DIE O YOGI DIE-Live spontaneous

[Note: This is a translation from the Hindi Maran Hey Jogi Maram, which is in the process of being
edited. It is for research only.]
DON’T SPEAK TOO EAGERLY, DON’T WALK WITH A STRUT, PLACE YOUR FEET WITH CARE.
GORAKH RAJA SAYS, DON’T BE STIFF, LIVE SPONTANEOUSLY.
THE FULL POT IS SILENT, THE HALF FULL SOUNDING SPLASHES
WHEN THE SEEKER IS READY, O AVADHUT, THE MASTER SPEAKS FRUITFULLY.
NATH SAYS, KEEP YOUR DIGNITY, DON’T INSIST ON DEBATE.
THIS WORLD IS A GARDEN OF THORNS, PLACE EACH STEP ALERTLY.
MOVING WITHOUT PATH, BURNING WITHOUT FIRE, BOUND BY A THIRST FOR AIR,
WELL KNOWING GORAKH SAYS, FIGURE THIS OUT O LEARNED PUNDITS.
[These couplets are not in the ’sutras’ given for the discourse, but added lines of Gorakh.]
SWAMI, GOING TO THE FOREST HUNGER ARISES, GOING TO THE CITY MAYA ARISES.
STUFFING YOURSELF, SEXUAL DESIRE ARISES, WHY WASTE THIS BODY BORN OF
PASSION?

DON’T ATTACK YOUR FOOD, DON’T DIE OF HUNGER, CONTEMPLATE THE SECRET OF
BRAHMAN DAY AND NIGHT
DON’T OVERWORK, DON’T LIE AROUND, THUS SAYS GORAKH DEVA
OVER EATING STRENGTHENS THE SENSES, DESTROYS CONSCIOUSNESS, FILLS THE
MIND WITH SEX.
SLEEP OVERTAKES, DEATH CLOSES IN THE HEART ENTANGLED.
THE MILK DIETER MONK’S MIND ON OTHERS’ COWS, THE NAKED MONKS ALWAYS NEED
FIREWOOD.
THE MONK IN SILENCE DESIRES A COMPANION – NO DEPTH WITHOUT THE MASTER’S
SHELTER.
HIS FRAGRANCE AND SWEETNESS PERVADE THE WHOLE WORLD.
THE TRUTH IS, ONLY A MASTER WHO HAS SEEN, CAN HELP YOU SEE.
LISTEN VIRTUOUS ONE, LISTEN INTELLIGENT ONE, TO THIS CALL OF NUMBERLESS
SIDDHAS.
IN THE DISCIPLE’S BOWING, THE MASTER IS FOUND, AND THE WORLDLY NIGHT IS OVER.
DIE, OH YOGI, DIE! DIE, SWEET IS DYING.
DIE THAT DEATH GORAKH DIED AND SAW.
Man lives in ego. Ego is only a mask, not your being. Ego is not your reality, it is your acting. Ego
is not your truth it is your belief. In a drama, when someone is cast as Rama he doesn’t become
Rama, in the same way you are cast here as something which you are not. A vast drama goes on.
When you were born you didn’t come with a name. A name was given to you and you became that
name. You didn’t come with any knowledge when you were born. You were taught and made to
study, you went to school, to college. Many thoughts were poured into your brain. You were thrown
into knowledge. Then you began to think it is your knowledge. Nothing in all this is yours. Everything
is borrowed, everything is stale leftovers. Your name is not yours, your knowledge is not yours. The
intelligence that you think is yours is not yours – it too has been constructed from others. If someone
says you are very beautiful you fall for it. And if someone says you are simply incomparable you fall
for that. If anyone praises you, you wrap it up to keep it. If anyone insults you you’re hurt.
Your personality is constructed from others opinions. It is the creation of other hands. Others have
brought their brushes and painted you. And if you accept this as your being you will never be able
to know yourself.
Gorakh says, DIE, OH YOGI, DIE! Let this false form die, so you can experience your real form. Let
your mask fall away. It is good if this clothing burns to ash, so your truth, naked, can manifest in

its naturalness. Until the ego is gone there will be no experience of being. And one who does not
experience his own being, his soul, how will he become conscious of the soul of existence?
Soul is a drop, existence is the ocean. If you experience the drop you begin to experience the ocean
too, because the ocean is hidden in the drop. And what else is the ocean than combined drops?
You are a ray, god is the sun. And the sun is nothing but the combining of rays. God is the
combination of all of us. God is the totality of all of us. You go out searching for god but you
don’t destroy the ego. You have not yet recognized even this one ray but you go in search of the
sun? You will wander much... Right now you are false, whatever you find will also be false. The false
cannot reach the truth, the false will reach only greater falsities.
The ego is false, a drama. Whatever you do while this drama is running will be illusory. Make vows,
do ascetic practices, control, fast; abandon your home and go to the jungle. Nothing will come of
it. Your ego will receive new ornaments from all of these. It will become more beautified, better
arranged. Your ego will not die, it will get more life, become more nourished. And until the ego dies,
there is no experience of being. To experience being the ego must be lost.
DIE, OH YOGI, DIE! DIE, SWEET IS DYING.
Gorakh says, the death I am telling you about is very sweet. If one dies this death, life is nothing
but sweetness. Truth is very sweet when you experience it. It is the taste of nectar. It spreads in
the body and heart, you are filled with it. It begins overflowing. Certainly one who has received the
truth is himself fulfilled. But droplets of fulfillment also start falling on those who are near him, lightly
showering on those who sit in his shelter. But one must die – this is the condition.
If the false dies, the truth is born. Truth is present within, but imprisoned in a wall of lies. Clouds of
lies have hidden the sun of truth. It has not been destroyed. What lie can destroy the truth? It is not
lost either, it has been forgotten. It is like a veil over someone’s face, the face is not destroyed, it is
veiled, it is simply not visible.
We have hidden our being behind the veil of ego. People think there is a veil covering the mystery
of existence. They are wrong. The veil is on your eyes. The veil is covering you, existence is
completely unveiled. Existence is naked all around you but you need eyes to see it.
Today’s sutra is about how this sweet death happens. What is the process? What is its essential
discipline? ... sutras about this. How can we die? What is Gorakh’s death like? DIE THAT DEATH...
Everyone dies. But there are differences in dying. You will die, Buddha also dies, but there is a
difference between your dying and Buddha’s. You will die only from the body and save your ego,
your lie, taking it with you – it will adorn your mind like a treasure. Your ego will enter a new womb.
You will die, your mind will not die. And nothing changes until the mind dies. Masks change, houses
change but the journey is the same, just going round and round like an old ox in a grist mill. You
have died many times, and you have been born again many times. Hardly have you died when you
start being born again.
The ego hides all your diseases inside itself, enters a new womb, and starts taking a new body. But
the desires are old, the diseases are old, the miseries are old, the ruts are old. You move ahead,

