A Flexible Relationship - Osho on Rabindranath Tagore's Novel "Aakhari Kavitha" which means "The Last Poem"..

"A flexible relationship where you come close and you move away has not been developed. That is one of the misfortunes of humanity. I would like to contribute to the future a concept of flexible relationship -- not fixed and dead.

Rabindranath, in one of his novels, AAKHARI KAVITA, which means, "the last poem" -- it is not a book of poetry, it is a novel; just the name is "The Last Poem" -- the hero in the novel wants to be married to a highly cultured and educated woman who is very rich and very beautiful. The woman is willing, but with a condition.

The condition -- she has a big lake, just by the side of her palace -- is that: "I will make you another palace on the other side of the lake, miles away; you cannot see from one palace to the other palace. I will give you a boat, but we will live in separate houses, and we will never invite each other -- we will let it always be accidental -- you are boating, I am boating, and suddenly we meet on the lake. You have gone for a morning walk, I have gone for a morning walk, and suddenly we meet under the trees -- but NO invitation.

This way our relationship will remain always young, always fresh, always a honeymoon -- a continuous honeymoon."

The man could not understand. He said, "What kind of marriage is this? Unless we live together, this is not marriage."

The woman said, "Then it is up to you. But I cannot live with you, because I know living together is going to kill what is most important between us. And I don't want to kill it. Even if you marry someone else, it does not matter. I will remember you in my dreams, in my memories, and those golden moments that have passed between us, but I will not allow a fixed relationship."

Rabindranath is giving you the idea of a flexible relationship. In fact, not relationship, only a love affair that goes on and on -- and you never go to the registrar's office to get married.

Unless you are far, you cannot be near. If you remain always far, love will die. If you remain always near, love will die. Love can survive only in a continuous flowing relationship -- no bondage, no chains, no imprisonment. I have loved that novel very much. It is not a novel, but perhaps a dream for the future humanity." OSHO