As I sat down to channel a message for my website on Buddha Poornima, the very first words I
heard were: ‘We are all Sannaysis… We are all Buddhas.’
I smiled instantly, because these words reminded me of one of the most beloved souls to have
walked planet Earth—Osho. He often said, ‘We are all Sannaysis, We are all Buddhas.’ And
perhaps he said this to awaken us to the ultimate truth that what we seek outside already lives
within us.

It sounds a little intimidating, right? How can we all be Sannyasis, or how can we all be
Buddhas? For many of us, Sannyas means renouncing everything- leaving family, shaving the
head, wearing orange robes, withdrawing from the world, and spending life in prayer or
meditation. But Osho’s definition of a Sannyasi was far more colourful, alive, and rooted in
everyday existence.

For him, the real Sannyasi does not escape life to live in the mountains, but rather remains
present in the marketplace, in relationships, in daily life, and still stays centred within. Because
one may retreat to the mountains but still carry jealousy, anger, lust, fear, ego, and restlessness
inside. Distance from society does not automatically make you holy. Solitude is sacred,
meditation is transformative, but solitude can also become a comfort zone.
From a businessperson to a doctor, a teacher, a parent, or even a rebellious teenager—anyone
can be a Sannyasi without abandoning their worldly roles. Anyone who lives with awareness is
a monk in the truest sense.

This path is harder but also very rewarding, because life constantly mirrors our unconscious
patterns back to us. Relationships reveal our wounds. Success brings forth our attachments.
Work reveals our fears. How we respond to failure reveals the size of our ego. This is why
ordinary life itself is a profound spiritual training ground.

To find the Buddha within is, in many ways, not becoming something new, but returning to what
was always there. It is like becoming childlike again—not childish, but innocent, open, curious,
and deeply alive. When a child is born, there is no hatred, no prejudice, no obsession with
status, no need to prove superiority. A child does not divide the world into worthy and unworthy,
beautiful and ugly, higher and lower. Those ideas are learned over time.
Most of the things that burden the human heart are added later through fear, hurt, imitation, and
social conditioning. Slowly, anxiety takes over and we stop trusting life. Wonder becomes
comparison. Joy becomes performance. Presence becomes pressure. We no longer trust the
existence that makes flowers bloom, ensures the sun rises each day, the seasons return on
time, and we have mangoes every summer! Nature never betrays us; it’s our anxious mind that
forgets how to trust.

If you watch a child closely, you also witness qualities close to awakening— spontaneity,
fearlessness, wonder, sincerity, and the ability to be fully absorbed in the present moment.
Maybe it’s safe to say that a child is born enlightened. A child can laugh completely, cry
completely, play completely, and then move on. There is very little resistance to life. So maybe
to be a Buddha or a Sannyasi is to recover this deeper innocence consciously. Not ignorance,
not naivety, not unconscious purity, but awakened purity and trust after experience.
What Osho wanted us to understand was that Sannyas meant entering the NOW. For him,
being a Sannyasi meant learning how to live so fully in the present that the mind and body are
no longer at war with each other. The moment you become available to this very moment, you
become a Sannyasi. We are all Buddhas because we are all capable of being enlightened.
The same mind that creates jealousy can awaken compassion. The same mind that creates
confusion can discover clarity. The same heart that gets destroyed after a heartbreak is capable
of immense love. Lust and obsession can be transformed into creativity and wisdom.
The Buddha within each one of us is sleeping. And awakening it is not a distant achievement, it
is homecoming—returning to the clear, loving, present being that existed before the world
covered it in dust.

Being a Sannyasi does not mean escaping Maya, it means not losing yourself in it. You don’t
have to reject money, family, friendship, beauty, or joy to be a Buddha, you have to be aware
that one day this play will come to an end. Attachment to the play brings misery; presence
brings joy.

So on this Buddha Purnima, may you not only worship Buddha outside, but awaken the Buddha
within. May you choose awareness over noise, presence over fear, peace over chaos, and love
over ego.

Buddha Purnima: Friday, 01 May 2026
Purnima Tithi Begins: 09:12 PM on Apr 30, 2026
Purnima Tithi Ends: 10:52 PM on May 01, 2026

Shubh Poornima, Har Har Mahadev.