Osho on Neo-Sannyas

September 26 is celebrated as Neo-Sannyas Day. On this day, at the momentous camp in Manali India in 1970, Osho initiated His first group of disciples into his vision of sannyas. Osho turned the obsolete life-denying conception of Sannyas on its head! Osho says I want to destroy the whole traditional attitude. Life should be religious and religion should not have any life. There should be no distinction between the marketplace and the monastery. The monastery should be in the marketplace; the divine dimension should become part of everyday life.

A sannyas that withdraws from life turns into a bondage; a prison. And ultimate freedom is the very soul of sannyas. For me, sannyas does not accept any limitations, inhibitions, regimentation or discipline. For me, sannyas is the flowering of man′s ultimate freedom, rooted in his intelligence, his wisdom.

Osho explains why He calls His sannyas – ‘neo-sannyas’: my sannyas is an opening, a journey…  in search of an orgasmic relationship with the whole. Sannyas is not a program or ideology; it is exploration. When you become a sannyasin, I initiate you into freedom and nothing else. It is great responsibility to be free, because then you have nothing to lean upon except your own inner being, your own consciousness. I take away your props and leave you utterly alone. That aloneness blooms on its own accord into the flower of sannyas.

Osho says a sannyasin is one who has trusted me, who says – I am coming with you. Then something starts transpiring between me and you. It is not only changing your clothes, your name. It is simply dropping your whole past and starting anew, as if you are born again. The day of your initiation into sannyas becomes your real birthday.

BELOVED MASTER,

IN YESTERDAY’S LECTURE YOU SAID THAT PROGRAMS, NAMES AND LABELS AND BECOMING CRYSTALLIZED AND IDENTIFIED ARE HINDRANCES AND LIABILITIES IN THE SEEKER’S SEARCH FOR THE SUPREME SELF. THIS IS SO FOR ME. I DON’T WANT A LABEL. I WANT TO BE VAST, UNLIMITED. I DON’T WANT TO BE CRYSTALLIZED. I WANT TO FLOW LIKE A MOUNTAIN STREAM. TO BECOME ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE ORGANIZATION AROUND YOU AS A DISCIPLE, ONE MUST ACCEPT A PROGRAM WHICH IN PART CONSISTS OF WEARING THE MALA AND ORANGE CLOTHES AND HAVING YOUR NAME CHANGED WHICH SEEM TO FUNCTION AS BADGES OR LABELS IDENTIFYING ONE AS A SANNYASIN.

PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT A NEO-SANNYASIN IS AND WHAT, IF ANYTHING, IT REQUIRES TO BE ONE. THIS IS IMPORTANT TO ME BECAUSE YOU ARE A LIGHT IN THE DARK FOR ME, BUT THE ONLY WAY TO GET CLOSE TO YOU, TO TALK TO YOU, IS TO BECOME A SANNYASIN WHICH SEEMS TO INVOLVE CARRYING SOME EXTRA BAGS BEYOND THE SIMPLE WISH TO STAND IN YOUR GUIDING LIGHT.

Roland Seeman, sannyas is not a program at all: it is a process of de-programming. But because you are programmed already, you will have to accept the process of de-programming. You say you don’t want to get identified with a name — then who is this Roland Seeman? You say you don’t want to become a label, but you are one. The question is not of becoming a label, a name — you already are one. It is as if a hypnotized person says, “I don’t want to be hypnotized.” Neo-sannyas is a process of de-hypnosis: the person who is already hypnotized needs to be de-hypnotized — if he says this again is a kind of hypnosis, then he is going to remain hypnotized forever. The society hypnotizes you, the church hypnotizes you, your parents hypnotize you. You have passed through that process already; now you will have to go backwards. Neo-sannyas is a process of dropping all that has been forced on you; neo-sannyas is an anti-process.

Mulla Nasruddin has a signboard in front of his office saying that no salesmen are allowed in. If anybody tries to enter he will be prosecuted.

A friend asked him, “Why are you so much against salesmen?”

He said, “They bore me to death.”

The friend said, “That’s true, that’s my experience too. From where did you get this signboard?”

And Mulla laughed and said, “That is the only practical thing I have ever purchased from a salesman.”

Sannyas is not a new program. The orange and the mala and the new name are just a gesture from your side that you are ready to drop all the programs, a gesture from your side that you are open to me. It is just a gesture; that’s why it is so simple Anybody can take sannyas, with no conditions attached to it, no strings attached to it. Have you ever heard of any spiritual tradition in the world giving sannyas so easily? Great preparation is needed. If you want to become a Hindu sannyasin you will have to go through a long process of preparation. If you want to become a Christian monk, the same. This is happening for the first time in the whole history of humanity: I am giving you sannyas without asking whether you are worthy of it, ready for it. Why? Because it is not a program. To be a Catholic monk is a program. It will require that a few conditions be fulfilled before you can enter into it, it will take years of preparation. To be a Jaina monk will take even longer, because it is a process of becoming an ascetic. The more unnatural a program is, the more preparation will be needed.

