the-osho-upanishad-09

Osho,
What are the roots and what are the wings of a meditator?
Meditation is a way of settling in oneself, at the innermost core of your being. Once you have found the center of your existence you will have found both the roots and the wings. The roots are in existence, making you a more integrated human being, an individual. And the wings are in the fragrance that is released by being in contact with existence. The fragrance consists of freedom, love, compassion, authenticity, sincerity, a sense of humor, and a tremendous feeling of blissfulness. The roots make you an individual, and the wings give you the freedom to love, to be creative, to share unconditionally the joy that you have found.
The roots and wings come together. They are two sides of one experience, and that experience is finding the center of your being.
We are continuously moving on the circumference, always somewhere else far away from our own being, always directed toward others. When all this is dropped, when all objects are dropped, when you close your eyes to all that is not you – even your mind, your heartbeats are left far behind – only a silence remains.
In this silence you will settle slowly into the center of your being, and then the roots will grow on their own accord, and the wings too. You need not worry about them. You cannot do anything about them. They come on their own. You simply fulfill one condition: that is, to be at home – and the whole existence becomes a bliss to you, a benediction.

Osho,
What is the difference between the ancient Upanishads and the one which is happening here and now?
There is no difference. There cannot be, because it is not a question of time.
It may have happened thousands of years before, it may happen thousands of years in the future. The time is irrelevant; the question is of the happening.
Can you ask the same question, “What is the difference between the ancient lovers and the modern lovers?” Love knows no time. Whether the love was in ancient times or today or in the future, time is simply not relevant. Love is the same.
An upanishad is a love affair – a love affair between a master and a disciple, a love affair where the master is ready to share. He is just like a raincloud, ready to shower. And the disciple is ready to receive – open, with no windows closed, holding nothing back – totally available. Whenever a disciple is totally available and the master is overflowing with his ecstasy, the upanishad happens.
There is no difference in the ancient Upanishads, in this upanishad, or in the future upanishads. An upanishad is a phenomenon which is beyond time, beyond space. Don’t call the Upanishads ancient, because that word ancient makes them related to time. Don’t call this upanishad modern, because time has no place as far as the phenomenon of upanishad is concerned. There is no ancient love, there is no modern love.
And neither is it confined to space: it can happen anywhere, any time; the only necessity is that somebody is overflowing with blissfulness and somebody else has the guts to be available to this overflowing bliss, is not afraid.
People are always afraid of unknown things, and this is the most unknown. People are always afraid of the strange, and this is the strangest experience possible. People are always afraid of the mysterious, and this is the last word in the world of mysteries.

Osho,
Are the Upanishads and Zen the same?
They are not. The upanishad is a happening between the master and the disciple, Zen is the happening in the disciple himself. The master may help him, may create devices, show the path – but Zen is basically an individual experience. It is not like love. It happens in your aloneness. It is not a relationship.
Upanishad is the greatest relationship. It cannot happen if the master is alone. He may be full, overflowing; but it cannot happen because the receiving end is absent. It cannot happen if the disciple is alone, however open, however available – but available to what? Open to what?
Upanishad is a more human phenomenon than Zen. It is closer to human reality because it is closer to love. It can be understood more easily, because it is very difficult to find a person who has not tasted something of love in some moments. There is some experience which can be used to explain to him what happens when a master and a disciple dissolve into each other. So the first thing: the upanishad is a totally different phenomenon than Zen.
And the second thing: the experience is the same. The paths are different, but finally – whether you have followed Zen and reached alone to the peak, or you have allowed a master to hold your hand in deep trust and reached the peak – it does not matter how you reach the peak. Your vehicles can be different, your means can be different; the peak is the same. The experience of finding oneself and simultaneously finding the whole secret of existence is the same.
So on the one hand I say they are totally different. On the other hand I say they are exactly the same. And there is no contradiction in these two statements. The paths are different but the ultimate finding is the same.
Zen is an arduous path, a hard and long way. But it is up to you – there are people who love to go the hard way. The simple way does not appeal to them; the hard way is exciting.
Upanishad is not a hard way. It is a very simple and relaxed experience. It is the shortest way possible to the ultimate reality.
But there are different kinds of people in the world; they all need different paths to reach to their fulfillment. These are the two extremes. In this sense, Zen and upanishad are as far away from each other as two points can be; and yet, the final conclusion is always the same. One is a hard way, a long way, but a few people need it.

One mystic in Sri Lanka was dying. He declared that the next morning he would be dying. He had thousands of followers; they all gathered. He was old, almost ninety years, and he had been teaching these people for sixty years. And the Buddhist teaching is a very hard way. But the mystic, at the point of death said, “I have been teaching you the way I have followed, the way that has helped me to attain to the ultimate. But I now know that there is a shortcut in reaching to the ultimate too – so short that if somebody wants to go with me, stand up! I am leaving.”
People looked at each other, about whom they thought, “These are very religious people, perhaps they may stand up. As far as I am concerned, there are so many problems.”
Nobody stood up. Only one man raised his hand.
The old man said, “Even that is a great consolation to me. But why are you not standing up?”
He said, “Because I don’t want to go right now, but I want to know where the shortcut is in case at some time I want to go. Why bother with the hard and long way? That’s why I just raised my hand. I cannot stand up. As far as the hard way is concerned, we know – because for sixty years you have been teaching it. And at the last moment… You are a strange fellow; at least tell us where the short way is!”
The mystic said, “The short way has a condition: it is only for those who are ready to go right now. I give another chance – stand up!”
Even that man’s hand went down, and there was utter silence. And everybody was looking at each other…
The old man died.