get tired again, fall again, die again, this has happened many times. Buddha also dies, but there is a
difference between his dying and your dying. Your ego does not die, it only abandons the body. He
dissolves his ego, burns up his ego. Before the body is abandoned he abandons his ego. One who
dies before dying, experiences the ultimate life. Then he has no need to come back again, because
the very thread that used to pull him back has died.
Being has no birth, no death. The ego is born, only the ego dies. And one who is released from ego
is eternal. Then he doesn’t die, he isn’t born. One living, changeless, beyond time. Then you are as
big as the sky. This is your nature.
DIE THAT DEATH GORAKH DIED AND SAW.
This is why he says, don’t think that I am talking about ordinary dying. Everyone dies ordinary
deaths: birds and animals die, plants die, mountains die. Gorakh is not talking about this death, he
is talking about a special death – die in samadhi, die in meditation. Let the ego go and dissolve into
meditation. As long as the ego exists one cannot dissolve in meditation.
What is the secret of the ego’s living? If this is understood, then the art of its dying will also be
understood. The ego lives in extremes. Extremes are the life force of the ego. Perhaps you have
never considered it, thought it over, looked at it with awareness that the abode of the ego is in
extremes. More, more, more... this is the ego’s way of life. Ten thousand rupees should become
one hundred thousand, one hundred thousand should become one million. More, more, more... ego
lives in this insanity. The ego lives in extremes. And the extreme can be of anything, whether it’s
money or knowledge, power or renunciation – but more.
One who has done a thirty day fast thinks next time he will do a forty day fast. One who has fasted
forty days thinks next time he will fast fifty days. What is the difference? One who has forty million
rupees thinks it should become fifty million. What is the difference? One who has started eating
only twice a day instead of three times, thinks when should I begin eating only once? One who eats
only once thinks, how can I be finished with eating even once?
A youth was brought to me. He wanted to know how he could live only on water. He didn’t want
to take anything else, because anything else is indulgence. How to live only on water? He had
withered. He had come to India from America in search of someone to tell him the secret of living
on water. I said, ”If I tell you the secret how to live on water will you be satisfied?”
He closed his eyes and thought. He was a thoughtful youth. He kept on sitting for about half an hour.
Then he said, ”No, then I would ask how can one live on air.” Only on air, why even this nuisance of
water?
Such is the desire of the mind, the running of the ego – for more. What direction you run makes
no difference. The ego lives in extremes, whether it is the extreme of money or renunciation, the
extreme of indulgence or yoga. Stop in the middle and the ego will die. This is why Buddha calls his
path majjhim nikaya, the middle path, exactly in the center.
A youth, Prince Shrona, was initiated by Buddha. The people in the capital could not believe it. No
one had ever imagined that Shrona would become a bhikkhu, a monk. Buddha’s monks could not
Death is Divine 62 Osho
CHAPTER 3. LIVE SPONTANEOUSLY
believe it either, their eyes were popping out when Shrona came and fell at Buddha’s feet and said,
”Initiate me, make me a bhikkhu.”
Shrona was an emperor, and a famous emperor. He was famous for indulgence. His royal palace
had the most beautiful women of that era. His palace had the finest wines, gathered from every
corner of the world. Celebration went on all night long, he slept all day. He was so drowned in
indulgence that no one had ever thought he could imagine becoming a sannyasin. When he climbed
the steps he didn’t have railings put up, but had naked women stand there. He would climb the stairs
putting his hand on their shoulders. He made his house into a heaven. His palace was such that
gods in heaven would be jealous.
The bhikkhus asked Buddha, ”We can’t believe it, Shrona being initiated!”
Buddha said, ”Whether you believe it or not, I knew he was going to take sannyas. To tell you
the truth it is for him that I came to the capital today. What goes to one extreme will go to the other
extreme too. Indulgence is one extreme, he did that completely. Now there is no way to move further
there, no way to satisfy the ego. He has whatever is possible in that world. Now a wall has come
in front of the ego, where can the ego go now? The ego demands more. Now there isn’t any more,
so the ego must return, must go back in the opposite direction. When the pendulum of a clock goes
all the way to the right, it must return towards the left. Then it goes all the way to the left and has
to return again to the right. When the pendulum of a clock is going to the left, remember that it is
gathering momentum to go to the right. And when it is going to the right it is gathering momentum
to go to the left. One who has a subtle vision will be able to see this. One who goes into extreme
indulgence will one day go into extreme yoga.
Buddha said, ”Wait a few days, you will see the truth of what I am saying.”
And people saw. The other bhikkhus walked on a well paved road, but Shrona walked through
thorns and brush, his feet became drenched in blood. When the sun was hot the other bhikkhus
sat in the shade of the trees. Shrona would stand in the sun. The other bhikkhus wore clothes,
he used only a loin cloth. And it seemed as if he was eager to drop the loin cloth too. Then one
day he did drop it. The other bhikkhus ate once a day, Shrona ate only once in two days. The
other bhikkhus ate sitting down. Shrona ate standing up. The other bhikkhus kept a bowl, Shrona
didn’t keep even a bowl, only his hand... he ate only the food that fit in his hand. His beautiful body
shrivelled. Previously people used to come from miles around to see his body. His face had been
very charming, immensely beautiful. After he had been a bhikkhu for three months anyone who saw
him would not recall that this was Emperor Shrona. His feet became blistered, his body became
black, he shrivelled and became just bones. And he went on disciplining himself.
Buddha said, ”Do you see bhikkhus, I had told you that what goes to one extreme, will go to the
other extreme! It is difficult to stop in the middle, because the middle is the death of the ego.”
Then Shrona stopped eating. Then he stopped taking water. He continued from one extreme to
another. It seemed he would be a guest on this earth only two or three more days, then die. This is
when Buddha went to his door, to the tree under which he had built a hut to rest in. He was lying
down. Buddha said to him, ”Shrona, I have come to ask you something. I have heard that when you
were an emperor you had a passion for playing the veena, and that you were very skilled at playing

it, that you took great interest in the veena. I have come to ask you a question: when the strings of
the veena are very loose, will music arise or not?”
Shrona said, ”What are you talking about? You know it well, if the strings are very loose music
cannot arise, they cannot even sound a twang.”
Buddha said, ”Then I ask you this: if the strings are tightened too much will music arise or not?”
Shrona said, ”If they are tightened too much the strings will snap, music will not arise, only the sound
of snapping strings will arise. How can music arise from the sound of an instrument breaking?”
Then Buddha said, ”I have come to remind you. Just as you have experienced the veena, I
experience the veena of life. I say unto you, if the strings of life are very tight music does not
arise, and if the strings of life are very loose, again music does not arise. The strings need to be in
the middle Shrona, neither too tight nor too loose. The greatest skill of a musician is in bringing the
strings exactly to the middle, this is what is meant by tuning an instrument.”
This is why when you see Indian classical music, it takes half an hour or an hour to tune the
instruments. Tuning instruments is a great art. To bring the strings to that middle point where it
cannot be said that they are too loose or too tight, one needs great skill, a very sensitive ear. Only
a connoisseur of music is able to tune.
”The veena of life is exactly the same,” Buddha said, ”It is enough Shrona, wake up now. I was
waiting to let you come to the extreme. At first your strings were very loose, now you have tightened
them too much. Music didn’t happen then, nor does it happen now: are you experiencing samadhi?
What is all this that you are doing? Previously you stuffed yourself, now you are fasting to death.
Previously you never went barefoot, if you went anywhere the road was covered with velvet. And
now if the path is good you will not move on it. You move in the brush, in the thorns, on rough,
rugged paths. Perhaps previously you had never drunk water but only wine. Now you are afraid to
drink even water! Now you want to avoid water too. Previously at your house incomparable meat
dishes were prepared, now you are not ready even to eat dry bread. See how you have moved from
one extreme to the other? That extreme was unmusical, this too is unmusical. I call out to you: Now
is the time, come to the middle.”
Tears began to flow from Shrona’s eyes. He became alert. He saw his situation.
Today’s sutras are sutras for bringing the strings of the veena to the middle. And as soon as someone
comes to the middle, the ego dies – it cannot live. The ego is a disease, the ego can exist only if
your mind is sick. The life of the ego comes out of your being sick, and extremes are the secret of
your being sick.
I am also saying to my sannyasins, I give you the lesson of the veena strings of life – the middle.
Be in the world as if you are not in the world. The world will not control you, nor is there any need
to renounce it and escape. Neither become indulgent nor a yogi, stay in the middle. Don’t run after
money, nor renounce money and run away, stop in the middle, exactly in the middle, where there are
no extremes. There you will find music resounding! The veena comes to life. The unstruck sound
starts echoing.

