Today is the birthday of an enlightened Hindu sage Narada, who used to travel around the world, singing and playing music on his simple musical instrument “EKTARA”. He appears in number of Hindu texts explaining small stories with a message. He was an intimate devotee of Lord Vishnu and thus his path was the path of devotion.

Osho chose ‘NARADA NHAKTI SUTRA’ at the second number, in the book ‘Books I have loved’ and he says second book I choose is Narada’s BHAKTI SUTRAS. His sutras begin with “athato bhakti jigyasa — now the inquiry into love….” To inquire into love is the greatest exploration, the greatest inquiry. Everything else falls short, even atomic energy. You can be a scientist even of the caliber of Albert Einstein, but you don’t know what real inquiry is unless you love. And not only love, but love plus awareness… then it becomes inquiry into love, the most difficult task in the world. Let me repeat, it is the most difficult task in the world — love with awareness. People fall in love; people become unconscious in love. Their love is only biological, it is gravitation. They are pulled down towards the earth. But Narada is talking about a totally different love: love as meditation, as awareness. Or in scientific terms, love as levitation, against gravity. Leave gravitation for the graves; levitate, arise! And when one starts rising to love, flying towards the stars, that is athato bhakti jigyasa.”

Narada was a saint traveller; with his devotion towards existence and his knowledge and the beautiful music and poems he had always tried to convey the message of ‘oneness with existence.’

Osho has spoken on Narada many times and he has said somewhere that A musician, a poet, and a very beautiful man, Narada, who always, even while moving, continued to play on a very simple musical instrument — and remember, the more simple the instrument the more difficult it is to create great music out of it. He used to carry a simple instrument, an ektara — a one-stringed sitar. It is easy when there are many strings to create music, because you can create different notes on different strings. The ektara has only one string — that is the meaning of ektara. Ek means one; tara means string. It has become almost the symbol of Narada. You will not find a statue or a painting of him without his ektara. He was a master musician, and a great poet — and perhaps the only man in India who knew the hilariousness of existence, who used to laugh…

SO MANY PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR INSTANT ENLIGHTENMENT THESE DAYS AND THERE ARE ALL THESE GURUS RUNNING AROUND SAYING ‘FOLLOW ME’ AND YET IT IS QUESTIONABLE WHETHER THE ANSWER IS THERE. WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE THIS TO?

Every age has its own special pathology. Too much time-consciousness is the special pathology of this age. The modern mind is very conscious of time and wants everything to be done instantly. There are reasons for it. First, the modern mind is West-oriented. The East has disappeared from consciousness. Even in the East it is the West that has become the reality. The East exists no more.

The East had the consciousness for eternity, timelessness. The West is too time-conscious. The reason is Christianity. Christianity thinks that there is only one life. That creates anxiety. If there is only one life then everything has to be done in this life, there is no  other.

The East has a very, very long span — millions of lives. There is no hurry. Patience is possible. One can wait Even if this life is lost, nothing is lost. You will be coming back again and again. There is no need to rush. This was a totally different world view, the world view of timelessness.

The East has never been worried about time, about lack of time. The East has never said that time is money. The whole idea that time is money is just stupid. Time as such exists not. Time exists in your desire, in your mind. That which really exists is eternity. It is always there, it has always been there. So the East has lived in a kind of absolute patience.

But the East has disappeared from the world. The Western outlook says there is only one life and even that is no longer certain. Because of the Third World War, because of the atomic energy, the H-bomb, it is not even certain that you will be able to live your whole life. Any moment…. These mad politicians cannot be depended upon. They are so mad that any moment the world can simply disappear. More fear has arisen.

