According to Osho, Hari-katha is God’s own tale spoken through a thought-free, egoless being—like music through a hollow flute. When the speaker becomes empty, the Whole flows unhindered; the words are not personal opinions. This is why Krishna’s Gita is the Lord’s song. True devotion speaks without desire or moral conditions, simply allowing the Divine to express.
Hari-katha means you get so quiet inside that God uses your mouth like a flute and tells the story, not you.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, “When one speaks, it is Hari-katha!” What is this phenomenon of Hari-katha? Does it happen after passing through silence and meditation, or through prayer? Who is fit and entitled for Hari-katha? Can we also call your discourses Hari-katha?
Bhakti karain nishkam—and whatever is in such a life is devotion without desire. Your devotion is false; it always carries desire. You go to God to ask—this, that; if not worldly, then otherworldly. Your very notion of God is as a means to get. Think: if God stood before you, what would you do? Immediately a long list! Money, position, immortality, endless youth. Children ask their father “Daddy, Daddy”—and the father knows: money for cinema, for sweets, for the fair. Husbands and wives too—gestures harbor demands. This world’s relations are bargains. Mulla Nasruddin’s wife lamented, “I lost my ring—worth a hundred rupees.” Nasruddin said, “Don’t worry. I too lost a hundred rupees, and I am not worried.” “Where did you lose them?” “Where does one lose! But I found a hundred-rupee ring in my pocket!” Wives search husbands’ pockets first thing! One day Nasruddin was beating his son Fazlu: “Put…
Osho, the Gita has been the most read and heard in this land, and Krishna the most worshiped. Then how did song and celebration vanish from this country, and sannyas become filled with stench?
Reading the Gita does not bring song into one’s life. Reading the Gita is not the same as becoming suffused with song. That is where the mistake happened. Hearing these unique words from Krishna, Arjuna awakened. We thought there was some magic in the words. We thought the words contained certain keys. We thought: if these words opened the lock of Arjuna’s heart, they will open the locks of our hearts too. So the recitation of the Gita began. For five thousand years we have been reciting the Gita. No one’s lock opens. It seems there is no key in the words. Not only does the lock not open; by repeating the Gita the lock becomes more and more rusty. It does not open, and even the hope of opening breaks. There is a reason behind this delusion. The first time, the event truly happened: the lock opened. We saw…
Scriptures are almost like this: dead truth. When they were spoken, arising from someone’s innermost, they had life—they breathed, their heart beat, there was a soul within. When Krishna spoke to Arjuna, it must have been something else entirely—the flower was still on the plant, sap still flowing. Then you pluck the flower, press it in a book—open it a thousand years later—you will find the flower’s corpse. So with the Gita, the Quran, the Bible, the Dhammapada. You can revive these corpses if you too come to experience—if you too become a witness. As Jesus said, I testify that what is written here is true—on the day you too can say, I testify that what is written here is true—until then it is belief. Beliefs are hollow, superficial. Believe as much as you like—there will be no substance.
Question: Third question: Osho, please explain a little about kirtan-meditation. Kirtan has many moods. Sometimes the devotee dances in separation; then his kirtan has a great poignancy—tears flow, there is pain and longing. Sometimes he dances in rejoicing; then his mood is bright, it is spring, flowers everywhere. See his intoxication then—rays of joy dance all around him. Sometimes he dances in thirst; sometimes in fulfillment. The devotee has great seasons, and kirtan has many expressions. Kirtan is a rich happening—every depth of life is included in it, and every height. At first the devotee hides his love within. It is intrinsic to love that we do not wish to tell anyone—love is no spectacle, no exhibition. He hides it, ties it in the corner of his garment like a diamond. Kabir says, “I have found the diamond and knotted it tight.
Question: Osho, of late the state of the listeners here has become like that of church priests. Recently something has happened that never happened around Krishna: we have all become greedy to extract as many answers as possible from you. Marshall McLuhan’s dictum is: the medium is the message. A critic replaced “message” with “massage” and gave it a novel meaning. In the same way, if we call Krishna’s flute the special medium of the individual soul’s love-call to the Supreme, what objection is there? And in the Mahabharata war, Krishna sounding the Panchajanya conch, and along with the flute the Sudarshan chakra—do these too carry some symbolic meaning? And along with that, please also speak about the rasa-krida in which he played the flute.