I give you sannyas with no requirement, no condition, to be fulfilled on your side. It is a simple gesture. And you are only thinking about having a new name, about having to live in orange clothes. But you don’t know: that new name will help you to become disconnected from your whole past. Those orange clothes will declare that you are no more part of any religion, that you are simply religious — that you are neither Hindu nor Christian nor Mohammedan. Sannyas is like when you have a thorn in your foot: you need another thorn to take it out. The other thorn is exactly like the first thorn. Sannyas is just a thorn to take out all the thorns that are in your being. You are not getting into some new identity. Sannyas is not serious; it is very playful, it is non-serious.

And I have told you that PROGRAMS, NAMES AND LABELS AND BECOMING CRYSTALLIZED AND IDENTIFIED ARE HINDRANCES AND LIABILITIES IN THE SEEKER’S SEARCH FOR THE SUPREME SELF. Yes, I repeat it again. But you will still have a name: don’t get identified with it. I have not told you not to have any names — or have I? Without names it will be impossible to exist. They have some purpose to fulfill. Without names, without addresses, it will be impossible to exist where so many people are around you. You need a certain name; it is utilitarian, it has no ultimate truth about it. When you start thinking that your name has something ultimate about it, then you have become crystallized, and identified with it.

I have said don’t get identified with your name, and don’t get identified with any label that you have to use in life. And you will have to use many labels. I am not against life. If you drop all labels and all names, you will have to go back to a very primitive state — to live in a cave in the Himalayas. There you will not need any name, because no postman will ever come to deliver your post, nobody will ever call you, nobody will ever address you. But that will be a kind of suicide. I am not teaching you any suicide. I am against renouncing the world. I would like you to live in the world, to live more totally, to live more intensely. But then labels and names will be needed. Then what has to be done? Don’t get identified with them, that’s all.

And if you have carried a name for forty years it is good to change it, because with the new it will be easier not to get identified. With the old, forty years’ association has made it very crystallized; it has entered deep into your sleep and your dreams too. The new name will be just on the surface. Now, don’t do the same with the new name as you have done with the old one. And the organization that exists around me is not really an organization but a device — a device which creates a certain space. You may not be able to see it right now, unless you enter the space. Those who have entered, they know that the organization is there between me and the world, and it has some function to fulfill.

Roland Seeman, if there were no organization here, you would never be able to sit silently for even two minutes with me. There would be thousands and thousands of people always clamoring around me; no work would be possible. I lived that way for many years. It became impossible to work on people, because there was no possibility of any communion. Crowds were always there. Even when I was asleep in my room, people were sitting around; I was eating, and people were sitting around. There was a continuous crowd. Nobody was able to ask any personal question, no intimacy was possible. This organization has been created, not to be an organization but just to be there so the whole world does not start impinging upon me, and I can remain available to real, authentic seekers.

Now you are sitting in silence here with me, thanks to the so-called organization. Otherwise, it was impossible. It used to happen: thousands of people were listening to me; I was traveling around the country. A gathering of fifty thousand people would be there in the cities. And on one side people who were against me shouting, and people who were for me would also be shouting — and I was speaking! And the police standing there continuously, so that those people who were for and against didn’t start clashing. It was almost impossible to work; that’s why I stopped traveling. Now I don’t go anywhere. Those who are really interested in truth will have to come to me. And the organization is just a device to screen people. If you are really a seeker, this is nothing — to wear orange, to become a sannyasin. If you can’t pay even this much price for it, then you are not a real seeker — maybe curious.

And to be with a master needs a kind of participation with the master. That is the only way to be in communion. It is not only a question of talking to me: it is a question of sharing my being. You will have to give me an indication that you will remain open, that you will not be defensive. Your question, Seeman, is nothing but a defence. You want to have all the opportunities that are given to those who have surrendered in trust, yet you don’t want to surrender and you don’t want to participate. You want all the benefits without paying for them in any way.

You say: IN YESTERDAY’S LECTURE YOU SAID THAT PROGRAMS, NAMES AND LABELS AND BECOMING CRYSTALLIZED AND IDENTIFIED ARE HINDRANCES AND LIABILITIES…Yes, they are. So, when you take sannyas, if you ever take it, don’t become identified with the name: think of it as a utility. And don’t become identified with the orange clothes: think of them as a gesture.

And you say: THIS IS SO FOR ME. This is not so for you. If it was so, truth would have already happened to you. Then what is hindering the truth? If you have dropped all labels, all programs, all names, all labels — if you are not identified with anything — then what is hindering the truth from happening? In fact you are being very clever and cunning. You are identified with your name, you are identified with the programs, you are identified with your past and all the conditionings that the past has given to you. But listening to me, this idea felt very good, comfortable — so you need not change anything, you can simply say: THIS IS SO FOR ME. If this is so for you, why are you here in the first place?

