What’s In My Reading List : 9 by HRITIK

This book is a collection of 100 letters written by Osho to a devotee. Quoting from the book’s description:

This book is a precious collection of 100 letters written by Osho and mailed to a Yoga Sohan at her meditation camp. Osho promised her that he would send her a letter every day and that she should keep them so they could be published one day.

And all the letters are so beautifully written that even if you hate Osho, you are going to fall in deep gratitude and love for him. The letters cover various topics of life, spirituality, meditation, etc. This book is only of the rarest books that are actually written by Osho. Almost all of his books are his recordings converted to the text except 4-5 beautiful gems. I read a few letters from the samples and really loved them. Here I share with you the first 3 letters of the book :

Man is born in slavery. We are born as slaves to ourselves. We come into this world imprisoned in chains of desire, held tight by those subtle chains.

We have been enslaved like this since birth. It is something given by nature; we don’t have to do anything to earn it. Man simply finds he is a slave. Freedom has to be earned and only someone who struggles and strives for it will find it. For freedom, a price has to be paid. Nothing of value in life is ever free. This slavery which nature gave you is not a misfortune; it would be a misfortune only if we failed to win our freedom. There is nothing wrong in being born a slave, but it is definitely wrong to die as one. Unless you find inner freedom, nothing in life will have any meaning or fulfillment. You may have been given life, but if you remain trapped in a prison of desires, if you never know the free sky of awareness, then you will never know life. There is no difference at all between someone imprisoned in desire and a bird imprisoned in a cage. You only enter the world of real life when your awareness is freed from desire.

If you want to know truth, become a master of yourself. Victory over truth is not for someone who is defeated by their own self.

You have to be tireless and devoted in your pursuit of truth. You deserve to find truth only if you strive with every breath.

The desire for truth should not be just one among all your other desires. Someone who desires truth half-heartedly doesn’t really desire it at all. The longing for truth has to be whole-hearted and total. When your heart thirsts for truth totally and completely, that very thirst becomes the path. Remember, a burning thirst for truth is itself the path to it. Prayer arises only when your being has an infinite thirst for truth, and your heart beats just to discover the unknown. When you live and breathe only for truth, then in that same silent yearning you take the first steps toward it. Only love – a love burning with thirst – deserves and has the right to truth.

Truth is one, but the doors to find it can be many. And if you become attached to the door itself, you will stop at the door. Then the door of truth will never open for you.

Truth is everywhere. Everything that is, is truth. It has infinite forms. It is just like beauty. Beauty manifests itself in many forms, but that does not mean that beauty itself is many different things. What glows in the stars at night, and what gives off fragrance in the flowers, and what shows in the eyes as love – are they different from each another? The forms may be different, but the very same essence is present in them all. But he who gets stuck at the form never comes to know the soul. And he who stops at the beautiful is never able to experience beauty itself. Likewise, those who get stuck with words will remain without the truth.

Those who know this, transform obstacles on the path into stepping stones. For those who do not know this, even stepping stones will become obstacles.

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