DON’T SPEAK TOO EAGERLY, DON’T WALK WITH A STRUT, PLACE YOUR FEET WITH CARE.
DON’T SPEAK TOO EAGERLY...
All those who have written commentaries and annotations for this sutra give it the meaning: don’t
speak without thinking. That meaning does not seem right to me. Linguistically it is correct: you
should not immediately speak, when someone says something you shouldn’t answer abruptly, you
should think it over then answer. Linguistically the meaning is right, but existentially the meaning is
not right. Replying after thinking about it means that the answer will not be spontaneous, it will be
thought out – in the next line Gorakh says:
GORAKH RAJA SAYS, DON’T BE STIFF, LIVE SPONTANEOUSLY.
Their interpretation does not fit with living spontaneously. Living would become very unspontaneous.
Then the answer you give would be thought out and arranged, not spontaneous.
A spontaneous reply, spontaneous speech is something entirely different. It is not related to thinking.
Whenever you think it over your answer becomes unspontaneous. Someone asks something, before
answering you examine everything: what you should say, what you shouldn’t say; what will make a
good impression, what will make a bad impression; who will gain from it, who will be harmed by it. If
you speak after thinking over and calculating all this your expression will no longer have spontaneity.
Your expression will become false. Spontaneous expression comes from no-thought.
DON’T SPEAK TOO EAGERLY...
Others say this means to speak thoughtfully. And I say it means speak from no-thought, speak
wakefully. To speak abruptly indicates unconsciousness. Stay aware inside, let the lamp of
awareness keep burning, let your attention be alert. Don’t speak thoughtfully, speak from no-thought.
Note these two expressions – speak ’thoughtlessly’ and speak from ’no-thought.’ Thoughtlessly
speaking means saying whatever comes into your mouth and repenting afterwards.
I was a guest one night at a friend’s house. Anand Swami an old disciple of Mahatma Gandhi
was also a guest at the house. We were in the same room in the evening. Everyone in the house
gathered. A conversation started. I asked Anand Swami what had impressed him about Mahatma
Gandhi, because he had dedicated his whole life to Gandhi. He said, ”The first impression Gandhi
made on me was when Gandhi came to India from Africa. He gave a statement to the press in
Ahmedabad. I was working as a newspaper reporter, a journalist. In his statement he said some
vulgar words against the English. I took the vulgar words out of his statement and the report that
was given in the newspapers contained no swear words at all. The next day Gandhi called for me,
slapped me on the back and said, ’Well done. This is how reporting should be. You did well to
remove the vulgar words.’
”By slapping me on the back this way,” Anand Swami told me, ”Gandhi won me over.”
I told him, ”This is all backwards. Did you try another experiment to see if Gandhi didn’t use vulgar
words and you added them to his statement, whether or not he would slap your back even then?
That would be something!
Death is Divine 65 Osho
CHAPTER 3. LIVE SPONTANEOUSLY
”It means that Gandhi spoke too eagerly. DON’T SPEAK TOO EAGERLY... It was spoken in
eagerness, in excitement, with zeal. It was spoken in the flow of his speech. Then afterwards
he must have regretted it. He must have thought retrospectively that the vulgar words I spoke, the
swearing I used, should not have happened. They are not appropriate for a Mahatma. He must
have regretted. Then you took out the vulgar words. You protected Gandhi’s ego, so he slapped
your back. In this way your ego was fed: ’He slapped my back. I am quite some journalist, a great
journalist.’ Still the statement that was published was false. And if Gandhi were a lover of truth, he
should have said to you to publish the statement exactly as he had said it. When I have said it why
make changes before publishing? Gandhi was not interested in truth. Gandhi’s talk about truth has
become worthless. He patronized a lie. What was not said was published, what was said was not
published. This is giving protection to a lie. You protected his ego; he seduced your ego. This is
how you supported each other.”
I told Anand Swami, ”If there are swear words in my statements they should be published, because
when I have said it, I have said it. And if later I find out that I didn’t want to say it, then it means that
at the time of speaking I was was not in my senses, I was unconscious.”
Speaking has its own intoxication. Many times you will say something that you didn’t want to say.
But it is not a question of whether you wanted to or not. You said it. It was lying there somewhere in
your unconscious.
”The statement that you published, Anand Swami,” I said to him, ”gave shelter to a lie. Now for
centuries it will be said that Gandhi never swore. You will be responsible for it. You were to publish
just what you had written down, just what was said – just like it was. If you are to help Gandhi change
then going back and correcting will not be needed. He should speak with discrimination. He should
speak with awareness. Gandhi spoke thoughtlessly, understanding came only later. He must have
thought, ’What have I said?’ He must have looked back, he must have felt the consequences could
be bad. It would be good if somehow these words could be taken back.”
It happens every day. One day a political leader says something and the next day he refutes it –
”No, that’s not what I said, or that’s not what I meant, or the meaning has been distorted, or it was
just an off the cuff remarks and he back’s out.
It happens every day, you see it daily in the papers. It is a surprising thing. He remembers afterwards
because when he is considering, measuring its effect he finds that it would have been better if it were
never said, saying it can have such and such a result. He was speaking in such a hurry that there
was no chance to weigh what the consequences might be. It was said hastily in his speech. Later
sitting quietly, he considered and figured out the consequences. What meanings could be stretched,
how many opinions would be influenced to agree, how many will be influenced against, what will be
the consequence in the political race. The move has been made, what will it mean finally in the whole
game of chess? When he stops and thinks all this the idea of changing it arises, so he changes it.
But this change indicates only one thing – he spoke thoughtlessly.
I have heard, in England a student was taking an oral examination in a medical college. He had
passed all the other subjects, the oral exam was the last. If he passes this he will receive England’s
highest degree in medicine. Three doctors were examining him. They asked him, ”If you have such
and such a patient with such and such a disease and you are to give these medicines, what amount

will you give?” He quickly said the amount. All three doctors laughed. They said, ”Okay, you can go.
The exam is over.”
He was just going out the door when it came to him, ”That amount would take his life, it is poison.”
He returned and said, ”Pardon me, I would give him half of what I had said.”
But the doctors said, ”The patient has died, who are you coming back to tell? What’s said is said.
This is not merely an exam. If there were a patient and you gave him this dosage the patient would
have died, who’s pardon are you asking? Come next year, prepare yourself better. You cannot just
come back and correct your statement like this. If we change it, it would be false, the patient has
already died.”
Don’t speak thoughtlessly – giving it this meaning does not mean to speak thoughtfully. In my vision
its meaning is no-thought. Where there is thought there will be error. Where there is no thought,
the mind is completely quiet, like a mirror, silent, empty, where meditation has awakened – there is
never any mistake. There is no need to turn and look back. There is never any repentance.
This is why I give it the meaning: speaking attentively, what Buddha called right remembering.
Speaking wakefully. Speaking alertly. Not after thinking: is there an opportunity for thinking, is there
time or not? Where is there time in life? Many times you want to say good things but can’t say them,
later you remember.
The great Western thinker Victor Hugo was coming out of a sitting room. Three or four other writers
were coming with him, conversing. One writer expressed something. It was such a lovely statement
that from Victor Hugo’s mouth came out, ”If only I had said that!”
A third writer said, ”Hugo, don’t worry. You will say it. Some day or other you will say it. If not
today you’ll say it tomorrow. It will come out of your mouth, don’t worry. You will say it in other
circumstances, but you will certainly say it. You cannot leave it alone.”
But what is said is said. You may also have felt many times that you could have said that. It is as if
someone has stolen the words which you were about to say, stolen the words that had come to your
lips. And sometimes you feel that if only you had held back just one word, how much trouble you
would have avoided. Because sometimes a small word can change a whole life. A small curse you
have given may change your whole life, and a sweet statement falling from your lips may make your
whole life new, nothing can be said about it... just a small statement.
The famous American actress Greta Garbo was very poor in her childhood. And she used to work
in a barber shop lathering soap on people’s beards. She had never thought she would become such
a great actress, a world famous actress. One day a movie director came to the barber shop to get
a haircut and she lathered soap on his face. While she was lathering – he was a movie director –
looking at her face in the mirror, just one word slipped out of his mouth, ”Beautiful... what a beautiful
face.”
And this small statement became a revolution in Greta Garbo’s life. A girl getting two cents for
lathering beards died the owner of millions of dollars – just this small statement. It was not said after
thinking it over, it came out spontaneously. But Greta Garbo was reminded of her beauty. For the

first time she looked at herself in the mirror with great deliberation. Daily she had stood in front of
the mirror, but she just went on lathering people’s beards. She had never noticed. She had never
thought that she was beautiful, or that she could be beautiful. The poor girl didn’t have the capacity
even to think of it.
Greta Garbo asked, ”Really, you think I am beautiful?”
The movie director said, ”Not just beautiful, but one of the most beautiful women. And if you want
I will prove it, because I am a movie director. I am making a movie. I can put you in it. You have
a photogenic face, that will look so beautiful in the picture. I have been working with pictures my
whole life.”
This is why it often happens that some person, film actor or actress when you meet them directly
doesn’t seem so beautiful: he has a photogenic face. In a photograph they appear beautiful whether
face to face they look beautiful or not. These are two different things. Many times people are very
beautiful when you meet them face to face, but don’t look so beautiful in a picture.
Greta Garbo ascended the skies. A small incident, an accidental word changed her whole life.
Otherwise perhaps she would have died still lathering soap on people’s beards. A small word can
give rise to such ripples: can make a friend, can make an enemy; can give life beauty, can make it
ugly.
DON’T SPEAK TOO EAGERLY...
But the meaning I give it is not speak thoughtfully: in thought is calculating, cunning, cleverness,
politics. I say, speak from no-thought, from a feeling of peace and silence. Let it arise in silence from
deep within. And then what you say will be integral, because it arises out of peace. Right speech
and you will settle down. Otherwise the ego takes you from one extreme to the next.
DON’T SPEAK TOO EAGERLY, DON’T WALK WITH A STRUT...
Don’t walk stamping your feet. Don’t make noise in your life. Pass by so that no one knows. Remain
absent. This is god’s way of being. God is present everywhere, but he is unknown. What is his art?
DON’T WALK WITH A STRUT... Don’t stamp your feet. Don’t go on pointing your finger at yourself
saying look at me.
God is present as an absence. He is present. He is visible to those who also become absent, who
themselves become completely silent. Only in their eyes is his face reflected.
DON’T WALK WITH A STRUT...
People move with such pride. They walk arrogantly, uselessly arrogant.
Have you noticed? When you are alone on the street you walk in one way. If the path is deserted,
no one in sight, you’re out for a morning walk, you move in a certain way. You won’t strut. But then
suddenly two people come on the road, and your step changes. You watch tomorrow, your step
will change. When two people enter the road, your step will change. Now you move in a different

