Question 1

BELOVED OSHO,

HOW DOES WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT HEAVEN AND HELL TIE IN WITH WHAT YOU'VE BEEN SAYING ABOUT ROOTS AND WINGS? WHEN YOU SAY ROOTS INTO THIS EARTH AND WINGS INTO THAT HEAVEN, I'VE GOT A FEELING OF BEING INFINITELY STRETCHED -- THAT THIS EARTH IS CLOSE AND THAT HEAVEN IS FAR AWAY. WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF "THIS" AND "THAT"?

This earth is close, not because it is close but because of you. That heaven is far away, not because it is far away, but because of you.

"This" means the world, "This" means the body -- these desires, these passions, the physical, the visible. "This" means all that has been condemned by religions. They are always against "this" and for "that." "That" means Brahma, "That" means moksha, "That" means the divine. "This" means the material world -- this devilish world, this which is condemned. All the religions have condemned this world.

I don't condemn it. I want to give you roots into this world.

All the religions have said unless you are uprooted from "this," you will not get wings into "that." They are against "this," against the world, the body, against the material, the visible. All you feel as near, they are against. They are for something very far away, something abstract -- God, Brahma, moksha. Nobody knows, nobody is in contact with it; there is no communion, no touch with it. It looks like a dream, like poetry, it looks imaginary. All religions have condemned "this." They say, "Be uprooted." That's why they call sannyas renouncing the world, renouncing "this." I do not. They have created a dualism... not only dualism, they have created antagonism between "this" and "that," between the physical and the spiritual.

To me, roots into "this" will help to give you wings into "that." I don't create any antagonism where there is none. Antagonism comes from a mind in conflict, from a mind in duality. Out of conflict, dual theories are created, conflicting theories. I am not dual; I create no conflict. I see "that" not against "this" but as a flowering of "this." I see wings not against roots but as a flowering of the roots. Trees have wings into the sky -- their branches are their wings. They have roots into the earth and branches into the sky. I would like you to be a strong tree -- with roots into "this" and wings into "that."

My God is not against the world. My God is in the world. My God is the world. This earth is not against that heaven; they are two polarities of the same phenomenon.

"This" appears near you because your mind is not yet in a state to see the invisible. Your mind is so disturbed, so coarse, that you can see only the visible, the rough; the subtle escapes you. If your mind becomes silent, thoughtless, the subtle will become visible. God is not invisible; he is visible everywhere. But your mind is not yet tuned to the subtle, to the invisible. The invisible can be seen. The word means that which cannot be seen, but no, the invisible can be seen; only you need more subtle, more refined eyes. A blind man cannot see, he cannot see that which is visible to you but his eyes can be cured and then he can see the sunlight, colors, rainbows. All that was invisible before has not become visible.

God is not invisible. You don't have the right eyes, that's all; You are not a tuned being for which the subtle opens its doors.

"This" and "that," for me, are not divided; "This" reaches into "that", "that" comes into "this." For you, "that" means the far away -- not for me. For me, "This" is "that" and someday it will be the case for you also: "this" will be "that." This world is God. The visible hides the invisible. That's why my sannyas is not a renunciation. My sannyas is not against anything; it is for the totality, for the whole.

Be rooted in the earth so that you can stretch to the sky; be rooted in the visible so that you can reach into the invisible. Don't create duality and don't create any antagonism. If I am against anything, I am against antagonism. I am against being against anything; I am for the whole, the complete circle. The world and God are not divided anywhere. There is no boundary: the world goes on spreading into God and God goes on spreading into the world. Really, to use two words is not good but language creates problems. We say the creator and the created, we divide. Language is dualistic; in reality there is no created and no creator, only creativity, only a process of infinite creativity. Nothing is divided. Everything is one -- undivided.

Language is just like a political map. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh are divided on the political map, and if you ask the earth where India begins and Pakistan ends, the earth will laugh and think you mad. The earth is round, it is one; only on political maps is it not and maps are false. And politicians are madmen, madmen who have attained power. They are more dangerous than madmen who live in madhouses, because they have power.

