My God! Om Saraswati, you are not. You are nowhere. You have never been – and you will never be. Om Saraswati is just a name given to a nameless reality for utilitarian purposes. Otherwise, you are just a presence.
Every child is born as a presence, with no name, with no address. And becoming a sannyasin is a second birth, far deeper and far greater than the first. In the first, at least you are a body. You may not have a name, you may not have an address; but you have an abode – in the body.
The moment you become a sannyasin, you have dropped the idea of being a body, too. Now you are just pure consciousness – either everywhere or nowhere. Both the words mean the same. You can choose. You can choose to be everywhere, or you can choose to be nowhere. In either case, you are not limited anymore; you don’t have any boundary, you cannot be caught hold of.
It is a very special question… because people have been asking thousands of times: Who am I?
Om Saraswati is a rare genius – he is asking, “Where am I?”
Nowhere. Or, if you cannot read such a big word – ‘nowhere’ – then cut it in two: ‘now,’ ‘here.’ To me, both are acceptable. But remember that your inner being is without any limits – even the sky is not the limit. So everything can be in you – the faraway stars can be within you – but you are not within any cage, however big, however beautiful, however valuable.
Realization of this truth – that I am ‘everywhere,’ or ‘nowhere,’ or ‘now,’ ‘here’ – I call enlightenment.
And I am giving you three choices; three choices have never been given by any mystic before. My own choice is ‘now,’ ‘here.’ But I am not addicted to any certain opinion. ‘Nowhere’ will do. But if a negative statement like ‘nowhere’ makes you afraid, then ‘everywhere’ will do.
Hence, drop finding where you are; start looking for who you are. The where is not important; the who is important – and if you know who you are, you will know where you are.
In my humble opinion, you will find it now, here.
-Osho
From The Rebellious Spirit, Chapter Five
Copyright© OSHO International Foundation
An MP3 audio file of this discourse can be downloaded from Osho.com, or you can read the entire book online at the Osho Library.
Many of Osho’s books are available online from Amazon.com and in the U.S. from OshoStore-Sedona and Osho Here and Now.
