From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 5. ECSTASY IS NOW – WHY WAIT?
If you collect all your moments of happiness in your seventy years of life, perhaps you may not get
even seven moments which you can be absolutely certain were of the nature of ecstasy.
In seventy years of life, not even seven moments? Then what have you been doing here? –
torturing yourself and others? Yes, you cannot find even seven moments, because the nature of
those moments is such that when they are there, they take you over totally, they possess you – yes,
that is the right word – they possess you completely. But when they are gone, they dispossess you
as completely as they had possessed you, so only a memory is left. And how long can you live on
the memory which proved so deceptive?
After a few days you start doubting whether it happened or were you just imagining? Because in your
whole life’s experience that moment is so contradictory: years pass, then one moment perhaps....
And that too is not in your hands; when and where it is going to happen, you cannot decide. So
there are years of dragging, and a certain moment which has remained just a memory.... Slowly,
slowly, even the smoke of memory starts disappearing.
So even if you ask a man of seventy years old, he cannot say that there are even seven moments.
And as you become older, there is less and less possibility of those moments. There is more and
more disillusionment, more and more disappointment. In the future there is only death and darkness,
and in the past nothing but deception.
The religions had a beautiful space through which to exploit you – and they did well all over the
world.
For thousands of years they have found the greatest business – greater than anybody else’s: they
have been selling you paradise, and almost for nothing.
All they ask is: ”Renounce this momentary life and the eternal world of ecstasy is yours.”
Hence renunciation became a foundational belief: the more you renounce, the more you become
worthy; and the more you can be certain that you are coming closer. So people have tried to
renounce everything.
Mahavira was going to be the king. His father was old, and he was continually asking Mahavira,
”Now let me retire. I am tired; and you are ready, young, well-educated – I am perfectly satisfied.
Where can I find a better son than you? Just be ready to relieve me.”
But Mahavira had other ideas. While he was being educated by the priests, the monks, they had
poisoned his mind. They had told him that if he could renounce the kingdom, ”Then the kingdom of
God is yours.” The greater the renunciation, the greater, of course, will be the reward. That’s why
the twenty-four great Masters of the Jainas are all kings.
I have been asking the Jaina monks, ”What is the secret of this? Was there nobody else in the
country who could attain, become a great Master? – a warrior, a brahmin, a scholar, anybody – why
only kings?” They don’t have any answer. I used to tell them, ”I am not asking you for the answer
because I have the answer. I am just asking you the question so that you start thinking about it.”
From Ignorance to Innocence 58 Osho