Osho, last night you spoke about witnessing as a method; other
times I have heard you speak about becoming a thing totally, being
totally involved in any given situation. Usually I am at a loss as to
which of these two to follow: Whether to stand back and witness in a
detached way or become something totally – for example, when there is
anger or love or sadness. Are these not two opposite paths? Are they
both for different kinds of situations or for different types of people?
When should one do which?
There are two basic paths – only two. One is of surrendering and
another is of willing: the path of surrender and the path of will. They
are diametrically opposite as far as going through them is concerned.
But they reach to the same goal; they reach to the same realization. So
we have to understand a little more in detail.
The path of will starts with your witnessing Self. It is not
concerned with your ego directly – only indirectly. To start witnessing,
to be aware of your acts, is directly concerned with awakening your
inner Self. If the inner Self is awakened, the ego disappears as a
consequence. You are not to do anything with the ego directly. They
cannot both exist simultaneously. If your Self is awakened, the ego will
disappear. The path of will tries to awaken the inner center directly.
Many, many methods are used. How to awaken the Self? We will discuss
that.
The path of surrender is directly concerned with the ego, not with
the Self. When the ego disappears, the inner Self is awakened
automatically. The path of surrender is concerned with the ego
immediately, directly. You are not to do anything to awaken your inner
Self. You are just to surrender your ego. The moment ego is surrendered;
you are left with your inner Self awakened.
Of course, these both will work in opposite directions, because one
will be concerned with ego and one will be concerned with Self. Their
methods, their techniques, will be opposite – and no one can follow
both. There is no need to and that is impossible also. Everyone has to
choose.
If you choose the path of will, then you are left alone to work upon
yourself. It is an arduous thing. One has to struggle – to fight – to
fight with old habits which create sleep. Then the only fight is against
sleep, and the only ambition is for a deep awakening inside. Those who
follow will, they know only one sin, and that sin is spiritual
sleepiness.
Many are the techniques. I have discussed some. For example,
Gurdjieff used a Sufi exercise. Sufis call it “halt”. For example, you
are sitting here, and if you are practising the exercise of “halt” it
means total halt. Whenever the teacher says “Stop!” or ”Halt!” then you
have to stop totally whatsoever you are doing. If your eyes are open,
then stop them there and then. Now you cannot close them.
If your hand is raised, let it be there. Whatsoever your position and
gesture, just be frozen in it. No movements! Halt totally! Try this,
and suddenly you will have an inner awakening – a feeling. Suddenly you
will become aware of your own frozenness.
The whole body is frozen, you have become a solid stone, you are like
a statue. But if you go on deceiving yourself, then you have fallen
into sleep. You can deceive yourself. You can say, “Who is seeing me? I
can close my eyes. They are becoming painful.” You can deceive yourself –
then you have fallen into sleep. No – deception is sleep. Don’t deceive
yourself, because no one else is concerned. It is up to you. If you can
be frozen for a single moment you will begin to see yourself as
different, and your center will become aware of your frozen body.
There are other ways. For example, Mahavir and his tradition have
used fasting as a method to awaken the Self. If you fast, the body
begins to demand, the body begins to overpower you. Mahavir has said,
“Just witness – don’t do anything. You feel hungry, so feel hungry. The
body asks for food – be a witness to it, don’t do anything. Just be a
witness to whatsoever is happening.” And it is a deep thing.
There are only two deep things in the body – sex and food. Nothing is
more than these two, because food is needed for individual survival and
sex is needed for race survival. Both are survival mechanisms. The
individual cannot survive without food and the race cannot survive
without sex. So sex is food for the race and food is sex for the
individual. These are the deepest things because they are concerned with
your survival – the most basic things. You will die without them.
So if you are fasting and just witnessing, then you have touched the
deepest sleep. And if you can witness without being identified or
bothered – the body is suffering, the body is hungry, the body is
demanding and you are just witnessing – suddenly the body will be
different. There will be a discontinuity between you and the body; there
will be a gap.
Fasting has been used by Mahavir. Mohammedans have used vigilance in the night – no sleep!
Don’t sleep for a week and then you will know how sleepy the whole
being becomes, how difficult it is to maintain this vigilance. But if
one persists, suddenly a moment comes when the body and you are torn
apart. Then you can see that the body needs sleep – it is not your need.
Many are the methods to work directly to create more awareness in
yourself, to bring yourself above your so-called sleepy existence. No
surrender is needed. Rather, one has to fight against surrender. No
surrender is needed, because this is a path of struggle not of
surrender. Because of this path, Mahavir was given the name “Mahavir”.
“Mahavir” means “the great warrior”. This was not his name. His name was
Vardhaman. He was called Mahavir because he was a great warrior as far
as this inner struggle is concerned. He had no Guru, no Master, because
it is a lonely path. Even to take somebody’s help is not good – it may
become your sleep.
