[A visitor says: I don’t know if taking sannyas means something extra that doesn’t permit an equilibrium between work and a spiritual association.]
Osho – No, nothing. It is a simple gesture of your trust in me. It is not in any way anti-life or anti-world. I am absolutely life-affirmative. I am as epicurean a person as you can find.
So sannyas is not life-negative – my sannyas is not. The old concept of sannyas was against sansar, against the world. You could not do this and you could not eat that, and you could not be like this – a thousand and one rules and regulations. No, it is a simple inner trust. It is a gesture of surrender – that you love me and you will allow me to love you… that If I shower my love on you, you will receive it in gratefulness… that in your meditative work you will seek my help. And if I give you my help, you will receive it.
Just two very small things I insist on – the orange and the mala, nothing else. And the third thing is interior – to meditate. Everything else you continue as you are doing. As your understanding grows and a few things drop, that’s another thing. I am not saying to drop them. For example if you are smoking, I am not saying drop it. Continue. But if your meditation grows a little deeper, smoking may disappear. You may not find the same addiction as before. It may become pointless, irrelevant.
It may wither away by itself. Then it is one thing. Otherwise I am not saying stop it. If you drink, continue drinking, because my understanding is that unless you change, your habits cannot change. So my emphasis is on you – your awareness, your meditativeness. If your meditation grows a little higher, suddenly you see that it is a wastage of life and energy; you cannot drink. Then it disappears – but it is not a discipline imposed; it is an inner understanding. Otherwise I make no condition for it.
[The visitor explains: But my problem is that I cannot be here for long. I think it’s a very personal communication between a teacher and a disciple that grows, but maybe this communication can happen also, if I am in bombay (where he is working).]
Osho – Yes, wherever you are. If you are in rome, it will not make any difference; it can happen. And once you are a sannyasin you have a personal line from me… a direct telephone. And it can happen. Space and time is not of much importance. And you can come sometimes whenever it is possible.
Source – Osho Book “Dance Your Way to God”