Osho : Nanak says that none of the methods and tricks devised to be free of samsara have any strength in them either. The authentic power lies in the hands of Him who creates the world and, having created, admires it. It is all in His hands. All strength, all power lies in His hands. Become weak, helpless, you will get His support. If you are strong you need no support. God is the strength of the weak and helpless.If you become helpless here, God awaits you there; but He belongs to the weak, not to the strong.
The strong man does not need Him; he believes in helping himself. He denies God from all his endeavors, his arrogance is still strong. He does not feel the need of God’s help. Once it happened this way: there was a Christian saint, Saint Theresa. She was an exceptional woman. One day she went to the village church and announced that she was going to construct a big church. The village was small and the people were poor.
They thought it was a worthy idea, but wondered where would they get the funds. Who will give the money? One of them asked her, ”How much money do you have to start with?”
Theresa put her hand in her pocket and produced two paise. ”I have this with me: two paise!” she said exultantly. ”We can start with this.”
The people laughed, ”We already doubted your sanity. Two paise for such a gigantic project! You need tens of millions of rupees, Theresa!”
St.Theresa replied, ”You see these two paise? That is all I have, but what about Him? He is with me. I have two paise plus God. How much does that make? And these two paise are only for beginning; later it will be He who has to see it through. How much can we poor mortals do? What is our capacity? It is worth not more than two paise; the rest is His. The two paise we have got, we shall go that far. He will see to the rest. Thy will be done! Let us make the beginning.”
The church was completed and stands to this day. It is an enormous edifice. It could not have been completed by man’s puny effort alone. His effort is worth only two paise. But you can set out to fulfill so grand a dream provided you remember that your own worth is so petty.
Realizing your worth and taking shelter in the Lord’s grace, you have infinite power and wealth to back you. You can move mountains provided you keep your trust in God and are fully conscious of your own insignificant strength.
No sooner do you become helpless than the fountain of the supreme strength begins to flow for you. As long as you rely on your own strength and give it importance, your power is not worth a penny. Therefore Nanak keeps repeating again and again: neither this has the power nor that… he is depriving you of all your strength. Therefore, I say, the sadguru snatches things away from you; he does not give. He takes away your all, he makes you helpless, he makes you weak.
He leaves you in the state of a man in the middle of a desert, dying of thirst and no water anywhere. At the moment of the thirst that arises out of this helplessness – that moment you shall attain. You will call out, ”Oh helper of the helpless!” and there He will be! When you are completely helpless you get the supreme help.
And remember: there is no one high, no one low here. Therefore do not worry about anything else. before Him, all are equal, all are the same. So do not fear that the strong will reach, or the virtuous will reach, or the benefactors, or those who meditate, will reach first. There is no one high and no one low here. If you feel the difference of high and low, it is entirely your own doing; it is not because of Him. If you lose yourself entirely, you shall rise high; if you save yourself, you shall be low.