That’s why in the younger generation, the people who have come upon the earth after the Second World War, there is much anxiety for instant enlightenment. It should be soon. If it is going to be at all, it should be soon. One never knows. The people who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki had not even dreamed about the atom bomb, not even in their nightmares, and within a few seconds they all disappeared. One hundred thousand people in Hiroshima disappeared within five minutes. They were people just like you. You can disappear within five minutes. The politicians have the power to destroy the earth. For the first time in human history the politician is immensely powerful, tremendously powerful. The politician has always been dangerous. The politician is the insanest person possible. But he has never been so powerful. He has been always mad but this time the mad man has the H-bomb. Hence the children who were born after the Second World War are very conscious that something has to be done soon and fast, immediately. Hence the word instant’ has become very, very important — instant coffee and instant sex and instant enlightenment. Everything has to be just now — now or never. Who knows about tomorrow? You cannot trust. Tomorrow has never been so uncertain as it is today.

That’s why. First, the Western idea of one life, then second, the Western invention of the H-bomb, the possibility of the whole world disappearing in flames, have created an intense desire to know, to love, to be. Time-consciousness, too much time-Consciousness, is a tension in the being. It does not allow you to relax. And now comes the dilemma. If you really want to be enlightened, the most necessary requirement is not to be tense. And if you want enlightenment instantly then it is impossible because you are so tense. That’s why you ask for it to be right now.

If you want enlightenment to happen ever, you have to be ready to wait for it. Even if it comes in eternity you are ready to accept it, you are not in a hurry. Then it can come instantly too. A man who is ready to wait forever is very relaxed, knows no tension, no anxiety, no anguish. In that relaxed moment, satori, samadhi, enlightenment is possible.

I will tell you an ancient Hindu parable.

A great saint, Narada, was going to paradise. He used to travel between paradise and earth. He used to function like a postman between that world and this world. He was a bridge. He came across an ancient sage, very old, doing his transcendental meditation — TM — under a tree, repeating his mantra. He had been repeating that mantra for many years and many lives. Narada asked him, ‘Would you like to enquire about something? Would you like some message to be given to the Lord?’ The man opened his eyes and said, ‘Just you enquire about one thing: how much longer do I have to wait? How long? Tell him it is too much. For many lives I have been doing this mantra, now how long am I expected to do it? Just ask this. I am tired of it. I am bored with it.’

Just by the side of the ancient sage underneath another tree was a young man with an EKTARA, a one stringed instrument, playing it and dancing. Must have been a kind of BAUL.

Narada asked him jokingly, ‘Would you also like to enquire about how long it will take for your enlightenment to happen?’ But the young man did not even bother to answer. He continued his dance. Narada asked again, ‘I am going to the Lord. Have you some message?’ But the young man laughed and continued to dance.

Narada went. when he came back after a few days he told the old man, ‘I enquired and God said that you will have to wait at least three lives more.’ The old man became so angry that he threw down his beads. He was almost ready to hit Narada. And he said, ‘This is nonsense! I have been waiting and waiting and I have been doing all kinds of austerities — chanting, fasting, all forms of rituals. I have fulfilled all the requirements. Now this is too much! Three lives — this is unjust.’

Then Narada became very much afraid to tell to the young man because although the young man had not asked him to enquire, he had enquired. The young man was still dancing under his tree, very joyously. Narada was afraid but still he went and told the young man, ‘Although you did not ask, out of my own curiosity I enquired. When God said that that old man would have to wait three lives, I enquired about the young man just by the side of the tree who is dancing there with his EKTARA. And he said, ‘That young man — he will have to wait as many lives as there are leaves on the tree under which he is dancing.”‘

And the young man started dancing even faster and he said, ‘Then it is not very far. Just as many leaves as are on this tree? then it is not very far, then I have already arrived — because just think how many trees there are on the whole earth. Compare! So it is very close. Thank you, sir, that you enquired.’ And he started dancing fast.

