I WILL NOT HAVE SUCCESSORS

Beloved Osho,

You have often said you will have no successors. But won't all those who love you be your successors in that we carry you in our blood and bones and so you are part of us forever?

Maneesha,

The concept of the successor is bureaucratic. The very idea of succession is not the right idea in the world of consciousness. That's why I have said I WILL NOT HAVE SUCCESSORS. But you are right in saying that YOU WILL CARRY IN YOUR BONES AND IN YOUR BLOOD MY LOVE, MY INSIGHT. But don't use the word 'successor', rather use the words 'YOU WILL BE ME'.

Why be so far away, a successor, when you can be me? Be so empty that I can make a home in you, that your emptiness can absorb my emptiness, that your heart can have the same dance as my heart. IT IS NOT SUCCESSION, IT IS TRANSMISSION.

THE VERY IDEA OF SUCCESSION IS POLITICAL. Only one person can be a successor, so there is bound to be competition, ambition. There is bound to be a subtle struggle to be closer to the Master, to force others away. It may not be on the surface but, underneath, the problem will remain in the disciples: "Who is going to be the successor?"

I destroy the whole conception. Every disciple who has loved has become one with the Master. THERE IS NO NEED OF ANY COMPETITION, NOR ONE SUCCESSOR. It is for everybody who has offered himself in deep gratitude, who has become one in a certain sense with the Master's presence. There is no need of any competition: thousands can have the same experience, millions can have the same experience.

TO AVOID POLITICS IN RELIGION, I HAVE SAID THAT I WILL NOT HAVE SUCCESSORS. I want religion to be absolutely devoid of ambition, competition, being higher than another, putting everybody lower than oneself. With me you are all equal. And I trust and love you, that you will prove this equality. In equals there is no competition, there is a combined effort.

YOU WILL ALL CARRY MY MESSAGE, but nobody will be higher or lower, NOBODY WILL BE A SUCCESSOR. All will be my lovers and they will carry me.

I am reminded of a case: RAMAKRISHNA HAD A CANCER OF THE THROAT. In the last stage it became impossible even to drink water. All his disciples said, "Why don't you ask in your prayers for God to remove this cancer? We know that if you ask, your prayer will be heard. And if your prayer cannot be heard, then all prayers are false."

Ramakrishna was such a man that if his prayer is not heard, it can only mean there is no God, or God is deaf. If Ramakrishna's prayer is not answered, then nobody else in the whole world should hope that his prayer will be answered -- so they insisted again and again. But Ramakrishna said, "It does not look right. I close my eyes because you insist. But I cannot ask anything from existence. PERHAPS CANCER IS RIGHT -- OTHERWISE WHY IT SHOULD BE GIVEN TO ME? I cannot be wiser than existence."

The disciples in despair asked Ramakrishna's wife, Sharada, "Unless you tell him, he will not listen to anyone. And you have to be absolutely insistent." Sharada told Ramakrishna. He said, "I knew that my disciples would bring you, and I cannot refuse you because I have never refused. And you have never asked anything; this is the first time in your whole life you are asking for something, and in these last moments how I can refuse you? I will try." He closed his eyes, and after a few seconds he opened them and started laughing. Sharada said, "What happened? Did you ask?"

He said, "I asked. But the answer came: 'Why do you insist on your own throat? Drink from all the throats of your disciples. WHY INSIST ON BEING IDENTIFIED WITH YOUR OWN BODY? Why not merge into all your lovers?' That's why I started laughing because I knew this would be the answer. You unnecessarily made me look stupid before existence."

If the disciple loves the Master, if there is trust, and trust founded on experience, HE WILL CARRY SPONTANEOUSLY THE MASTER'S MESSAGE. There is no need to say anything, he will be his Master's message.

OSHO