People want the way to be hard and to be long because this is a good excuse for avoiding – because the way is so long and so hard, life is so short and so many problems, so many responsibilities; so much has to be done. The children are growing up, they have to be married. The business is not good – or the business is so good that this is not the moment to meditate.
Upanishad is the shortest possible way. Neither has the disciple to do anything nor has the master to do anything. Doing is not part of it.
I have quoted the great Zen poet Basho many times to you: “Sitting silently, doing nothing, the spring comes and the grass grows by itself.” As far as upanishadic methodology is concerned, even doing nothing is not needed. And what are you going to do even if the grass grows by itself? Whether you sit silently or not, it will grow. Whether you sit silently or not, the spring will come. You are unnecessarily taking the credit for the grass growing by itself – because you have been sitting silently, doing nothing! Even when you were not, the grass used to grow; when you will not be here the grass will continue to grow. It has nothing to do with you. The upanishad does not even ask you to sit silently doing nothing. Even doing nothing is a doing.
The whole approach of the upanishad is so totally different. The disciple is available, the master is overflowing, and something transpires. Nobody is doing it. Nobody can take the credit for it. Hence I say the way of the upanishad is the most mysterious way in the whole human consciousness and its evolution.
Zen is mysterious, but yet it can be understood. Upanishad is simply mysterious; there is no way of understanding it. You can have it, you can dissolve into it, but there is no question of explanation – only experience.
All over the world there have been mystery schools. In Greece, Pythagoras founded mystery schools. In the religion of the Jews, Baal Shem founded a mystery school called Hasidism. In China there is the mystery school of Tao, and when Buddhism reached China a new mystery school, a chain of new mystery schools opened, ch’an. The same mystery school, ch’an, reached Japan with the name zen. But the word zen or ch’an, or the Buddhist word jhan are all different forms of the Sanskrit word dhyana.
In India dhyana has been known for centuries – that mystery school was there before Gautam Buddha ever meditated.
There was the mystery school of Tantra. There were the mystery schools of different types of Yoga.
I have gone through all these schools not as a scholar – that is not my approach – but as an experiencer. I can say to you: nothing rises higher than the mystery school of upanishads – because it is the shortest. Nobody is expected to do anything, and yet the miracle happens.

Osho,
What is the difference between religious scriptures like the Gita, the Koran, the Bible, etc., and the Upanishads?
First, the Upanishads are not religious scriptures. They are poetic expressions of those who have known.
They are not Hindu, they are not Buddhist, they are not Jaina; they don’t belong to any religion. They are the experiences of individuals sitting at the feet of their master – and when the experience overwhelmed them they danced, they sang, they uttered strange statements. And these were not made by their minds; it was almost as if they were just hollow bamboos. Existence has made them flutes; it was existence itself singing a song. That’s why no upanishad carries the name of its writer.
The Koran belongs to Mohammed, the New Testament belongs to Jesus Christ, the Gita belongs to Krishna, the Dhammapada belongs to Gautam Buddha; Ishavasya Upanishad belongs to no one.
Tremendously courageous people – they have not even signed their names. In fact it would have been ugly to sign because they were not the writers, they were not the composers, they were not the poets. The poetry was coming from above, from beyond. They were simply vehicles.
Because of this, you will be surprised also to know that the whole Koran consists of Hajrat Mohammed’s statements, the Gita consists totally of Krishna’s statements, but each upanishad consists of many peoples’ expressions – anybody who had reached to that beyond and allowed the beyond to descend through him.
The Upanishads have not bothered to collect the words of one person. Each upanishad contains the words of many enlightened people, and without any signatures. Words have never been so golden. Words have never taken such high flights, and yet the people who allowed them to happen have remained anonymous. This is so beautiful, immensely beautiful, because they knew, “We have nothing to do. We have just been passages. Something has come through us.”
One upanishadic rishi, one upanishadic seer – the name, of course, is unknown – is reported to have said, “If there is any mistake in my statement, that is mine. And if there is any truth, I cannot claim that it is mine. The truth belongs to the universe; the mistake belongs to me, I was not such a good vehicle.” These were rare people, unique human beings, the very salt of the earth.
I would like my sannyasins to become this very salt of the earth again.
It is because these are not religious scriptures, that’s why there is no religion following the Upanishads. These are the very few books which contain the greatest quantity of truth and have remained unorganized. There is no organization around them; there cannot be – because of the very methodology there cannot be a church, there cannot be a pope or a shankaracharya.
I love someone, but I cannot make an organization of it. And when I leave this body I will leave in heritage my wealth, my house, my land, everything – but I cannot leave my love in heritage.
These Upanishads are pure love, so there have been no successors, no priests, no followers. These books are the most pure in the whole world, absolutely without any pollution. They have remained just the way they were expressed.
Nobody has fought because of the Upanishads.
Mohammedans have fought because of the Koran. Hindus have fought because of the Gita. Christians have fought because of the New Testament. Everybody has been fighting for their religious scripture.
Who cares about the poor Upanishads? But it has been fortunate that nobody has bothered about them; they have remained as pure as when they were given birth to, as innocent as ever.
The statements in the Upanishads – there are one hundred and twelve upanishads; the statements in the Upanishads cannot be made into dogmas for the simple reason that the statements are not rational, logical. They are contradictory.
One upanishad says, “I do not know who created the world.” You cannot make a religion on such a statement: I do not know who created the world. Then what do you know? – because that is going to be the basis of any religion: the belief in God, the belief in creation. But like an innocent child, the upanishadic seer says, “I do not know who created the world.” And this is closer to truth: nobody knows who created the world. Nobody knows whether anybody ever created it – it may have been always there. And it seems most scientific that it has always been there, and it will always remain there.
The whole idea of creation is stupid. But if you drop the idea of creation you have to drop the idea of a creator God. Then you have to drop the idea of the priest and the pope and the prophets and the messiah and the saviors and the reincarnations of God. There is no God. Then from where are reincarnations happening?
I have heard…

