[A sannyasin says: I feel very much depressed when I come to the ashram – I don’t know why. But I come because I feel very much love for you and I want to do all the meditations. It seems all the people around here are very jealous. … There are rules and regulations everywhere.]

 

 

Rules and regulations are imposed by me. Nobody else is imposing them. If you love me, you love my rules and regulations also. You don’t understand. Without rules and regulations, you won’t be able to even see me.

 

For fifteen years I lived without rules and regulations, and there was always a crowd of thousands of people around me. I saw it was not possible to help anyone this way. I had become a marketplace.

 

Even one afternoon when I was asleep, I opened my eyes and saw somebody on the roof – he had removed a tile. I said, What are you doing?’ And he said, ’I was curious, and because I couldn’t reach you, I came this way.’

 

Without rules and regulations it will be just as if there are no rules and regulations for the traffic. You are a driver – you will understand what will happen. There will be no possibility to go anywhere; all the roads will be blocked. This much is possible – that here you can talk with me. You can have your problems solved, I can suggest something to you. It is possible because of rules and regulations, otherwise not.

 

So don’t take it the wrong way. It is to help you. The day I decide I am not interested in you now, not interested in helping people, I will remove all rules and regulations – and then you will repent. I will be happy with this – because this is a big problem, and then there will be no problem for me – but then I will not be of any help to you. So don’t take it wrongly. This is your misunderstanding.

 

- Osho, “Nothing to Lose But Your Head, #4”