You say: I DON’T WANT A LABEL. Who is this `I’ who does not want a label? It itself is a label — and the deepest label!

You say: I WANT TO BE VAST, UNLIMITED. Who is this `I’ who wants to be vast and unlimited? This is the greatest ego trip! You can never become vast and unlimited. When you have disappeared, there is vastness, there is unlimitedness — but it will not belong to you, remember. You will not be able to claim, “I am vast.” If you are there, no vastness is possible. The `I’ is bound to remain limited. The idea of the ego can never be unlimited; the idea of the ego keeps you separate from the infinity of existence.

You say: I WANT TO BE VAST, UNLIMITED. Your ego wants to go on the trip of being infinite and vast. Sannyas simply means that you drop your ego trips. You say, “I don’t want to be anybody, I don’t want to be anybody in particular, I don’t want to have any goal.” The goal of infinity, the goal of vastness, are all in the future. And whenever there is a goal, the ego is strengthened. The ego exists through goals; what name you give to the goal does not matter. You can call it money, you can call it power, you can call it prestige, or you can now call it infinity, vastness, God — it is the same ego trip. Now it has become even more subtle and more poisonous, because the more subtle the ego is, the more dangerous it is. You are afraid, but trying to cover up your fear philosophically. This is what goes on continuously: I say one thing, you understand another. You understand according to yourself, you immediately start manipulating, distorting what you hear. That’s why communication between light and darkness is so difficult. Between those who know and those who don’t know it is so impossible. You immediately jumped upon the idea, and you made a beautiful weapon out of it to protect yourself.

See the point. Sannyas means dropping all goals, Sannyas means being happy as you are. Sannyas means living life in utter ordinariness. What nonsense you are talking about — becoming vast and infinite! Living life in its pure ordinariness is Sannyas. And then one day it happens: suddenly boundaries disappear. But they disappear only for those people who are ready to live in an ordinary way — eating when hungry, sleeping when feeling sleepy; just living the ordinary life — chopping wood, carrying water from the well, with no pretensions, with no trips in the future, worldly or otherworldly; just living moment to moment, with no desire to proclaim oneself.

You must have great desire to proclaim yourself: I WANT TO BE VAST, UNLIMITED. You can never be vast, you can never be unlimited. You are the barrier! Now the disease wants to be healthy. The disease cannot be healthy: the disease has to go. When there is no disease left, health wells up.

You ask: WHAT IS NEO-SANNYAS? It is creating a space in which melting becomes possible, creating a space where you see many many people melting, dissolving, and you see the beauty arising in them, and you see their benediction, and you see something mysterious surrounding them. That triggers a process in you. Sannyas cannot cause God to happen in you. Sannyas does not believe in the cause-effect relationship; Sannyas is a kind of synchronicity where many many people are flowering, and a great energy is released in you. It is not caused by others; it is simply triggered. Somebody is singing a song, and suddenly a song arises in your heart and your lips start moving. It has not been caused, there is no inevitability in it. It is not the effect of somebody’s singing, it is parallel to it. It is provoked, not caused; you have started responding.

And you know it happens, in ordinary life also it happens. Somebody comes who is very happy, laughing, jubilant; you were sitting in a kind of sadness, but suddenly seeing this person, his laughter, his bubbling energy, your sadness disappears. You start laughing. You have forgotten completely your misery, your agony, your problems, your worries. For a moment the other person has called up something from deep in you, just by his presence. He is a catalytic agent. So is the master.

And when there is an energy-field, a Buddhafield, when there are so many disciples around a Master, you are in garden in the time of spring. Thousands of trees blooming — suddenly your seed gathers courage: your seed starts feeling the potential, your seed is ready to risk. That’s what sannyas is. If you have any courage, if you are really a seeker of truth, then take the jump into the unknown. It is not a conditioning; it is an anti-program, it is de-conditioning. It is not hypnosis, it is de-hypnosis. It is not a program, it is a de-programming.

Source:

Listen to complete discourse at mentioned below link.

Discourse Series: Unio Mystica, Vol 2 Chapter #4

Chapter title: A Buddhafield in Spring

14 December 1978 am

References:

Osho has spoken on ‘Sannyas’ in many of His discourses. More on the subject can be referred to in the following books/discourses:

1. The Fish in the Sea is Not Thirsty
2. Ecstasy – The Forgotten Language
3. I Celebrate Myself: God Is No Where, Life Is Now Here
4. Zen: The Diamond Thunderbolt
5. The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha
6. Philosophia Perennis
7. YAA-HOO! The Mystic Rose
8. Sufis: The People of the Path, Vol 1
9. The Last Testament, Vol 2
10. Sat Chit Anand
11. Come, Come, Yet Again Come
12. The Guest
13. I Am the Gate
14. The Secret
15. The Wisdom of the Sands