The changing of other people through meditation...

If you are running to get something outside yourself, you have to be subservient to the mind. If you drop all ambitions and you are concerned more about your inner flowering; if you are more concerned about your inner juice so that it can flow and reach to others, more concerned about love, compassion, peace... then man will be meditative.

And you have asked how we can make meditation a great movement. Don’t be worried about making it a great movement because this is how the mind is very tricky. You will forget all about your meditation and you will be concerned about the movement how to make it big, how to make it worldwide, how to make many more people meditate. If they are not willing then force them to meditate. It has been done; the whole of history is the proof.

Mohammed founded a religion called Islam. ‘Islam’ means peace. And he wanted the whole world to be a peaceful place. But people are not willing to be peaceful  then cut their heads, a dead man at least is peaceful. A living man is a nuisance, you cannot rely on a living man he may be peaceful this moment, and the next moment he may do something troublesome. On Mohammed’s sword the words were written: Peace is my message. Now the message has to be written on the sword, and the message is peace, and people have to be forced to become peaceful at the point of a sword, that is, to become Mohammedans. A Mohammedan is a man of peace. 

Don’t be concerned about a movement, because your mind is so tricky, so slippery.... I have heard, one man and one woman were in love for years. And as expected, the woman was asking every day, sitting on Chowpati Beach.... Who else goes to sit there? She was constantly harassing the man: ”When are you going to marry me? We are getting old.” And the man said, ”Just look at the full moon.” It was just rising above the ocean. And the woman said, ”Shut up! Don’t change the subject. Whenever I bring up the real subject you always try to change the subject. The moon will remain there, we will discuss it later on. First, answer my question. When are we going to get married?” The mind is constantly trying to change the subject. Whenever you will be thinking of meditation, the mind will change the subject in such a way that you will not even be aware that the subject has been changed. The mind will start making a great movement of meditation, transforming the whole world and forgetting meditation itself. Because where is the time? – you are in a great revolution, changing the whole world. In fact, the mind is so cunning that it condemns those people who meditate. It says, ”They are selfish, just concerned about themselves. And the whole world is dying! People need peace, and people are in tension; people are living in hell and you are sitting silently in meditation. This is sheer selfishness.”

Mind is very cunning. You have to be very aware of it. Tell the mind, ”Don’t change the subject. First I have to meditate, because I cannot share that which I don’t have. I cannot share meditation with people, I cannot share love with people, I cannot share my joy with people, because I don’t have it. I am a beggar; I can only pretend to be an emperor.” But that pretension cannot last for a long time. Soon people start seeing that ”This man is just a hypocrite. He himself is tense, he himself is worried; he himself lives in pain and suffering and misery, and he is talking about creating the world as a paradise.” 

So for the second part of your question, I would like to say to you: forget about it. It is your mind which is trying to change the subject. First the marriage, marriage with YOURSELF... first the meditation, and then out of it the fragrance will come, out of it the light will come. Out of it, words which are not dead but alive, words which have authority in them will come. And they may help others, but that is not going to be your goal; it will be a byproduct.

The changing of other people through meditation is a byproduct, it is not a goal. You become a light unto yourself, and that will create the urge to become a light to many people who are thirsty. You become the example, and that example will bring the movement on its own accord.

The Osho Upnishad 

Osho