THE GREAT SECRET : Talks On The Songs Of Kabir

Nothingness dies, the soundless dies,even the infinite dies. A true lover never dies.

Osho’s discourses in this book are commentaries on ten of Kabir’s poems, in which Kabir sings of his love of God. Kabir lived in Kashi, a place abounding in scholars. According to Osho no one has ever sung of love’s greatness as Kabir has.

Kabir has said that he did neither seek God nor wander about in search of God. According to Kabir the devotee is like a beloved who can only wait and wait; the devotee waits and God goes to him. “Even if the devotee wanted to go to God”, Kabir asks, “where would he go? How can he take the initiative?”

Kabir believes that the whole of existence helps man who is helpless and the man who accepts help and support from the outside world does not need God at all. He also believes that the man who masters the mind achieves everlasting happiness and the man who has not will remain in misery forever. Kabir says:
Chop off the head for eternal joy,
An unchopped head is suffering

Kabir again says that if God is also known then one who knows God is definitely greater than God. Kabir asks: Is Ram greater than he who knows Ram? Is Brahma who created the universe is great, or is the great existence in which Brahma himself was born is greater? Is the highly praised Vedas are greater than the rishis, than the consciousness which created them?. Kabir undoubtedly says that he who knows is greater, the witness is greater, the consciousness is greater, the great existence is greater than God, Brahma or Vedas.

Kabir has said to be ready to be cheated, but not to cheat. He says that “you lose nothing when you are cheated, but that all is lost when you cheat others”. According to Kabir people, society, the Vedas, the scriptures, tradition, family prestige - all these are like nooses around one’s throat. He says that the world is a prison and knowing the secret to escape from this prison of the world completely is the great secret.

There is a saying about”containing the ocean in a pot.” Osho says that kabir has done that. He has managed to contain the unlimited, the infinite in very small words, in words we use everyday.

Osho uses simple jokes and small stories during the course of his talk to enthuse the audience or to give clarity to any of his points. Here is one such joke:
A priest once went to an asylum to give a talk. He spoke on his subject in great detail, but he used simple terms because he was speaking to madmen. He explained things from all points of view. One of the inmates kept staring at the priest and was listening to him with rapt attention. The priest was very impressed as no one had ever listened to him so intently. When the meeting was over the madman ran to the superintendent and said :“See what the world is like! This man is outside, while we are shut up in here. A great injustice is being done!”
Osho says that there is not much difference between those who are out and those who are in.
Some of Osho’s observations:
Wealth is a substitute for love, and so you will never find love in the life of a miser.
God believes in freshness and newness and your religions believe in oldness.
No one else is ever responsible for anything that is wrong in your life.
The whole world changes when you change.
People who are full of fear themselves create fear in others.

Osho delivered these discourses in 1975 to a live audience, mainly to a Hindu gathering where only a few hundred Westerners were present. Osho gives an excellent commentary on the great subjects of Kabir’s poems - love, truth, death and enlightenment. His views are rather unique and beautiful.

THE SONG OF ECSTASY Talks on Adi Sh ankara’s Bhaj Govindam

Oh Fool! Sing the Song of the Divine... Sing the Song of the Divine


‘The Song of Ecstasy’ is the transcript of Osho’s talks on Adi Shankara’s ‘Bhaj Govindam’. It is believed that Shankara became a sanyasin at the age of seven. He wrote the greatest commentary on Brahma sutra at the age of eleven. By the time he was thirty three he had written all the great commentaries on all the great scriptures, and he had travelled all over the country and defeated all the so-called great philosophers, theologians and priests. The way Osho sees those defeats is rather unique. He says that the so-called philosophers including Kumarila were bowing down not because they were defeated but because they were awakened. Shankara has awakened others, not defeated them. Shankara died at the age of thirty three.

Legend is that Shankara was caught by a crocodile while he was bathing with his mother, and in the grip of death Shankara asked his mother to give him the permission to take sanyas, and the permission which till then had been denied by his mother, was given. Osho interprets this incident in a different way, that freedom from the mother is possible only if death can be seen. One gets free of the mother as soon as he sees death because mother means life. When Shankara saw death, sanyas happened. The crocodile catching hold of Shankara is only a symbol, that man is saved only when he becomes a sanyasin, then even death cannot harm him.

