Osho : Another thing you have asked: ”Can an unfit person be the recipient of grace?” No, grace never descends on a person unqualified for it. It always descends on a person who is prepared for it. But sometimes an unfit person suddenly develops the necessary qualifications, and he himself is unaware of this. The happening always takes place under the right conditions, just as the light is visible only to those with eyes and not to the blind.
But if a blind man has been medically treated so that he can see, and he comes out of the hospital and he sees the sun directly, he will be seriously harmed. He will have to put on dark glasses for a month or two and wait. If an unreceptive person suddenly becomes receptive, there is bound to be a mishap. The sun cannot be blamed in the case of the blind man.
He has to develop the strength of his eyes to bear the sunlight or else there is a danger that he can become totally blind. The first blindness was curable, but now it will be difficult to cure his second blindness. Understand this well: the experience comes only to those who are deserving. But sometimes there is a possibility of an undeserving person suddenly developing the necessary qualifications due to circumstances of which he himself is not aware.
Then there is always a fear of disaster, because the energy descends suddenly and you are not in a condition to bear it. For example: a man suddenly gets a large amount of money. Usually it should not be of any harm, but if it comes suddenly it may be dangerous. A sudden happiness may also create an accident, because we need a certain capacity to bear it. We become able to bear happiness if it comes upon us gradually.
If bliss comes gradually only then we become prepared for it. This preparedness, the capacity to bear, depends on so many factors. The nerves in the brain, one’s physical fitness, one’s mental capacity – all have their limitations, and the energy we are talking about is unlimited. It is like the ocean falling into the drop: if the drop is not prepared in some way to receive the ocean it will merely die; it will be destroyed and it will attain nothing.
To be exact, there is a double line of action necessary for spiritual growth. We have to bring ourselves to the path and become in tune with it. But before that we have to develop our ability to absorb it. These are the two tasks to be accomplished by a seeker. On one hand we have to open the door and improve our eyesight, and on the other we have to wait even after the sight is improved in order for the eyes to be able to bear the brightness of light; otherwise too much light brings an even deeper darkness.
This is a one-sided transaction – the light has nothing to do with it. The responsibility is entirely ours and we cannot blame anyone for it. The journey of man’s life is spread over many lives, and he does many things in each life. Many times it happens that he dies just as he is about to be able to receive grace. With this death he loses all the memories of this life.
Working upon yourself through many lives you may have reached up to ninety-nine degrees of growth; dying you will forget all your achievements – but the existential elements of your inner growth will be carried over to the next life. There is another person sitting next to you who has accomplished only one degree of growth in his past life. He has also forgotten all about it. You both are meditating: you two belong to a totally different level of growth.
Now, if one degree of growth happens the other person will reach only the second degree of growth and grace is not going to descend on him. But with plus one degree of growth you will reach the one hundred-degree point and suddenly grace will descend upon you. This will be sudden for you because you have no idea that you are at the ninety-ninth degree.
And so heaven can drop into you all of a sudden and proper preparation should be made for this. When I say mishap I am only referring to a happening for which we are not prepared. Mishap does not necessarily mean a bad or painful event; it means only the occurrence of that event for which we are not yet ready. Now, if a man wins a lottery of one million dollars it is not a bad happening.
But he can die. One million dollars! – it can stop the beating of his heart. So mishap means the occurrence of an event for which we are not prepared.The opposite may also take place. If a man is prepared for his death and it comes, it is not necessary that his death is a bad event. If a man such as Socrates is prepared to meet death and welcomes it with open arms, then for such a person death becomes samadhi.
He accepts death with such love and joy that he will see that reality which never dies.We approach death with so much distress that we become unconscious before death. We do not experience death consciously. This is why, even though we have died many times, we are unaware of the process of death. Once you know what death is, then the very idea that you can die will never arise.
Then the event of death will take place and you will be standing aside watching it. But thismust happen with full consciousness. So death can be a good fortune for one person and grace can be a misfortune to another. Therefore the spiritual growth is twofold: we have to call, invoke, search and move, and at the same time we have to prepare ourselves for the event so that when light reaches our door we are not blinded by it.
If you remember what I have told you in the beginning there won’t be any difficulty. If you take God to be a person you will find yourself in great difficulty; if you take him as an energy there won’t be any difficulty.