Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega- (Discourses on the Yoga Sutars of Patanjali): Vol-1

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December 11, 1931: Osho is born in Kuchwada, a small village in the state of Madhya Pradesh, central India.

March 21, 1953: He becomes enlightened at the age of twenty-one, while majoring in philosophy at D.N. Jain college in Jabalpur.

1956: Osho receives His M.A. from the University of Sagar with First Class Honors in Philosophy.

1957-1966: University Professor and Public Speaker.

1966: After nine years of teaching, he leaves the university to devote himself entirely to raise human consciousness. He starts being known as Acharya Rajneesh.

1970-1974: He lives at the Woodland Appartment, Mumbai. At this time he is called Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and he begins to initiate seekers into Neo-Sannyas or discipleship.

1974-1981: Moves to the ashram in Pune. During these seven years he

gives a 90 minutes discourse nearly every morning, alternating every month between Hindi and English.

1981-1985: Moves to the US, A model agricultural commune Rajneeshpuram rises from the ruins of the central Oregonian high desert.

In January 1986 he travels to Kathmandu, Nepal and speaks twice daily for the next two months. He leaves Nepal and embarks on a world tour.

1987-1989: Moves back to the commune in Pune, India.

19 January, 1990: Osho leaves his body. Written on his Epitaph over his samadhi in Kathmandu, Nepal and Pune, India are his own words: .

We live in a deep illusion the illusion of hope, of future, of tomorrow. As man is, man cannot exist without self-deception. Nietzsche says somewhere that man cannot live with the true: he needs dreams, he needs illusions, he needs lies to exist. And Nietzsche is true. As man is he cannot exist with the truth. This has to be understood very deeply, because without understanding it there can be no entry into the inquiry which is called Yoga.

The mind has to be understood deeply the mind which needs lies, the mind which needs illusions, the mind which cannot exist with the real, the mind which needs dreams. You are not only dreaming in the night; even while awake you are continuously dreaming. You may be looking at me, you may be listening to me, but a dream current goes on within you. The mind is continuously creating dreams, images, fantasies. Now scientists say that a man can live without sleep but he cannot live without dreams. In the old days it was understood the sleep was a necessity, but now modern research says sleep is not really a necessity; sleep is needed only so that you can dream. Dreaming is the necessity. If you are allowed to sleep but not allowed to dream, you will not feel fresh, alive, in the morning. You will feel tired, as if you have not been able to sleep at all.

In the night there are periods - periods for deep sleep and periods for dreaming. There is a rhythm, just like day and night, There is a rhythm: in the beginning you fall into deep sleep for near about forty, forty-five minutes, then the dream phase comes in; then you dream; then again dreamless sleep, then again dreaming. This goes on the whole night. If your sleep is disturbed while you are deeply asleep without dreaming, in the morning you will not feel that you have missed anything. But while you are dreaming if your dream is disturbed then in the morning you will feel completely tired, exhausted.

Now this can be known from the outside. If someone is sleeping you can judge whether he is dreaming or asleep. If he is dreaming his eyes will be continuously moving, as if he is seeing something with closed eyes. When he is fast asleep the eyes will not move; they will remain steady. So if your sleep is disturbed while your eyes are moving, in the morning you will feel tired. While your eyes are not moving sleep can be disturbed; in the morning you will not feel anything is missing.

Many researchers have proved that the human mind feeds on dreams; dreaming is a necessity, and dreaming is total auto-deception. And this is so not only in the night: while awake also the same pattern follows. Even in the day you can notice - sometimes there will be dreams floating in the mind, sometimes there will be no dreams.

When there are dreams you will be doing something but you will be absent. Inside you are occupied. For example, you are here. If your mind is passing through a dream-state you will listen to me without listening at all, because your mind will be occupied within. If you are not in a dreaming state, only then can you listen to me.

Day and night, mind goes on moving from no-dream to dream, then from dream to no-dream again. This is an inner rhythm. Not only do we continuously dream, in life also we project hopes into the future.

The present is almost always a hell: you can prolong this hell only because of the hope that you have projected into the future. You can live today because of the tomorrow. You are hoping something is going to happen tomorrow some doors of paradise will open tomorrow. They never open today, and when tomorrow will come it will not come as tomorrow, it will come as today, but by that time your mind has moved again. You go on moving ahead of you: this is what dreaming means. You are not one with the real, that which is nearby, that which is here and now, you are somewhere else -moving ahead, jumping ahead.

And that tomorrow, that future, you have named it in so many ways. People call it heaven, some people call it moksha, but it is always in the future. Somebody is thinking in terms of wealth, but that wealth is going to be in the future. And somebody is thinking in terms of paradise, and that paradise is going to be after you are dead far away in the future. You waste your present for that which is not: this is what dreaming means. You cannot be here and now. To be just in the moment seems to be arduous.

You can be in the past, because again that is dreaming memories, remembrance of things which are no more or you can be in the future, which is projection, which again is creating something out of the past. The future is nothing but the past projected again - more colorful, more beautiful, more pleasant, but it is the past refined.

You cannot think anything other than the past: the future is nothing but the past projected again and both are not. The present is, but you are never in the present. This is what dreaming means. And Nietzsche is right when he says that man cannot live with the truth. He needs lies, he lives through lies. Nietzsche says that we go on saying that we want the truth, but no one wants it. Our so-called truths are nothing but lies, beautiful lies. No one is ready to see the naked reality.

Yoga is not a religion, remember that. Yoga is not Hindu, it is not Mohammedan. Yoga is a pure science just like mathematics, physics or chemistry. Physics is not Christian, physics is not Buddhist.

Yoga is a science, It is a pure mathematics of the inner being. So a Mohammedan can be a yogi, a Christian can be a yogi, a Jaina, a Buddhist can be a yogi.

Yoga is pure science. And Patanjali is the greatest name as far as the world of Yoga is concerned. This man is rare, there is no other name comparable to Patanjali. For the first time in the history of humanity this man brought religion to the status of a science. He made religion a science; pure laws, no belief is needed.