‘Bhaj Govindam’ , according to Osho is more precious than anything there in the whole of Shankara’s literature. The meaning of Bhaj Govindam as Osho puts it is that “you are singing out of your happiness, that whatever may happen, the divine is to be seen everywhere and whatever you see will become a song of the divine. At the time of death the principles and theories of immortality are of no use.”
In ‘Bhaj Govindam’, Shankara says:
see only yourself in all
Don’t waste one’s energy in the duality of enemy and friend, in son and in brother, in war and in peace. To see everything as equal is the journey to oneness.

‘Bhaj Govindam’ is Shankaracharya’s reflections on worldly life. He says that it is easy to do things like fasting, giving in charity, living in discipline and in austerity. But attaining self knowledge is difficult because it means transformation.
He may undertake the journey to the Ganges or to the ocean, he may undertake many austerities and fasts, he may give away in charity, but if he does not have self-knowledge he will not be liberated even in hundreds of lifetimes.
In Osho’s words: “You may give up your home, your money, you may become naked, you may shave your head or keep long hair, you may wear ochre robes and go to the Himalayas or sit on the bank of the Ganges but if you are not happy, if you are not blissful, then all these things are nothing but a deception.”
A few of Osho’s observations found in this book are given below:

There are long ques in the bars, and God goes on waiting in the temple but nobody turns up.

You will know the anger within you only when someone abuses you.

My idea of sanyas is that people should be brought near the divine so that the world just drops away.

Until a person is happy within himself no one else can make him happy.

‘Bhaj Govindam’ is a small devotional composition of Shankara. ‘The Song of Ecstasy’comprises of ten chapters of which Osho’s commentaries on Bhaj Govindam and his replies to related questions are given in alternate chapters. The way Osho interprets things is all different, it all depends on beauty, reasoning and depth.

TANTRIC TRANSFORMATION - When Love Meets Meditation - On The Royal Song Of Saraha

If you are living joyfully, you would like everybody to be joyful.

Tantra was born as a rebellion - a rebellion against Buddhism. Saraha, who is a disciple of Buddha in the same lineage, with the same understanding and with the same awareness is the founder of Tantra vision. The vision of Tantra is that sex can become samadhi and one can experience the ultimate ecstasy through sex. It says that no man is just man, and no woman is just woman; each man is both man and woman and so is each woman - woman and man. In this book Osho comments on Saraha’s ‘The Royal Song of saraha.’

Saraha says that a man who has known his inner reality knows that there is no proof other than realizing it. He also says that all those who claim experiences are bogus and that belief is not truth, and truth is never a belief. For him Truth is an experiencing and not an experience; it is a knowing and not knowledge.

According to Osho Tantra vision is one of the greatest visions ever dreamed by men : a religion with out priests, a religion without temples, a religion without organisations. It is a direct approach towards God, towards reality, towards that which is. Tantra says the moment the priest enters, religion is corrupted. Osho says that Tantra is not a religion in the ordinary sense because it has no rituals, no priests and no scriptures.It does not deny anything but it transforms everything.The whole message of Tantra is to live a life of expression, creativity and joy. Saraha says to be available to joy wherever it comes from.

Osho also responds to a number of queries from seekers and disciples on topics like love, life and sex; intelligence and meditation; service and duty; prayer, and jealousy . It is with utmost clarity, sharpness and authority that he responds to all the queries. He uses timely jokes, small stories and anecdotes to enthuse the audience or to give emphasis to his points. Here is one such story:

A christian missionary was teaching his Sunday school students, small boys and girls. He was telling them to do one good thing, one good work, at least once a week. Next Sunday he inquired whether they had done any good job, if they done any public service, if they been of some help to somebody. Three boys stood up, and he was very happy. Out of thirty, at least three. Not bad.
So he asked the first boy, “What did you do? Tell the whole class.”
And the boy said, :” Sir, I helped an old woman to cross the road.”
The missionary said, “Very good. Always take care of old women.”
And then he asked another boy, and the boy replied, “I also helped an old woman to cross the street.”
Then the priest was a little puzzled, but he was nothing to be puzzled about as there are so many old women; may be the second boy also found a woman.
So he asked the third, and the third said, “I also helped an old woman to cross the street.”
Then the priest said, “But this seems too much - you all three got old women?”
They answered, “No, there were not three, there was one. Only one woman was there - we all three helped.”
So the priest said, “But three were needed? You are saying three were needed?”
“Even with six it would have been difficult because she didn’t want to go to the other side. It was very difficult, sir, but we did it, because something was to be done! She was very angry.”

