According to Osho, the search is needed not to collect answers to “why,” but to arrive at the source where the questioner dissolves. Questions belong to the wave; answers belong to the ocean. On meeting the divine, the urge to ask disappears into silence. True resolution is experiential—merging with what is—because verbal answers spawn endless whys and keep you outside reality.
Search not for explanations, but to melt into the ocean where all questions naturally disappear.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
He has also asked: Osho, why is there this search at all? What is the need for it?
Ask that when you meet the divine, because only the divine can answer it. “Why is this at all?”—ask God when you meet him. Yet, so far, those who have met could not ask, because the moment they meet, they forget to ask. So the friend who has raised it—write it down very firmly so you don’t forget. But the danger remains: up to now, no one has managed to ask. The instant he is found, everything is found, and the very urge to question disappears. I have heard: on the seashore a great fair was held. Many people went. Two dolls made of salt went there too. People began to argue: How deep is the ocean? The salt dolls got worked up. “We’ll jump in right now and find out.” One jumped. The people on the shore waited and watched. He didn’t return, didn’t return. Much unease arose. The…Read the full discourse →
Jyoti Se Jyoti Jale · Discourse 2
1978-07-12 · Pune · Hindi
Osho, I have heard that a seeker has to pass through four stages of sadhana: tariqat, shari’at, marifat, and haqiqat. The last is haqiqat, where the seeker meets his beloved and comes face to face with Truth. Osho, please explain the first three states.
These words are from the Sufis—very significant, and very straightforward. The first is tariqat. Tariqat means: the way, the method, the discipline, the means, the yoga. Tariqat means: something has to be done; only then will you attain—without doing, you will not receive. One has to walk a path; find the way; make a footpath. One has to bring some discipline into life, give it an order. Tariqat means learning the way to become worthy of it. When you go to have an audience with an emperor, you learn the etiquette of his court. You don’t just walk in. If you do, you will not be accepted. You learn how to sit there, how to stand there, how to bow there. If you are going to meet an emperor, you must taste something of the flavor of the emperor’s way of life. If you are going to meet the Divine,…Read the full discourse →
Why meditate? Why seek?
Philosophers are the most miserable men. They go on asking, "Why this? Why that?" Their constant 'why' is an inner disease. Look at it in this way: only when something goes wrong do you ask why. When everything is okay, you never ask why. You ask why there is misery; you never.ask why there is bliss. You ask why there is death; you never ask why there is life. You ask why there is hate; you never ask why there is love. When there is love, there is no question about it. You accept it totally. When there is hate, the question arises. When you are in bliss, no questioning, no inquiry, no philosophy arises out of it. When you are in anguish, suffering, you ask, "Why this suffering? Why am I suffering? Why is the whole world suffering?" Only when something goes wrong does the question arise. When everything…Read the full discourse →
Osho, you said that science cannot reach religion because science is a causal search. Then is the search for religion done without cause?
At that time you won’t be able to suppress it. The mantra will have fallen away, and desire will show itself. You would be astonished: those whom you call sadhus—if you could see their dreams, only then would you know whether they are sadhus or not. The dreams of sadhus are often most unsaintly. The dreams of the unsaintly may sometimes be saintly—but the saint’s dreams are almost never so. A criminal in jail may sometimes dream, “I should renounce everything; I’ve indulged and suffered enough. Let me take a begging bowl and go forth. Shall I walk the path of Buddha or of Mahavira?” But go to those you see ostensibly walking the path of Buddha and Mahavira—the monks and renunciates—and ask them to tell you their dreams. At night they dream of the world. They fast in the day, and at night they are invited to the emperor’s…Read the full discourse →
Osho, nothing makes sense to me. Sometimes it feels there is nothing to ask—everything is fine; and sometimes there are only questions upon questions before me.
What answers I give you are not answers to the questions; they are only so that your courage does not fail, so that you do not lose heart. The road is long, the lake is far; it isn’t free; the path is thorn‑strewn; there is more likelihood of going astray than of arriving. People who came very near have gone astray; just as they were arriving, they took a wrong turn; they had practically arrived and then pitched camp. Two steps more and the lake was there—but they grew tired and thought the goal had come; they closed their eyes and began to dream. I can only tell you this much: the lake exists, and attaining it is your birthright. But it will not happen without seeking. And why so much fear of seeking? Because seeking means traveling on unknown paths. Seeking means: there are no maps in your hand—otherwise…Read the full discourse →