Sannyas is
"This will be your new name... and the beginning of a new life, a new birth. Sannyas, to be meaningful, has to be a new birth - less than that is not helpful. And it is a question of attitude - birth is a question of attitude. If you take the decision that the past is finished and you close that account completely, you will not go on thinking about it any more; you will not again and again reshuffle it. Because that which is gone is gone, and it is simply stupid to waste any more time on it - as it is you have already wasted too much on it....
So be completely finished with it... stop looking backwards. Many people are living like that. Their life is in a mess because of this mechanism: we go forward and we look backward. We are not looking where we are going, and we are looking somewhere where we cannot go. Unless your vision falls exactly right in front of you, you will miss the goal.
It is as if a person is driving just by looking in the rear-view mirror. It is very dangerous, because you are driving forward and you are looking backward.
That's how the mind functions, because the mind is memory, the mind is past; the mind has no future. Consciousness belongs to the present and the future - the mind belongs to the past. If you become alert, there is no past; then you are in the present and there is a great opening for the future.
The present can function in two ways: either it can be a closing of the past or it can be an opening for the future. The present moment is most vital. If you look back, it simply goes on closing the past, and you go on wasting the present moment in thinking about the past, that which has been. You go on wasting - crying for the spilled milk.
Once you disconnect yourself from the past, once you make a clean break - as if in one stroke of the sword you simply cut yourself and then you don't look back - the future opens to you all the possibilities, all the possibilities.
Sannyas is just a change - a radical change - in the direction of your vision. So let it be a true, authentic beginning. And the beginning requires only one thing: that you stop wasting time with the past. Whatsoever was, was; good, bad, it is irrelevant. Don't repent for it because there is no way to undo it. Don't go on cherishing it, because there is no way to repeat it. So if it has been good, it is gone; if it has been bad, it is gone.
And carry this idea always. because each moment a new past is created. Always get rid of the past: don't accumulate it. That is the basic requirement for becoming a sannyasin - that a person starts living in the moment, in the present and becomes open to the future. There is great thrill and great adventure enters into your life."
-Osho, "What Is Is, What Ain't Ain't, #6"
The world is only a school to learn the art of love. When you have learned the art of love, you have to direct your love energy towards the divine. You have to become loyal to God, you have to become surrendered to God.
And that's what sannyas is. It is a rainbow bridge between the known and the unknown, the visible and the invisible, the gross and subtle. One part of it is rooted in the world, in the earth; the other part reaches to the highest sky. You cannot even see the other part, the other end of the ladder.
Sannyas is earthly and unearthly, worldly and otherworldly, materialistic and spiritualistic. That's my definition of sannyas; hence I call it neo-sannyas. The old sannyas, the old idea of being a monk, was purely otherworldly; it was not rooted in the earth. Because it was not rooted in the earth it never became really alive, it was never nourished. It was always suicidal, life-negative, life-denying.
I am bringing a new vision of sannyas: life-affirming, life-nourishing, rooted in the earth and yet reaching towards the sky. I call it the rainbow bridge. It contains all the colors of the rainbow, it has the whole spectrum. It is not one-dimensional, it is multidimensional.
My sannyasin has to live life in its totality. Love life, trust life! And life is the only master, the real Master. I can only indicate the way; I can only show you how I have attained to life. You are not expected to imitate me or to follow me. You are just expected to listen and understand, and then to go on your own way, following your own insight.
-Osho, "The Rainbow Bridge, #4“
Sannyas simply means becoming a song of bliss. Man has been taught down the ages to be miserable, because the miserable man is easily oppressed, exploited. The miserable man becomes impotent. The miserable man cannot revolt: he has no spirit to rebel. He is so depressed, he cannot trust himself, he loses all self-confidence.
And that has been the strategy of the politicians and the priests: destroy people's confidence in themselves, then they are bound to be ready to be victims of leaders and priests. In fact they will be asking for leaders, they will demand to be led because they cannot stand on their own. They have no confidence in themselves.
Sannyas is a revolt, revolt against this cunning strategy. It is revolt against the whole of human past. And the best way to rebel is to be blissful; misery makes you a slave then bliss makes you an individual. The blissful person is ready, always ready to sacrifice everything for his bliss. He has something to live for and something to die for. He is rich. He is so rich that he can even afford death. But he will not yield; you can destroy him but you cannot enslave him. And only this new climate can bring a new man on earth.
Sannyas is not only something religious. It is something total. It covers your whole life, your whole being. It is a new vision of living, a new style. The most fundamental thing is: learn to sing, dance, celebrate. There is no need to think of God: one who can sing is bound to find him; one who can dance has already found him, because he comes as celebration. Celebration is his body.
-Osho, "The Rainbow Bridge, #22“
Truth is so tremendously beautiful that even its appearance can bring victory; what to say about its substance? Even its shadow sometimes brings victory.
The lie always pretends to be true. As far as the pretension continues it can win. The moment it is exposed. the moment it is known that it is a lie, it collapses, and with it collapses all the investment, all the energy, all the time, that was devoted to it. People live in lies, their whole life is invested in lies, and when death comes they stand naked before death, exposed to the very core. They have not known a single moment of victory, of fulfilment, of ripening, of richness. of contentment; because they are all parts of being victorious.
Remember it -- not to invest in any lie. They are very promising and they are cheap. Truth is difficult to attain, but once attained it is yours. Even death cannot take it away from you; it cannot be stolen. you cannot be robbed of it.
Put your total energy into being true, authentic. Just be that which you are and risk everything for it. And don't put any energy into any lie, because that is a sheer wastage, it is stupid.
This is what sannyas is all about: changing the gestalt. In ordinary life we go on pretending. We go on creating more and more masks; we go on becoming more and more artificial, arbitrary. Whatsoever is needed in the moment, we pretend to be that; we go on compromising. We never look far ahead; we are very short-sighted. We live just for this moment without having any vision of what life should mean to us. So We go on reacting. Our reactions are haphazard and the ultimate result is a mess. People end in a mess, that is the misery, and the reason is simple: they invest in lies.
A sannyasin is one who has decided not to invest in lies any more. The decision to live an authentic life is the fundamental of sannyas. It will be difficult because you will be living with people who are all inauthentic. If you try to be authentic you will be constantly in conflict; but that conflict is beautiful. That conflict is not destructive, remember; it is creative. it is a challenge. In fact it creates fire in you. It makes you more alive, it makes you more intense; and the more intense and the more alive you are, the more integrated you become.
Truth integrates, truth consolidates. and ultimately truth wins. If one wants to be victorious in life -- and who does not want it? -- then one should befriend the truth and disconnect oneself from all kinds of lies. In the beginning it is difficult, but as you start moving with the truth it becomes more and more easy. Life becomes really simple finally because truth is simple; lies are complex. In the beginning only is it arduous but the end is very sweet.
Buddha used to say to his disciples: The lie is sweet in the beginning and bitter in the end; the truth is bitter in the beginning and sweet in the end.
So don't go for the beginning; think of the end, think of the ultimate, the final result, the final outcome. of your life. Once you start meditating on the ultimate outcome of your life, you will become truthful, authentic. And that's a great revolution, the only revolution there is.
-Osho, "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet, #27“