“Chant Rama a thousand times a day,” advised the great teacher. The sinner went to a solitary mountain and chanted and chanted, but in spite of his good will, he made a mistake and chanted

Mara instead of Rama. It happens that if you chant Rama Rama Rama fast, you can get messed up; it can become Mara Mara Mara. That’s how it happened: he was chanting so fast, and he had never heard this name. It was almost an unknown language to him. He tried hard to remember, but somehow he forgot, and for years he chanted Mara, Mara, Mara.

After years of chanting he went back to the great teacher who immediately realized that the man was now pure — not only pure, he was enlightened. “Did you sing the sacred name?” the teacher asked. “Yes, great one,” the ex-sinner answered, “for ten years every single day, thousands of times I have chanted Mara, Mara, Mara.” The teacher burst into a laughter that shook the mountains. As his laughter, like a pebble in the lake, vibrated farther and wider into the cosmos, the great teacher took the ex-sinner into his arms. “Your will to good, to do good, has saved you,” he said, “even though you chanted Mara, Mara, Mara, millions of times: the name of the devil.” Rama is the name of God; Mara is the name of the devil — but if the desire is there, the thirst is there, then everything is okay. Even the name of the devil will do.

Just his intention, just his tremendous passion for God, to purify himself, for ten years, day in and day out, thousands of times he was continuously chanting Mara, Mara, Mara. Even a wrong technique will help if the desire is intense, and even a right technique will not be of much help if the desire is impotent.

Osho – “The Beloved”

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It is said about him that when he renounced the world, he used to carry a small begging bowl. But then one day he saw a dog drinking water from a river. He threw that begging-bowl. He said, “If the dog can do without it, then am I worse than the dog?” Then everything was thrown away. He remained naked.

Many stories, rumors, were reaching Alexander that this man had something in him. Finally, fascinated, Alexander went to see him, and he could see that the man had something that he had not. He was just lying down — it was a winter morning, it was cool and the sun was rising. He was lying down by the side of a river, bathing himself in the early sun, naked. Alexander said, “Can I do something for you, sir? I have much, and whatsoever you desire, I will be happy to do it for you.”

Diogenes laughed and said, “The only thing that you can do is to please stand by the side. Don’t prevent the sun from coming to me. Nothing else do I need. And remember it, because you seem to be dangerous: never stand between the sun and anybody else. Don’t disturb anybody else’s life. That’s enough; nothing else do I want from you — because all that I want is within me.”

And Alexander could feel that the man was true, literally true — the solidity, the crystallized being, the ‘vibe’ of one who has attained, the surround, the climate of the person who is filled with inner light, inner realization, inner riches. He could see it. He bowed down and he said, “If next time I am to come into the world, I would ask God not to make me Alexander, but Diogenes.”

Diogenes laughed and said, “There is no need to wait that long. You can become a Diogenes just now! For what are you struggling and conquering people, and moving continuously and warring? For what?”

Said Alexander, “First I want to conquer Middle Asia, then India, then the Far East…” And Diogenes went on asking, “Then what? Then what?” Finally, when Alexander said he had conquered the whole world, he said he would then like to rest.

And Diogenes said, “You look to me almost stupid, because I am resting without conquering the world. You can rest by my side. See, the bank is so big; we can share it. And nobody comes here. You can rest to your heart’s desire. Who is preventing you? And I don’t see the point, that one needs to conquer the world first just to rest in the end. You can rest any moment.”

In that moment Alexander must have felt his poverty. He said, “You are right. I am mad, but now it is difficult for me to come back. I have to conquer, only then can I come.”

And when he was leaving, Diogenes said, “Remember, nobody can come back unless one is aware. And if you are aware right this moment, the journey stops. If you are not aware, you will never come back.” And Alexander never could go back. He died before he reached back home.

Osho – “The Beloved”

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