This is an incident from Gautama Buddha’s life, before he attained enlightenment. A Sadguru touched Gautama’s feet and took him by sur-prise, since enlightened masters never touched the feet of beginners. So, Gautama asked the Sadguru: “Master, I am a nobody as compared to you. I don’t even know whether I will be able to find light in this life or not. But you have attained enlightenment. I should be touching your feet rather you touching mine.”

The Sadguru replied: “You may not be able to see it right now, but I can foresee your luminosity–when the whole world would be bowing down to you in reverence. You are certainly going to become enlightened in your next life. And to me it really doesn’t matter whether you become enlightened in this life or the next one. For me it is a reality now!

An enlightened person can see the flower in its full glory when it is still a seed. Things are moving in stages, and one stage of existence is leading to another stage. It is a process of growth as human beings evolve into Buddhas; may take several years though. An enlightened person can see this and revere everybody, without making any exception. Being a Buddha is a manifestation, as is the flowering of a seed.”

However, Osho says: “In life, there is nobody who is superior or inferior. Man wants to be higher than others. He wants to conquer nature and hence has to continuously fight. All complexity arises out of this fight. An innocent person is one who has renounced fighting and is no longer interested in being the higher one. He is one who isn’t interested in performing and has become part of this infinity.

Somebody who has united with the ocean, become a wave and has no idea of the ‘I’. The disappearance of the ‘I’ is innocence.”

Our mind is always busy comparing and this constant comparison creates miseries in our life. Our society is trained in the art of comparison and every newborn child inherits this disease and gets initiated into a life or merciless competition. That’s the main reason we don’t know ho to relish and experience love. We neither love others nor ourselves.

Actually this comparison and competition doesn’t let us enjoy love at all.

If we drop comparison and competition from our lives, we will be able to feel our hearts beating. We will live in the now. But this can only happen if we meditate deeply. Meditation extracts the burning heat of competition and replaces it with tranquility. One is at peace with the surroundings and able to appreciate the beauty that surroundings and able to appreciate the beauty that surround us.

Remember this is not mindlessness, but something beyond the chattering mind–a silent pool of consciousness.

Osho describes it beautifully: “This is the secret of enlightenment: It happens when you’re in a state of deep rest and relaxation. When you become enlightened, you don’t become a new person. In fact, you don’t gain anything, you only lose. You lose your bondage and misery and go on losing–enlightenment is a process of losing. And when there is nothing left to lose, there is Nirvana. That state of utter silence can be called enlightenment.”

- Swami Chaitanya Keerti