According to Osho, the question of which comes first is futile; bliss and knowledge are inseparable, two sides of the same coin. Depending on your path, devotion reveals bliss first and knowledge follows; inquiry/meditation reveals knowledge first and bliss follows. Seek the essential: transformative experience, not speculative debate.
Bliss and knowing arrive together; whether you start with love or with meditation, the other naturally appears.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Kindly explain: does bliss come from knowledge, or does knowledge come from bliss?
People often ask questions like, Which came first—the chicken or the egg? But even if you find out, what will you do with it? And what substance is there in such knowing? Suppose it becomes definitively clear that the chicken came first, or that the egg came first—then what will you do? What will it solve? What revolution will it bring to your life? The intellect is very skilled at raising such futile questions that have no essence. I was once a guest in a village. Two old neighbors came to see me at night. They said, We’ve waited a long time for you. Now that you’re here, please settle a question—we’ve been quarreling over it for thirty years. One was a Jain, the other a Hindu. We’ve been arguing whether God created the world or not. The Jain says no—there is no God, no creator; existence has been flowing…
Man can make efforts for pleasure but not for bliss. Pleasure will not come on its own. You have to make efforts for it, because pleasure belongs to the outside world. The pleasure that comes through having money, the pleasure that comes through food, through sex, through political power, respectability -- these things never come as gifts. One has to work hard, struggle for them, one has to be aggressive and violent. If one simply sits silently and waits for a miracle to happen those miracles never happen, they have never happened. You have to run and you have to run faster than others because it is a competitive game. You are not alone; millions of people are running for the same goals. Pleasure is of the outside -- competitive; hence one has to make a tremendous effort to gain it.
bliss and wisdom are two sides of the same coin only a blissful person is wise and only a wise person is blissful they happen together the fool cannot be blissful howsoever scholarly he is howsoever knowledgeable he is he cannot be blissful and the blissful person howsoever uneducated he is, uninformed cannot be other than wise he cannot be otherwise jesus is not a knowledgeable person neither is mohammed nor is kabir all the three are uneducated, absolutely uneducated not great scholars or philosophers not knowledgeable in any way just innocent people but immensely wise, absolutely wise their wisdom knows no bounds their wisdom is as vast as the whole sky their wisdom is infinite hence wisdom has to be understood what actually it is it is knowing your own being it is an experience of your own innermost core it is entering into your own centre the moment…
That which brings us together sets us apart
For them there is no short-cut. And all that is great belongs to that category. Only small things can be attained quickly. Coffee can be instant -- -- love cannot be. Instant love cannot be love. Instant simply means you are not even ready to pay the little patience for it. One should learn to be patient -- to be ready to wait with open doors, with a welcoming heart, but not in a hurry, not demanding, not forcing things. And the miracle, the paradox, is that the less you force things, the more quickly they happen. The more you force them, the longer it takes. Because meditation has to be learned -- and meditation only means stilling of the mind, the silencing of the mind -- you cannot be in a hurry. If you are in a hurry your mind will remain in a turmoil. You will be jumping…
Knowledge is a substitute. You can go to any university, to any library, to any museum, and you can accumulate much knowledge, but for wisdom you cannot go anywhere. In fact you have to stop going, you have to be very still and silent. You have to dig deep within yourself, to the very rock-bottom of your being. It is arduous, but when you are absolutely silent, when all thoughts have disappeared, when your eyes are as clear as a mirror without any dust, you become capable of seeing that which is. That is wisdom. And simultaneously, as wisdom happens your heart starts dancing. In fact for the first time you hear the REAL heart beat. For the first time you hear the song of the heart. For the first time your whole being -- body, mind, heart, soul -- are all dancing together and there is tremendous grace.