way. And if two beautiful women step onto the road then your stride will change even more. You will
quickly dust yourself off and start proudly twisting your mustache, straighten up your tie, put your hat
at a slant. You will immediately start strutting along. Even without mustache people proudly twist. It
is not necessary to have a mustache to stand proud. Pride is a separate matter. It can be shown in
any manner, some with a mustache, some with a tie, but show pride.
People walk as if the whole world is watching them, as if everyone’s eyes are on them.
Strutting means, everyone’s eyes should be on me. Why? Because the ego demands attention from
people. And the more attention ego gets from others the more it is nourished. The more people
greet you on the street, the more people agree that yes, you are something, the more your ego is
strengthened. Go out on the street one day, if no one even looks, no one even says hello, if the
whole village has decided to treat you this way, to pretend you don’t even exist – you will be very
unhappy. You will come back tired and defeated. You will say, what happened? Your strutting has
had no effect.
You watch small children, they play this game every day. There is no great difference in grown
ups. From the youngest to the oldest there are nothing but children. If you want to watch grown
up children, go to Delhi sometime – children of sixty-five, seventy, seventy-five, eighty, eighty-three.
Someone is prime minister [83 year old Morarji Desai]. Someone is home minister, someone is
defense minister, and they go on chasing after each other, like small children. Like children fighting
on a garbage heap playing king of the mountain. And if one stands on top then the others go on
shoving and a great match of pushing and shoving ensues. Each one twists his mustache in pride.
And each one says to himself, ”I will overpower each and every one of them and stay up. Look how
I threw this one down, or look how I put that one flat on his back.”
From young age to old, people remain children. As long as you attract attention, as long as you say
look at me, you are a child, you are childish.
You experience it in children every day. If there are children at your house, when a guest comes you
tell the children a guest is coming, just be quiet. Then the children cannot remain silent. They would
otherwise be sitting quietly in the corner playing with their dolls, but as soon as guests come the
children come and get in the way. They start asking irrelevant questions... I want ice cream, I am
hungry. You are surprised, until now the child was sitting silently, what has happened to him? The
child has become a politician. He is saying. ”Will these guests go without looking at me? I will show
them, I will tell them that I too am someone. This house runs according to me, I will demonstrate it.”
If you tell a child something when you are alone with him he will accept it. If you say it in front of
four people he is not willing to accept it, he stubbornly refuses. This is why if you take a child who is
well behaved at home to the market he will cause an embarrassment right in the middle – I want to
buy this, I want to buy that. And what is your embarrassment? The embarrassment is that in front of
four persons you cannot say that I cannot buy it, I don’t have the money, my pocket is empty, don’t
torture me. He is waiting for this opportunity to show you...
Small children can easily push your buttons. Then when you are older you play on these buttons a
little more subtly, a little more cleverly. But there is no difference. You have not grown up. The ego
never grows up, the ego is always childish.

... DON’T WALK WITH A STRUT...
You have seen children, stamping their feet, making noise, throwing things on the floor. You have
seen women who throw plates in the house at the smallest provocation, drop pots and pans, fill the
whole house with noise. ... DON’T WALK WITH A STRUT... That woman is saying I will show you.
Mulla Nasruddin’s wife was running after him – carrying her rolling pin. Mulla got scared and slid
under a bed. The wife was fat and couldn’t get under the bed. Mulla sat proudly under the bed.
Then somebody knocked on the door, some guest came. The wife quickly hid her rolling pin and
said to Mulla, ”Come out from there, a guest has come, come out quickly.”
Mulla said, ”Let the guests come, today I will show you who runs this house. I will sit wherever I
want.”
The wife said, ”Not so loud!”
But Mulla said, ”Am I afraid of anyone? Who is master of this house? Today it will be decided – you
or me.”
The wife said, ”Shhh!!! Quiet. Come out from there.”
But by this time Mulla’s pride had mounted. He said, ”Ask forgiveness, ask ’please’.”
She had to ask please. The guest is at the door and Mulla is sitting under the bed, will it look good?
And if he begins to say something sitting under the bed, he starts to speak... she had to say please.
DON’T WALK WITH A STRUT...
Gorakh is saying, speak meditatively, walk silently. Walk as if you are not. Walk so no one knows it.
Don’t walk like a street band playing. Don’t beat your drum.
... PLACE YOUR FEET WITH CARE
Place your steps so slowly that there is no sound. Come and pass through this world like a gust of
wind comes and passes through. No one will get even a whisper of when you came, when you left.
Pass through like a silent, empty sound. And you will know god. And you will recognize god.
Those who are eager to show the world become actors. Out on the street you will find mostly actors.
Before leaving their homes, people spend so much time getting ready. Women spend hours standing
in front of the mirror. Even the mirror gets tired! The husband is sitting out on the street honking the
horn and the wife is still in front of the mirror thinking shall I wear this sari or that sari?
I was a guest at someone’s house. The husband was taking me to a meeting, he was honking the
horn, it was already late. And the wife angrily looked out the window and said, ”I have told you a
thousand times I am coming in a minute.” If she is going to say it a thousand times, then it will take
hours just to say it ... ”But this constant horn honking is killing me. Can I put on a sari or not?”

In the evening when we came back, I asked her, ”At any rate you were going to have to put on a
sari. Why did it take so long?”
She said, ”How could it not take long? Come, I will show you – I have three hundred saris. One has
to think it over, consider, which one to wear, this one or that. This has some good qualities, that has
other qualities. So it is a problem. Sometimes I put on one then have to change it. So it takes a long
time.”
People are actors. This is why other peoples’ wives seem more beautiful than our own wives,
because we see our own wives in their natural condition but you see others’ wives on stage – in full
costume, all made up...
Mulla Nasruddin says that for birth control no other method is needed, just wives shouldn’t use
make-up. It is sufficient. Nothing else is required. This is enough to make the mind disinterested.
Remaining spontaneous and natural, enough...
DON’T SPEAK TOO EAGERLY, DON’T WALK WITH A STRUT, PLACE YOUR FEET WITH CARE.
Don’t take the world as a stage and don’t get lost in acting here. There is truth also inside – beyond
acting. You will know that truth, you will be able to turn towards it, when in your mind you are no
longer concerned that others give you attention, whether others pay attention to you or not. When
you want others to pay attention to you, you have to pay attention to them. It is a mutual give and
take. When will you give attention to yourself? You will have to pay attention to others if you want
them to pay attention to you. If you want people to ask how much you paid for the sari you are
wearing you will first have to ask about their sari: How much? What a beautiful weave? Where did
you buy it? Then the other will ask you. Naturally, it is a world of give and take. If you give attention
to others, others give attention to you in response, because they also want to receive attention, the
same as you. We go on decorating each others egos – when will you give attention to yourself? You
will miss knowing that which is waiting within you – and that is the highest wealth, it is the highest
bliss. God is hidden in that consciousness. If you taste that consciousness, you will taste eternal
life.
DON’T SPEAK TOO EAGERLY, DON’T WALK WITH A STRUT, PLACE YOUR FEET WITH CARE.
Somewhere else Gorakh has said:
THE FULL POT CARRIED SILENTLY, THE HALF FULL SOUNDING SPLASHES
WHEN THE SEEKER IS READY, O AVADHUT, THE MASTER SPEAKS FRUITFULLY.
THE FULL POT CARRIED SILENTLY...
A pot filled with water is still, it does not splash.
THE FULL POT CARRIED SILENTLY, THE HALF FULL SOUNDING SPLASHES
One which is half full splashes. A filled water pot doesn’t make noise, a half filled pot makes noise.
The more noise you make and stamp your feet, the clearer is the message that you are false. The