Given below are some of Osho’s observations:

Don’t imitate! Find out ways of doing things in your own way, have your signature on everything that you do

Friendship should grow out of love, otherwise enmity will grow.

Those who say God is, degrade God - they drag him down. Those who say God is not certainly don’t understand at all. They are both the same: one negates, one posits.

In this book Osho sheds light on an ancient and little known Tantric master Saraha and his teachings by giving commentaries on ‘The Royal Song of Saraha’.

TANTRA - The Supreme Understanding

All things in this world are meaningless;they are but sorrow’s seeds.


Osho in this book sheds light on Tilopa, the Tantric master and comments on ‘The Song of Mahamudra.’ Osho says that nothing much is known about Tilopa and only this song exists. Tilopa had to travel a long way from India to Tibet to find his disciple Naropa and to give this song to him as a gift. Osho also says that the religion of Tilopa existed for only four generations: from Naropa to Milarepa and then it disappeared.

Tantra teaches us to reclaim respect and love for the body, to look at the body as the greatest creation of God. Tantra is all about techniques and Tilopa is talking about techniques. One of the greatest Tantra techniques is an absent look, looking and not looking together. Tantra says yes to everything. It says that everything, even sin is beautiful, that everything is good and holy.It is the loose and the natural way.

Tantra believes in remaining homeless and not abiding anywhere; remaining unidentified and not clinging to anything . It does not believe in any other life or in any other world than this. Tantra focuses attention on the person and not on the acts . Yoga focuses on the acts whereas Tantra focuses on the person. Yoga is effort, Tantra is effortlessness.Yoga is the path of will, Tantra is the path of love, the path of surrender.With Yoga, difficult is right; with Tantra , easy is right.

Tilopa says in the song, become like a hollow bamboo: nothing inside.
The void needs no reliance.
This nothingness need no support. This nothingness exists by itself. That’s why Buddha says there is no God; there is no need for a God because God is a support. Buddha says there is no creator because there is no need to create nothingness.

Mahamudra is an experience of nothingness. Mahamudra, the literal word, means the great gesture, or the ultimate gesture. Mahamudra, in Tantra means a total orgasm with the whole existence. One is making love with the whole universe. The deep intercourse, orgasmic intercourse, between lovers is also called Mahamudra.That’s why Tantra is known as the Yoga of sex, as the path of love. Tilopa says: “In Mahamudra all one’s sins are burned”. The past is thrown into the fire. It is a new birth, a rebirth.

Tilopa says, to think that someone is an enemy or someone is a friend, is to divide.Nobody is a friend and nobody is an enemy. This is the highest teaching.
One should not give or take, but remain natural;
for Mahamudra is beyond all acceptance and rejection.
Tilopa is not saying that one should not share but he is only saying that one should be concerned with taking or giving. If it happens naturally and one feels like giving, then give; but it should be a sharing, a gift. Mahamudra is a natural state, the highest peak of being natural. Tilopa doesn’t say, “Be moral,” he says, “Be natural.” The deepest message of this whole song of Mahamudra according to Osho is : “do not seek, just remain as you are, don’t go anywhere else.” Some of Osho’s observations found in this book are:

Flexibility is youth, rigidness is old age - the more flexible, the more young; more rigid, more old.

True anger is beautiful and a false smile is ugly

Thoughts are foreign, intruders, outsiders. No thought is yours.

Whenever you want to avoid something you are paying too much attention to it.

Tilopa’s ‘The Song of Mahamudra’ as well as Osho’s commentary on it is equally beautiful.

WHEN THE SHOE FITS - Living Without Effort Because Everything Moves On Its Own

> When the Shoe Fits, the Foot is Forgotten.

Osho comments in this book on the teachings of the Taoist Mystic Chuang Tzu. Acceptance, accepting whatsoever is, is the basis of Tao. Taoism teaches us to be natural, spontaneous and effortless. It says: Nature is truth, and there is no other truth than nature; don’t interfere with nature and don’t try to improve upon it.Also be sincere to your inner nature and help others to be sincere to their inner nature.This is the whole message of Chuang Tzu, one of the greatest messages in the world. Chuang Tzu and his old master Lao Tzu are against culture; they are for nature, pure nature.

