it can shine from your eyes, it can come as a fragrance from your whole being. It can be a music of your silence, but you cannot say it. The moment you say it, something essential dies immediately.
Words can only carry corpses, not living experiences.
So it is understandable that you find it difficult to express your thankfulness. It is not your difficulty; it is the difficulty of the experience of thankfulness itself.
And blessed are those who have such experiences which are beyond words.
Cursed are those who know nothing except words and language.
Secondly, you are saying that soon you will be going away from me and I will be only in your heart.
If I am in your heart, there is no way to go away from me. You can go away from my physical presence, but my physical presence is no longer significant if you are already feeling my presence in your heart.
You have become aware of my spiritual presence. The physical presence is only a triggering point — if it can lead you to the spiritual presence, its work is done. Now I will be beating in your heart wherever you are, it does not matter whether you are here or on a faraway planet.
Love is the only phenomenon which destroys space, distance, time.
The chemistry of love has not been understood yet. The physicists are concerned about space and time, and they have not yet come to understand the point that there is something more in existence, where time and space both disappear.
Love is a phenomenon which knows no time, space, distance. Perhaps science will never be able to understand it. Perhaps it is beyond the scope of science. But it is not beyond the scope of poetry, of religion. It is not beyond the scope of meditation.
It is not beyond the scope of every individual who is ready to dissolve himself into love. Science then remains a faraway echo, and love becomes the only reality.
Love cannot be proved.
It can be only be experienced.
And in love, all that consists of space and time appears to be made of the same stuff as dreams are made of. It is not an argument, not a philosophy.
You can sit close to a person, your bodies are touching and yet you can be hundreds of miles away from each other.
And you can be hundreds of miles distant from each other, and yet love can bring you so close that you can melt into each other.
So remember: if you feel me in your heart, then I am coming with you. Wherever you go, I am coming with you — and without a ticket, because they have not yet found a way to know whether a person is traveling with someone hiding in his heart.
Thirdly: the world is certainly crazy. And it is not that it has suddenly become crazy — it has always been so.
I am not a pessimist; neither am I an optimist. I am simply a realist. I know that it is impossible to change this whole crazy world.
Even if I can change my people, my sannyasins, that is hoping too much.
So I don’t want you to become a missionary, making efforts to change the crazy people.
You change yourself, and you help the fellow travelers — the sannyasins who are on the same path, in the same search — encourage them, help them in every possible way. There are moments of darkness, there are moments of discouragement, there are moments one feels perhaps he should not have chosen this path because it goes against the whole crazy world.
To be sane in this insane world is bound to be against it.
So help those few people who are moving towards sanity, and never ask for the impossible. This is possible — to change a few thousand sannyasins around the world. And perhaps if a few thousand sannyasins are changed that may create a certain magnetism, a certain gravitation, such that many more millions of people may be pulled into it.
But you should begin with yourself. If you can change yourself, that is much; and if you can help those who are on the path, it is enough for your compassion and for your love.
In the crazy world also there are many people who don’t want to be the way they are, they want to be transformed. And if you find someone who has a deep longing to be transformed, help him. But never impose yourself on anybody, because if somebody wants to remain insane that is his birthright. Don’t disturb him; he is already disturbed too much. Just leave him alone, and let him live his insanity. Bless him, that “Live it totally.” Perhaps by living insanity totally he may come out of it.
The problem with insane people is that they are always living it partially, they are always repressing, they are always not doing what they want to do. If they are allowed total freedom, perhaps they may come out of their insanity.
At least my people should give everybody freedom to be himself, without any judgment, without any condemnation, without calling him insane, without calling him a sinner, without sending him to hell. Just accept. A loving person accepts the other as he is, without demanding any change.
OSHO