more you walk like a street band playing, walk raising your flag... ’let our flag remain on high’ ... the
more you show that you are false, you are half... THE HALF FULL SOUNDING SPLASHES. One
who knows, who has had a little experience of life becomes reserved, becomes deep. There is no
sound, there is silence around him, a quiet music...
THE FULL POT CARRIED SILENTLY, THE HALF FULL SOUNDING SPLASHES
WHEN THE SEEKER IS READY, O AVADHUT, THE MASTER SPEAKS FRUITFULLY.
You make meaningless noise. What else is your speech? There is nothing in your speech because
you don’t know anything, what do you have worth saying? But people talk so much, so much
nonsense is said. Other people are dumping rubbish in your ears, you are dumping rubbish into
others’ ears, rubbish heaped upon rubbish. Pay close attention, ninety percent of what you say the
whole day is completely worthless, if it weren’t said it would be okay. ... THE HALF SOUNDING
SPLASHES if one which is half filled does not splash what will it do? It creates much noise. People
go on talking. The whole world is full of talk: unneeded, meaningless talk.
Gorakh says: WHEN THE SEEKER IS READY... One who knows will speak only to those whose
eagerness to know is clear. A master speaks only to one who is a potential master. He doesn’t
speak to each and everyone. It is no use speaking to everyone. A master sits only with those who
show a glimpse of being a potential master. A true master speaks to true disciples. He doesn’t
speak to each and everyone.
I am asked why aren’t arrangements made for everyone to come and listen here? There is no need
for everyone to come here. I speak to those who have potential. I speak to those who are eager,
who are thirsty.
WHEN THE SEEKER IS READY, O AVADHUT, THE MASTER SPEAKS FRUITFULLY.
Then there is some gain in speaking. One who has become enlightened speaks to those who will
become enlightened, then there is some gain, otherwise it is just meaningless nonsense.
GORAKH RAJA SAYS, DON’T BE STIFF, LIVE SPONTANEOUSLY.
Don’t be an egoist, live naturally, such a small teaching but this is the greatest teaching. Gorakh says,
only this much I say to you, if you can understand this, if you can accomplish this then everything
will happen.
... DON’T BE STIFF, LIVE SPONTANEOUSLY.
Live spontaneously – what does it mean to live spontaneously? Don’t live through calculations,
live out of innocence. Trees are spontaneous, birds and animals are spontaneous, only man is not
spontaneous. Where does this unnaturalness come from? I display to people what I am not. I
will prove I am what I am not – this is where unnaturalness arises. I am poor but I will make an
impression on people of being wealthy. I am ignorant but I will give people the idea that I know. I
am nobody but I have a great desire to speak, to be somebody – that ego may someday be fulfilled.
So you go on telling people you are what you are not. Inside one thing, outside another. With this
deceit you have become unnatural.

You can be spontaneous when you drop this trip of the ego. When you say I am like I am – bad
then bad, good then good. I am just as god made me. I will not needlessly put on a veil and hide
myself. Now your situation is like a wound that you have put a rose flower over and hidden. So you
have become unnatural. The wound is within, a rose flower is placed over it. Pus is forming inside.
And because of the rose flower the wound cannot heal, it doesn’t receive the sun light, does not get
fresh air.
Expose yourself exactly as you are within. Then you will be spontaneous. Drop your fear. What’s
the fear? That people think badly of you? What is the harm? If people won’t pay attention to you,
will not respect you, what is lost? What do you get from their respect?
NATH SAYS, KEEP YOUR DIGNITY, DON’T INSIST ON DEBATE.
Take care of your being. NATH SAYS, KEEP YOUR DIGNITY... Gorakh Nath says, take care or your
soul. Don’t get into useless arguments, I am this, I am that.
DON’T INSIST ON DEBATE.
What you are you are. God made you this way. Look after this consciousness.
NATH SAYS, KEEP YOUR DIGNITY, DON’T INSIST ON DEBATE.
THIS WORLD IS A GARDEN OF THORNS, PLACE EACH STEP ALERTLY.
Here there are great gardens of thorns. Very attractive gardens. From afar they seem flowers. When
they prick, you will know they are thorns. From afar they give the illusion of sweet music, but when
you come close, when you are trapped, there is trouble. Fish too are caught, seeing the bait. The
hook inside the bait is not visible to them either. Others praise you, they are setting bait. There is a
thorn in this bait, and now you are caught.
This is why flattery has so much power in the world. If you tell the dumbest jackass how intelligent
he is, how learned he is, the donkey believes it. The donkey doesn’t question: me, learned and
intelligent? He believes it because he wants to. You have said what he was thinking. There is a
saying that at the right moment you will call a donkey your father. And the donkey will believe it. And
he knows within that he is a donkey and he cannot possibly be your father. But the believing mind
says believe it, why are you passing up a chance like this? If you tell a crow he is a sweet singing
cuckoo the crow will not deny it. If you flatter him too much and he gets excited then he will caw,
caw and prove he is a crow. But he will think that he is sweetly calling out: ’kuhuu-kuhuu’.
This is why flattery has so much influence. If you flatter someone he will be ready to do anything,
any job can be done. You also are taken in by flattery, move alertly.
PLACE EACH STEP ALERTLY...
THIS WORLD IS A GARDEN OF THORNS...
There are many thorns here. Flowers cover up, thorns are inside. You go to grasp a flower and are
pricked by a thorn, then it is difficult to get free. This is how people fall into greed, anger, ego – and
they become unspontaneous.

GORAKH RAJA SAYS, DON’T BE STIFF, LIVE SPONTANEOUSLY.
And pride is a wide road. Don’t think that it is only emperors that are filled with ego, a beggar too
has ego. Beggars also have egos.
I have heard there was a beggar who came daily to Mulla Nasruddin’s lane, for many days he didn’t
appear. When he saw him in the market Mulla asked, ”You are not seen these days, you used to
come daily to harass me. You have harassed for such a long time, for so many years that it has
become a habit. Many times I have thought you haven’t come, what has happened? You didn’t
come to the door and rap your staff.”
He said, ”I gave the lane to my son-in-law.”
Mulla said, ”Meaning?”
He said, ”That lane was mine. There no other beggar can cause any mischief or I will break his
limbs.” He was a cripple, dragging himself along, saying, ”I would break their limbs, no beggar can
cause mischief there. That lane was mine. I gave it as a dowry – my daughter got married!”
Mulla had thought the lane was his, today he found out who the lane belongs to. Don’t think that
only emperors have egos, beggars too have egos. They too have their kingdom, they too have their
boundaries. If you enter into their territory, you will be in difficulty. If you beg there you will have to
pay taxes to them. If a new beggar begs in the lane of an old beggar he will have to pay taxes.
Naturally, you might never have thought about it, you never knew which beggar you belong to. There
is a beggar on the street who has bought you. He has rights. He has a license to beg from you. If
any other beggar begs then he will have to pay taxes. You didn’t know that you have been sold, that
the beggar on the street is your master and has rights over you.
Don’t think that only the rich have egos. Don’t think that only the worldly have egos. Yogis have big
egos, renunciates have even bigger egos – they have renounced so much! DON’T BE PROUD...
Scholars have big egos.
Gorakh has said:
MOVING WITHOUT PATH, BURNING WITHOUT FIRE,
WELL KNOWING GORAKH SAYS, FIGURE THIS OUT O LEARNED PUNDITS.
He says, listen you reciting pandits, you parroting pandits. What do you have? But you move
arrogantly. Some rubbish, some borrowed stinking words!
WELL KNOWING GORAKH SAYS...
Gorakh says, I have known from experiencing myself and then I found out that you have only words
and nothing else.
... FIGURE THIS OUT O LEARNED PUNDITS.

