The first question:

Osho,
I have been a devotee of Baba Muktananda and ran a center for him. I experienced a period of extreme difficulty and it was not until I read your books that I understood all that was and still is happening.
I question the need to be attached to another teacher, although I feel and understand your teachings deeply. I know I cannot go back to Baba’s methods. I’m confused. Can you help?

Only a disciple can be helped. And the disciple has to become involved, committed. Without commitment there is no possibility of any help. A tree has to be rooted in the soil, only then can it grow. If it starts talking about not getting attached to the earth, it will die.

Why are you afraid of getting attached to a new master? Do you think you have gone beyond attachment? Is it really non-attachment? Or is it just the attachment to the old teacher that is hindering your path?

You are still attached to a person to whom you think you cannot go back. Now, this is unintelligent. Remain attached to him by all means, if you feel you are growing there – that is intelligence. Wherever growth is happening, wherever you are getting more and more mature, more and more blissful, remain attached by all means.

But the moment growth has stopped, the moment you can see that you are not going anywhere, or going round in circles, it is time to become detached. Seek new soil, seek new lands, new pastures. And one has to go on seeking till one becomes a master in one’s own right.

And why be afraid of the new? You are attached to yesterday’s sun, and a new sun has risen today. And because of your attachment to yesterday’s sun you are keeping your eyes closed. Your fear is that of betrayal. But what can you do? It is not that you are betraying anybody, it is simply a search for your own growth – and that is your responsibility.

And you will have to go on seeking, searching. On and on one has to go, till one arrives at one’s own being. And learn from everywhere, and don’t be so miserly. Now you want my help but without becoming attached to me. It is impossible; you will have to be plugged in with we.

That’s what sannyas is all about. Unless you are plugged in, my energy cannot flow into you. You can go on reading my books, but that is quite a different matter. It will remain intellectual; it will never become existential.

It is a totally different phenomenon when you are a sannyasin and you listen to my words than when you are not a sannyasin and you listen to my words. They are the same words, but the meaning is totally different.