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Community Noticeboard | Chatboard Osho disciples around the world will be celebrating Neo-Sannyas Day (Nav-Sannyas divas in India) on 26th September this year and every year. This is the day when Osho introduced his vision of sannyas and initiated his first group of disciples as his sannyasins in a meditation camp in Manali. Thus began his Neo-Sannyas Movement which continues to attract thousands of seekers of truth every year. During this meditation camp in 1970, Osho was talking on Krishna: The Man And His Philosophy, and he gave birth to a new Sannyas of life-affirmation, joy, freedom and celebration. He brought the spirit of Krishna, his dance and playfulness into the twenty-first century. He wanted the Sannyas to have a fresh lease of life with new vigour and vitality, colour and creativity. "Sannyas has to be invested with a new meaning, a new concept. Sannyas has to live; it is the most profound, the most precious treasure that mankind has.But how to save it, preserve it, is the question. I would like to share with you my vision on this score," declared Osho in the foothills of Himalayas. Previously the flavour of sanyyas had deteriorated into a denial of life.Osho rejected this misconception about sannyas and life-negative attitude and he said that if sannyas were to survive in the future or become rejuvenated, it needed a new meaning and a new dimension of celebration and creativity. Said Osho: "My sannyasins celebrate everything. Celebration is the foundation of my sannyas -- not renunciation but rejoicing; rejoicing in all the beauties, all the joys, all that life offers, because this whole life is a gift of God. "The old religions have taught you to renounce life. They are all life negative; their whole approach is pessimistic. They are all against life and its joys. To me, life and God are synonymous. In fact, life is a far better word than! God itself, because God is only a philosophical term, while life is real, existential. The word "God" exists only in scriptures; it is a word, a mere word. Life is within you and without you -- in the trees, in the clouds, in the stars. This whole existence is a dance of life. I teach love for life." Osho invites the whole world to join in the celebration of this phenonomen of Neo-Sannyas. It's a playful journey of transformation through meditation. And celebration is the real flavour of this transformation. Osho talks about how Acharya became Bhagwan in Himalayas: So when I started speaking and when people started feeling something for me, on their own they began to call me Acharya. Acharya means 'the master', but not just the master; it is something more. Actually it means the person who says only that which he lives, one whose actions and thoughts are absolutely in harmony. So for almost twenty years people called me Acharya. This was before I started initiating people. They were asking me all over India to initiate them. But I was waiting for the right moment, and I have never allowed anybody to dictate anything to me. I simply live out of my own spontaneity. For years people had been telling me that they would like to be initiated into sannyas by me, and I said to them, "Wait. Let the moment come when I feel to. The day came. I was taking a meditation camp deep in the Himalayas, in Kulu-Manali -- it is one of the most beautiful places in the world. It is called the Valley of the Gods, it is so beautiful, so otherworldly. Once you enter Kulu-Manali you start feeling you are entering into another world. On the last day of the camp it came to me, "Now the moment has come," and I declared, "Whosoever wants to be initiated, I am ready." Twenty-one persons immediately stood up. They entered into sannyas. Now for them it became a question what to call me. Everybody else used to call me Acharya; now it was not enough for them. For them I had become far more important, far more significant, far more intimate. They had come very close to my being, and they decided that they would call me Bhagwan They asked me. I said, "That's perfectly good, because that's a very meaningful word for me: the blessed one." It does not mean God to me, it does not mean the creator, it simply means the blessed one -- one who is at home, has arrived; one who has found, one who has encountered himself. Then there is nothing else but blessings, and blessings go on raining over him. Day in, day out, the blessing goes on showering. So remember, Bhagwan has nothing to do with God. It has certainly something to do with godliness, because that is what arriving is: coming home. That is what makes you the Blessed One.
Osho Disciples to Celebrate Neo-Sannyas Day
on 26th September
Osho: From Unconsciousness to Consciousness # 3
Today I am immeasurably happy finding myself again in the Himalayas. I wanted to die in the Himalayas just as Lao Tzu did. It is wonderful to be alive in the Himalayas, it is even more wonderful to die in the Himalayas. The snow, wherever it is, represents the purity of the Himalayas, the virginity.... Tomorrow never comes, so there is no need to worry. With me it is always today, and this very moment we are in that world of the Himalayas.
Osho: The Books I Have Loved