According to Osho, a catalyst (the master) is not the cause of enlightenment but the trigger that exposes what’s already within you—first your repressed negativities, then your authentic self. He urges forgetting ‘God-realization’ and using the catalyst for self-realization; God-realization then unfolds naturally. Allowing the catalyst means consenting to a tough catharsis—the way to heaven runs through hell—until clarity and inner truth emerge.
A real teacher just brings out what’s inside you so you can know yourself first, and then knowing God happens by itself.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Are you the only enlightened person in this ashram? If yes, is it impossible to enlighten or to be enlightened near an enlightened person?
SINCE I BECAME ENLIGHTENED I have never come across a person who is not enlightened. You see only that which you are. Before I became enlightened, the same was the case with me -- the whole world used to appear tremendously asleep, in darkness, in death, unenlightened, because you are reflected continuously everywhere. Every other person is just a mirror; you see yourself. So don't be worried about others; think about yourself. That should be your problem. Others are not your problems. Whether they are enlightened or not, how does it concern you? Why should you be worried about it? If somebody wants to remain unenlightened, it is absolutely his business to decide about it. If they want to play the game of being unenlightened, it's perfectly okay. If you have become fed up with the world, if you are fed up with your anguish and anxiety and you have…
Question: First question: Osho, God-realization through grace—how does it happen? It happened to Buddha without any dance. And in the two and a half millennia since Buddha, how many have sat under trees with closed eyes—and it does not happen. Sitting with closed eyes beneath a tree does not make it happen. That was a coincidence. It can happen anywhere. It happened to Tuladhar, the merchant, as he sat at his shop—while weighing on the balance it happened. It happened to Janaka as he sat upon his throne. It happened to Krishna in the very midst of the world. It happened to Mahavira after he withdrew from the world, standing naked in mountain caves. But none of these is a cause. It is not like heating water to a hundred degrees and water turns to steam—there is no such mechanism.
So many people are looking for instant enlightenment these days and there are all these gurus running around saying 'follow me' and yet it is questionable whether the answer is there. What do you attribute this to?
In that fear and anxiety, in that impatience, you can go on searching but you will not find. It is not that you have to find God, it is that you have to allow him to find you. So you have to be in a receptive mood, in a non-desiring, non-demanding mood, utterly at ease, as if it has already happened. There is no need for it to happen, it is as if it has already happened. With this silence, this peace, with this non-tense state, it happens. You ask: SO MANY PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR INSTANT ENLIGHTENMENT THESE DAYS AND THERE ARE ALL THESE GURUS RUNNING AROUND SAYING 'FOLLOW ME' AND YET IT IS QUESTIONABLE WHETHER THE ANSWER IS THERE. The answer is in you, it is nowhere else. So if you want to follow a man, follow the man who throws you back to yourself -- because the…
Gurudas. Guru means the master, and das means the servant -- the servant of the master. And it is very significant in the east. The very concept of guru is eastern; the word cannot even be rightly translated. When we translate it as 'master' much of its meaning is lost, because a master means a teacher -- the guru is not a teacher. In the western consciousness nothing like the guru ever existed. That phenomenon is eastern... it is something basically eastern. It has to be understood. We call 'guru' the person who can impart to you the truth. Not that he can teach -- truth cannot be taught; it can be caught. The guru is a person whose presence can help you to catch it... a catalytic agent. He is not going to do anything in fact, he is not a doer.
Question: AUM THAT IS THE WHOLE. THIS IS THE WHOLE. FROM WHOLENESS EMERGES WHOLENESS. WHOLENESS COMING FROM WHOLENESS, WHOLENESS STILL REMAINS. AT THE HEART OF THIS PHENOMENAL WORLD, WITHIN ALL ITS CHANGING FORMS, DWELLS THE UNCHANGING LORD. SO, GO BEYOND THE CHANGING, AND, ENJOYING THE INNER, CEASE TO TAKE FOR YOURSELF WHAT TO OTHERS ARE RICHES. CONTINUING TO ACT IN THE WORLD, ONE MAY ASPIRE TO BE ONE HUNDRED. THUS, AND ONLY THUS, CAN A MAN BE FREE FROM THE BINDING INFLUENCE OF ACTION. UNILLUMINED INDEED ARE THOSE WORLDS CLOUDED BY THE BLINDING DARKNESS OF IGNORANCE. INTO THIS DEATH SINK ALL THOSE WHO SLAY THE SELF. AUM PURNAMADAH PURNAMIDAM PURNAT PURNAMUDACHYATE PURNASYA PURNAMADAYA PURNAMEVA VASHISHYATE. What Carl Gustav Jung calls synchronicity explains exactly what happens between a Master and a disciple. It is not the same as what happens between a teacher and a student.