What is sannyas?
Sannyas is a journey; by and by you will come to know what it is. Every day it will take new colours and new shapes and new forms. It is not like a dogma that you can say what it is. It is an unfolding journey. Every day you will find new things happening and every day you will find a new definition of sannyas. But you can remember a few things, that sannyas is a love of life. Sannyas is a search for god in life and not against life. Sannyas is a celebration of this moment... for no other reason, just for the sheer joy of it, without any motive. Whenever you bring any motive into it you belittle it.
Sannyas is exuberance, an overflowing... the dance of a peacock, the call of a bird or just the laughter courageously with no fear, without holding anything back. It is going into each moment totally, it is loving whatsoever happens. Even if death comes, a sannyasin will be ready to embrace it, to kiss it. Sannyas is not a philosophy but a very radical vision: of living life in a totally different way from what people have become accustomed to. But definitions will go on changing and there will be as many definitions as there are sannyasins. And who am I to define it?
You will define it by your living, by your experiences, by your insight, but again, that definition will be applicable only to you and to nobody else. So I cannot give you a definition as people can about a Christian or a Hindu or a Mohammedan; I cannot give you that kind of definition. I cannot tell you 'These are the beliefs that a sannyasin believes in'; there are none! I give no rules, no discipline. I simply give you freedom because I believe only in freedom. And then wherever it takes you... I help you to be courageous and fearless, to go into it wherever it takes one to go with the river. It will take you into dangerous situations, it will take you into the mountains, into the valleys, into the ocean. But that is the only way to live! I exalt life. Life is god to me and because life is god to me, love is worship, love is prayer.
But you will have to find the definition. I send you on the adventure; you have to discover. Every day you will find something happening. Just remain courageous; don't be afraid of public opinion, that's all. Public opinion is very destructive; it paralyses people, it cripples them. Remain free and remain yourself. And next time when you come you will bring a few definitions of sannyas!
- Osho, "The Sun behind the Sun behind the Sun, #9"
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There is no need to be so hard and so harsh. Through love, the transformation is possible. That's why I call their attitude more poetic, more human, and more worthy. The Bauls say you can live attached in the world and yet be unattached; you can love a woman and yet be a witness; you can be in the marketplace and yet be beyond it. You can live in the world and be not of it.
This vision is my vision also. That is the meaning of my SANNYAS: be in the world but don't be of it. And, nothing is of worth if it is not done through love.
- Osho, "The Beloved, Vol 1, #1"
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Sannyas is the beginning of getting out of the law of karma. Because sannyas is the beginning of awakening. Sannyas is your effort to get out of the rut in which you have lived for many lives. Sannyas is the insight that 'Enough is enough, and I should get out of the routine life, I should get out of the mechanicalness of it. I should get out into a clearness, into clarity. Enough I have roamed in the jungle of unconsciousness, in the dark night of the soul. I should search for the dawn, for the morning.'
It is the search for the sun, it is the flight towards the sun. That's why in the East we have chosen ochre as the color for sannyas - it is the color of the sun, the sunrays, the mornings. A search for light, a search for awareness, a search for enlightenment. Once you start becoming more and more aware, less and less will you be part of the law of karma. And once you have enjoyed and tasted a little bit of freedom then nobody can force you back into the prison.
You will open your wings and you will fly towards the sun.
- Osho, "This Very Body the Buddha, #5, Q3"
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Good! You have been coming so long to me and waiting for this moment so long... but if one waits, the moment comes. All that is needed is a deep, deep trust and patience.
The modern man is lacking in them. He cannot trust, he cannot be patient; he is in a hurry. He wants to do everything immediately. But there are things which grow very slowly. In fact, they take eternity to grow, because they are eternal things; they are not seasonal flowers.
And sannyas is one of those eternal things. It is not a question of one life; it takes lives. Slowly slowly one gets into a totally different kind of vision. It is a change of your total perspective, of your style of life, of your ways of thinking, of your ways of seeing, of your ways even of being.
So be patient. Much is going to happen. The more patient you are, the sooner it can happen. Don't be in a hurry. In hurry things are delayed.
- Osho, "Snap your Fingers, Slap your Face and Wake Up, #13"