I Am That

Audiobook Series
In stock

I Am That is Osho’s commentary on the 5000-year-old Sanskrit sutra, the Isa Upanishad. This is the smallest of the one hundred and eight Upanishads, however, Osho explains how in this small verse all the Upanishads are contained.

I Am That is Osho’s commentary on the 5000-year-old Sanskrit sutra, the Isa Upanishad. This is the smallest of the one hundred and eight Upanishads, however, Osho explains how in this small verse all the Upanishads are contained.


Excerpt from: I am That, Chapter 13

    “The greatest contribution of the seers of the Upanishads is that they have made this world and the other world synonymous. They have dropped the idea of the mundane and the sacred. That represents the absolute, the ultimate, the further shore. This represents the immediate, the herenow, this shore. Both are one because: That is the whole. This is the whole. There is no distinction at all.

    “The ordinary religions live by condemning this world, and by condemning this world they praise the other world. The Upanishads have a totally different approach, they praise this world with all its beauty, splendor; through praising this world they praise the other world. This approach is life affirmative.

    “The Upanishads are in tremendous love with life. They don’t teach renunciation, they teach rejoicing. They would have agreed with Jesus when Jesus says again and again to his disciples, ‘Rejoice! Rejoice! I say again to you rejoice!’ The Upanishads have a very aesthetic approach toward life – not the approach of an ascetic but the approach of a poet, a painter, a musician, a dancer. Their approach is in no way pathological.

    “But that vision has completely disappeared. Instead of that ecstatic vision of life, for three thousand years humanity has lived with a very sadomasochistic idea: torture yourself and teach others so that they can also torture themselves, because that’s the only way to make God rejoice. This is really a condemnation of God, as if God is a torturer, as if he enjoys people being in pain and anguish.

    “Even today we go on praising the ascetic attitude. The person who tortures himself becomes a great saint. If he fasts, starves his body, lies down on a bed of thorns, stands naked in the cold, sits in the hottest season surrounded by fire, then we have great respect for him.

    “This respect simply shows that our minds are in a very ill state. We are not for health, for wholeness, for joy, for bliss. We are suicidal, murderous. And in the name of religion great suicide has been committed. The whole of humanity has become suicidal.

    “To understand these last sutras of the Upanishad, remember one thing: to the Upanishads, the beyond is not against the world, it is an intrinsic part of it. The beyond is also the within of the world; it is not far away, it is deep down here and now. Just as a river needs both the banks, life needs both this and that.

    “When you look at a river you see two banks, but if you dive deep into the river you will find those two banks are not separate; underneath the river they are joined together, they are one. In the same way this and that are one. They appear divided, but that is only an appearance, don’t be deceived by it. Dive deep so that you can find the ultimate unity.

    “The so-called masochists, ascetic saints, have been talking of advait, oneness, but that seems to be only talk, just lip service because the way they behave, the way they live, simply shows duality. They renounce the world. If the world is illusory, why renounce it? What is there to renounce? Nobody renounces one’s dreams. When you wake up in the morning you don’t make a great declaration to the world that “I have renounced all my nighttime dreams!” When you wake up, you simply know those dreams were not part of reality, they were just fantasies of the mind. There is nothing to renounce, they have evaporated by themselves. And if you insist on renouncing the dreams, that simply shows that you are still dreaming.” Osho

More Information
Publisher Osho Media International
Type Series of Talks