Do you consider yourself God, God's representative on Earth, a prophet, or just a very clear individual?

Beloved master, do you consider yourself god, god's representative on earth, a prophet, and/or just a very clear individual? Having seen you a couple of times in morning discourse and listening to tapes and videotapes of you, you never seem to answer this question. How and why do you know or feel something I do not?

Harold Peltz, the first thing is that there is no God. Yes, there is godliness, but no God. The idea of God is anthropocentric. The Bible says: God created man in his own image. The truth is just the opposite: man has created God in HIS own image. God is nothing but a projection of human wishes, desires, longings. God is nothing but the projection of human mind. That does not mean that I am an atheist, but I am not a theist either. My position is exactly that of Gautama the Buddha. He was not an atheist and he was not a theist. He did not believe in God, he did not DISbelieve in God. What was his position? His position is very unique, his position is worth sharing. His space is worth communing with. And that is the space of all the meditators: they believe in godliness. The…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, IF THERE IS NO GOD, WHY WERE YOU BEING CALLED BHAGWAN? Buddhists and Jainas don't believe in God, don't believe that anybody created the world, but they use 'bhagwan'. They have a different origination for their word. In Jaina and Buddhist reference bhag means fortune, and bhagwan means the fortunate one, the blessed one; one who has attained to his destiny, who has matured. So when I started talking thirty-four years ago, people started using it... because in India, if you respect a man you don't use his name; that is thought to be disrespectful. That's why a wife will not use her husband's name. When there is a census, it is such a trouble in India because the husband is not at home, he has gone to the office and the officers come and the wife cannot say the name of her husband.

Why do you call yourself bhagwan ? Why do you call yourself god?

The last thing about it. I am not a philosopher. Always remember me as a poet. My approach towards life is that of poetry, is that of romance. It is romantic, it is imaginative. I would like you all to be gods and goddesses. I would like you to reveal your true being. Calling myself god is a challenge. It is a subtle challenge. There are only two ways to settle with it. One is, you say, 'This man is not god, and go away, because then what are you doing here? If this man is not god, then why waste your time? You go away. Or, you accept that this man is god, and then you start being with me, and your own godliness starts flowering. One day you will also be a god, a goddess. Accepting me as god is in fact deep down accepting the possibility that…

As you call yourself 'god', what is the meaning of this word? And are there more gods? Who are they?

Joey, I am God because I am not. And the moment you are not, you are also a God. God is not something special; God is our very being, God is our very existence. When I say I am God I am simply saying I exist. Existence and God are synonymous in my language. I say the trees are also God, and so are the rocks, and so are you. Yes, Joey, even a journalist is a God! He may not know. You may not be aware of your godliness. I am aware of it! And the moment I became aware of my godliness I became aware of everybody else's godliness. So it will be difficult for me to tell you how many Gods there are. Infinity... All beings are Gods at different stages of recognition, realization, awareness. But I can understand your problem. Joey is a Dutch journalist. People…

Q: COULD YOU EXPLAIN THAT? A: It is just a consequence of being silent and in tune with existence. Love arises in you. Life becomes abundant; laughter, for no reason, just because this whole existence is so hilarious. This is not philosophy, this is the consequence of being silent. Q: IS IT TO ENJOY LIFE AND NOT WORRY ABOUT TOMORROW? A: There is no tomorrow. If there is tomorrow, you cannot stop worrying about it. Tomorrow never comes, it is a process of worrying. Nor is there any yesterday. One is no more, one is not yet. All that is in our hands is the present moment, now, here. And this is a miraculous experience. If there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, and this very moment you are silent, all worrying disappears. All imagining, dreaming, projecting disappears. And it is not that you have to enjoy this moment.