According to Osho, place has no intrinsic power in spirituality; the whole earth is sacred. Kaaba or Kashi are wherever you bow in love—without inner surrender, even holy sites do nothing. Kabir refused to rely on Kashi: liberation rests on your awareness and joyous acceptance, not geography, dates, or omens. Turn inward; consciousness, not location, opens the door to the Divine.
It’s not where you are, but how loving and awake you are, that makes something spiritual.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, you say there is no need to go to the Kaaba or to Kashi. In your view, does place have no significance at all?
Swadesh, Yes, brother—place matters? Why wouldn’t it! Chandulal was telling me, “I’m ruined—ever since I got married, I’m ruined.” I asked him, “Where did you meet your wife?” He said, “On Chowpatty beach.” I said, “Then of course you’re ‘chopat’—kaput! Place! At least think where you meet. Meeting your future wife for the first time is risky anyway—and that too on Chowpatty!” But I told him, “Your wife says something else. She goes around saying, ‘Since I married him, Chandulal has become a lakhpati.’ And you say you’re ruined.” Chandulal slapped his forehead. “She’s right too.” I said, “This is quite a riddle! You say you’re ruined, and your wife says you’ve become a lakhpati.” He said, “Yes, she’s right. Earlier I was a crorepati.” Now you ask, Swadesh, whether a place has any value or not? What mad questions! The whole earth is one. What Kaaba, what Kashi! Wherever…
Osho, there are still countless temples, mosques, churches, and gurdwaras on the earth where ritual worship and prayer go on. In your view, are all of them simply futile?
If they were not futile, heaven would already have descended on earth. If they were not futile—so much worship, so much prayer, so many temples, so many churches, so many mosques—if all that were true, if those prayers were real, arising from the heart, the earth would have become heaven. But the earth is hell. Certainly, somewhere there is a miss. Either God is not, hence the prayers are going in vain; or God is, but the prayers are not happening rightly, and the connection with the divine is not being made. There are only two options. Choose whichever you like. One option is that God is not; then pray as much as you want—what is going to happen? There is no one there to listen; the sky is empty and bare. Shout, scream—you’re just being crazy. The time is being wasted; you could have put it to some use.…
Osho, it is surprising that among animals there is hardly any hypocrisy or deceit, and among indigenous people it is also very little, whereas in the so-called educated and civilized society it is at its peak. Has humanity’s long and arduous journey from barbarism to civilization then gone in vain? And in that case, is the tribal order preferable?
Animals are without falseness, without hypocrisy—not because they have achieved something, but because they are incapable. They cannot be hypocrites; there is no way for them to be. They have no facility for being bad, no possibility of falling. But precisely because an animal cannot fall, it also cannot ascend to divinity. One who cannot fall cannot rise. And where there is no possibility of sin, there is no possibility of the divine either. The animal is in a kind of stupor; it does as nature makes it do. Its journey is mechanical. It has no free will. Therefore an animal cannot do evil, but it cannot do good either. It simply does what nature impels. It has no individuality of its own. Hence an animal can be neither wicked nor virtuous, neither a great sinner nor a great saint. An animal remains an animal. The animal is born complete.…
I will tell you of two or three things that happen.... If you sit somewhere alone in meditation, you are unlikely to feel aware of the presence of the few souls who may be around you. But in a tirtha, such an experience can be very powerful. It may become so deep sometimes that you feel your own presence less than that of the others. For example, Kailash has been a holy place for Hindus as well as for Tibetan Buddhists. But Kailash is absolutely desolate, it has no houses and no human population -- no worshipers, no priests.... But whoever sits in meditation in Kailash will find it fully inhabited. From the moment you reach Kailash, if you are capable of going into meditation you will say that is inhabited by many souls, and wonderful ones too.
Question: I'M IN A MUDDLE. YOU RESOLVE IT, BHAGWAN. WHEN YOU ARE MINE, WHY GO TO OTHERS? IS MIND GREATER THAN WHAT'S MINDING MIND? IS RAM GREATER THAN HE WHO KNOWS RAM? IS BRAHMA GREATER THAN WHAT HE AROSE FROM? ARE THE VEDAS GREATER THAN THEIR VERY SOURCE? SAYS KABIR: I'M SO CONFUSED... IS THE TEMPLE GREATER THAN HE WHO SERVES GOD? What Kabir said in reply is very significant. "If I die in Kashi and go to heaven," he said, "I will know nothing about God's grace. Where will there be any room for His grace if I die in Kashi? To reach heaven just because I died in Kashi is not at all palatable or agreeable to me." He said, "If I die in Maghar and go to heaven, then and only then will it be because of His grace.