Does God exist?

Question: OSHO, DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT GOD DOES NOT EXIST? I do not believe that God does not exist, I know for sure He does not exist. And thank God that he does not exist -- because the existence of God would have created so many problems, difficulties, that life would have been almost impossible. You may not have looked at it from the angle from which I am going to talk to you -- perhaps nobody has ever tried to look at it from this angle. The Christians say that God created the world. In fact, the hypothesis of God is needed for the creation. The world is there; somebody must have created it. Whoever created it, that creator is God. But do you see the implication? If the world is created, then there can be no evolution: Evolution means that creation continues. Think of the Christian story.

Question: BELOVED OSHO, DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD? I am reminded of H.G.Wells, his statement about Gautam Buddha. He said, "He is the most godless person, yet the most godly." A godless person, and godly? Do you think there is any contradiction? There is no contradiction. Buddha never believed in God, there was no need. He was so utterly fulfilled that his whole fulfillment became a fragrance around him. Mahavira never believed in God, yet his life was as divine as life can be. So when I say God is a fiction, please do not misunderstand me. God is a fiction but godliness is not a fiction; that is a quality. 'God' is a person... as a person it is a fiction. There is no God sitting in heaven creating the world. And do you think a God will create such a mess that you call the world?

Life is any form. Life is any form—choicelessly, in any form. All that is. So there is not a God and a creation, a creator and a creation. Creativity itself is God. They are not two things—a being, a creator, and a creation. The whole creativity is God. And that cannot be believed; it can be experienced.

Life is any form—choicelessly, in any form. All that is. So there is not a God and a creation, a creator and a creation. Creativity itself is God. They are not two things—a being, a creator, and a creation. The whole creativity is God. And that cannot be believed; it can be experienced.

I don't understand -- what does the word god mean? I really don't understand. God, what is that? You say life is everything. Life is what is, what counts, here and now -- no planning, no wishing, no wanting, no hoping, no searching. Live now, spontaneously. Just be. Yes. I understand that, but what is god? Is god the same word for life. For what is? But why do we use the word 'god' and not just life? They say god is the one who created the world. Is that what god is?

In India we call god 'nataraj' -- the god of dancers. You must have seen Shiva dancing. That is the eastern concept about god -- a non-dual concept. When the dancer stops, the dancing stops. You cannot separate the dancing from the dancer. And dancing comes to a culmination, to a crescendo, when the dancer is completely lost in it -- when there is neither a dancer nor a dancing; both are one... one movement of sheer energy and delight. That's why nothing can be compared with dancing -- poetry, painting, sculpture; nothing comes close to it. Dancing remains the supreme art. And that is the first art that was born and that will remain the last art also, because dancing has some quality in it of life itself. God is a dancer. He is not a creator in the sense of a painter; he is a creator in the…

Osho, what is god?

GOD is not a person. That is one of the greatest misunderstandings, and it has prevailed so long that it has become almost a fact. Even if a lie is repeated continuously for centuries it is bound to appear as if it is a truth. God is a presence, not a person. Hence all worshipping is sheer stupidity. Prayerfulness is needed, not prayer. There is nobody to pray to; there is no possibility of any dialogue between you and God. Dialogue is possible only between two persons, and God is not a person but a presence -- like beauty, like joy. God simply means godliness. It is because of this fact that Buddha denied the existence of God. He wanted to emphasize that God is a quality, an experience -- like love. You cannot talk to love, you can live it. You need not create temples of love, you need…