Osho on Guru Purnima Celebration
Guru Purnima is a sacred day of the Hindu-Buddhist-Jain spiritual traditions. It is marked as an occasion when disciple express gratitude and reverence to their Guru (Master). The full moon night of the Hindu calendar month of Ashadh (June-July) is celebrated as Guru Purnima every year. Osho has talked about Guru Purnima that it is a symbolic day. It represents disciple dying and resurrecting into the Master.
Osho says The disciple starts melting into the master. The disciple destroys all distance between himself and the master; the disciple yields, the disciple surrenders, the disciple effaces himself. He becomes a nonentity, he becomes a nothingness. And in that nothingness his heart opens. In that absence his ego has disappeared and the master can penetrate into his being. The disciple is receptive, vulnerable, unguarded; he drops all armor. He drops all defense measures. He is ready to die. If the master says, “Die!” he will not wait for a single moment. The master is his soul, his very being; his devotion is unconditional and absolute. And to know absolute devotion is to know God. To know absolute surrender is to know the secret-most mystery of life.
Osho says The disciple losing himself in the master becomes a master; he attains to his true identity. And the master is only a door: from the master he moves into God himself. That’s why in the East, the master is conceived of as a god. That is very difficult for non-Easterners to understand, why the master is conceived of as a god…because he is the door into the divine.
Zen says: Take it easy. Everything is available. All has been made available from the very beginning. Nothing is missing, except one thing: that you don’t look around. See, your anger can be transformed into GREAT love. Your greed can become sharing. Your very possessiveness becomes one day renunciation. So Zen has no condemnation. Zen simply says, find an alive Master and be in his presence. Sit silently by his side — his door is open. Your door is also open. The only difference is: he knows his door is open, you don’t know that your door is open. Looking through him — his door, his openness, his inner space — one day, suddenly the recognition arises that “My OWN door is open and has been open always!”
Zen says: Nothing has been hidden from the very beginning.
What happens with a Master when you are in his presence?
WHEN WATER IS SCOOPED UP IN THE HANDS,
THE MOON IS REFLECTED IN THEM.
WHEN FLOWERS ARE HANDLED
THE SCENT SOAKS INTO THE ROBE…
WHEN FLOWERS ARE HANDLED, THE SCENT SOAKS INTO THE ROBE…. When you come around an enlightened person, something of his enlightenment soaks your robes, something of his perfume you start carrying with you. It is a pulsation, a vibration — but eyes are needed.
That angel could see the luminous grove underneath him. If you were passing by the grove you may not have seen, because that luminosity needs some opening in you. The angel heard PRANAVA — the soundless sound, OMKAR — the whole forest singing a song, celebrating something. “Something of tremendous importance has happened. Trees have bloomed out of season!” He could see, but you may have passed by the grove and you may not have seen — because to see such things, great trust is needed. To see such things, openness is needed. To see and hear such things you have to throw your garbage that you go on carrying in your head.
My feeling is that EACH of you here has passed many times around such groves — sometimes a Buddha, sometimes a Mansoor, sometimes an Ali, and sometimes a Ramakrishna, a Raman, sometimes a Mahavir, a Zarathustra. You have passed! It is impossible that down the ages you have never come across a luminous grove — you must have done. The greater possibility is that not only once, but many times you may have come across a luminous grove — but you have missed. Don’t miss this time!
And this Guru Purnima Day is the day of all the Buddhas, all those who have become aware. In their remembrance, become aware. The grove is here in front of you. You can see that luminous light. It is here! You can hear that celestial sound; that music is happening. And you can be soaked into my fragrance. It depends on you — how much you are ready to take, how much you are willing to take, how much you are going to be with me, how deeply. You can come here just to hear my words; then you will miss the real message. You can come here full of your nonsense, your argumentativeness; then you will not be able to hear what I am trying to convey. You can come here as Mohammedans, Hindus, Jains, and you will miss me — but only you will be responsible, nobody else.
Try to understand your responsibility towards yourself. Enough you have been stumbling in darkness! When light becomes available, don’t miss the opportunity. Take the jump…. There is a famous statement of Jalaluddin Rumi: “I died as mineral and became a plant. I died as plant and rose to animal. I died as animal and I was a man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?” And that is the fear that comes when you come around a Master — the fear of dying. But listen to this Rumi’s statement: “Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? I died as a plant and became an animal. I died as an animal and became a man.”
When you die in your Master as a man, you become divine. A Master is a death and a resurrection. This day of Guru Purnima is a day of death and resurrection. It is no ordinary day — it is very symbolic. If you come to me, you come only in one way: if you come to die in me. And you will not be less by your dying — you will be more, you will be infinitely more. You will be losing nothing and you will be gaining all. This death into a Master is what makes a man a disciple. It is no ordinary relationship; it is the only extraordinary relationship in the world. All other relationships are ordinary. All other relationships are part of the world. Only this relationship is not part of the world — it takes you beyond. It is a golden bridge from the visible to the invisible, from the material to the divine, from the known to the unknown, from death to deathlessness. But… you will have to die first.
To be with a Master is to carry your cross on your shoulders. That’s why only very courageous people can become disciples. I am not here for students, I am not interested in students at all. I am only interested in disciples, those who are courageous enough to go unto this eternal voyage. Three things you need: one — listening in the mind; second — pondering in the heart; third — practising in the body. Listen in the mind. When you are listening to me — THESE WORDS ARE NOT MINE, these are the words of all the Buddhas. These words have nothing to do with me. I am no more here. I am functioning only as a hollow bamboo. These words are of all the Buddhas — past, present and future, too. Because the message is the same, it is always the same, it is an eternal message — SANATAN DHARMA. It is an eternal message.
Listen in the mind without argument. If you are arguing with me, you will miss. And I am not at a loss when you miss. I don’t lose anything. If you miss, you miss. Listen in the mind with no argument. And I am not saying believe what I am saying. Don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying believe. Just no argument, there is no need to believe. Just first listen silently like a mirror. When you come before a mirror, the mirror does not believe in you, but the mirror reflects you perfectly as you are. The mirror has no attitude about you, good or bad, beautiful or ugly — no, no attitude. The mirror does not argue. It simply reflects. Listening in the mind means: listen to what I am saying. There is NO hurry to believe. And there is NO hurry to disbelieve. That’s what I mean: don’t listen with argumentation. Simply listen.
Second: ponder in the heart. Listen, and let it sink into the heart. Don’t be in a hurry to think about it. If you think in a hurry, it will remain in the head. Let it first go deep. Sleep over it, let it soak, let it go a little deeper. Let it settle in the heart. There, ponder over, in the heart. Then don’t be in a hurry to practise it. Let it soak a little deeper. Let it reach into the body, into your GUTS, and then it becomes a practice of its own accord.
These are three stages of being with a Master.
Source:
Listen to complete discourse at mentioned below link.
Discourse Series: Zen: The Path of Paradox, Vol 3 Chapter #1
Chapter title: Now Sit Down and Listen
1 July 1977 am in Buddha Hall
References:
Osho has spoken extensively about the ‘master-disciple relationship’ inmany of His discourses. More on the subject can be referred to in the following books/discourses:
- The Book of Wisdom
- Come follow to you Vol.4
- Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega Vol. 2, 3, 6
- The Wisdom of the Sands Vol.2
- From Personality to Individuality
- From the False to the Truth
- Beyond Enlightenment
- Light on the Path
- The Osho Upanishad
- The Secret
- Tao: The Pathless Path, Vol 1, 2
- Zen: The Diamond Thunderbolt
- The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 3, 7
