Notes

There are very few significant words uttered in the world: amongst those few words are three small sentences from the UPANISHADS. Those sentences can become a bridge to the divine. Nobody knows who uttered those sentences first. Perhaps thousands of mystics may have uttered them again and again -- not repeating, but on their own -- and slowly, slowly they became condensed.

Those three sentences are: Lead me from darkness to light; lead me from death to deathlessness.... They appear as if they are a prayer, but they are not a prayer because the UPANISHADS don't have a god. They are invocations to existence itself.

Lead me from the unreal to the real.
Lead me from darkness to light. And,
Lead me from death to deathlessness.

In these three small sentences is contained the whole message of the East, a message that can never be out of date -- which will always remain significant, meaningful, in every age, in every time. I cannot conceive of any time, any age in the future when these three statements will have become out of date. When all your scriptures may have become out of date, these three statements will still remain significant.

In Sanskrit they are very beautiful, because Sanskrit is a very poetic language -- asto ma sat gamaya: from the false to the real; mrityorma amratam gamaya: from death to deathlessness.... Just within three words a sentence is complete.

In fact, all the three sentences are three aspects of one reality. And there is no question of any belief; there is no question of becoming part of an organized religion -- and whatever is said is the very longing of every human soul. Can you find a human soul which is not longing for light, not longing for eternal life, not longing for ultimate truth?

Osho, The Rebellious Spirit #5