A crazy man had applied to be given a job on a ship. He was interviewed. The captain and the high officials of the ship asked him, “If the ocean is in a turmoil and there is danger to the ship, what are you going to do?”
He said, “Simple…”
Whenever a situation like that happens, they drop heavy loads by the side of the ship, to keep the ship anchored. Those heavy loads are called anchors. So the man said, “No problem. I will just drop a big anchor.”
The captain said, “But if another great turmoil comes – because these things happen in a chain, a great wave – what you are going to do?”
He said, “The same – another anchor. And if the third one comes, another anchor, and the fourth one comes, another anchor.”
The captain said, “Stop! First tell me, where are you getting these anchors from?”
The man said, “You are just as crazy as I am. From where are you getting all these turmoils? I go on getting the anchors from the same place.”

One fallacy, one false statement, one fictitious idea gives birth to another fictitious idea.
First you ask who created the world; immediately God comes in – one anchor. But somebody is bound to ask, “Who created God?” – another anchor; a bigger God created this smaller God. But the questions cannot stop. You have started a fictitious thing; now there is no way to stop. You will have to go on creating bigger gods, and the person will have to go on getting bigger anchors.
The Upanishads are not religious scriptures. They don’t give you any belief system. They don’t tell you to believe in anything. They don’t have any God, they don’t have any creation. All that they have is a deep harmony between the master and the disciple. And that harmony brings such peace, such serenity, such tranquility, that all questions disappear – not that you found an answer, no. Just all questions disappear. The question of finding an answer does not arise. You don’t have any question, how can you have an answer?
So the Upanishads don’t have any answer for anybody. That’s why people have not taken much note of them, because they don’t have any answer for you. You have questions, you want answers.
The Upanishads don’t have any answers. They are ready to take you into a different dimension of existence, to transmute you. It is a change of consciousness. And suddenly all doubts, all questions, everything disappears and what is left behind is just a beautiful peace.
Hence, every upanishad ends with om shantih, shantih, shantih. That word shantih means absolute silence. Beyond that silence there is nothing, and there is no need. It brings total contentment, absolute blissfulness, ultimate ecstasy.
The Upanishads are the only free, absolutely free books as far as religious books are concerned. All religious books are imprisoned – Hindus have their prisons, Mohammedans have theirs, Christians have theirs. Nobody has dared to imprison the Upanishads for the simple reason that those Upanishads are of no use as far as the priesthood is concerned, creating organization is concerned, exploiting people is concerned, giving false beliefs is concerned. Those Upanishads are dangerous; it is better to keep them aside.
The moment a book becomes a holy scripture it becomes poisoned. Then it is nothing but a strategy to make more and more slaves.
The Upanishads cannot be condemned for doing any ugly thing to humanity. They have given their fragrance, they have blossomed, they have shared their joy – and with such beauty, such clarity; and without any loopholes, so that it is impossible to make them religious scriptures. They are truly religious. They are not scriptures, they are truly spiritual.
In the whole of history there are only a very few books which have remained uncontaminated by the cunningness of human mind.
The Upanishads are those few books.

Osho,
What is your business?
My business is to keep many people in business! All the religions have been teaching people to renounce the world. My business is to help people not to renounce the world. Be in business!
All the religions, without exception, are against life. My business is to destroy the conditionings that have been forced upon you against life; to give you a joy in life, to make you love life, sing, dance – because life is a celebration.
My business is to create this whole existence into a celebration.