There is a story: Mahavir was fasting and remaining silent for years
together. In a certain village some mischievous people were disturbing
him, harassing him, and he was on a vow of silence.
He was beaten so many times because he would not speak and he
remained naked – completely naked. So the villagers were at a loss to
understand who he was. And he would not speak! And moreover he was
naked! So from one village to another village he would be thrown out,
made to leave the village.
The story says Indra, the King of gods, came to him and said to
Mahavir, “I can defend you. It has become so painful. You are being
beaten unnecessarily, so just allow me to defend you.”
Mahavir rejected the help. Later on, when he was asked why he
rejected the help, he said, “This path of will is a lonely path. You
cannot even have a helper with you because then the struggle loosens.
Then the struggle becomes partial. Then you can depend on someone else,
and wherever there is dependence sleep comes in. One has to be totally
independent; only then can one be awake.
This is one path, one basic attitude.
All these methods of witnessing belong to this path. So when I say,
“Be a witness.” it is meant for those who are travellers on the path of
will.
Quite the opposite is the method of surrender. Surrender is concerned
with your ego, not with your Self. In surrender you have to give up
yourself. Of course, you cannot give the Self; that is impossible.
Whatsoever you can give is bound to be your ego. Only the ego can be
given – because it is just incidental to you. It is not even a part of
your being, just something added. It is a possession. Of course, the
possessor has also become possessed by it. But it is a possession, it is
a property – it is not you.
The path of surrender says, “Surrender your ego to the Teacher, to
the Divine, to a Buddha.” When someone comes to Buddha and says, “
Buddham Sharanam Gauchhami”
– I take shelter at your feet. I surrender myself at Buddha’s feet,”
what is he doing? The Self cannot be surrendered, so leave it out.
Whatsoever you can surrender is your ego. That is your possession; you
can surrender it. If you can surrender your ego to someone, it makes no
difference to whom – X, Y or Z. The person to be surrendered to is
irrelevant in a way. The real thing is surrendering. So you can
surrender to a God in the sky. Whether He is there or not is irrelevant.
If a concept of the Divine in the sky can help you to surrender your
ego, then it is a good device.
Really, yoga shastras say that God is a device to be surrendered to –
just a device! So you need not bother whether God is or not. He is just
a device, because it will be difficult for you to surrender in a
vacuum. So let there be a God, and you surrender. Even a false device
can help. For example, you see a rope on the street and you think that
it is a snake. It moves like a snake. You are afraid, you are trembling,
you are running. You begin to perspire, and your perspiration is real.
And there is no snake – there is just a rope mistaken for a snake.
The yoga sutras say that God is a just a device to be surrendered to.
Whether God is or is not is not meaningful; you need not bother about
it. If He is, you will come to know through surrender. You need not be
bothered about it before surrender. If He is, then you will know; if He
is not, then you will know. So no discussion, no argument, no proof is
needed. And it is very beautiful: they say He is a device, just a
hypothetical thing to which you can surrender yourself, to help you
surrender.
So a Teacher can become a god; a Teacher is a god. Unless you feel a
Teacher as a god, you cannot surrender. Surrendering becomes possible if
you feel that Mahavir is a god, Buddha is a god. Then you can surrender
easily. Whether a Buddha is a god or not is irrelevant. Again, it is a
device, it helps.
Buddha is known to have said that every truth is a device to help;
every truth is just a utility. If it works, it is true. And there is no
other basis for calling it true or untrue – if it works, it is true!
On the path of surrender, surrendering is the only technique. There
are many techniques on the path of will, because you can make many
efforts to awaken yourself. But when one is just to surrender, there are
no methods.
One day a man came to Ramakrishna. He wanted to donate one thousand
gold coins to Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna said, “I don’t need them, but
when you have taken such a big burden from your house to Dakshineshwar,
to my hut, it will not be good to carry it back again. Mm? – It will be
unnecessary. So just go to the Ganges and throw it in.”
The man, of course, was in a very deep difficulty, great difficulty.
What to do? He hesitated, so Ramakrishna said, “You have donated them to
me, now they do not belong to you. I order you! Go to the Ganges and
throw them!” So he had to.
He went to the Ganges but did not return. One hour passed.
Ramakrishna asked someone, “Where has that man gone? Go and find out!”
So some disciples went and he was brought back. Ramakrishna asked, “Such
a long time? What were you doing?”
So the persons who had gone to find him said, “He was counting them
and throwing one piece at a time – one, two, three – one thousand
pieces. He would look at a gold coin, count it and then he would throw
it.” So Ramakrishna said, “What nonsense! When one is to throw, there is
no need to count. When one accumulates, there is a need to count; you
have to know how many coins you have. But when you have gone to throw
them, why waste time in counting? You can just throw!”
Surrendering is throwing the ego. There is no counting and there are
no methods. You just throw it. It itself is the technique. On the path
of surrender, surrender is the path and surrender is the technique. On
the path of will, will is the path and there are many techniques to work
it out.