Chuang Tzu was an ordinary man who lived the life of a wanderer. He emphasizes effortlessness. He tells us to be the last, so nobody can push us further back. Also don’t fight with anything and don’t try to escape from anything. Let things take their own course. He believes in understanding and not in meditation. According to him ego is always attracted magnetically to the difficult, but easy is right. So ego is never attracted towards the right, it is always attracted towards the wrong.

Tao says: Don’t be outstanding, drop all that is outstanding; just be ordinary, just be simple.It also says: whatsoever is beautiful in you, hide it, never act it out, whatsoever is truthful in you, valuable, hide it, because whenever a truth is hidden in the heart, it grows like a seed hidden in the earth”. Chuang Tzu is for needs and not for desires. Eat, drink and merry and don’t think is what Chuang Tzu says. He believes neither in God nor in devil; he believes only in life, to him only life exists. Some of Osho’s observations are given below:

Whatsoever a politician says, he never means it; whatsoever he means he never says it.

When you become old, the whole world seems to be old and dying.

How can you conquer nature? How can a wave conquer the ocean? It is patent foolishness.

Never ask for respect, because respect is asked for by the ego.

Once Ceylon, Sri Lanka, must have been very near to India, otherwise the monkey Hanuman could not have jumped across. There must have been a small river, a stream between the two.

Mind is an artificial thing, implanted in you by the society.

Osho through his commentary makes Chuang Tzu’s teachings beautiful and lovable.

AND THE FLOWERS SHOWERED - The Freudian Couch and Zen

Buddha says: When the Mind Stops Questioning, the Answer Happens.
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This book is the transcript of Osho’s talks on Zen, Zen masters and Zen life based on 11 selected Zen stories. The book begins with the story of Subhuti, one of Buddha’s disciples who one day, when sitting under a tree in a mood of sublime emptiness, flowers began to fall around him.”We are praising you for your discourse on emptiness”, the gods whispered to him. “But I have not spoken of emptiness”, said Subhuti. “You have not spoken of emptiness, we have not heard emptiness” responded the gods,”this is true emptiness.” And blossoms showered upon Subhuti like rain.
Buddhism teaches us to drop totally all the three layers of our self ; the world of things, the world of thoughts and the world of self. It says, “When you are not, the whole existence feels ecstatic and celebrates; flowers shower on you.”
The whole essence of Zen teachings is that everything is empty, everything is just relative and nothing exists absolutely. Zen also says that one need not be too bothered or concerned with what comes and goes like anger, hate and love . Anger arises and goes, hate arises and goes, love arises and goes - anything that comes and goes is not one’s true nature. Here Osho reminds us of Sigmund Freud and Freudian analysis. The whole Freudian analysis is concerned with things that come and go. It is concerned with what happened and not to whom it happened - and that is the difference between Zen and Freud. In Osho’s words “Lying down on a Freudian couch one is concerned with the objects of the mind. Sitting in a Zen monastery one is concerned with to whom it happened - not with the objects but with the subject.”

The basic thing of zen is not to hit the target but to attain a non-trembling being. If the arrow moves from a non-trembling being it will hit the target; because the end is in the source, the end is in the beginning, the tree is in the seed.

Zen masters have lived a very ordinary life. They have lived as householders, farm workers, gardeners, helpers in grocery shops and the likes. But a Zen master renounces mind, lives life in its totality. He drops mind and becomes simple existence Here is the story of Tozan’s Five Pounds:
The master Tozan was weighing flax in the storeroom.
A monk came up to him and asked: “What is Buddha?”
Tozan said: “This flax weighs five pounds.”

What Tozan means when he says “This flax weighs five pounds”, according to Osho is that this very ordinary life is Buddha, this very ordinary life is truth, this very ordinary life is God, Some of Osho’s observations in this book:

Whatsoever you want to show to people, that is the thing you don’t have.

People who cannot love a person start loving God.

Don’t think about others. First solve your problem, then you will have the clarity to help others also.

Truth can be learned, cannot be taught.

You listen just to tell others what you have learned.

The very reading of this book can transform the whole mindset of the reader.

Meditation: The First and Last Freedom ( A Practical Guide to Osho Meditations )

No-mind is absolutely a pure sky without any clouds.


