Is the God of the priests and pundits not true?

Question: Fourth question: Osho, is the God of the priests and pundits not true? The God of the priests is only as true as they are true. Your God will be only as true as you are. Your God cannot be truer than you. After all, your God is yours! If you are false, your God will be false. If you are false, your worship will be false, your prayer will be false. It depends on you. If you are dead within, your God will be dead. Your God cannot be otherwise than you. What is the priest’s God? A web of words. Something read in scriptures, not something lived or experienced. The priest’s God exists to exploit you, not to transform his own life. He builds temples, but not for his inner transformation; he gives sermons, but not because his life has been transformed.

Osho, what is the relationship between meditation and patience?

If you sit to meditate to remove mental restlessness, you will keep looking back again and again: “Has it gone yet?” And the irony is that when you begin to meditate, restlessness will increase. Because what has been repressed will start surfacing; catharsis will begin. The rubbish you have kept hidden within and never allowed to express—meditation will break open those doors too. It will clean the house. Dust piled up for years, for births, will rise again; there will be gusts and storms. For a while even the little peace you had will be lost. Then you will panic: “I came for peace, and even what I had is gone.” Without patience, you could even become unhinged, because meditation brings such a great storm. The disease is not from a day or two; it’s from lifetimes. Meditation will break through all the layers to reach your innermost core. In…

Osho! Who are you?

Pundits and priests are blind like owls even in daylight; yet they teach the world: do as we do; perform our rituals; memorize our scriptures; join our chorus; abandon your dreams of the Lake of Mind! But your life-breath cannot be satisfied by owls’ talk. It will dream the Manasarovar. Keep dreaming it. If ever you find one who knows that Lake—cling to his company. In his presence your journey toward the Divine will begin. Ah yes, Paltu says: Without a saint, all “Rama-Name” is pretense. Without a guide who has arrived, you will not reach. Many will mislead and obstruct—because your being lost serves their interest. Only one without self-interest can help you arrive—when self is gone, what self-interest remains? A little respect—and you go mad! A little money—and you lose control! A little knowledge—and you learn to preach! A little fame—and you mock the world! A little beauty—and…

You said that priests, pundits, and religious authorities have kept people from moving toward God and the knowing of God. The question is: Do priests know nothing at all? In thousands of years have they learned nothing? Are they utterly ignorant?

No; priests know a great deal. That is precisely the danger. If they were ignorant, there would be far less danger. They know a lot—and the danger lies in what they know. Let me tell a small story; perhaps it will make my point clear. Early one morning a royal court was filling, and a stranger arrived—a traveler from a distant land, it seemed. His dress was unfamiliar, his face unknown. But he carried himself with great dignity and presence. Everyone in the court found their eyes drawn to him. He wore a magnificent turban—unlike anything seen in that country—rich with multicolored patterns and glittering ornaments on top. The king asked, “Honored guest, may I ask how expensive this turban is and where you bought it?” The man said, “It is very expensive. I had to spend a thousand gold coins.” The vizier, seated beside the king—and viziers are naturally…

Beloved Osho, if the experience of god is a subjective experience, then what are priests and popes for? If the experience of god is an objective experience, then why don't they produce him?

Because of the concept of God, man has been able to live -- not very joyously, because his whole living is based on wrong principles. But still, somehow he has been able to drag through his life. Without God you sudddenly feel a cold wave around you, a dark night surrounding you. God was the great father -- protection, security, hope... all are gone. This makes one mature -- if you can get rid of God you are mature. According to me, twenty-one years of age does not make you mature, adult. Only one thing makes man mature, and that is getting rid of God -- because God is a bundle of all kinds of fears, greeds, hopes. It is opium; it keeps you drugged. But while you are drugged your life is slipping by, and soon death will knock on the door and then it will be too late.…