O well-read pundits, O so-called pundits! Figure out what I am saying, come to your senses.
MOVING WITHOUT PATH... There is a movement that is without path, where there is no path
and the goal arrives. Do you know anything about it? By reading and reciting you have become a
pandit, do you know the path that doesn’t exist but the goal comes?
MOVING WITHOUT PATH, BURNING WITHOUT FIRE...
Do you know the happening that occurs from a fireless burning? I know a fire like this, that doesn’t
exist yet it burns. I know a death, that doesn’t occur, but it happens. I know a goal that has no path
to reach it. I know that which is sitting within you. What can be the path to reach there? A path is to
take you far away. If god was distant there could be a path. God is you, so what path? You are god
himself.
MOVING WITHOUT PATH...
This is why if you stop you will reach.
... BURNING WITHOUT FIRE...
And this ego is false. To burn it no real fire is needed. If you understand this then the fire of
understanding is enough, and it burns.
Gorakh says, my teaching is very direct – of spontaneity. As Kabir has said, based on Gorakh: ”O
Seeker, the natural samadhi is best.”
SWAMI, GOING TO THE FOREST HUNGER ARISES, GOING TO THE CITY MAYA ARISES.
He is saying, O swamis, O escapist sannyasins! If you go to the jungle hunger will catch you. Then
sitting in the jungle twenty-four hours a day you will think of food. Who knows if anyone will give it.
Will anyone bring it or not? And if you go to the town you will be caught in maya, caught in illusion,
caught in attachment, caught in desire. You will see a beautiful woman passing by and you will be
fascinated. You will see a beautiful house and desire will arise – if only it were mine! If you stay in
the city maya will catch you. If you go to the jungle to be saved from maya, hunger catches you.
What will you do? You are in great difficulty.
STUFFING YOURSELF, SEXUAL DESIRE ARISES...
If you over eat, really stuff yourself, sex desire will be created from this stuffing, from the extra food. If
you eat more than is necessary, it creates desire inside of you. Why does it create desire? Because
you will not be able to contain the extra energy you have taken into yourself, it wants to go out, it is
superfluous, it is not needed, it is burdensome.
What is desire? A way for energy to go out. What is sex? A way to throw out energy. When you
have too much energy that you cannot contain, it will begin to flow out on its own. It has to flow out.
A container can be filled with only as much water as it contains. If it is filled more, it will overflow.
Desire is the energy that overflows your vessel, this is why if you eat too much you will be caught
in sex desire. Now it is very difficult. If you eat too little you will remember all kinds of food day and
night.

So what will you do? What is the way? Be spontaneous Gorakh says. Come to the middle. Eat as
much as is necessary. Don’t go to the jungle, because there you will be hungry. Don’t play around
so much in the city that besides city nothing remains of you, because desire will catch you there.
But how to live? Live in the city like someone living in the jungle, this is the middle. Live at home like
one lives in the forest. Live in the world but don’t let the world inside of you. Live as a lotus leaf in
the water.
... WHY WASTE THIS BODY BORN OF PASSION?
Then you will know how this body created from egg and sperm attains the state of enlightenment!
Then you will know. If you have chosen to go to the jungle because you are afraid desire will catch
you in the city, then hunger will catch you. If you are afraid hunger will catch you in the jungle, come
to the city... and wherever you go, it will be city or jungle, there is no other possibility. If out of duality
you choose one, then you will not be able to remain with it very long, because the needs of the
opposite will begin to pull you, will begin to attract you.
So eat the right amount of food – what is sufficient for meditation, sufficient for worship and prayer.
Eat rightly, give to the body what is needed for natural functions. Don’t dump more, otherwise the
extra amount will put you in trouble. Don’t go to extremes.
There are some people who overeat, stuffing and forcing food. Their whole work is food, food, food...
they don’t do anything else. Then superfluous energy arises from the extra food. Then the release
of energy is necessary, otherwise the energy will be a burden, will become a load. Then go into
desire. Then the energy flows out in desire. Then people are so drowned in desire that whatever
energy they had flows out in it. Then they become empty, emptied out. Then they fill up with food
because now they are empty, now emptiness aggravates. This becomes a great disturbance. From
one extreme to the other extreme, from the other back to the first, from the first back to the second,
going on swinging like this, like the pendulum of a clock. The clock of life goes on. Your coming and
going continues. Stop in the middle. Have you ever stopped the pendulum of a clock and seen what
happens? As soon as the pendulum stops the clock stops. Coming and going has stopped. Time
has stopped. Time has stopped means the world has stopped.
DON’T ATTACK YOUR FOOD, DON’T DIE OF HUNGER, CONTEMPLATE THE SECRET OF
BRAHMAN DAY AND NIGHT
DON’T OVERWORK, DON’T LIE AROUND, THUS SAYS GORAKH DEVA
A plain and simple sutra, but such that if it finds its mark it will land in your heart like an arrow and
your life will be transformed.
DON’T ATTACK YOUR FOOD...
Don’t eat fuller and fuller, don’t burst with food!
DON’T ATTACK YOUR FOOD...
Don’t launch an attack.

... DON’T DIE OF HUNGER...
And don’t die of hunger either. Don’t starve. Don’t fast.
... CONTEMPLATE THE SECRET OF BRAHMA DAY AND NIGHT
Live rightly and assimilate the secret of the ultimate day and night. This whole universe is filled with
mystery, it is overflowing with the beauty of the highest. The blessings of that highest are present
everywhere. In these rays of sunlight, in the specks of sunlight falling on the leaves, in green leaves,
in flowers, in birds, in people, this vast life, drink his mystery, fill yourself with it.
O my heart, speak of Him!
In comparison to his face,
All colors and shapes pale;
I have become sated with him –
Drinking his water of compassion;
Float on him wave after wave, flow with him!
O my heart, speak of Him!
His fluid nimble way of moving,
Is unique in the whole world;
His sweet sweet voice –
How beautiful to me;
Become his shadow, live every moment with him!
O my heart, speak of Him!
The bliss of his spontaneous closeness,
Is a trust of life;
But if the hour comes –
of parting company with the beloved;
Then deep within will I bear the fire of distance from him!
O my heart, speak of Him!

Remember the divine. Don’t become a glutton, and against gluttony don’t always be starving and
fasting. Remember again the story of Shrona – when the strings of the veena of life are neither too
tight nor too loose music arises. This music is a song of devotion. This music is kirtan. This music
is remembrance.
O my heart, speak of Him!
Remember the divine. Assimilate his secret. And his secret is overflowing, it is whispered in every
direction.
Your laughing call, O bird of songs!
Spread freedom’s wings
Sound the conch of life,
And you join with eager speed
This painted sky!
Soar beyond the horizon
Send a piercing ray
Open the heavenly gates of your heart
And you rain a shower of nectar
This pattering melody!
Secret sky of subtle intelligence
Drink the soma nectar of eternity,
And you sing your drunken bliss,
This immortal, alone!
Watch the moon, watch the sun,
Let the trumpet of truth proclaim,
And distinctions of this world are kidnapped
O destroyer of illusions!
Slough the skin of darkness

