Are you trying to destroy all of our previous ideas about religion?

Beloved Osho, are you trying to destroy all of our previous ideas about religion?

That has been my trouble. My whole life I have been attacking. Unless I attack your belief system, your ideology, I cannot be of any help to you; I cannot share myself with you. There is a wall, a thick wall. I can go on shouting; you will not hear me. I have to hit the wall continuously, hammer it, at least make a hole in it, so I can see you, you can see me -- face to face. And I can revive what has been taken away from you. I can give you back your innocent childhood, and only from there a real inquiry into truth begins. Only from there religion is possible; otherwise you can only talk about religion. So, Sheela, it is true. I absolutely want you to become completely free of all jargon that has been given to you by others. And I am not…

Osho, what is the definition of God?

Words are very small. If you say God is light, then what of darkness? The scriptures have said that God is light. Suppose we accept this as a definition—then what about darkness? Where will darkness go? Darkness is too; in fact it is far more than light. Light sometimes is and sometimes is not; darkness is always, eternal. Where will you place darkness? If you say God is light, darkness is left out. If you say God is darkness, then light is left out. If you say God is both darkness and light, a contradiction arises: they cannot be together. Try to have both darkness and light in the same room. If you bring in light, darkness disappears; if you preserve darkness, you cannot have light. Then how can both be together? That becomes an impossibility. So you cannot say “both” either. Then the fourth device is to say: it…

Osho, I wonder that the ancient true masters did not beat us as much as you do, and still we do not wake up and go on asking question after question. Kindly bestow the compassion of awakening.

And since I am not against life—I am for it—and I say life and God are synonymous; God is the Great Life, life is the doorway; if God is the temple, then life is the steps to that temple—then of course I must shake you thoroughly to wake you. Suffering itself wakes people: one cannot sleep, and even if one sleeps one wants to wake. But pleasure brings deeper sleep—and the sleeper does not want to wake at all. You have seen: a nightmare breaks sleep by itself. You dream you are falling from a mountain, hurtling toward the rock, about to be smashed into pieces—and your sleep breaks. Or you dream a lion leaps upon your chest, claws poised, roaring—will you remain asleep? You wake. But if you are dreaming of a palace, beautiful queens, a great kingdom—pleasure alone, how will you wake? Even if someone tries to wake…

Osho, you say the same thing in countless ways. But when I listen to you, it feels as if I am hearing it for the first time. And I feel so much joy that I don’t feel like going back home. What should I do—what can I do—so that I can just keep listening to you!

You will feel as if you have been made to rise out of season, before time—as if you were not yet to go and yet had to go. And if you go in that way, your home will become even more desolate than before. I do not want to make your home desolate; I want to make your home a temple. I want that when you go home, your home’s new form is revealed. I do not want to tear you away from home, from the world, from family life. That is the newness of my sannyas: I do not want to sever you from the world; I want to join you to the world in such a way that your connection with the world becomes a connection with the Divine. Let the world no longer be a barrier between you and the Divine; let it become a means. If…

Beloved Osho, are you against all religions? Isn't religion something essentially needed by man?

So I said to the Sufi, "Come into the house. Don't be angry. That tree is not strong enough, and that tree is very special; don't destroy it. I became enlightened under a maulshree tree, so my people have brought that tree from the original maulshree tree, as a seed. They have grown it, and it is still not strong enough for your hug. You come inside." He came inside, and he started talking in the same way he must have been talking to his disciples: "I see God everywhere, only God and nothing else." I said, "If you see only God and nothing else, then to whom are you talking? If there is only God and nothing else then to whom are you talking and for what purpose? God must know it. Keep silent!" When all his disciples had gone I told him, "I know what has happened to…