My burden is light

By Osho

Excerpt from

Love's Mysteries, p.27-28

“Jesus says: Come to me all those who are heavily burdened. My burden is light. Come to me, rest in me.

Only in love do burdens disappear. What in fact is the basic burden? The basic burden is that of the ego: I am. All other burdens are accumulated on this centre. This is the very hub – I am; then you accumulate many burdens. The centre has to be destroyed. Love makes you a nobody, love takes you off your ground, love destroys your ego utterly. It annihilates, it kills you completely, and it gives you a new life – a life without any ego – a humble life, a simple life, a life which God can live through. You become a hollow bamboo…and his music starts flowing through you. You don’t hinder because you are not there to hinder him. If you are, you are the hindrance.

People come to me and they ask: How can I go beyond sorrow? I tell them: You cannot go beyond sorrow. There is a transcendance, but You cannot go; you will have to stop before it. yes, there is a state of sorrowlessness, but you cannot enter into it; you will have to stop. Something within you will enter, but not you. Something within you will go into that land of no sorrow, but not you: you are the sorrow.

Have you not observed? – the greater your ego, the greater sorrow it creates. It hurts – it is like a wound. The lesser the ego, the less it hurts – the wound is healed. When there is no ego, it hurts not at all. Even if somebody insults you it does not hurt because you are not hurt – how can he insult you? The insult hits you only when the wound exists – you are defeated because you wanted to be victorious. If the ego does not exist, what is the difference between victory and defeat. What is the difference between success and failure? All distinctions are created by the ego. Wherever ego feels fulfilled, it is success, victory. When ego feels unfulfilled, it is failure, defeat. All defeats and victories are because of the ego. When there is no ego, you simply live without victory, without failure. You simply live without success, without failure. You simply live…and that simple life is the religious life."

Published by Osho International Foundation, 1998