Our life exists between two polarities: being and doing, how we are and how we behave. We may be pure in being but what matters is how we act or behave.

If we observe our life, we will see that our behaviour in our daily wakefulness is not authentic. It is full of hypocrisy. When talking to our friends, relatives, even strangers, we hide our feelings and thoughts. We express what will be socially acceptable and not create problems. This way, the entire society lives in a fake life.

Osho tells a significant story: A mother and daughter both walked in their sleep. One night, the mother got up and went into the garden. Soon, her daughter also got up in her sleep and walked into the garden. As soon as the old woman saw her daughter, she shouted, “Bitch! You’ve taken away my youth. From the time you were born, I started growing old. You are my enemy. If you hadn’t been born, I’d still be young!” When the girl saw her mother, she shouted, “You wicked women! Because of you my life has become bondage. You have always been a rock in the flow of my life. You are a heavy chain on my life!” at the moment, the cock crowed and they both awoke. Seeing the girl, the mother said, Dear! Why did you get up so early? You may catch a cold. Come, let’s go inside!” Immediately, the girl touched her mother’s feet, as she did every morning, and said, “Mother! Your health is not good. You shouldn’t get up so early. Come and rest!”

Russian mystic George Gurdjieff said that we should not believe what people say in their conscious state of mind, as they always pretend. Whenever a new person joined his commune, Gurdjieff would get him drunk, just to see how he behaved when inebribriated and not conscious. For him, it was important to know the real person to transform him, as it is important for a doctor to diagnose a patient. Psychotherapists analyze people’s dreams; they think people are truer in dreams than in wakefulness. They cannot hide or manipulate anything in their dreams.

But these are unconscious ways. Osho suggests dynamic meditation to come face to face with one’s reality. We can breathe such that whatever we have suppressed in our unconscious mind rises to the surface. In catharsis, we can express it fully and become free of it---totally unburdened of emotional baggage. In this baggage we carry so many unlived emotions. One is always guilty about so many things. Guilt dominates our mind so much that it doesn’t allow us to live naturally.

Osho emphasizes: drop guilt! To be guilty is to live in hell. When not guilty, you will have the freshness of dewdrops in the morning sun, of lotus petals in the lake, or stars in the night. Once guilt disappears, you will live a totally different life-luminous and radiant. You will have a dance for your feet and your heart will sing a thousand and one songs. Be free from your emotional baggage and you will live an authentic life of Being.

----------Swami Chaitanya Keerti