The text in this book, apart from the descriptive text written by the editors, is selected from various discourses by Osho given to live audience over a period of more than thirty years .It is a practical guide to Osho meditations. Everything about meditations, especially about Osho meditations is available in this book. Suggestions for beginners, different methods/ techniques in meditation, obstacles to meditation etc. are detailed in this book. Detailed descriptions are also there in the book about Osho active meditations, such as Dynamic meditation, kundalani meditation. Nataraja meditation and Nadabrhama meditation.

Osho says to Drop the old ideas of meditation - that just sitting underneath a tree in a yoga posture is meditation. That is only one of the ways, and it may be suitable for a few people but it is not suitable for all.. In Osho’s words ‘Meditation is a quality, it can be brought to anything . It is not a specific act.So if you can keep alert, any activity is meditation.Walking, walk slowly, watchfully. Looking, look watchfully, and you will see trees are greener than they have ever been. Listen, listen attentively. When you are talking, talk attentively. Let your whole waking activity become deautomatized.’ Whatsoever you do with awareness is meditation. Meditation helps you to grow your own intuitive faculty.Meditation is witnessing. To meditate means to become a witness.

Osho also says that techniques / methods are just to bridge the gap. Methods are dangerous only if one is unaware, otherwise they can be used beautifully.

Buddha used to tell a story again and again: Five idiots passed through a village carrying a boat on their heads. They said ‘We cannot leave this boat. This is the boat that helped us to come from the other shore to this shore. We will carry it on our heads in sheer gratitude’.It is just a raft to be used and discarded, used and abandoned, used and never looked back at again; there is no need, no point Methods and techniques are just like this raft which one should be aware enough to abandon, on reaching the other shore.

Osho’s responses to questions about meditation are included in the last part of the book. A few of his observations:

Tears will take out all the agony that is hidden inside you and laughter will take all that is preventing your ecstasy.

Whereever sinners go, they create hell and whereever saints go, they create heaven.

If someone else can make you happy and unhappy, you are not a master. You are just a slave.

This book will definitely serve as a useful guide for all those who are interested in meditation.

The Diamond Sutra : The Buddha Also Said.....

Right meditation brings you to emptiness and aloneness.


The ‘Diamond Sutra’ is one of the greatest sermons of Buddha. After Buddha’s death, these sutras have been remembered by Buddha’s great disciple Ananda, who was the only disciple who had lived continuously for 45 years with Buddha. . ‘The Diamond Sutra’ which starts with the very minute details about Buddha - how he walks, how he sits, how he looks, what he does and the like. is in the form of a dialogue between Buddha and Subhuti. While delivering what has happened between Buddha and Subhuti, Ananda . never says that ‘Buddha said this’; he simply says, ‘Thus have I heard. That this is what I have heard. What Buddha said, only he knows, what he meant, only he knows.

But Buddha has not said anything, neither has Subhuti heard anything. In that non-talking and non-hearing, something has happened - something which is beyond words. Ananda has tried to capture that in words,that great silence, that communion between two emptiness. This whole diamond Sutra points towards silence. According to Osho, .’it contains no philosophy, no system, no theory., no words, it is an empty book.’

Buddha’s whole message is condensed in this one word - Right meditation.The word prayer has not been heard in Buddhism and Jainism. They only know of meditation. The word ‘suchness’ is as important in Buddhism as ‘God’ is in other religions. Buddha says: a tathagata is synonymous with suchness. He speaks in accordance with reality. Whatsoever is spoken by a tathagata is truth.

‘Tathagata’ is called
one who has not gone anywhere, nor
come from anywhere. Therefore is he
called ‘the tathagata’, the arhat, the
fully enlightened one.

Osho says that he would like to interpret the word ‘tathagata’ as’ thus came, thus gone... Like the wind. The wind comes for no reason of its own, for no motivation of its own. Buddha is like that wind. Thus came, thus gone. No clinging. His coming and going is mysterious.’

Buddha says,Things happen on their own, they are very mysterious.There is no person, no self, no individuality, no soul. . Nothingness is the taste of Buddha’s message. When all is absent there is great presence.

