Osho,
You once said something like when we take sannyas it is either too early or too late.
I have often wondered what you meant by this. Would you please comment?

Man is so unconscious that he does not know what he is doing, or for what he is doing it, or when the right time to do it is – so perhaps someone takes sannyas too early. It is just accidental. He comes into the influence of a group of sannyasins, reads some books or listens to my words and feels that he is ready.

A few people take sannyas too late. That too is accidental. It is sheer chance that they did not come across sannyasins, my message, earlier.

It is a very rare coincidence that a person takes sannyas exactly at the right moment in his life for the simple reason that man is not conscious.

The right moment comes and passes by, and he is lost in his dreams, in his ambitions, in his desires.

But my statement simply describes a factuality.

As far as you are concerned, it does not matter.

I would like to say to you that whenever you take sannyas it is the right moment. You are helpless as far as your unconsciousness is concerned, you cannot do anything about it, so you cannot be held responsible for being early or late. And even those who take it at the right moment, that too is coincidental.

So all the three persons are taking sannyas accidentally. So basically it makes no difference.

And the real thing is not the right moment. The real thing is your right determination, your right decisiveness, your right commitment.

My statement may look contradictory. It is not. Only the contexts are different.

There was in India a great sage, Eknath – not of the ordinary run, unique. He used to sleep in the temple made for Shiva. And the king had gone to visit him. The king was sent to him by his own master – because he was too argumentative, too rational, too much in the mind, and the master was tired. And finally he said, “If anything is going to happen to you in this life it can happen only through Eknath. You go to Eknath.”

The king agreed, out of curiosity, but he was suspicious, “If my own master cannot make me a convinced seeker of truth, who is this guy Eknath? I have never heard about him. What is he is going to do to me?” But it was worth it. He went early in the morning – it must have been nine o’clock. Hindu brahmins wake up at five o’clock in the morning or even earlier, but not later than that; and the saints, the holy ones, get up near about three in the morning.