But surrender is simple in a way. You throw it! The moment you throw
your ego – and only the ego can be thrown – suddenly you become aware,
aware of your inner center. You reach the same point, but through a very
diverse path.
One thing more to be understood and that has been asked: whether to
be aware or to be lost in something. Whenever I talk of surrender, I
talk of being lost in something. A Meera dancing: she is not aware that
she is dancing – she has become the dance. There is no gap. She has
surrendered her ego completely. There is dancing – she is not aware; she
is completely lost in it. When you are absorbed totally then you are in
surrender – absorbed totally. But only the ego can be absorbed – only
the ego! And when the ego is absorbed, the Self is there in its total
purity.
But that is not the concern. On the path of surrender that is not the
concern! Meera is not concerned with awareness, with consciousness –
no. She is concerned with being completely unconscious in the Divine
dance or in the Divine song – with being lost totally in it. To lose
oneself totally…. That which cannot be lost will be there, of course,
but it is not the concern.
On the path of will, ego is not the concern – the Self is. On the
path of surrender, the Self is not the concern. Remember this difference
of emphasis, this difference of focusing. That’s why there is so much
controversy, so much controversy, between a devotee and a yogi, a bhakta
and a yogi.
The yogi is on the path of will and the bhakta is on the path of
surrender, so they speak totally different languages. There is no
bridge. The yogi is trying to be, and the bhakta is trying not to be.
The yogi is trying to be aware and the bhakta is trying to be totally
lost.
Of course, they are bound to speak diametrically opposite languages,
and there is much controversy, much argument. But those arguments and
those controversies do not really belong to a real devotee or to a real
yogi: they belong to scholars, to academicians. Those who think about
devotion and about yoga, they go on discussing problems – and then there
is no meeting point because that meeting point is reached only through
experience. If you stick to the terms and the jargon used, then you will
be confused.
A Chaitanya, a bhakta, cannot speak the language of Mahavir. They
don’t belong to the same path. They reach to the same point ultimately,
but they never travel the same path. So their experiences of the path
are bound to be different. The ultimate ecstasy will be the same, but
that cannot be said; that is the problem. The ultimate experience will
be the same, but that is inexpressible. And whatsoever is expressible is
just experiences on the path, and they are found to be difficult and
opposite.
A Mahavir will become more and more centered on the path, more and
more one Self and Chaitanya will be less and less oneself on the path.
He will go on throwing himself unto the Divine feet. To Mahavir it will
look like suicide, and to Chaitanya, Mahavir’s path will look a very
egoistic thing.
Mahavir says there is no God, so don’t surrender. Really, Mahavir
denies God only to make surrender impossible. If yoga proposes God as a
device, Mahavir proposes no God, again as a device – a device on the
path of will. If there is God, then you cannot proceed on the path of
will. It is difficult, because if there is a God then something is more
potent than you, more powerful than you. Then something is more high
than you, so how can you be authentically your Self?
Mahavir says, “If there is a God, then I am bound to be always in
bondage, because something is always above me. And if you say God has
created the world and God has created me, then what can I do? Then I am
just a puppet in his hands. Then where is the will? Then there is no
possibility of will. There is only a deep determinism. Then nothing can
be done.” So Mahavir dethrones God just as a device on the path of will.
“There is no God,” Mahavir says. ”You are the God and no one else is
the God, so there is no need to surrender.”
Chaitanya uses going to the Divine feet –
sharanam – as the basic religious effort. But Mahavir says
asharanam – never to go anybody’s feet. Of course,
sharanam and
asharanam
– to go and surrender to the Divine feet, and never to go to anybody’s
feet because no feet except your own are Divine – these are completely,
diametrically opposite standpoints. But just in the beginning and while
on the path – they reach to the same thing. Either surrender your ego –
then you have not to do anything. You have to do only one thing:
surrender your ego. Then you have not to do anything. Then everything
will begin to happen. If you cannot surrender then you will have to do
much, because then you are on your own to fight, struggle.
Both paths are valid, and there is no question of which is better. It
depends on the person who is following. It depends on your type. Every
path is valid, and there are many sub-paths, branches.
Some branches belong to the path of will, some to the path of
surrender. Paths, sub-paths – everything is valid. But for you not
everything can be valid; only one thing can be valid – mm? – For you
individually. So don’t get into confusion that: “Everything is valid so I
can follow everything.” You cannot follow! You have to follow one path.
There is no Truth; there are truths. But for you, one truth has to be
chosen.
So the first thing for the seeker is to determine to what type he
belongs, what he is, what will be good for him, and what his inner
inclination is. Can he surrender? Can you surrender? Can you efface your
ego? If that is possible, then simple surrender can do. But it is not
so simple – very difficult. To efface the ego is not so simple. To put
someone higher than you, to put someone as a God and then surrender –
very difficult!
I AM GIVING YOU FEW TIPS TO RAISE YOUR SPIRITUAL AWARENESS LEVEL 
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