Kiss the thousand petalled radiance of the crown,
And you awaken in the cave of the navel
O supine serpent!
It is he outside, it is he inside. Just sink a little into his mystery. It is he seen rising in the trees, he
appears showering light in the moon and stars. He is moving in your every breath, he is hidden in
every beat of your heart. It is he who pervades your consciousness – drink up his mystery.
The more a person is filled with the beauty of the universe the closer he reaches to god. All this
beauty is his.
DON’T OVERWORK, DON’T LIE AROUND, THUS SAYS GORAKH DEVA
And don’t be stubborn. Don’t try to force the body more than necessary.
DON’T OVERWORK...
Don’t make too much effort otherwise you will become tired and broken.
But also don’t do the reverse: ... DON’T LIE AROUND...
Don’t become lazy. Don’t just lie there thinking: ”We shouldn’t make effort, shouldn’t exert ourselves
So I’ll just lie around.”
Now what is to be done? Between the two... Act, as if inactive. Do, but don’t become the doer. Let
him be the doer, you are merely his vessel, only a medium... as Krishna said to Arjuna in the Geeta,
just become a medium. The doer is god, become a bow string in his hands. If he shoots arrows with
you then arrows, and if he offers worship in the temple with you, then worship.
Don’t be over active... like people who believe in the yoga of good acts, they become over active.
And don’t be too inactive. There is a yoga of inaction too. This too has become a belief. Such
people also find support from the scriptures, from the songs of the sant mystics. They extract their
own meanings. For instance Baba Maluk has said:
Boas never hold a job, birds have never worked;
Das Maluka says, no need, Rama provides for all.
Lazy people have extracted their meaning from this. They have made a very beautiful interpretation.
They say, it is good, then we will lie around happily as big snakes lie around. So some sadhus and
sants just lie around. They think, what is there to to? Baba Maluk has said that ”existence provides
for all.” If it provides it provides... relax and believe in fate.
This whole country has died believing in fate. Laziness has spread through this whole country. This
whole country has become indolent and idle. And it has given it’s indolence and idleness a very
Death is Divine 79 Osho
CHAPTER 3. LIVE SPONTANEOUSLY
spiritual color by saying it is fate, what happens is what is meant to happen. If one is poor one is
poor. A beggar then a beggar, a slave then a slave. Everything happens by fate. When he wishes it
then everything will be made well, but we have to drag along.
The suffering of this country is that we have taken up this sutra – of laziness. We are lying down.
The misery of the West is that they have taken up action, taken it up so much that they can’t sleep
at night – they have forgotten how. Now they cannot sleep without sleeping pills. They have become
so active, so many waves have arisen, the mind is moving so much that they lay down on the bed at
night but the mind has forgotten sleep even exists. It goes right on thinking. It makes calculations,
does accounting, makes plans: tomorrow’s shop, tomorrow’s market, tomorrow’s world. It remains
absorbed in its plans. This way the night is lost.
The West is going crazy because of too much activity. And the East has become poor because of
too much inactivity. If what Gorakh says is understood then there is no need to go crazy and no
need to be poor.
Gorakh says:
DON’T OVERWORK, DON’T LIE AROUND, THUS SAYS GORAKH DEVA.
I tell you to be in between. Work but from a state of no work. Enter into work, but peacefully, silently...
so that work does not make you restless. Work but don’t go insane in it.
OVER EATING STRENGTHENS THE SENSES, DESTROYS CONSCIOUSNESS, FILLS THE
MIND WITH SEX.
If you eat too much food the senses will be strengthened and awareness will be destroyed.
... DESTROYS CONSCIOUSNESS, FILLS THE MIND WITH SEX.
And the more awareness is destroyed the more nothing but sex remains in the mind. Understand
this. The more the amount of awareness increases the more the amount of sex decreases. The
more the amount of awareness decreases the more the amount of sex increases. These two are
always influencing each other.
Make an experiment and see. If you eat too much then unconsciousness overtakes you, immediately
sleep starts coming. This is why sleep starts coming after eating. Remain some night without eating,
then sleep will not come the whole night. You didn’t eat so unconsciousness does not overtake you.
This is why to one who fasts sleep doesn’t come at night. Or sleep becomes less. In old age
sleep becomes less because food becomes less. The body cannot digest so much food. Life is
finishing so now there is no need for sleep either. Unconsciousness takes over in sleep. For sleep
it is necessary that your body remain more powerful than your being, only then can sleep take over.
When you eat the body grows, the being becomes weak. If you eat too much then the body becomes
very burdensome, you start getting drowsy.
When consciousness increases, you will find simultaneously that sex desire has started becoming
less, because the pressure of the body becomes less on the being. This is why Gorakh and I do not

tell you to fight against sex desire, we tell you to awaken awareness. Become more alert. Whatever
you do, do it with alertness. If you go into sex, go into it alertly, go into it consciously. And you
will be surprised, as consciousness increases, sex desire will become weak by itself. One day you
will suddenly find that without repressing, without fighting that you don’t know where sex stopped –
when you go within to look for it, you don’t find it. Everything within has become lit with awakening.
Sex and meditation have the same relationship as light and darkness. If a lamp is lit, darkness is
ended. There is no need to throw out darkness. Who can throw it out? How can it be thrown? Can
anyone throw it out? Only a lamp is to be lit. This is why the people who fight with sex desire have
gotten into very foolish activity. Fight with desire and it will increase. You will be more possessed
by it. No one has ever fought darkness and won. Cutting it with a sword doesn’t work. Beating it
with a staff makes no sense. Give it a shove, collect all the strong men of the village, still you won’t
be able to push the darkness out of a small hut. But light one small lamp and you won’t even know
where the darkness has gone. Darkness is not a thing, darkness is negative. Darkness is only an
absence, the absence of light. If light becomes present, it is done. There was no darkness, nor has
it gone anywhere: only light was missing, light has come.
Sex is the absence of meditation. If the lamp of meditation is lit: enough, sex is gone.
Here people ask me, ”You don’t teach people brahmacharya – to be celibate? Brahmacharya cannot
be taught. Only meditation can be taught. Brahmacharya is the result. As meditation ripens,
brahmacharya comes to fruit by itself. All effort is to be put into meditation. One who puts his effort
directly into brahmacharya will sit suppressing sex in the name of brahmacharya. And brahmacharya
is not happening – it is only superficial – within the being the worms of desire are crawling. Inside
the snake of desire will raise its hood. His life will become very unnatural. His life will become very
difficult. Peace will not arise in his life, nor will equanimity come. He will fall deep into duality. A
continuous struggle will go on turning within him. And how can there be experience of god while
struggling? A non-dual mind is needed, only then is the experience of god possible.
OVER EATING STRENGTHENS THE SENSES, DESTROYS CONSCIOUSNESS, FILLS THE
MIND WITH SEX.
SLEEP OVERTAKES, DEATH CLOSES IN...
Sleep catches you, death catches you.
... THE HEART ENTANGLED.
And then trouble always created within, a disturbance continues to be raised. An insanity goes on
increasing. Just look inside yourself and see how mad you are. Madness goes on there. Living in
this madness how will you know the truth? It is impossible! This madness must go. And there is only
one way for this madness to go – LAUGHING, PLAYING THE KNACK OF MEDITATION. Laugh,
play, dance, be ecstatic and keep meditating. This is enough, it will go.
THE MILK DIETER MONK’S MIND ON OTHERS’ COWS...
There are a few people who have decided to consume milk only. They think milk is the purest food.
Death is Divine 81 Osho
CHAPTER 3. LIVE SPONTANEOUSLY
I was a guest for some time in Raipur. There is a community there – of the milk drinkers sect. Milk
is the only diet of the people living there. They thought they would be healthier with milk. Have you
gone mad? In the first place, the milk you are drinking has not been produced for you. You drink
cow’s milk, no? It is produced for calves. It is for growing bulls. Milk is not a pure food. From milk,
sex desire will awaken. And sex desire like that of a bull – not just a little, because god made it for a
bull not for you.
And the nature of milk is to be a provision for the child, so the child can get milk until he can digest
food. After a certain age no animal drinks milk, with the exception of man. Man makes unnatural
arrangements. To drink a little in tea, a little in coffee is okay, but don’t become a milk dieter.
When I was in Raipur a priest from the milk diet community came to meet me. He asked, ”How to
become victorious over sexual desire?”
I said, ”First drop this milk diet, drop this practice. To be a man is bad enough, you will become a
bull! ... and you take nothing but milk. People go on bringing milk because the saints drink nothing
but milk... pure food. What is pure about milk?
Just a few days ago there was a report in the newspapers that meat has been produced from milk in
Japan. Milk is a part of the blood, this is why meat can be made from it. Scientists have succeeded in
creating meat from milk. Within two or three months white meat produced from milk will be available
in Japanese markets. Milk contains the same substance that is in meat. This is why flesh increases
from drinking milk, blood improves, a person becomes robust.
Where do you think the milk comes from when a child is born from the mother’s womb? As blood
passes through her breasts it begins to produce milk. In this way blood is available to the child. And
the child cannot digest anything else. It is good for him at this age. There is not such purity in milk
as you think there is. There is greater purity in fruits, greater purity in wheat, rice, beans.
Gorakh says, THE MILK DRINKER MONK’S MIND ON OTHERS’ COWS...
Don’t become a milk dieter. Otherwise the milk drinker has always to pay attention which house he
will get milk from, which house he will not get it from. ... MIND ON OTHER’S COWS... His attention
is continuously on others’ houses. Whose cow is good, whose cow is bad...
Once I was travelling with a sadhu. He would drink only the milk of a white cow. I said, ”You have
gone mad. Use a little common sense. Milk from a black cow doesn’t turn black, milk is always
white. Are you afraid of a black cow because the milk might become black?”
”No,” he said, ”No, I am... my guru suggested milk of a white cow.”
Whether the skin of the cow is white or black what difference is there in the milk? Then the milk of
black women would be black, and the milk of white women would be white. Milk is white, but nothing
becomes pure just by being white.
Have you seen herons? Herons of Indian politics fishing in pure white homespun khadi? Mulla
Nasruddin went into the market one day wearing khadi shirt and vest, wearing khadi hat and fine
cut pajamas. And someone said, ”Mulla, what a clean white!”

