The fifth question:

Question 5

OSHO, I AM GETTING ON SEVENTY-.FIVE, YET I HESITATE TO TAKE SANNYAS. WHY?

Ram Sarandas,

SEVENTY-FIVE is nothing! Morarji Desai is eighty-four and he is not a sannyasin yet. And J.B. Kaplani is ninety-three and he is not a sannyasin yet. And Ravishankar Maharaj is ninety-five and he is not a sannyasin yet. Compared to these people, you are in the prime of your life. Enjoy it! Forget all about sannyas! Why be bothered with it? Seventy-five? You are almost young!

"You are heading for a broken marriage," warned a friend of the 75-year-old man who had just taken a 21-year-young luscious blonde as his bride.."I'm warning you, the difference in ages will be the cause of your separation."

"What would you suggest?" asked the old groom.

"As soon as you get back from your honeymoon trip," the friend advised, "fix up a room in your place and take in a boarder."

It sounded like a wise policy to the old man, so he decided to try it out.

After a time, the friend came by to visit and was cordially received by the elderly bridegroom.

"And how's the little bride?" the friend asked cautiously.

"Couldn't be better!" the old man answered. "She is in the family way."

"Looks like my plan worked after all! And how is that boarder of yours?"

"Fine!" explained the old man. "And, by golly, she's also in the family way!"

Seventy-five? This is the time to fool around! And you are thinking of sannyas, Ram Sarandas? Wait! Wait at least until you are a hundred.

Great-great-grandma studied the newborn baby with obvious satisfaction. "If my memory doesn't fail me," she cackled, "it's a boy!"

At least wait up to that point when you cannot recognize who is a boy and who is a girl -- then sannyas!

That has been the ancient way, Ram Sarandas. In India people used to take sannyas only when they were of no worth at all. People used to go to sannyas only when life was really finished, when there was nothing left.

An eagle-eyed mortician noticed an old crone shuffling away from a funeral service at his parlor and asked her how old she was.

"One hundred and one!" cackled the old lady proudly.

"Well, well!" said the mortician suavely. "Hardly worth going home, is it?"

Wait! When it is hardly worth going home, then you can become a sannyasin!

This has been the old way, and because of this, sannyas never became the force it could have become.

But my sannyas is totally different: it has nothing to do with age.It has something to do with youth rather than old age. The younger you are, the more possibility there is of entering into my sannyas. Even those who are old physically but young spiritually will feel attracted.towards it -- ONLY those will feel attracted towards it.

I am not teaching you escape from life. I am not teaching you the other world. I am teaching you how to live this life with great gratitude, with immense joy, with ecstasy. I am not anti-life. I am all for life, because to me life is God. There is no other God.

You ask me, "I AM GETTING ON SEVENTY-FIVE, YET I HESITATE TO TAKE SANNYAS."

Why do you mention your age? The old idea in India is that after seventy-five one should become a sannyasin. Age has nothing to do with sannyas -- not at least with MY idea of sannyas. The younger you are the better, because you have more energy and more juice and more aliveness.

And sannyas will need all the juice, all aliveness, because sannyas is not a shrinking but an expansion. It is not getting out of life and life's context, running away from life and its complexities. My sannyas is living in life, in all its complexities, and yet remaining simple, yet remaining innocent.

I am teaching you something like a great paradox: to be in the world and not be of it, to be in the world but not let the world be in you.

Why should you hesitate? The old sannyas certainly gives hesitation. In fact, no intelligent person would go into the old way, because it.is so against nature, against life; only stupid people can be victims of it. Hesitation is perfectly right if you are thinking to become an old Indian sannyasin. Then hesitation is perfectly right; that simply shows intelligence.

But if you are hesitating to become MY sannyasin, that simply shows indecisiveness, not intelligence, because I am not telling you to leave anything. You will be the same, in the same world; everything will be the same. Just deep down, at the center of your being, a new quality will be added. I don't take anything from you, I give something to you. I make you more, not less. A quality of meditativeness will be added to you, a subtle fragrance of prayer will be added to you. You will become more fragrant, more perfumed, so why hesitate?

You also ask me, "Why?" It must be a confusion, a confusion between the old concept of sannyas and the new. This is troubling many Indians. The very word 'sannyas', and the idea of the old sannyas arises with all its connotations. And it is natural in a way, because at least for ten thousand years the old idea has existed, and my new sannyas is only ten years old. Against ten thousand years, ten years are nothing. Ten thousand years' conditioning has gone very deep into the Indian mind.

So when Western people come, sannyas seems to be easy for them because they don't have the old idea. They simply understand what I am saying. They have nothing to compare. They see the beauty of it, they take a jump into it.

But Ram Sarandas, when Indians come, naturally, the old idea of sannyas somehow lingers.

And I have deliberately chosen the name 'sannyas'; I could have chosen something else. I have deliberately chosen the orange color, the ancient color of sannyas, for a certain reason: I want to destroy the old idea completely, and this is the only way. I want to destroy the old idea absolutely, and the only way is to create so many new sannyasins that the old, few and far between sannyasins are completely lost in the ocean of orange.