Write poetry, paint

A sannyasin says: I appreciated that you read my poetry. Is there anything that you want me to do?

Much has to be done, and continue creating there whatsoever you feel like. One should always cultivate something that is purely for delight. Your profession is a need – it has to be done. That may be a delight, it may not be, but one has always to do something on the side which is sheer delight, for no financial reasons, for no economics, for no politics. You are just doing it for your own delight. Write poetry, paint, or whatsoever you feel like. And always remember that this will rejuvenate you. This will become your real recreation.

The world ‘recreation’ is very good – it creates you. And unless it creates you, it is not a recreation. All entertainments are not recreations. Only that in which you are creatively involved is a recreation.

If you are just sitting there and somebody is dancing, that is not a recreation, maybe entertainment. You remain passive, you are not active. Recreation has to be very active – you have to be involved. Dance, sing, or do whatsoever you feel like doing: gardening, cooking, anything.

It is not being done for any ulterior motive. It is not even done for someone to appreciate. If they appreciate, good. If they don’t appreciate, good, because it is not meant for that.

There has been an Indian saint, a great poet, who has written the story of Ram. It is a great epic, one of the greatest in the world, Rama-charit-manas.

Somebody asked Tulsidas, ‘Why have you written it – because it must have taken years, it is such a long poem and so superb. Why have you written it? Why have you put so much energy into it? Your whole life into it?’

And Tulsidas said, ‘Svantah Sukhaya. I have been singing this story of God just for my own delight. It is not meant for anybody. It was my delight. I enjoyed it. The value is intrinsic – it is an end unto itself.’

That’s what recreation is, Svantah Sukha, for one’s own delight, and an end unto itself.

So whenever you are tired, whenever you are fed up with the world – and many times one is fed up with the world, it is natural. The world is too heavy, too boring, too monotonous, too repetitive, too routine and trivial. So whenever you feel that, the best way is to do something creative and get involved in it. You will come out of it recreated, rejuvenated… again throbbing with energy.

Even more than sleep, poetry can be recreative – more so than sleep. Just five minutes concentrated creation of a poem can be more than eight hours sleep, can refresh you tremendously, because when you are totally involved in it, God starts functioning through you.

All creation is his – we become only vehicles. So whenever there is some creation, it is always God’s. The signature is his. We are just vehicles, passages. And when God flows through us, of course – we are rejuvenated. Just his passing through us is enough. It is a magnetising force, again you are recharged. So allow God to pass through you in any form whatsoever.

And you are going to do much for me because you belong to me. By becoming a sannyasin you become part of me. Now my work is your work. If you do something and if you succeed, you are not obliging anybody. You are simply obliging yourself because it is your work.

Osho, The Shadow of the Whip, Ch 2