The Diamond sutra will appear to most of us as absurd, as mad. It appears as irrational. They are strange because the way they are put, the way they are expressed, is not logical. It does not make any sense, not at least on the surface. Zen monks say Buddha never uttered a single word, and Buddha spoke for 45 years continuously.
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The ‘Diamond Sutra’ starts with Buddha’s body - how he walks, how he sits, how he looks, what he does and now it ends on this strange sentence:
Whosoever says that rhe Tathagata
goes or comes, stands, sits or lies
down, he does not understand the
meaning of my teaching.


Osho’s commentary on ‘The Diamond Sutra” gives us a great understanding of Buddha’s life and his teachings. Osho answers a number of questions raised by the audience and his disciples. All his responses as well as the jokes, parables and anecdotes used during the course of his discourse are interesting, inspiring and thought provoking. Here is an anecdote:

A man was doing the traditional shradth ceremony to honour his just departed father. During the ceremony the family dog wandered into the prayer room. Afraid of defiling the occasion the man hastily got up and tied his dog to a post outside on the varandah.
Years later, when he died, his son performed the shraddh ceremony in his turn. Anxious to follow it in every detail he had to catch hold of a dog from the neighborhood, because he remembered that it must be very important. By this time it happened that the family had no dog so he had to run in the neighborhood to find a stray dog. He caught hold of one, tied it carefully to a post on the varandah, then finished the ceremony with a satisfied conscience. In that family, down the centuries, the rule is still followed. In fact, the sacred dog ritual has become the most important item in the ceremony.

‘The Diamond Sutra’ sheds light on the life and teachings of Buddha on which . Osho's commentary is unparallel and beautiful.

Zen: Dang Dang Doko Dang

Life is wild, no path exists; you walk and you create your own path.

This book is a transcript of Osho’s talks on Zen and Zen masters. In his discourse he goes through a number of Zen stories. Zen means sitting. In Japanese they have the full word zazen, which means sitting silently, doing nothing. Zen simply says, sit and don’t do anything. Zen originated in India with Gautam Buddha.

When Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment, the state of no-mind, the world came to know the path of meditation, the path that needed no God. Buddhism is an effort to drop the mind totally.For Buddhists, God and Devil, heaven and hell , good and bad are all of the mind and hence they say, drop the whole mind.

Zen is an absolutely individual path. It is not a religion in the sense of Christianity or in the sense of any other organization. In Osho’s words”If you have a feeling for God - then Zen is not for you. But if the world has no meaning for you, if it has really died for you, if God is really dead for you, then Zen is for you.”.

Zen says that there is no need to talk about God; all talk about God is useless. ; they don’t talk about heaven and hell; they don’t talk about truth, they don’t talk about reality either.

Osho’s commentaries on Zen as well as his responses to questions from seekers and disciples are highly interesting. Stories, jokes and parables are galore in this book.

Here is a Zen story included in this book.:
Long ago in Japan a blind man, visiting a friend one night, was offered a paper-and-bamboo lantern to carry home with him. ‘I do not need a lantern,’ he said. ‘Darkness or light is all the same to me.’ I know you do not need a lantern to find your way,’ his friend replied, ‘but you must take it because if you don’t have one, someone else may run into you.’
The blind man started off with the lantern, and before he had walked very far, someone ran squarely into him. ‘Look out where you are going!’ he exclaimed to the stranger. ‘can’t you see this lantern?’
‘Your candle has burnt out, Brother,’ replied the stranger.

‘Dang, dang doko dang’ is what a zen master like Ho-shan will say mimicking as if beating a drum, when someone asks a foolish or stupid question. Only zen masters are courageous enough to answer like that. It implies that such question can only be answered in an absurd way. To all such questions a Ho-shan like master’s answer will always be the same: Dang, dang, doko dang, doko dang.’As the question is absurd, the answer cannot be anything else than that.

Osho’s observations are always unique and a few are given below:

Churches are the tombs of God where God has died.

Knowledge, if it is yours, is a light on the path. Knowledge if it is learned from others, is a burden.

.All our formalities are nothing but helping each others ego. They are all lies.

Even if a freedom is forced on you, it is a slavery, and if you accept a slavery on your own, it is freedom.

The ideas contained in this book are rebellious and inspiring, which can even transform the mind-set of the reader.

The Art of Dying : Exploring the Mysteries of Life and Death

Your treasure is in your own being - don’t look for it somewhere else.

