What is the basis and ground of divine favor?

Osho, you said that God is a force and has no interest, no concern, in human life. In the Katha Upanishad there is a verse whose meaning is that only the one whom That favors attains it. So what is the basis and ground of that favor?

In fact, I did not say that it has no interest in you. I did not say that. I did not say that God has no interest in you. If It had no interest, you could not even be. I did not say that. And I also did not say that It is neutral toward you—this too I did not say. Nor can It be neutral; because you are not separate from It; you are Its own spread-out expanse. What I said is this: It has no special interest in you. There is a difference between the two. There is no special interest in you. That force will not step outside its law for your sake. If you strike your head with a stone, blood will flow—and nature will not take any special interest in you. Interest It is taking fully, because when the blood flows, that too is Its…

Osho, kindly shed light on the interrelationship between grace (prasad) and worthiness.

Jesus says, when devotees and knowers stand before God, the knowers will always feel, “We have been laboring since morning. We worked with all our might all day—and we got the same. And these devotees hardly worked—sang songs, hummed tunes, swayed in ecstasy, danced—and they too received as much.” And God will say, “What you did—you have received accordingly, have you not? Leave them to me. I give to them out of my abundance. I have it. What else should I do with it?” Among those who have found God there are two kinds of people: the knowers (jnanis) and the devotees (bhaktas). The jnani says, “We attained through our worthiness.” The bhakta says, “We received it as His prasad.” It is the devotee’s heart that conceives of prasad. It is the knower’s mind that speaks of effort. The jnani keeps accounts; the bhakta keeps no accounts. The bhakta says,…

Question: First question: Osho, God-realization through grace—how does it happen? Effort is the shadow of man’s ego. Grace is the fragrance that arises in a state of egolessness. By effort you get the small. Man’s fist is very small. You can hold pebbles in your fist; try to hold the Himalayas and you’ll be in trouble. By effort you get the petty—because man’s power is limited. By grace you receive the vast. Effort is a clenched fist; grace is an open hand. “I will get it”—the untruth is already there in this. Because the “I” itself is the untruth. The day you know “I am not,” that day it is found. In truth it was always found—only the stiffness of “I” did not let it be seen. What comes by grace is not that it comes today—it is already here, always here.

In one of your previous discourses you said that a sudden and direct descent of grace can become a disaster sometimes. The person might be harmed or become mad or he may even die. A question naturally arises: is grace not always beneficial? Does grace not keep its own equilibrium? The mishap can also be due to the fact that the recipient was unfit. In that case, how can grace descend on an unqualified person?

When I say mishap I am only referring to a happening for which we are not prepared. Mishap does not necessarily mean a bad or painful event; it means only the occurrence of that event for which we are not yet ready. Now, if a man wins a lottery of one million dollars it is not a bad happening. But he can die. One million dollars! -- it can stop the beating of his heart. So mishap means the occurrence of an event for which we are not prepared. The opposite may also take place. If a man is prepared for his death and it comes, it is not necessary that his death is a bad event. If a man such as Socrates is prepared to meet death and welcomes it with open arms, then for such a person death becomes samadhi. He accepts death with such love and joy…

This last point must be taken to heart. It is subtle and much debated. For thousands of years there has been discussion, and two great schools oppose each other. One school says: by one’s own resolve and one’s own effort the Supreme or Truth is attained. The ultimate is attained by one’s own effort, practice and tapas. It cannot be had by anyone’s grace; the very talk of grace is meaningless—says this school. If it is by someone’s grace, then the world becomes an absurd riddle—for then it may happen that the one who labors does not get it, and the one who does not labor gets it. Hence Mahavira, Buddha, and all the siddhas of that lineage say: there is no question of anyone’s grace; one’s own effort is sufficient. The talk of grace is a little off; in it there is the whiff of bribery.