What is the significance of dreaming about spiritual figures like Jesus, Krishna, and Osho?

Osho, I have heard you say that knowledge is useless. Then what is needed to guide us to the ultimate goal?

Geetam, there is one good thing about your question that I appreciate: you say "I have heard you say." All the Buddhist scriptures begin in that way; that is a very sincere thing. The Christian, the Judaic, the Hindu, the Mohammedan scriptures don't begin that way, but all Buddhist scriptures begin "I have heard the Master say" because it is not a question whether the Master has said it or not, "I have heard it"; these are two different things. The Master may have said one thing, you may have heard something totally different, because between you and the Master there is a great barrier -- the barrier of the mind, prejudices, concepts, preconceived ideas. So what YOU hear is not necessarily the thing that is said. Geetam, this is good that you say "I have heard you say." You are not saying that "YOU have said it," you are…

Another friend has asked: Osho, what is the relationship between the method of meditation and jati-smaran (recollection of past lives)?

But the one who becomes skilled in this—who can fully awaken any day’s memory up to the age of five—will find that the memories begin to awaken completely. And you should test it. As today passes, note down some events and lock them up. After two years, try to recall today. Most of it will have been forgotten. Then remember—and after remembering, break the lock and compare whether what you recalled matches what you had written. You will be amazed—astonished—that besides what you wrote, many more details have come back which you did not even note at the time. They will all be there in memory. Buddha called this alaya-vijnana. There is a corner of the human mind he called the storehouse of consciousness. Like a junk room in the house where we keep all the odds and ends, there is a storehouse that collects memories—where everything from birth after…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, RECENTLY IT HAS STARTED HAPPENING THAT AS I BEGIN TO OPEN MY EYES FIRST THING IN THE MORNING I CAN SEE A VISION, LIKE A SCENE FROM A MOVIE -- AND THAT SCENE HAPPENS DAYS AFTER IN REALITY, JUST LIKE A REPETITION. BEFORE I ARRIVED HERE IN BOMBAY, I HAD A VISION OF THE GOLDEN MANOR HOTEL -- THE SETTING, THE GARDEN, THE PEOPLE -- AND WHEN I ARRIVED HERE, IT WAS EXACTLY THE SAME AS MY VISION. I WROTE YOU A LETTER ABOUT THIS EARLIER, BUT DID NOT HAVE THE COURAGE TO DELIVER IT. NOW IT HAS BEEN HAPPENING OFTEN, AND I DON'T KNOW IF IT IS GOOD OR BAD. ALSO, WHEN YOU WERE IN URUQUAY AND I WAS IN BRAZIL, I HAD THE SUDDEN COMPULSION TO GO TO MY ROOM, TO SIT ON THE FLOOR AND CLOSE MY EYES.

Beloved Osho, do hindu mythological gods, like shiva, uma and indra have a real existence on some plane, or are they just symbols as you implied in your talks the last two mornings? And if they are really only symbolic, why do people see visions of them in meditation and what do such visions of gods mean?

Human imagination is such a forcible thing, it has such a tremendous force within it, that if you imagine something continuously you will start feeling it around you. Then you can see it, then you can realize it. It will become an objective thing. It is not objective but you will feel it as existing outside you. So it is dangerous to play with imagination because then you can be hypnotized by your own imagination and you can come to see and feel things which are not. This is creating a private fantasy, a dreamworld; this is a sort of madness. You can see Krishna, you can see Christ, you can see Buddha, but this whole effort is wasted because you are moving in dreams and not in reality. Hence, my insistence to always remember that these mythological figures are symbolic. They are meaningful, they are poetic, they are a…

You said that if we see visions of ram or that we are dancing with krishna, to remember it is only imagination. But the other night you said that if we were receptive we could communicate with christ, buddha or krishna right now. Is that communication also imagination when it happens, or there are meditative states in which christ or buddha is really there? A little difficult to be understood.

Then why call it Krishna? There will be no form. Why call it Jesus? These are simply symbols, linguistic symbols. You are acquainted with the word "Jesus", so when that presence fills you and you become part of it a vibrating part of it; when you become a drop in that ocean, how to express it? You know the most beautiful word for you may be "Jesus" or the most beautiful word may be "Buddha" or "Krishna" -- these words are fed in the mind, so you choose certain words to indicate that presence. But that presence is not an image; it is not a dream. It is not a vision at all. You can use Jesus, you can use Krishna, you can use Christ, or whatsoever, whatsoever name has appeal to you, whatsoever name has a love appeal for you. That's up to you. That word and that name…