The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 3. MAXIMS OF YOGA: A SENSE OF WONDER
throat the thirst is quenched. The same is true with food. The more you suffer the pangs of hunger,
the tastier is the food.
This is the irony of life; the people who are tormented by hunger, who could really enjoy the pleasures
of eating, have nothing to eat. Those who do not know what hunger is, have plenty to eat, but they
cannot enjoy their food; on the contrary, it is a source of distress for them.
As long as there is thirst in you, water can quench it; but you can live a kind of life in which you never
feel thirsty; do not go in the sun, do no manual work, stay at home and relax and you will not feel
the thirst. But then you will find no joy in drinking water. He who toils all day, enjoys the bliss of a
good night’s rest. This is ironical: if you want to enjoy the pleasure of a good night’s sleep you have
to work like a laborer all day. The trouble is that you want to spend your days like an emperor and
your nights like a laborer.
In the external world, in the world of objects, joy and sorrow are intrinsically connected; therefore,
the day you acquire a mansion, sleep will desert you. The day you obtain a feather bed you will find
yourself tossing in your sleep all night. Look at the laborer; he sleeps under a tree on top of stones
and pebbles. He sleeps like a log. Mosquitos bite him; he is so hot that his body is soaked with
perspiration, but he is oblivious to it all. He has gone through such intense misery all through the
day that he has earned the joy that he will have in the night.
We have to pay for our joy and comfort with toil and troubles in this world. Here each joy is connected
with an equivalent sorrow. And human being is entangled in one dilemma: he wants to keep the joy
and get rid of the sorrow. But this is impossible. We have been trying for thousands of years that the
sorrow should be eliminated and the joy should be saved. But we have not been successful in our
efforts. The sorrow is certainly eliminated, but at the same time the joy is reduced proportionately.
We resent sorrow and desire joy. Hence the problem.
What is the meaning of the ’joy of samadhi’? That which has no sorrow attached to it. The bliss
of samadhi is not quenching any thirst, it is not filling an empty stomach, nor is it the weariness
after a hard day’s work. The bliss of samadhi is not connected with sorrow and toil. This is the
difference between spiritual joy and worldly joys. THE BLISS OF SAMADHI IS THE BLISS OF
SIMPLY EXISTING. No desire, no longing or craving, is connected with it. It is simply the ’joy of
being’.
Therefore Shiva speaks of the ’bliss of existence’, lokananda. That you are – that in itself is a great
bliss! It has nothing to do with desires and pain etc. Remember, the soul suffers from no hunger and
no thirst; hence the question of hunger and thirst and the pleasure gained out of their satiation does
not arise. All thirsts and hungers belong to the body, so when a person desires the pleasures of the
body he should also be prepared for the pains. The more he is prepared to go through the pains
and suffering, the more happiness he attains. The joy of the soul is the purest of joys. There is no
place for sorrow here. But this occurs only at the center. At the circumference you are the body.
The body is the periphery. It is the surrounding wall of your vessel; it is not you. It is your outer
circle. At the center you are the soul, and it is here that a completely new kind of joy unfolds itself.
Here the joy is the joy of being – just being. There is no peak of happiness and abyss of misery
here: no ups and downs; no gain or loss, no night or day, no toil or rest. Only you are there. There
The Great Path 59 Osho