Big rituals only matter if they naturally grow from clear inner understanding—the inner change comes first.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Questioner: yajnas or rituals have an important place in spiritual discipline, and there are many forms of yajnas or sacrificial rituals mentioned in the scriptures. But the geeta attaches special importance to japa-yajna and jnana-yajna -- the rituals of chanting and knowledge. Talking about the significance of japa or chanting, you mentioned ajapa or wordless chanting. So please explain to us the significance of japa-yajna, jnana-yajna and ajapa as envisioned by the geeta.
Japa can be used with the awareness that it is a means which helps one to be free of his thoughts. But if someone takes japa to be an end in itself, of course he will be free of other thoughts but he will be a prisoner of this japa which is as good as a thought. His mind will remain as burdened and tense as ever. There is no difference between a mind teeming with thoughts and another filled with the chanting of Rama or Ave Maria. They are equally tense and restless. It is possible a thought-filled mind can achieve something worthwhile in the workaday world; a few of his thoughts may be found useful. But as far as the chanting-filled mind is concerned, it is completely a waste. But this man will say what helped to free him from wasteful thoughts is something valuable, and he is…
Osho, in the world of sadhana there is much mention of yajnas and rituals. There are many methods of yajna; people speak of homa-type yajnas. But in the Gita, japa-yajna and jnana-yajna are given special importance. And while speaking on japa you also spoke of ajapa-japa. So please shed light on the Gita’s japa-yajna, jnana-yajna, and on ajapa-japa as well.
Third: we see the flames of fire rising; we can only see them a little way, then they vanish. Fire is visible only a short distance; beyond that it becomes invisible. Knowledge too is visible only a little—or say: for a short distance its relation remains with the visible; beyond that its relation is with the invisible. Then the visible is lost; only the invisible remains. For all these reasons fire became a potent symbol of knowledge, and Krishna could use the word jnana-yajna. If these symbols are in our awareness, jnana-yajna will continue forever. The other rituals and yajnas built around fire will disappear, because they arise from circumstances; but jnana-yajna will continue. Thus Krishna, for the first time, freed yajna from circumstance and gave it an eternal meaning. The yajna of the Vedas was bound to particular conditions, tied to an event. Krishna freed it from that event…
Osho, two kinds of yajnas are mentioned here. First: yogis properly worship through sacrificial rites in the form of the worship of the gods; but the wise offer the sacrifice itself into the fire of the Supreme. The yogis’ yajna and the knowers’ yajna—please clarify their meaning.
Do not think you get attracted because the face is beautiful; rather, the face seems beautiful because you are attracted. Attraction happens subtly, invisibly. Beauty is not subtle; it appears in thought. We speak in reverse: we say the face seems attractive because it is beautiful. The truth is the reverse: it seems beautiful because it has already attracted. The same face may not seem beautiful to another. If it did not attract them, it is not beautiful. “Beautiful” is our inference, not the cause. The senses experienced attraction; the intellect judged beauty. The senses have already arrived and touched. The movement of the senses is subtle. It isn’t only when you touch with your hand that the senses touch. Each sense has its own way of touching. Seeing is the eye’s way of touching. Hearing is the ear’s way. Smell is the nose’s way. The hand’s range is small;…
Osho, in the second part of the verse it is said: an oblation into the yogic fire, the steadiness established in the Divine, illumined by knowledge. Kindly explain what is meant by yogagni, the yoga-fire.
Those who are free of the urge to harm arrive at the same goal that others reach through yoga, through sankhya, through service offered to God. What does it mean to be free of the urge to harm? Here is the strange thing: all these different paths are connected deep down to one root. As long as there is greed in the senses, freedom from violence is impossible. As long as a man is frantic to gratify the senses, nonviolence is impossible. The senses are constantly committing violence. When your eye becomes lust upon someone’s body, violence has happened—you have raped. The court cannot catch you; it has no means yet to prosecute rape by the eyes. But when your gaze falls upon someone’s body and becomes demand, desire, lust—and in a moment you possess that body, and the smoke of the urge to enjoy it spreads—rape has happened. It…