The art of dying is the art of living. It is the fear of death that makes a man incapable of living The moment one loses the fear of death he becomes capable of living. Also if one doesn’t want to possess anything he becomes fearless. Then even death is a beautiful experience to pass through. If a person has a well lived and well loved life , death comes to him as a silence, as a profound bliss. This book is the transcribed version of Osho’s talks on Hasidism, based on a few Hasidic stories.

Hasidism is a mystical Jewish religious movement founded in the 18th century by Baal shem. It teaches life in community. To live in a community is to live in love and commitment, caring for others Hasidism says that if a man starts living a natural life, one day, suddenly, the love of existence arises as naturally as love for the woman or love for the man arises; as naturally as breathing arises after birth.Hasidism is not a path of meditation. It is a path of prayerfulness. It simply says:’ trust life, trust existence, and whatsoever has been given to you, enjoy it’. The Hasidim were a joyous community when Baal shem, its founder was there.According to Osho, When Baal Shem walked on the earth, the Hasidim were one of the most beautiful communities on the earth.

Osho comments on 5 selected Hasidic stories in this book which include the story of one Rabbi Eisik, son of Rabbi Yekel in Cracow.. Rabbi Bunam used to tell this story to young men who came to him for the first time
After many years of great poverty, which had never shaken his faith in God, he dreamed that someone bade him look for treasure under the bridge which leads to the king’s palace in Prague. When the dream recurred the third time he set out for Prague. But the bridge was guarded day and night and he did not dare start digging.

Nevertheless he went to the bridge every morning and kept walking around it until evening. Finally, the captain of the guards, who had been watching him, asked in a kindly way either he was looking for something or waiting for someone.

Rabbi Eisik told him of the dream which had brought him from a faraway country. The captain laughed, “And not to please your dream you wore out your shoes to come here! You poor fellow. And as far as having faith in dreams, if I had had it I should have had to go to Cracow and dig for treasure under the stove in the room of a jew - Eisik, son of Yekel! That’s what the dream told me. And imagine what it would have been like; one half of the jews over there are called Eisik, and the other half Yekel!” and he laughed again.

Rabbi Eisik bowed, traveled home, dug up the treasure from under his stove and built the house of prayer which is called Reb Eisik’s Shul. Rabbi Bunam used to add, “take this story to heart and make what it says your own. There is something you cannot find anywhere in the world, not even at the zaddik’s, and there is, nevertheless, a place where you can find it.”

Osho’s commentaries on Hasidism as well as his responses to questions from audience and disciples are unique and inspiring. It gives us an insight into the mysteries of life and death.Osho often tells stories, anecdotes and parables during the course of his talks. To say a thing in a very indirect way he always uses a parable and here is one such parable.

The woman lion tamer had her beasts under perfect control. At her summons, the fiercest lion came meekly to her and took a piece of sugar out of her mouth. The circus crowd marveled - all except one man, Mulla Nasuruddin.
“anybody could do that,” he yelled from the audience.
“would you dare to do it?” the ringmaster yelled back scornfully.
“Certainly,” replied Nasruddin, “I can do it just as well as the lion can.”

Listen to the meaning and never listen to the words. Is the moral of the story.

Osho observes:
Knowledge makes people stupid, it dulls their sensitivity.

If you allow yourself to be dominated by others you will miss your life.

It is not a question of truth whether God is there or not, it is a question of a psychological need.

If you are not bored with your life, it simply shows that you live in a very low state of consciousness.


The selected Hasidic stories included in this book are extremely beautiful. Equally beautiful are the commentaries on these stories by Osho.

Ancient Music in the Pines: In Zen, Mind Suddenly Stops The Way of Effortless Effort

It is through silence that one comes to hear the ancient music in the pines.

The Zen way of life, the way of the spontaneous, effortless effort, the way of intuition is pictured in this book. To the question what the zen way of life is like; lies the answer in the story of Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma, the first Zen patriarch, took Zen from India to China in the sixth century. He came with one shoe on his foot and one shoe on his head. He planted the seed of Zen in China. He is considered as the father of Zen in China. For nine years while he was in China, Bodhidharma sat facing a wall, gazing at a wall. .After nine years he came back to India.

.it is said that his legs withered away sitting and just looking at the wall. People would come and they would try to persuade him, “Look at us. Why are you looking at the wall? And he would say, “Because you are also like a wall. When somebody comes who is really not like a wall, I will look.”
Then one day his successor came. And the successor cut off his hand and gave it to Bodhidharma and said,”Look this way, otherwise I am going to cut off my head.”
He turned, immediately about turned and said, “wait! So you have come. I have been waiting for nine years for you.”

