If you can rejoice with me, you have understood me

After the demise of the Rajneesh Commune International in Oregon , USA , in 1985, and Osho's subsequent world tour, He became available again to us sannyasins in spring 1987, at what is today called the Osho International Meditation Retreat in Pune , India . I had arrived in Poona within days of Osho's return on March 1, 1987.

Soon afterwards, I felt the need to reconnect and bond again with Osho. I wanted to do this directly and personally in public. I wished to express my devotion and love for him, thereby renewing my commitment and trust in him as well as my vow to keep searching for the final Truth. The only "question" I had for Osho during the entire ten year I spent (by then) in or near his presence turned out to be rather a statement than a request. A day after I had submitted it, Osho answered my letter in discourse in Buddhahall (on September 10, 1987). I sat in the fifth row right in front of him.

Beloved Bhagwan,

In my mind, I am writing to you almost every day. All my questions and statements boil down to the following: Gratitude - I want to say, "Thank you, Bhagwan, beloved Master" - and - attention. Could you say in discourse one single time, "Hello, Hareesh!" so that everyone can hear it? So that I am certain that you, and everybody else, know I exist as your lover and fellow dance partner.

Osho - Hallo Hareesh!

The Master then presented me with four gifts. Each of them was about the Catholic Church (How did He know that I was brought up Catholic and supposed to become a prist?). Then He went on saying:

"I can understand everybody's deep desire to be loved. I love you all whether I know your names or not because names are just labels stuck to you. You have come into the world without names and you will leave this world without names. As far as I am concerned, you don't have a name. And if you look within yourself, you will not find any name there. You are a nameless reality, which is good, because every name creates boundary around you. A name makes you small.

"But your question is significant. Desiring attention can have two effects. If it is demanded, it nourishes the ego. If it is asked for with gratitude, it nourishes the soul. I cannot say anything against your question. Your question is so full of love and gratitude that I can repeat as many times as you want, "Hallo Hareesh!" It will not strengthen your ego. It will weaken it. And so many of the people present hearing me calling you "Hallo, Hareesh!" are also repeating the same call. Then it becomes a tremendous energy field, a brotherhood of spirituality in which everybody is sharing his or her abundance,

"It is perfectly all right. Many would have liked the same response form me. But they could not gather the courage to ask. You are a courageous man. You are asking "everybody else should know I am existing as your lover and fellow dance partner."

"Here we are not gathered to talk nonsense about God, heaven, and hell. Here we have gathered to rejoice, to sing, and to dance together in such an ecstasy as all individualities melt into each other and become one organic whole. Many times I have seen it becoming one organic whole when you all laugh together, although the Germans may not understand why they are laughing. But the Germans are intelligent people. Seeing that everybody is laughing, they also participate in the laugher. In fact, they laugh louder than anybody else does so that nobody will suspect them to be Germans. Of course, outside the Buddhahall they ask other people, "What was the matter? Why was everybody laughing so much? I could not get it."

"My suggestion to all Germans sannyasins is to forget trying to get it. The trying is troubling you. While you are engaged trying to get it, the moment of laughter passes. While everybody else is laughing first, you are always second in laughter. You cannot laugh first because you haven't understood the joke yet.

"Here is a temple of celebration - utterly pagan. Here nobody is serious. Here nobody is bothering about how to reach heaven and get a harp and sit on a cloud and sing for eternity, "Hallelujah, hallelujah!" Those are the idiots. They are being taken up to heaven just to relieve the earth.

"If you can rejoice with me, you have understood me. If my music has touched your heart, it is enough. I'm not here to convert anybody. I'm just helping you learn a little dance of the soul. The dance of the soul is the most religious of phenomena, in which there is no fear of punishment and no greed of any reward. This moment is all in all."

By pointing out That, which has no name and form and is beyond time and space, Osho's presence and answer made me deeply aware of my true nature. It provided a profound insight and direct intuition of Self-knowledge. The power of this event cut me loose from my attachment to His person and helped me to identify with timeless Consciousness, the "organic whole" as he put it. It prepared me for the moment of His own transition from body to pure Consciousness. Over time his answer became a "living answer" for me. His response to my "question" displayed hallmarks of His masterly, powerful and unique teaching methods, humor and celebration. In total laughter or celebration the ego evaporates and.? "There" -   there is no "there." "There"- there is no "and." And "There is no "End."