According to Osho, you need not do anything for him—simply be. Drop the urge to perform or please; become yourself, flower into your own being. Like a gardener, he rejoices when a disciple blossoms; like a painter or poet, he works on you so you can become the art. Your authentic presence is the offering.
You don’t have to do anything for Osho—just be yourself and grow; that’s the best gift.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, what should I do? How should I pray? How should I worship?
“What should I do? How should I pray? How should I worship?” Bid farewell to the word “how.” Move into inactivity. Sit for an hour—do not think what to do—just sit for an hour. If birds are singing, listen. If sunrays are dancing upon you, feel them. If a breeze comes and rustles your clothes, makes them quiver, feel it. Just sit. You will be amazed to discover that if you can sit for an hour without any occupation, one day prayer will be born within you—like a wonder. But when you ask “how,” you don’t realize what you’re asking. You are saying, “All right, I will sit for prayer—just give me some occupation. Should I turn a rosary? Chant a mantra? Arrange a puja tray? Perform aarti?” You want some device to keep busy. You cannot remain without doing. Doing is your disease, your madness. In the shop you…
Osho, I have taken great pains in pursuit of Your devotion; every joy of mine has been erased in pursuit of Your every joy. How far and wide I have wandered for Your worship! Now please have the compassion to tell me what I should do next.
Poems can be beautiful; that does not make them true. Truth is certainly beautiful; but not everything beautiful is true. Truth is supremely beautiful. But don’t take something to be true just because it is beautiful. For you deem all kinds of things beautiful! You take even a body of bone, flesh, and marrow to be beautiful—which is utterly untrue. You take a rainbow in the sky to be beautiful—which in fact isn’t there. You take the dreams of night to be beautiful—and a thousand times you have awakened to find them false! There is not much truth in your sense of beauty; there cannot be—unless truth has blossomed within you. You did choose a beautiful verse. It isn’t even yours—borrowed as well. “My every joy has been wiped out in pursuit of Your every joy.” No, God asks no sacrifice of you. And those who taught you that God…
You say, Osho, don’t try to be something, to become, to attempt “becoming”—just be, just being. Please explain in detail how this is to be attained.
The very moment you ask how to practice it, you miss the understanding. Because “to practice” already means the effort to become something has begun. When I say, remain as you are, just as you are, the question of practice does not arise. Practice means you have started trying to be what you are not. So you have not understood. Any practice implies discontent; there is no fulfillment in being as you are. The mind says, let something more happen. A little money—let’s gather more. A little knowledge—accumulate more. A little renunciation—become a great renunciate. A slight taste of meditation—let’s manufacture the taste of samadhi. It is all the same; there is no difference. The issue is neither money nor meditation; the issue is the demand for “more.” So whether you ask for wealth you remain worldly, and even if you ask for meditation you remain worldly. Wherever there is…
Osho, when I saw you it felt as if my life has gone to waste. What should I do now, and what should I not do?
Harish! Life generally goes to waste. One in a million lives becomes meaningful—though everyone’s could; though all are born carrying the possibility of meaning. Each person is a seed of the divine. But a seed is not yet a flower; it can become a flower. A seed is a possibility—not a truth. Turning possibilities into truth is what sadhana is. A seed needs soil, manure, water; you must arrange it so that sunlight reaches it. You have to remove the obstacles between it and the sun. And then, with a prayerful heart, wait. When the right season for the seed to split arrives, there will be germination. Then the sprout must be protected. The sprout is delicate—filled with great life, yet very tender. A single stone falling on it, and all is ruined. Then you must put up a fence. Until the plant is able to stand on its own…
Osho, you always emphasize experience. I have done everything—worship and rituals, yoga and meditation, vows and fasting! And for some years I even lived like an old-style sadhu. Yet nothing came of all that. What should I do now?
You have done nothing. Do you even know what fasting is? Fasting—upavas—means to dwell near, to sit close to the Divine. It does not mean starving. Yes, it often happens that sitting close to Him you forget food; you forget to eat. In real fasting, food is not in the focus—God is; and God is so much in focus that you forget the body. Then food does not come to mind: that is fasting. When you fast, the exact opposite happens. What you do should not be called upavas; that is why we have another word—anashan, a hunger strike. You go on a hunger strike: “Today I will not eat.” But have you seen what a man does when he decides to fast? “Tomorrow I mustn’t eat”—so tonight he stuffs himself. He makes up for tomorrow today. Is that fasting? And what will you do tomorrow all day? You will…