According to Osho, creation has no external purpose or final cause. God is not a person with intentions but a process; existence is beginningless, endless, and uncaused—its own fulfillment. Asking 'why' misapplies the mind. In love we glimpse this purposeless fullness: love, like existence, is an end in itself. Religion seeks what is, not why.
There isn’t a “reason” things were made—existence just is, like loving someone for no reason at all.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
You said that god is the creative process. Then why are things created? What is the purpose of creation, or is it something that just exists?
Philosophers will go on thinking and thinking why, and there will be as many answers as there are thinkers. If everybody on earth begins to think about it, there will be millions and millions of answers. Everybody can say: because of this or that. But religion does not ask. Religion is a quest, not a questioning It is a quest after what is -- not after the beginning, not after the end. It is a quest for neither the cause nor the purpose, but for that which is -- this very moment, here and now. The 'what' is the quest. A scientific mind can go on searching without ever changing itself. A philosopher can go on inventing answers without changing an inch. But a religious man cannot even begin without changing. The moment he begins to ask what is, there is a change, a transformation -- because he himself is…
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,…
Question: OSHO, WHAT AM I FOR? For nothing. For no purpose at all. Do you want to become a thing? Things are for something. If you ask me what this chair is for, the question is relevant and the answer is simple -- to sit upon. If you ask me what this mike is for -- to speak through. If there is nobody to sit upon the chair, it will be completely useless; it will have to be thrown away. If there is nobody to speak through the mike and there is no need for it, it will be simply useless; it will not have any purpose for existing. But what are you for? For nothing. You are not a chair, you are not a mike. You are not a house to live in. You are purposeless. And that is the beauty and that is the glory of life.
Beloved master, there is a question I have never been able to get an answer to. It is a stupid question and yet I feel that I want so much to know the answer. Can you tell us what is the purpose of creation, why life exists, why everything exists? I don't believe in accidents.
Maulingaputta said, "Otherwise why should I have come to you? I have traveled at least one thousand miles to see you." And remember, in those days, one thousand miles was really one thousand miles! It was not hopping in a plane and reaching within minutes or within hours. One thousand miles was one thousand miles. It was with great longing, with great hope that he had come. He was tired, weary from the journey, and he must have followed Buddha because Buddha himself was traveling continuously. He must have reached one place and people said, "Yes, he was here three months ago. He has gone to the north" -- so he must have traveled north. Slowly slowly, he was coming closer and closer and then the day came, the great day, when people said, "Just yesterday morning he left; he must have reached only the next village. If you rush,…
What is the purpose of existence? What will we do after enlightenment?
WHAT AM I DOING AFTER ENLIGHTENMENT? I eat when I am hungry, and I sleep when I feel sleepy. I am doing exactly the same thing that you are doing, but the quality has changed, the significance has changed, my approach has changed. You also drink tea, I also drink tea; but your drinking of tea is just drinking of tea. When I am drinking tea I am drinking God -- God in the form of tea. I am sipping God. From the outside it is the same; from the inside it is totally different. A Zen Master is reported to have said... somebody had asked the same question: "What did you use to do when you were not enlightened?" He said, "I used to chop wood and carry water from the well." And the man asked, "Now what do you do since you have become enlightened?" He said, "I…