BELOVED OSHO, IN A FEW DAYS I AM GOING TO VISIT MY EIGHTY-YEAR-OLD FATHER WHOM I HAVE NOT SEEN FOR SEVEN YEARS. HE IS VERY INSISTENT ABOUT SEEING ME BUT AT THE SAME TIME VERY UNHAPPY THAT I AM A SANNYASIN. HOW TO MAKE HIM FEEL GOOD AND STILL NOT FEEL LIKE A HYPOCRITE?

You are not going... that's the only way! In the first place to go to Europe in such conditions of nuclear radiation is dangerous (Chernobyll disaster- Russia); there is no point. Secondly, to make him unhappy while he is dying at the age of eighty is not good.

If you go as a sannyasin he will be more unhappy than if you don't go. For seven years you have not gone. If you go as a non-sannyasin you will feel unhappy that you are being a hypocrite, and there is every possibility that it will be discovered that you are simply pretending to be a non-sannyasin...

OshO

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