What is the concept of lila in relation to the universe's regularity?

Another friend has asked: flowers bloom in their season, the moon rises on time, water turns to steam at one hundred degrees. If the whole universe is purposeless, then how is there such regularity? If all activity and movement are just lila—play, delight—why is there such profound lawfulness?

Remember: wherever there is play, great care has to be taken about rules. A game endures only by virtue of its rules. There is nowhere else for it to stand; only the rules are there. Two people are playing cards. There are rules by which they must proceed, because in a game there is nothing else—everything rests on rules. If the two card players do not accept even a single rule, the game stops. A game survives only on rules. So keep in mind: if you cheat in your business, people will not condemn you as much. But if you cheat while playing cards and violate the rules, everyone will condemn you. To cheat in a game is much despised, because you are pulling out the very ground on which the game stands. The basis of the game is the rules. There is so much lawfulness in this world precisely…

Osho, The Ultimate Reality has been called supreme consciousness and supreme wisdom. But when we see within it this circle of creation, then destruction, then creation again, and then destruction again, it feels very strange. Can you explain whether there is any cause, any meaning, any significance, any purpose behind this cycle?

But even as he says it, he does not see that he is contradicting himself. On the one hand he says, “Remove this terrible form and be pleased.” Pleasantness is also a mode of activity. And on the other hand he says he wants nothing to do with activity, he wants to know the essence. Pleasantness is not essence. Pleasantness too is a doing. Just as fierceness is a doing, pleasantness is a doing. Just as death is a doing, so too is life. Yet we keep choosing. He says, “Be cheerful, be joyful.” He probably believes joy is essence. It is not. Essence is emptiness—shunya. And to see shunya is very difficult. We only perceive activity. Where do we see emptiness? Only when emptiness takes on the form of activity does it come within our grasp. Otherwise, how can it be grasped? If I simply sit here in silence,…

Osho, the question was about the chakra—Sudarshan—and about Panchajanya. And regarding the rasa-lila—yathā arbhaka sva-pratibimba vibhramaḥ? So what is the interpretation of the rasa-lila?

In truth, those who composed the poetry labored greatly with words. The very life of poetry is the word. And they worked on words with chisel and hammer for centuries. Now, Krishna’s discus has been named Sudarshan. It is a carrier of death, and yet it is named Sudarshan—“beautiful to behold.” Death is not beautiful to see, nor is it pleasing in form. But in Krishna’s hand even death becomes beautiful. That is all it means. We could not give the atom bomb the name Sudarshan. It is as destructive as the atom itself. Its strike is unfailing; the death it brings is certain. Once released, it returns only after killing. Where death is absolutely certain, would we still call that weapon Sudarshan? And yet it has been so named. In the hands of a man like Krishna, even death becomes Sudarshan. In the hands of a man like Hitler,…

Osho, you have said: take life as Leela, a divine play. How? And if life is merely Maya, what is the need for this life?

Binding the infatuated with attachment, it ferries him across the mirage to the ocean. To this thousand-formed one I bowed my head and called her Rama-pervaded. Those who know will even bow to Maya—this too is His play. I tell you: don’t discard Maya; it is His shadow as well. The Beloved is dear, and His shadow is dear too. That is why I tell my sannyasin: no renunciation, no flight from the world. If you understand this shadow rightly, through this very shadow you will understand the One of whom it is the shadow. Yet I still say to you: lightly, lightly! Do not become grave and ponderous. For centuries, grave religion has committed great murder upon man. Temples turned gloomy; mosques, temples, churches became like cremation grounds. Do not become a renunciate. God is hidden in enjoyment—seek Him there. When you eat, seek Him somewhere in the taste.…

It has been said that no desire, neither worldly nor religious, can lead towards freedom. But a positive imagination of happiness and bliss is also a sort of desire. Then isn't it true that imagination is also desire and hence creates tensions?

That is the meaning of the Indian concept of LEELA. God is playing; he is not engaged in work. This world is not utilitarian, it is just a play of energy. Energy enjoys itself playing; it divides itself and then plays the game of hide and seek. So, really, Indian seers have never said that God is the creator, they say that God is the player -- because the very word `creation' carries much seriousness about it, as if there is some end and something has to be achieved. God creating the world? This is absurd. Because it means that something is lacking, so God is creating the world to achieve something. Or it means that there is a future, so God also lives in desire. Jains and Buddhists could not understand the Hindu concept of LEELA, so they completely denied God. Because if God creates the world, then he…