According to Osho, both statements are provisional steps: to begin, say "the Divine is hidden in the world"; deeper, realize "the world itself is the Divine"; ultimately, for the knower, only the Divine is—no separate world remains. These are skillful stages of dialogue guiding perception from ignorance to nonduality, seeing the Eternal shining through all change.
First you think only the world is real; then you feel God hidden in it; then you see the world is God; finally you know only God is.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, is the Divine hidden in the world, or is the world itself the Divine?
Just look at the hints that come from the world! From every side the signs are there, yet you stand with eyes closed. From everywhere the Divine is sending news in countless forms. This gust of wind—that is his gust. This fragrance of flowers—that is his fragrance. The rainbow that rose in the sky—that is his rainbow, his color. These people sitting beside you, and you who sit within yourself—these are all his sitting rooms. He dwells in every house. But that is the first proclamation: he dwells in every house. Then the second proclamation: he and the house are not two—they are one. Then the third proclamation: only he is—where is the house? It is according to capacity. There is no contradiction among them. First-grade lesson, second-grade lesson, third-grade lesson. And do not go to solve such questions philosophically; you will not solve them and you will get tangled—you…
Osho, you say the same thing in countless ways. But when I listen to you, it feels as if I am hearing it for the first time. And I feel so much joy that I don’t feel like going back home. What should I do—what can I do—so that I can just keep listening to you!
You will feel as if you have been made to rise out of season, before time—as if you were not yet to go and yet had to go. And if you go in that way, your home will become even more desolate than before. I do not want to make your home desolate; I want to make your home a temple. I want that when you go home, your home’s new form is revealed. I do not want to tear you away from home, from the world, from family life. That is the newness of my sannyas: I do not want to sever you from the world; I want to join you to the world in such a way that your connection with the world becomes a connection with the Divine. Let the world no longer be a barrier between you and the Divine; let it become a means. If…
Osho, “A human being can never realize the Divine while living in this world”—this is my statement. Is it true?
Come down and smear yourself with earth; be alive; drop this disease; bring color, laugh out loud, pour out fragrance; when lovers pluck you, count it as good fortune; come into their hands, go with them. O block of ice, cool and resplendent— until you melt and flow, slide down and meet the earth, you will never, as grass-green, express the thrill of the living soil; nor, as her laughter, will you bloom in colored buds and flowers; nor, as the tears of her sorrow, will you gather on the morning lashes of the petals. The concept of sannyas so far has been a dead concept—one of escapism and flight. Its foundation is fear. Run away from wherever there is fear you may get entangled, may fall into mud—run away from there. But by running you become only a coward. The old sannyas, at root, was cowardly. Therefore it could…
Osho, if the truth of life is nonduality, then why is there duality?
One world, shaped into the visible. One imagining, merely possible. One world, incessantly eloquent. One solitude, soundless. One unbroken surge of movement. One unmoving, waveless stillness. Two readings, one poem. There are not two. There are two readings—the poem is one. Truth is one. Look while half-asleep and the world appears. Look awake, and the Divine appears. The world and the Divine are not two different things. The sleeping person, when he looked for the Divine, saw the world; and the awakened person, when he looked at the world, saw the Divine. The awakened one says: the world is not; the Divine is. The sleeping one says: where is the Divine? There is only the world. These are two perspectives; the truth is one. Two readings, one poem!
Osho, it seems that the earth-bound Janaka is astonished on seeing the sky for the first time. And the sky-roaming Ashtavakra is astonished only when he looks at the world. Are the world and liberation really such wonders to each other? Are they mutually opposed or complementary?
Neither opposed nor complementary. When one is, the other simply is not. Consider: are light and darkness opposed to each other or complementary? Neither complementary nor opposed; because when there is light, there is no darkness; when there is darkness, there is no light. For things to be complementary, both must be present together. Even to be opposed, both must be present together. But only one is; the other doesn’t remain at all. When the experience of the sky begins to arise in your life, the earth is lost. That is why those who attained the ultimate state said that this earth is maya. Maya means it turned out to be a delusion, it vanished, it became dreamlike. When the dream of the earth seizes you strongly, then soul, Brahman, God—all become dreamlike. For whom the earth is real, for that person the soul is maya. For whom the soul…