Zen people talk through stories. They have to talk through stories because they cannot create theories and doctrines, they can only tell stories. This book ‘Ancient Music in the Pines’ is the transcript of a series of Osho’s talks to a live audience based on 5 selected Zen stories .Osho also discusses various topics such as : Trust and belief; Boredom and restlessness; Consciousness and concentration; Maturity and immaturity; Scientific truth and religious truth during the course of his talks. Parables, anecdotes, stories and jokes are aplenty in this book. Osho always chooses the right one at the right moment.

Osho always is against the majority. He teaches us a new way of thinking. Given below are some of his views:

Belief is not trust, and the more strongly you say that you believe totally the more you are afraid of the doubt within you.

If you are still fighting with your wife or your husband, your boyfriend or girlfriend, that simply shows that life is still running in it.

If you sit in this world silently, if you live silently, as an alive nothingness, the world will become a paradise.

The ancient music one hears in this book is the eternal music. the soundless sound, the Omkar , the sound of the one hand clapping.

The Secret of Secrets: On the Secret of the Golden Flower (Taoist Teachings on Life and Existence)

The Golden Flower blooms in you when you are utterly empty.

In this book Osho comments on selected excerpts from The Secret of the Golden Flower ( A Chinese Book of life) , which. is considered as one of the most esoteric treatises in the world. It is the Taoist teachings on life and existence. What we call the One-Thousand Petaled Lotus in India, they call the Golden Flower.in China.

The Golden Flower is the light. ‘The Secret of the Golden Flower’ says: Light is the basic constituent of this whole existence. This whole existence is a light-flower. Without light, life is going to remain unintelligent and dark.

“This light, this flower of light , these petals of light fill all the spaces outside and also inside.”

Love is the movement of the light out of your being. Awareness is the reverse movement: the backward movement of the light to the source again, returning to the source. The Secret of the golden Flower is based on this backward movement of light energy.

The book ‘The Secret of the Golden Flower’ says: energy going outwards becomes dual- yin and yang, darkness and light, life and death.,but if you bring it backwards it becomes again one - it loses duality, it becomes non-dual. It also says that everything is so deeply connected with everything else and nothing can exist apart. Your two eyes make all things dual and polar, and because of these two eyes you cannot see the oneness of existence.

Tao believes that everything happens when it is needed. Tao means the way with no goal..So become a river and nothing is needed. All that is needed is to drop the idea that you are the doer, drop the idea that you have to attain to some goal, drop the idea that you have to reach somewhere, you be just a dry leaf in the wind - and then all is good, and then life is blissful. You will live eternally in purposelessness. That’s what The Secret of the golden flower says. When a Zen Master was asked, “How do you live? What is the secret of your constant joy?”
He said, “Not much of a secret, a simple phenomenon: when I feel hungry I eat and when I feel tired I sleep.” This is living purposelessly:. This is living moment-to-moment - with no plan. When hungry one eats, when tired one sleeps. He takes things as they come.

The most important things in the great Tao are the words: ‘action through non-action’.
Lu-Tsu says,
One has to learn action through non-action.
But when no idea arises,the right ideas come..
When no ideas arise then whatsoever you do is the right thing.

By commenting on ‘The Secret of the Golden Flower’ ,Osho is not bringing a new truth in the world, but only expressing the truth in a different way.. There are 31 chapters in this book spreading over 672 pages , of which 16 chapters are set apart for Osho’s responses to questions from audience and disciples During the question answer session, Osho discusses various topics which include Joy, misery and bliss; Love, life and sannyas; Sex and rape; Aloneness and loneliness; Politics and politicians; Philosophy; Neurosis, Celebration etc. Osho also uses stories, parables and jokes to say something in an indirect way. Given below are some of Osho’s observations ::

Contentment is natural to the woman, discontent is natural to the man

When you have everything else, only then do you start looking for God.

There are not good and bad habits: all habits are bad. Remain without habits, live without habits.

God has been waiting at your door for long, knocking, but you don’t listen.

My life is more precious than your temple, because it is the alive temple of God.

Osho beautifully presents in this book the secret of the Golden Flower bloom in China.