Where do you end and I begin? Where is the point where we can draw a line between you and me? Where? There cannot be any demarcation. The air goes on flowing in you. You breathe: if even for a moment the air is not flowing in you, if the breath is not coming, you will be dead. And the air in me just a moment before has left me and entered you. It was my life just a moment before, now it is your life; and your breath has returned to me. It was your life, now it is my life. Where are we divided?

Life goes on flowing; life is something in between you and me. The tree goes on creating oxygen and you breathe it. If the trees disappear, you will disappear. The trees go on changing cosmic rays into food -- that is what fruit and vegetables are -- and if they disappear, you will be no more. They are constantly creating food for you, that's how you exist. Greenery is in a constant process of creating food for you; you depend on it.

The clouds go on moving, bringing water for you. The whole is connected. The faraway sun sends its rays to you and those rays are life. If the sun disappears, all life will disappear. Even the sun gets its energy from some source; scientists have not yet been able to find that source, but if that source disappears everything will disappear. Everything is related, joined together. This world does not exist in fragments, it exists as a whole, one whole.

To me, "this" plus "that" is God. That's why I say very contradictory things. I would like to give you two things: roots into this earth, into all that is earthly, and wings into that heaven, into all that is abstract for you now, into all that you cannot even comprehend, that cannot be conceptualized. Roots into the finite, wings into the infinite... And you need not renounce "this." If you renounce "this," you are renouncing your roots. That has happened; that is why your monks, your sadhus, look so dead. They have renounced "this;" they are uprooted beings. Uproot a tree and you are exposing the part that was hidden in the earth. Soon the flowers will die, the branches will die, the leaves will start falling.

That's what is happening to your sannyasins, the so-called old sannyasins. They destroy their roots because they are against this earth and then their flowering stops. Have you ever seen an old sannyasin in a flowering state? -- one who is blossoming every day, one who is giving anew every day, one who is flowering into the unknown every day. No, you will find a rigid, patterned, disciplined being there, a dead being. Mahavira may have been alive but look at the followers of Mahavira. Look at their faces -- you cannot see any flowers there. Their eyes are dull and dead; they are uprooted trees. They have to be pitied; they need much help, much compassion. They are ill. Without roots they are bound to be ill. They may have destroyed their sex but they don't know that they have destroyed their love also. Sex is "this"; love is "that." When you destroy sex, you destroy love.      I say go so deep into sex that it becomes love -- so deep that your very roots start flowering, that your very roots become blossoms. The beginning becomes the end, the seed becomes the tree. Go so deep into it that the other is found hidden there. It is always there. You can control your anger but then there will be no compassion. Go so deep into anger that your anger becomes compassion. Then something, a miracle, has happened to you. Then you will be blessed, then there will be benediction; then, only, there will be ecstasy.

This earth symbolizes all that has been condemned, and that heaven, all that has been desired. But I don't divide; to me, both are one. And the day will soon come for you too when you will be able to see that "this" is pregnant with "that." this world is just a womb for the divine; the earthly is just a cover, a protective cover, for the unearthly. The seed, the cell of the seed, is not against the tree, it is a protection. Matter is just a protection for the Divine.

Look, and always try to find the unity. In unity is religion, in disunity religion is lost. And avoid being against. If you are against, you will become rigid, hard, and the harder you become the more dead you will be.

I have heard that it once happened that a gang of robbers, by mistake, entered a monastery. They thought this house belonged to some rich man -- the monastery had a look of richness -- so they entered. But the monks gave them such a hard fight they were happy when they succeeded in escaping. When they met again outside the town, one of the robbers philosophized, "Not bad, we have a hundred rupees among us." The leader said, "You fools! I have always told you to avoid monks. We had five hundred rupees when we entered the monastery!" I also say to you: avoid monks. If you enter the monastery with five hundred flowers, you will have only one hundred when you come out. They are enemies, enemies of "this," and I say those who are enemies of "this" are bound to be enemies of "that" -- whether they know it or not.