According to Osho, God, devotion, and bhog (divine enjoyment) form one living harmony: bhog is the sweet current flowing between the two banks of God and the devotee. It arises not from mental discipline but from total-hearted surrender that dissolves ego. Because we are already joined to the Divine, devotion simply lets go—and supreme taste appears, effortlessly outshining worldly pleasures.
When you stop trying to control and give your whole heart to the Divine, a natural, deep joy shows you were never separate.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, is there an inner harmony between “God,” “devotion,” and “bhog” (divine enjoyment)?
How could you even be without being joined to the Divine? Not for a moment, not for a single instant. If He breathes in you, breath goes on. If He shines as the sun, your body is warmed. If He moves as the winds, you receive life. If He comes as rain, your thirst is quenched. If He appears as food, you gain strength. Only when He comes in a thousand forms do you live at all. Severed from Him for even a moment, life ends. The very name of being joined to Him is “life.” Therefore the devotee says: there has been no breaking—talk of joining is mistaken. We are joined; now simply enjoy. The devotee says: you are joined and yet you do not enjoy—how insane! What are you waiting for? The celebration is already prepared. Everything is all-ready—how can you sit there sad? For whom are you…
In your effacement, your absorption, your utter immersion—God appears. Therefore in the devotee you will find both intoxication and awareness. In the knower you will find awareness, not intoxication. In the drunkard, the sinner—you will find intoxication, not awareness. In the yogi you will find awareness, in the sensualist you will find intoxication—in the devotee you will find both. The sensualist envies him and the yogi too. The yogi sees: such limitless possibility of awareness is not in him. The sensualist sees: even after all his indulgence, such ecstasy never came to him. All indulgence leaves a bitter aftertaste. Narada says rightly: “Knowledge, action, yoga—do not reach the heights of devotion.” In devotion, God is accepted in His totality; the world too is included in that acceptance. The devotee does not run from the world; he does not run from enjoyment either—he accepts even that as God’s grace.
Osho, Sri Shankaracharya teaches the wisdom of the ultimate (tattva-jnana) and also sings Govinda’s bhajans. Is there an interrelationship between knowledge and bhajan, between knowledge and devotion?
Knowledge is negating; devotion is affirmative. Knowledge is like preparing the soil—removing weeds, adding manure; devotion is like sowing the seed. Knowledge by itself is incomplete. It clears the field, but it does not implant the seeds. It is necessary, not sufficient. For knowledge belongs to the intellect; devotion belongs to the heart. On the path to the divine, all the obstacles can be cut away by knowledge; but the steps are climbed by devotion. So knowledge is negating; it is very effective in breaking the futile, not in giving birth to the meaningful. Shankara speaks of knowledge so that the layers upon layers of ignorance within you are cut away. And once the ground of the mind is clear—no useless rubbish, no trash—then the seeds of devotion can be sown; then “bhaj Govindam” becomes possible. There is no opposition between the two; devotion is the culmination of knowledge, and…
Osho, when a devotee meets God he experiences a thrill and bliss. Does God also, in that moment, experience the same thrill and bliss?
Therefore my teaching is of joy. I do not want to make you gloomy—closing your eyes, meditating, sitting sad and corpse-like with a long face—as if you were doing some great work, as if you were conferring a favor upon God, as if you were being very gracious by sitting for an hour with a rosary in hand like a stone. No. There are plenty of stones. There is no need for you to become another stone. Dance. People come to me and say, “What kind of meditations are these of yours? We always thought meditation meant closing the eyes, fixing oneself in lotus posture, and sitting quietly. Dance! Music! What kind of meditation is that?” I tell them: have you ever seen God sitting like that, gloomy? Look all around—birds are singing, the wind is dancing, and what to say of the thrill of the trees! A celebration is…
Osho, with reference to “Raso Vai Sah,” can taste too be made a means to the experience of the Divine?
Brahman means “the expanding one”—that which keeps spreading, which is ever extending. That which does not stand still anywhere, which never makes any boundary into a boundary, which always flows beyond. If you would know the Divine, then—even on a small scale—do not make boundaries. Expand, keep expanding! If you have fragrance, share it with the winds! If you have light, give it to the paths! If you have awareness, give it to others! Whatever you have! And who is there who has nothing? There is no such human being. The Divine is within everyone; therefore something or other will surely be there. Search. You cannot be without purpose. Through you he wishes to sing some song. Through you he wishes to dance some dance. Through you he wishes to bloom some flower. You cannot be in vain. You have a destiny. There is a secret hidden within you. Open…