The last question.What is the law of necessity?Pythagoras talks about two laws: the law of necessity and the law of power. The law of necessity means living an accidental life, like a robot, like a machine. The law of necessity means things happen to you; you are not the master, you are not conscious enough to be the master.The law of power means things don’t happen to you: you happen to things. You are not just an accident – you are a power. Consciousness brings power; then life is not just like a driftwood, then life has a direction. Then life has some integrity; then life has a continuum. You have something solid in you, and so powerful it is that you start happening to people. You have a presence. And whatsoever you do, you do it; it is not an unconscious reaction: it is a conscious response. You are not just at the mercy of things, events. A mastery arises in you.That’s why in the East the sannyasin is called the swami. ‘swami’ means one who has become a master of himself, one who has passed from the law of necessity to the law of power. The law of necessity means you are walking like a man who is asleep, stumbling here and there, falling on this thing, on that, trying to grope in darkness. Your life will remain meaningless: A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Your life will be like the gibberish of a madman. You will not have any poetry, you will not have a song, you will not have any music arising out of you. All that happens only when your unconsciousness disappears and you become conscious. Meditation is the key to becoming conscious; meditation is the door to the law of power.You ask: What is the law of necessity?You are living under it….I was reading one man’s autobiography. He says that his father was travelling and the train was late. When he reached his destination he got out of the train but the train was so late that all the taxis had already left. It was the middle of the night and very cold. Because he could not find a taxi, he went into the restaurant; they were just closing, and the woman at the counter was just ready to leave. Seeing this man, she prepared coffee for him. He drank the coffee; there was nobody else, so they started talking. And the woman said, “It will be difficult for you to get a taxi – why don’t you come in my car? I will drop you on the way.”So he went with the woman, and that’s how they fell in love with each other. And the woman became the mother of this man who is writing the autobiography.Now he says: “If the train had not been late, I would not have been in the world. If a taxi had been available, I would not have been in the world. If the woman had not invited him to go in her car, I would not have been in the world.”All accidental…. People are living in this unconsciousness. Your love is accidental, your hate is accidental, your friendship, your enmity – ALL is accidental.Stop being accidental! Gather yourself together, become a little more conscious. See what is happening. And, slowly slowly, when you start acting out of your consciousness, you will see tremendous power arising in you. And then your whole life will have a totally different flavour to it.A story:The eighty-year-old millionaire married a fourteen-year-old country girl. He was quite content, but after a few weeks she told him that she was going to leave him if she did not get some love-making real soon.He had his chauffeured limousine take him to a high-priced specialist who studied him and then gave him a shot of spermatozoa. “Now look,” the doctor said. “The only way you are going to get it hard is to say ‘beep’, and then to get it soft again you say ‘beep beep’.”“How marvellous!” the old man said.“Yes, but I must warn you,” the doctor said, “it is only going to work three times before you die.”On his way home, the old man decided he was not going to live through three of them anyway, so he decided to waste one trying it out: “Let’s see whether it really works or not? Who knows, maybe the doctor has just been cheating – the thing seems to be almost unbelievable.” So he said, “Beep!” and it did work. He had a great erection. He could not believe it – it was so fantastic. He had never had anything like that before, even while he was young.Satisfied, he said, “Beep, beep,” and it was gone just the way it had come. He chuckled with delight and anticipation.At that moment, a little yellow Volkswagen pulled past his limousine and went ‘beep’, and the car in the opposite lane responded with ‘beep, beep’.Alert to his jeopardy, the old man instructed his chauffeur to ‘speed it up’. He raced into the house as fast as he could for his last great chance. “Honey,” he shouted at her, “don’t ask any questions. Just drop your clothes and hop into the bed.”Caught up in his excitement, she did. He undressed nervously and hurried in after her. Just as he was climbing into the bed, he said, “Beep,” and his tender young wife said, “What is all this ‘beep, beep’ shit?”Osho, Philosophia Perennis, Vol 1, Ch 5, Q 6