And the story says that the young man became instantly enlightened that very moment. The story has not said anything about the old sage. I think he must be somewhere here now. He cannot become enlightened. His very approach is wrong. His very approach is that of a tense mind. His very approach is that of a demanding ego. You attain to enlightenment only when there is no ego to demand — there is no demand, there is no demander. Time creates the ego. The ego does not exist in animals because they are not conscious of time. The ego does not exist in children because they are also not conscious of time. When you become conscious of time you become conscious of many things. First, the consciousness of time creates the fear of death. You immediately become conscious of death.

That’s why

in Sanskrit we have the same name for both — we call time KAAL and we also call death KAAL. We have the same name for both because they are two aspects of the same phenomenon. Time and death, they are not separate at all. The moment you become alert about time you become alert about death because time is running out fast, death is coming, death is there and you have to do something before death grabs you. Then fear, anxiety…In that fear and anxiety, in that impatience, you can go on searching but you will not find. It is not that you have to find God, it is that you have to allow him to find you. So you have to be in a receptive mood, in a non-desiring, non-demanding mood, utterly at ease, as if it has already happened. There is no need for it to happen, it is as if it has already happened. With this silence, this peace, with this non-tense state, it happens.

You ask: SO MANY PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR INSTANT ENLIGHTENMENT THESE DAYS AND THERE ARE ALL THESE GURUS RUNNING AROUND SAYING ‘FOLLOW ME’ AND YET IT IS QUESTIONABLE WHETHER THE ANSWER IS THERE. The answer is in you, it is nowhere else. So if you want to follow a man, follow the man who throws you back to yourself — because the answer is in you. The outer guru’s function is to help you to find your inner guru. If the outer guru wants you to cling to him and hang around him and if he wants you to remain always dependent on him, then he is dangerous. Avoid him. Then he is not a Master. Then he has need of followers but he is not a Master. Then through followers he is fulfilling his own ego. He feels good because he has so many followers. His feeling good has nothing to do with enlightenment, his feeling good is almost as political as any politician’s when he is in power. It gives a kind of power when you know that you have so many disciples, many followers — thousands of followers. It gives power. It is a power trip…

Search out somebody who is not in any need of having followers, who has no need of having a big crowd around him, who is utterly satisfied with himself even when he is alone, who is absolutely contented with his own self. Then he can be of tremendous help.

But remember again, the answer is not anywhere else, the answer is within you. The kingdom of God is within you. You are already carrying the answer within yourself. Maybe you have not looked and read it, maybe you don’t know how to decode it, maybe you have lost the key to your own innermost shrine. Somebody can be of help. One who has come to his innermost being can show you the path.

Buddha has said, ‘Buddhas only show the path. You have to travel.’ They cannot travel for you. Nobody can create your salvation. It is only your responsibility because it is you who have created the bondage and it is you who can drop it. Yes, somebody can be of immense help to make you aware, to make you alert about the situation.

Source:

This is an excerpt from the transcript of a public discourse by Osho in Buddha Hall, Shree Rajneesh Ashram, Pune. 

Discourse Series: Sufis: The People of the Path, Vol 1

Chapter #12

Chapter title: The ‘Instant’ Pathology

22 August 1977 am in Buddha Hall

References:

Osho has spoken on Mystics like Dadu, Daya, Farid, Gurdjieff, J. Krishnamurti, Kabir, Lalla, Magdalen, Mallibai, Meera, Nanak, Patanjali, Rabiya, Raman Maharishi, Rumi, Sahajo, Sai Baba, Saraha, Socrates, Teresa, Tilopa, Valmiki, Zarathustra and many more in His discourses. Some of these can be referred to in the following books/discourses:

1. Sermons in Stones
2. Come Come Yet Again Come
3. The Hidden Splendor
4. Beyond Enlightenment
5. The New Dawn
6. The Sword and The Lotus
7. The Fish in the Sea is Not Thirsty
8. Socrates Poisoned Again After 25 Centuries
9. Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega
10. The Path of Love
11. The Book of Wisdom
12. Beyond Psychology
13. My Way: The Way of the White Clouds