According to Osho, evoking Krishna awakens gopi-bhava—the lover’s surrender—where the ego begins to dissolve in the rasa. As devotion intensifies, you become like Radha, a shadow whose flow turns back to its source; the circle of separation shrinks until dancer and Krishna merge. This meeting is utterly intimate: not public seeing, but letting yourself be seen, culminating in oneness.
Feel Krishna with pure love, let your “me” melt, become like his shadow, and you unite with him.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, one day you said: the moment you become Krishna, the rasa is set in motion. I was thrilled by this, but when I tried to evoke the feeling of Krishna, the feeling of the gopis welled up in me. And that feeling filled me with even greater ecstasy. Just as the rasa-circle was arranged before Krishna, the same began to happen in your presence. But what did you mean by arranging your rasa?
Exactly that—what happened. What happened was precisely it. If you want to enact the rasa with Krishna, you will have to become a gopi. By becoming a gopi, one day you will also become Krishna—but you must pass through becoming a gopi. Becoming a gopi is a halting place on the road to being Krishna. One who is not ready to become a gopi will never become Krishna. Such a gopi, dancing and dancing and dancing, keeps coming closer. The circle keeps growing smaller. The dance becomes more intense. The gopi slowly begins to disappear, to be absorbed. The circle grows smaller still. The rasa becomes denser. Midnight arrives. The moon stands overhead. Dancing and dancing and dancing and dancing, the gopi dissolves into Krishna—she becomes Krishna. Then the circle has utterly vanished. The rasa is complete. Union has happened. The Puranas tell a tale. In the old scriptures there…
The third eye can be activated in two ways. One: the seeker, by deliberate effort, draws back the light of the two eyes—closing them. Years of practice to de-energize the eyes. Our consciousness that streams out through the eyes is withdrawn inward. Kabir calls it “turning the eyes inward”—the outward-flowing current becomes inward. You have heard the name of Krishna’s beloved, Radha. You may not have noticed: Radha is the reverse of dhara—flow. In scriptures of Krishna’s time there is no mention of Radha. Much later, in later texts, the name appears. Those who introduced it were wise—they hid a great secret in a symbol. But people made Radha’s statues and staged dances as Krishna and Radha! The device was lost. Radha is a yogic process. When the life-current that flows outward turns back, that reversed current is named Radha—simply by reversing the word.
Osho, what is raas? Though he is Rasbihari, Sri Krishna is also called a brahmachari—what is the essence of that? In today’s modern society, what significance would the raas-lila have? Please shed light.
To understand raas, the first necessity is to see that life itself is raas. As I have said, all of life is the meeting of opposing forces. The joy of life is hidden in the union of opposites. The whole bliss and mystery of life is concealed in the meeting of opposites. So first it is proper to understand the metaphysical, the cosmic meaning of raas; then we can understand its reflection in Krishna’s life. Raise your eyes and look around—what else is happening but raas? Clouds racing across the sky, rivers rushing toward the sea, seeds traveling toward flowers, bumblebees singing, birds chirping, human beings loving, positive and negative electricity attracting, the ceaseless play and love-story of woman and man—if we look at this vast expanse, nothing is happening but raas. Raas has a profoundly cosmic meaning. It has vast metaphysical dimensions. First, in the orchestration of this world,…
Osho, in one talk you said that the soul of Sri Krishna can be realized, because nothing dies. Then what process must one go through to bring the vision of Krishna within the bounds of possibility? And please also tell us whether, through meditation on Krishna’s image, chanting Krishna’s name, and kirtan of Krishna’s name, one can move toward the fullness of worship.
There is a little process called post-hypnotic suggestion. If a person is put into deep trance—which is very easy—and in that deep trance he is told, “Look closely at this talisman; whenever it is placed on your chest you will again go into a trance,” then that suggestion settles into the depths of the unconscious. From then on, whenever that talisman is placed on his chest, he will immediately go into trance. And in trance, the unconscious faculties of our brain begin to function: what we cannot do in wakefulness, we often do in trance. We hear with far greater acuity, we see far more deeply. That talisman will not work on you, because no such deep suggestion has been planted in your unconscious. When people like Krishna, Mahavira, Buddha, and Christ depart from the earth, those who love them, who have longed for them, who have received much in…
Osho, even now many devotees and saints have direct visions of Krishna. For twenty-four hours I too see nothing but Krishna. So does the formless God take a form for devotees—is this true?
And when, through Islam, he came to the very experience he had attained through prayer and worship of Kali, he said, “Alright, this path too arrives at the same.” This path too takes one there. Those who walk on this path will reach the same place as those who walk by other paths. Then Ramakrishna conducted experiments in about six religions. And when through all of them he reached the same samadhi, he declared: The paths are different, but the mountain peak is one. From different paths—even paths that sometimes go in opposite directions—one arrives at that one peak. So do not be hasty. Be compassionate toward the other. Do not try to hurt the other. Keep only this one attention: that your whole energy is engaged in your own experiment. And slowly, slowly, your consciousness becomes one with your own feeling. There is only one art for bringing God…