According to Osho, the Rigveda's 'Let noble thoughts come...' is spiritually misguided: no thought is noble or ignoble - every thought is a chain. Inviting more thoughts, even 'golden' ones, only deepens bondage and clouds awareness. Genuine religion drops all thought and moves beyond mind into silent consciousness. Antiquity confers no authority; the verse reveals ignorance of the dimension beyond thought.
Don’t collect even “good” thoughts; let all thoughts go so you can be free and clear.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
A question has just been asked of me—that all great men draw inspiration from others’ ideas.
Two thoughts stand before you—maintain neutrality toward them. Choose none; do not grab any option. One clings to Jainism, another to Islam, another to Christianity. Whoever is clinging to Christianity cannot even listen—literally cannot—when a Jain text, word, or idea is being spoken. He has already taken a side; he is prejudiced. He cannot hear the other thought, cannot understand it. We are so prejudiced, so surrounded by partiality, that we cannot even hear the other side. Understanding is far away; we cannot even hear. The moment a contrary word reaches the ear, our prejudice rises up in between. Just this morning I was talking to a friend. I spoke to him, but he was not listening. I finished, and he started another question which had no relation to the first. I told him, “While I was speaking, you must have been thinking what you are now saying.” He said,…
Do not begin worshiping the boat while sitting on this bank. Do not decorate the boat and celebrate festivals. Do not become content that the boat is obtained. The boat by itself does nothing; journeying in it does. Brahmacharya is the boat. Hence this sutra says: now you must guard against pride and satisfaction. 'The feeling of ego will ruin the work; therefore build a strong dyke, lest the terrible flood of battling waves from the great ocean of the world's Maya, mounting and striking at its shores, engulf the traveler and his island. Yes, this may occur even when victory has been achieved.' Even then it can happen. A moment’s negligence and victory turns into defeat. A small slip, a slight error, and at the very last moment there can be a return. Until the goal itself is attained, the return remains possible.
Let the poorest come, and I shall give.” There was none poorer in that village. Just then the king’s procession passed, and the fakir threw his coins onto the royal palanquin. The king said, “What is this? Why throw money on me?” The beggars cried, “You promised to give to the poorest—and you gave to the king!” The fakir said, “There is none poorer in this town. Why? Because however much he gets, his poverty is not satisfied—he still wants more.” The one who demands the most is the poorest within. The greater the inner hunger, the more intense the craving to accumulate, the greater the ambition. Thus the very poor within strive to be very rich, so that by having wealth they can convince themselves, “I am not poor.
They will not ask—because the one who thinks is the one who asks. The believer does not question; he takes commands as commands. He accepts. That is why, to this day, who knows what foolishness has been fed to man; he has been made to fight and kill for it. A basic trick has been used: do not let thought be born. Because thought will question, hesitate, doubt, reason; it will inquire. And only when it feels it is right will it take a step forward. Therefore those who wish to keep disturbance alive in the world, to keep exploitation and war going, do not wish thought to arise. They want belief. Hitler wanted the same, Stalin wanted the same; other leaders want the same; religious leaders too want the same.
Only this morning I met a so-called learned man who had memorized the entire Gita. He has read it over and over for the last forty years and now he recited it night and day and whether the occasion calls for it or not. People avoid him because of his learning. He is restless and argumentative. He does no see this about himself and yet he is filled with ideas on how to bring peace to the world. He is typical of such a mind -- mechanical, rather than creative. Such people become slaves to doctrines and it is in this way that the scriptures become sources of sectarianism and violence. How is it possible for the words of Buddha, Christ, Mahavira and Zoroaster to separate one man from another? How is it possible for their words to become the basis of hostility and violence?