Panch Mahavrat or The Perennial Path The Art of Living

Author(s): Osho Rajnish
Publisher: Osho Rajnish

Page 43

CHAPTER 4. NONSTEALING
has not reached the destination show that he has reached it? The first step towards that destination will be taken when a person consider himself unfit, and when it is taken, it should be considered a great qualification. When a person dares take the first step, he shows great determination.
I look at sannyas from a special point of view. According to me Sannyas is only the remembering of the fact that I now dedicate myself to God. Now I dedicate myself in search of truth. I am bold enough to say that I shall try to live like a religious minded person. These red ochre coloured clothes which you see are for remembering, that now I am not that which I was till yesterday. Nobody can become a sannyasi by merely changing clothes, but a sannyasi can change his clothes. None can become a sannyasi by putting a mala on his neck, but a sannyasi can put on a mala and can use it. The mala on the neck is suggestive of the transformation in his life. When you go shopping in a market you tie a knot at the end of a handkerchief or a garment. As soon as you touch the knot, you are at once reminded of the thing to be bought. The knot is not the thing, and it is also not certain that the person who tied the knot would positively bring the thing. And yet he can forget the thing. He ties the knot and on ninety occasions out of a hundred, he brings the thing due to the knot. These clothes, this mala, are only outward changes, they are not sannyas. It is just like tying a knot which means that the person has started on a journey to sannyas. This is a remembering, a reminder which may remain in one's consciousness and be very helpful too.
The Perennial Path: The Art of Living
43
Osho