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

CHAPTER 12. DISCIPLINE, DEVOTION AND KRISHNA
So sadhana ultimately leads to the soul, while upasana, devotion leads to God. One who disciplines
himself will end with the soul, he cannot go beyond it He will say that he has ultimately found himself,
his soul. On the other hand the devotee will say that he has lost himself and found God. So the
sadhaka and the upasaka, the man of discipline and the devotee, are contrary to each other; they are
not the same. While an upasaka will melt and evaporate like water, a sadhaka will be strengthened
and crystallized as a soul.
In Krishna’s life there is no element of discipline; there is actually no place whatsoever for sadhana.
It is upasana or devotion which has meaning for Krishna.
The whole journey of upasana is opposed to effort and discipline; it enters a different dimension
altogether. For an upasaka it is a mistake to think that one finds himself. The self is the only barrier,
the only falsehood. To be is the only bondage. And therefore not to be, or to be nothing, is the only
freedom. While a sadhaka says, ”I want to be free,” an upasaka says, ”I want to be free from the
’?’, the self.” A sadhaka says, ”I want freedom,” but his ”I” remains intact. To an upasaka, freedom
means a state of ”non-I” or complete egolessness. Not freedom of the ”I” but freedom from the ”I” is
the highest state for an upasaka. So sadhana has no place in the vocabulary of Krishna; upasana
has.
Therefore I will go into upasana in depth. To understand it, it is necessary first to know that it has
nothing to do with efforts or discipline. Unless we know it clearly, we will continue to confuse the
two. And remember that very few people want to take the path of devotion and worship. Most people
would like to be sadhakas. doers. A sadhaka has nothing to lose, he has only to gain something –
his soul. And an upasaka has everything to lose, he has to lose himself totally, he has nothing to
gain. Losing is his only gain, and nothing else. So very few people want to take this path. That is
why even the lovers of Krishna turn into sadhakas. They too talk in terms of sadhana and discipline,
because they love to be doers. The ego loves the words: strive, achieve, arrive; it is always after
achievement.
Upasana is arduous, devotion is hard. Nothing is more difficult than evaporating and disappearing
into nothingness. One would, for sure, want to know why he should die and disappear into nothing
ness, what he is going to gain by dying as an entity. A sadhaka, in spite of his lofty words, will always
think in terms of gain and loss. Even his liberation is nothing more than a means to his happiness;
his freedom is his freedom. So it is not surprising that a sadhaka is a selfish person in the deeper
sense of the word. In this sense he cannot rise above the self. But an upasaka, a devotee will rise
above self and will know the ultimate, where the self is no more.
What is this upasana? What is its meaning and significance? What is its way? Before you try to
understand this question of upasana, it is essential that you drop the idea of sadhana altogether.
Forget it; it has no place whatsoever. Only then you can know what upasana is.
As I said. the word upasana means to sit near someone, to sit close to someone. But what is the
distance, the remoteness that has to be overcome in order to be near? There is physical distance,
distance in space. You are sitting there and I am sitting here, and there is a distance between
you and me. This is physical distance. We move closer to each other and the physical distance
disappears. If we sit together taking each other’s hands, the distance will disappear completely.
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 222 Osho