But selling your soul so cheap – I have only tears for them. And now, they themselves are closing the door; from my side it is open. But such things they are saying to other sannyasins: “Drop sannyas, it is dangerous. Twenty-one countries have passed laws that Osho cannot enter there. Your job is at risk.”

And it is true. A few teachers have lost their jobs. A professor has lost his job just because he accepted me as his master. But he was a courageous man. He went to the court and asked: “Is there any law that prevents me from being a disciple of Osho? Is it in any way a hindrance in my teaching in the college? I have not been teaching his philosophy; I am not even capable of teaching it. But my association with him has taken away my job.”

There are almost two million sannyasins in the world. I have told them not to wear orange clothes, not to wear the mala, because I don’t want anyone to suffer because of me. But somebody else trying to persuade sannyasins to drop sannyas…

Now what is left as far as sannyas is concerned? I have told them to forget about the orange clothes. Throw away your malas in the ocean! Only meditation is the essence – just keep to it. Then nobody can in the least suspect that you are a meditator. It is your inner, innermost center.

Maneesha, it is both. The story is “a master’s compassion and equanimity in face of his trust being abused.” And it is also “a beautiful illustration of benefiting from being with a master without being needy and dependent.”

Yes, Maneesha, certainly it is my voice that you have heard in Nan-Sen’s saying, “He was such a good monk. I miss him even now.” You don’t know, perhaps nobody else in the world has missed so many people as I have missed. I am carrying wounds from the hands of my own people, but my love is as alive as ever, because it was never dependent on what they do. It was never conditional; it is simply that I love, I am love.

So whoever comes close to me can drink the nectar of love and silence and peace. I don’t make any demand that you have to fulfill; I am just like an open sky.

Maneesha has asked another question, too:

Osho,
Does a disciple need to need the master and to be conscious of needing him?

No, Maneesha. Need is not the language of Zen, love is the language. You need things but – it is a strange and insane world – people love things. Somebody loves a car, somebody loves a horse, somebody loves a rented bicycle. In this insane world people need each other and reduce each other to things. The moment you need someone, you have taken away the dignity of that person; you have reduced him into a commodity.