Question 2

Yesterday, you said that mind is reality, dream is reality. then why do gurus like you take the trouble to teach us that mind is the only barrier, mind is the only obstacle?

 

 

Gurus and disciples are mind phenomena. Because your mind needs gurus, there are gurus. You create them. Because you want to be taught, there are teachers. You need them.

 

This is a game. When I say marriage is a game, don't think that I would not say that `guru and disciples' is not a game. It is a game. Some people enjoy it, so they play it. If you enjoy it, play it deeply; if you don't enjoy it, forget it. But this is one of the most beautiful of games. It goes even deeper than marriage.

 

It is one of the most beautiful, most refined of games -- and only when a culture reaches the peak does this dame develop, never before. So, really, only in India has the game developed. The game of the guru and the disciple came into being here. Now the West is discovering it for the first time because now the West is reaching to a peak. This game is the most luxurious. It is not ordinary, so only people who can afford it can play it. And if you know that this is a beautiful game and you enjoy it, you can play it. But don't get serious about it. And disciples can be forgiven if they are serious, but when teachers are serious it is absurd. It cannot be forgiven if they are not even aware that this is a game.

 

In reality all games disappear, but for the mind, games exist. By this I am not saying that you should stop playing, I am only saying that you should become aware that this is a play and then if you enjoy it go on playing it. If you don't enjoy it, then stop. Once you become aware that everything in life, every relationship, is a sort of game, you are already free, because you are in bondage only because of the seriousness. You are in bondage because you think everything is so serious. Nothing is so serious. But it is difficult to conceive of this whole life as a game.

 

Why is it so difficult? Because then the ego falls flat. If everything is a game, the ego cannot stand. The ego needs food. Seriousness is the food. It feeds on it. So when you become a disciple, if you are just playing, your ego cannot get strong through it because you know that this is a play.

 

What is there to be so egoistic about? People start thinking that they are disciples of a very great guru. The guru may not be great or he may be great, that is not the point -- but the disciple thinks, "I am the disciple of the greatest guru." That becomes a vitamin and the ego grows on it, becomes stronger.

 

That's why disciples go on fighting about gurus. No one can believe that his guru is number two, he is always number one. And it is not about whether he is number one or not -- that is not the point -- it is because you can be number one only if your guru is number one. The ego of the disciple depends on the height of the guru. If someone says something against your guru, why do you feel so hurt? Your ego is hurt. YOUR guru means YOUR ego, embodied, and if someone says something against your guru, you cannot tolerate it. It is impossible because it is a direct hit at your ego.

 

But for disciples it can be tolerated. They are ignorant and whatsoever they do, they will do wrongly. That is agreed upon. But so-called gurus are also playing the game very seriously. They cannot laugh; it is impossible for them to laugh about the whole game. A guru is really a guru when he knows that the whole thing is a game and that in the game he is helping to make you more aware. And a moment will come when you will also laugh, a moment will come when you will be able to look back -- and then you will feel very grateful because for you it was so serious and for the guru it was never anything. But he was playing the game so seriously with you and making every effort -- as if he was leading you somewhere.

 

Remember, it is `as if' because there is nowhere to lead you to. You have to be here. So all the efforts which appear to be leading you somewhere are just devices. You cannot be led anywhere. You are already at home, you have never left it. You are rooted in the reality, in the truth. So all these games of leading, guidance, guru-dom, are to bring you to situations where you will find everything that you wanted to find already there.

 

But you cannot understand non-seriousness. The ego doesn't know that language. Every religion is born as a play, and every religion becomes a church, very serious, deadly serious. Every religion is born as a dance, as a song, as a festivity, and then everything goes dead and serious. Religion cannot be serious really. It must be ecstatic. It must be the highest peak of bliss. How can it be serious?

 

Christians go on thinking and believing that Jesus never laughed. Look at Krishna -- you cannot find any common ground between them. Not that Jesus was like that, but Christians have made him serious because only around a serious Jesus is a serious church possible. And then the whole game of popes -- so serious, so burdened. Jesus must have been a very light-hearted man, laughing, enjoying, eating, drinking, dancing. He must have loved life very deeply.

 

That was the sin. That was the reason why he was crucified. Those who crucified him were very serious. They were the old established church. Really, they did not crucify Jesus -- they crucified the festivity of him. And there would have been no Christianity if he had not been crucified, because he was a very joyous man. The moment Jews crucified him the whole thing became very serious. Death became the point. And the figure on the cross is of course very serious -- dead. And Christianity arose around the dead body and the cross. The cross became the symbol -- not Jesus laughing in a village, drinking at a party, eating with friends, or staying in a prostitute's home. No, they were not to become the symbols. The cross became the symbol, and with the cross, seriousness -- dead seriousness. And because of that cross and the crucified Jesus, Christianity went against life. All that is alive became sin.

 

And every religion goes on doing this in its own way.

 

Those who are very sophisticated will not do it in this way, they will do it in another way. We have not transformed Krishna -- India is a very sophisticated land, it will not do such a thing -- but we have never taken him to our heart. He is just a myth, beautiful.

 

The Gita became more important than Bhagvad. Krishna's life is not so important for Hindus, but his message delivered on the war field is very important. Why? Because it is a serious thing. A war field is nearer to death than to life. Krishna's life is very much alive, but that has become a myth and nobody bothers about it. His few words uttered on the war field have become more important than his whole life. And then there are pundits who go on explaining that his life is just symbolic, it is not real. His playing with the GOPIS is not real -- GOPIS are just symbols of senses, not real. They are not real women of bone and flesh, no. GOPIS are not women, they are symbolic. And pundits are very efficient in doing such tricks. They say that Krishna is the soul and the GOPIS are the senses of the body -- the senses are dancing around the soul. This is a sophisticated country. They kill Krishna, they crucify Krishna, but in a very sophisticated way. His festivity is killed; it becomes symbolic, meaningless. And his whole real life is pushed aside.

 

He was dancing with real women, but that is shocking because we cannot conceive of Krishna dancing with real women. We can allow him to dance with symbolic women but not with real women. We will be shocked. Life shocks us. We have become so dead that anything alive shocks us.

 

Every religion is born in festivity -- and when the festivity dies know well that the religion is dead. Whenever a new religion is born, all the old religions will be against it because again the festivity will be there. Just as when a child is born -- every child is born as a player, festive, alive, celebrating, irresponsibly celebrating, not believing in the future, believing in the here and now -- the whole society will be against him; the whole society will try to put him right before he goes astray. He must be put on the right track.

 

The same happens with every new religion. So when I talk of meditation as a dance, or when I talk about SANNYAS as an inner celebration and happiness, an affirmation of life, of course all those who belong to old traditions will say, "You call this SANNYAS?" And in a way they are right because whatsoever they have been believing that SANNYAS is, is not this. They have been believing in dead men -- the more dead, the more they say, "Now this is real renunciation." When life has been renounced, they call it SANNYAS -- but I call it SANNYAS when life is being lived in its totality.

 

But this is how it will be always. When I am no more, you will turn it into a serious thing. You will give explanations of what the real meaning is. But the real meaning is always obvious, there is no need to give any explanation. All explanations are to explain away -- to bring in something which was not there.

 

Gurus, disciples, awakened ones and ignorant ones... this is a great play, a cosmic play. Ignorant ones need awakened ones; awakened ones cannot play solo, alone -- they need ignorant ones. But the master knows that this is a play and is not serious about it.

 

-Osho, "Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, Vol 2, #28, Q2“