Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 12. DISCIPLINE, DEVOTION AND KRISHNA
In this sense a renunciate does not have samyama, balance any more than one who indulges in
worldly pleasures. Both are unbalanced; they are wanting in samyama. Both are extremists: the
indulgent holds to one extreme of life; the renunciate holds to the other extreme. Samyama means
to be equidistant from the two extremes, to be just in the middle. Krishna stands for that middle state
where there is neither renunciation nor indulgence. Or you can say samyama is indulgence with an
element of renunciation in it, or it is renunciation with an element of indulgence; it is striking a balance
between indulgence and renunciation. Really samyama is neither indulgence nor renunciation; it is a
state where you don’t tilt the scales to either side. He alone is samyami who maintains equidistance
from either extreme.
There is a man who is mad after wealth. Day in and day out he is running after amassing money.
Day in and day out he goes on adding to his bank balance. Money has become the be-all and
end-all of his life – his demigod. This person has gone to one extreme of life. There is another
person who has turned his back on wealth; he is running away from wealth. He renounces wealth
and does not even look back lest it attract him and entrap him again. This person has gone to the
other extreme. Both have lost balance, both lack samyama. Renunciation of wealth is the goal of
one and acquisition of wealth is the goal of another.
Then who is samyami, the balanced person? In Krishna’s terms a person like Janaka is samyami.
Negation of the extremes is samyama; to be exactly in the middle is equilibrium. Too much fasting
and too much eating go against samyama; right eating goes with samyama. Fasting amounts to
tilting the balance on the side of hunger; overeating amounts to tilting the balance on the side
of indulgence. The balance lies in eating just the right amount of food – neither less nor more. By
samyama Krishna means balance. equilibrium, equipoise. Any movement deviating from the center,
even a slight deviation from the middle to one side or another destroys the equilibrium; on either side
there is the death of samyama.
And one can deviate from samyama in only two ways: one way is indulgence and the other is
renunciation. Either you get attached to a thing, you cling to it, or you get repelled by it. Have you
watched a wall clock with a pendulum? Its pendulum is constantly swinging from one side to the
other; it never stops in the middle. It swings from the left side to the right and back; it does not stop
at the center. Another significant thing about the pendulum is that when it is moving toward the right,
it only seems so; in reality it is gathering momentum to move toward the left. And when it is moving
toward the left, it is really gathering momentum to move toward the right.
We are exactly like this pendulum. When one is fasting he is in fact, preparing himself for feasting,
and similarly when he is feasting he is preparing to go on a fast. One who is running after
attachments and addictions will soon get tired and will pursue renunciation and asceticism. Both
extremes are joined together; they are two sides of the same thing.
Only when the pendulum stops in the middle, swinging in neither direction, it is balanced. And it is
such a pendulum that can symbolize samyama. So long as one pursues indulgence or asceticism,
he is unbalanced, he is an asamyami. One can be called a rightist kind of asamyami and the other
a leftist kind.
To be steadied in the middle is samyama in terms of Krishna. It can have no other meaning as far
as Krishna is concerned. To be balanced is samyama.
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 220 Osho