According to Osho, the religious path never begins with a desire for religion; desire itself is the world. It starts when worldly craving collapses into deep disenchantment, ending the urge to get anything. From that defeat arises desirelessness and the simple joy of being—no attainment, no bargaining, merely arrival. Religion is being, not getting; stillness reveals the already-present self: Aham Brahmasmi.
Religion begins when you stop chasing things and see that wanting won’t fulfill you, so you rest in simply being yourself.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, you say, “As He wills, let us become mere instruments; whatever role in life we have been given, let us fulfill it.” But letting what happens happen—i.e., flowing along with the body, mind, and ego—gives rise to suffering. So should we keep applying the principle of instrumentality even in relation to the body, mind, and ego, and go on suffering? How do we solve the riddle between the principle of instrumentality and the continuous reality of suffering?
That supreme bliss is beyond both pleasure and pain. It is neither like night nor like day. It is twilight. The sun has set, night has not yet come; the light remains—very gentle, sweet, non-aggressive—that is twilight. Morning has come, the sun is not yet risen, the night has gone—such is the twilight. One who abides in that twilight—that is what we call prayer. That is why Hindus call their prayer sandhya. Sandhya means one who has stopped in between the dualities, who has found the truce between the two. Between pleasure and pain, love and hate, victory and defeat, night and day, life and death—one who has found the pact and stands in that concord. Seek that interval of conjunction. Krishna says, it is simple to find. If you cease to be the doer, you will find it instantly. It is only through your doer-ship that you keep missing.…
Osho, you said that God-realization cannot be added as one more desire to the mind’s many cravings. “Let the One alone dwell within; to none other give your mind.” In this context, how then does the journey on the spiritual path begin?
There are many desires. There are thousands of things to get. Naturally it seems that if the desire for the Divine arises, it will arise as just one more among these desires. If all desires must fall away before the desire for God can be meaningful, then how will it arise? Understand: there are a thousand desires; God cannot be the thousand-and-first. Then where does the beginning happen? It begins when the futility of these thousand desires starts becoming visible to you. If the thousand remain meaningful and the thousand-and-first also becomes meaningful, your world just gets bigger; religion is not born. Let it become clear to you that these thousand are futile—that you are running after mirages. As one desire after another drops, nine hundred and ninety-nine remain; the space that opens is consecrated to God. When nine hundred and ninety-eight remain, a little more space opens—consecrate that too…
Osho, you say that desire moves outward; then what is it that leads one on the inner journey?
To be defeated in the world; to be defeated in lust; the failure of craving leads you to the divine, leads you inward. When a deep wound awakens in you—that life as you are living it is futile—then the excitement about the outer life drops. Understand this a little. I see many people who are eager for the inner life, but they have not been wounded; the outer life has not failed for them, yet they get interested in the inner. Then their so‑called inner life is only a part of the outer life; it is not inner life at all. Their temple too is just a corner of their shop. Their prayer is merely the opening line of their ledgers—“Shri Ganeshaya Namah.” The ledger begins with God. To keep the shop running smoothly they remember the Divine. By remembering God they make arrangements for hell. As far as I…
Osho, you said that science cannot reach religion because science is a causal search. Then is the search for religion done without cause?
At that time you won’t be able to suppress it. The mantra will have fallen away, and desire will show itself. You would be astonished: those whom you call sadhus—if you could see their dreams, only then would you know whether they are sadhus or not. The dreams of sadhus are often most unsaintly. The dreams of the unsaintly may sometimes be saintly—but the saint’s dreams are almost never so. A criminal in jail may sometimes dream, “I should renounce everything; I’ve indulged and suffered enough. Let me take a begging bowl and go forth. Shall I walk the path of Buddha or of Mahavira?” But go to those you see ostensibly walking the path of Buddha and Mahavira—the monks and renunciates—and ask them to tell you their dreams. At night they dream of the world. They fast in the day, and at night they are invited to the emperor’s…
Osho, you said desire inevitably leads to suffering. Then will the desire for virtue, the desire for religion, the desire for God also lead only to suffering?
Desire as such leads to suffering; it makes no difference what the desire is. The object of desire does not change the nature of desire. Whether you want wealth or you want religion, the wanting is the same; the form of desire is the same. Desire means you are not content where you are, as you are—if you get wealth you will be satisfied; if you get religion you will be satisfied. Desire means: you are dissatisfied, unfulfilled. Desire is a sigh that arises from discontent. What the discontent is about makes no difference. There is discontent; there is no contentment. What you desire—what does that change? Some people are building a fine house on earth; some are building a fine house in heaven! One day I was walking along the road; a woman came up to me and handed me a pamphlet. On it was a very beautiful building—garden,…