Mulla said, ”Don’t be deceived, no matter how white the clothes are, the heart is mine, still black as
ever.”
The heart does not become white from clothes being white, nor does anyone’s soul become pure
from drinking white milk.
But people create problems. That sadhu travelling with me was in great difficulty. First he had to
circle all around the cow and check that there was no black spot or anything on the cow. If the cow
was completely white, then before milking it someone had to bathe. They should milk it wearing
wet clothing so they remained in a freshly bathed condition. His followers had to milk wearing wet
clothes. They were shivering. It was winter, they went on shivering and milking... And he consumed
only milk and thought he was doing something very virtuous.
I said, ”You will fall into hell. They will all make complaints against you, these people freezing in the
cold. Someone will get pneumonia, someone will catch a cold – it is all being done for you. You will
suffer the fruit of bad karma. Now you are shocked, but it is better you are careful.”
THE MILK DIETER MONK’S MIND ON OTHER’S COWS, THE NAKED ALWAYS NEED
FIREWOOD.
And those who have gone naked need wood to burn everyday. Is a blanket worse than this? Are
clothes worse than this? You live naked so you burn wood. This is greater violence, because to burn
wood you have to cut trees. And his mind is continually concerned with getting firewood each day.
He needs his holy fire burning twenty-four hours a day because he lives naked. The fire goes on
burning. And how many insects are dying in the fire? Trees are cut, insects die in the fire..what was
wrong with wearing clothes? Why are you creating troubles?
Gorakh says let life be spontaneous. These are unnatural things. Now their minds are caught up in
meaningless things: Will I get firewood today or not? Will I find a white cow or not? Will I get milk
or not? Will I get enough milk or not? Make life simple, not complex. Be natural, be ordinary. Don’t
buy into things that give your mind useless worries.
THE MONK IN SILENCE DESIRES A COMPANION...
And the one who vows silence, he wants someone to move with him, he always needs a companion.
A friend came to meet me, a silent Muni Maharaj. He brought someone with him to interpret his
signs and tell me. I said, ”Why don’t you speak directly?”
His companion said, ”No, he has taken a vow of silence, he doesn’t speak directly.”
I said, ”This is an additional problem. Now you have to go wherever he goes.”
He said, ”Yes, I have to go. And Muni Maharaj never touches money either, I have to keep the
money. If we take a rickshaw or taxi I have to give the money. He doesn’t touch money.”
”But whose money is it?” I asked.

”The money is his. People give it to him, but I hold it. People offer it at his feet, I quickly collect it.”
I said, ”Does Muni Maharaj keep track of it?”
He said, ”How can I hide anything from you? He goes on watching, goes on counting how many
notes have come. With hand signs he says a five keep it carefully.” Why this useless nonsense?
When you are going to count it anyway, count it yourself and keep it in your own pocket? You have
to count it and keep it in someone else’s pocket and then keep worrying whether he will run away,
whether he will change his mind by the morning.
I said to him, ”Come tomorrow to the meditation.” It was in Bombay. Meditations were being held at
Birla Matushri’s. So I said, ”Come tomorrow morning for the meditation.”
He said – he made gestures and had his friend say, ”He cannot come, because I will not be available
in the morning, I am going somewhere else. He cannot come without me. Who will take care of the
taxi? Who will seat him? Who will help him out? He doesn’t speak.”
You have become lame by your own hand. God has given you feet, has given you a tongue. But you
have refused them! And you are using a tongue, it too is god’s tongue, in the other man’s mouth.
Your tongue is also god’s. What sense is there in renouncing a closer tongue to use one further
away? But people are caught up in such disturbances, in such entanglements.
THE MONK IN SILENCE DESIRES A COMPANION...
He always needs a companion.
... NO DEPTH WITHOUT THE MASTER’S SHELTER.
This is all useless nonsense because without finding a master these people will not find the real
thread of life. They have gotten into this nonsense from reading books, reading scriptures.
Place your hopes in one who has found,
How can thirst be slaked from an empty river?
Rahim’s expression is beautiful!
... in one who has found,
You can get something only from someone who has it.
How can thirst be slaked from an empty river?
Is there water in the scriptures? There are nothing but words. Thoughts about water, descriptions of
water, but where is the water? Only with a master can you get the secret formula, the sutra, the key.
A couplet of Gorakh,

CHAPTER 3. LIVE SPONTANEOUSLY
HIS FRAGRANCE AND SWEETNESS PERVADE THE WHOLE WORLD.
THE TRUTH IS, ONLY A MASTER WHO HAS SEEN, CAN HELP YOU SEE.
Gorakh says god is the fragrance filling the entire universe. From his fragrance the whole universe
is made fragrant.
HIS FRAGRANCE AND SWEETNESS PERVADE THE WHOLE WORLD.
And his sweetness is in this whole world, but unless you meet someone to show you, how will you
taste it? Unless you meet someone to tell you, how will his fragrance reach our nostrils? How will
his music connect with our ears?
THE TRUTH IS, ONLY A MASTER WHO HAS SEEN, CAN HELP YOU SEE.
The truth is that until you meet a seer, one who has seen, you cannot be connected to god.
... NO DEPTH WITHOUT THE MASTER’S SHELTER.
Without a master faith will not come, trust will not come. Only a seer can provoke this self trust that
yes, god is. Only a seer can be a witness – an eye witness.
Without finding a master nothing can be attained. People have fallen into these useless troubles.
And the master’s message is small, a small sutra: be spontaneous.
DON’T SPEAK TOO EAGERLY, DON’T WALK WITH A STRUT, PLACE YOUR FEET WITH CARE.
GORAKH RAJA SAYS, DON’T BE STIFF, LIVE SPONTANEOUSLY.
A small sutra, drop the ego, live simply. Don’t be extreme, come to the middle, a natural state...
LISTEN VIRTUOUS ONE, LISTEN INTELLIGENT ONE, TO THIS CALL OF NUMBERLESS
SIDDHAS.
THE DISCIPLE BOWING, THE MASTER IS FOUND, AND THE WORLDLY NIGHT IS OVER.
Gorakh said, if you can listen, listen; if you can understand, understand.
LISTEN VIRTUOUS ONE...
If you have a little capacity, you have a little intelligence, listen.
... LISTEN INTELLIGENT ONE...
If you have a little awareness, then grasp this.
... THIS CALL OF NUMBERLESS SIDDHAS.

And not only I am saying it, numberless enlightened people have said it.
THE DISCIPLE BOWING, THE MASTER IS FOUND, AND THE WORLDLY NIGHT IS OVER.
Enough, if the disciple bows down, he meets the master. As soon as the disciple bows he meets
the master. The master is always present, if you bow you meet the master.
There is an ancient Egyptian saying that whenever the disciple is ready the master appears. There
is not a moment’s waiting. The disciple bows, the master comes.
IN THE DISCIPLE’S BOWING, THE MASTER IS FOUND, AND THE WORLDLY NIGHT IS OVER.
Then this world of night is no more night, then it passes in wakefulness.
Understand these small sutras, comprehend them and practice them a little in your life, taste them.
I finish today’s talk with a couplet of Rahim,
RAHIM A STONE IN WATER, SUBMERGED BUT NEVER SOAKED
LIKE FOOLISH PEOPLE, WHO UNDERSTAND BUT DON’T SEEK LIVING INSIGHTS.
Like a stone lying in the river, but still doesn’t get soaked. The same way foolish people sit in satsang
but don’t get soaked.
RAHIM A STONE IN WATER, SUBMERGED BUT NEVER SOAKED
It remains submerged, remains under water but doesn’t get soaked, just remains untouched. Lying
in the water it remains untouchable.
LIKE FOOLISH PEOPLE, WHO UNDERSTAND BUT DON’T SEEK LIVING INSIGHTS.
One who sits in satsang listening, listening to the words but doesn’t experience. ’... understand
without living insight.’ He listens, he understands but doesn’t live it, doesn’t experience it. Know he
is a fool, he is a stone.
This is satsang. Get soaked, drown, live it...!
DON’T SPEAK TOO EAGERLY, DON’T WALK WITH A STRUT, PLACE YOUR FEET WITH CARE.
GORAKH RAJA SAYS, DON’T BE STIFF, LIVE SPONTANEOUSLY.
Enough for today?