According to Osho, he is not a person but a presence—an invitation and reminder for seekers to return home to themselves. He is the answer you must take, like a well from which you draw water through your own effort. His function is to awaken your dormant longing, ignite your inner fire, and guide you on a pilgrimage that ends where you already are: your own self-knowing.
Osho says he’s like a well or a light inviting you to draw your own water and find your way back to yourself.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, CAN YOU SAY WHO YOU ARE? Maneesha, I am an invitation for all those who are seeking, searching, and have a deep longing in their hearts to find their home. I am an answer to the question that everybody is, but cannot formulate -- a question that is more a quest than a question, more a thirst than a verbal, mental inquiry; a thirst that one feels in every cell and fiber of his being, but has no way to bring to words and ask. I am an answer for that question which you cannot ask and you cannot expect that it could be answered. When I say I am the answer, I don't mean that I can give you the answer... yes, if you are ready, you can take it.
Question: Osho! Who are you? Cuckoo-like you call, and pour sweetness into being; or, in the heart’s deep valley, with a restless cascade of feeling you open, peerlessly, a few meanings of the Void. Who are you? Vast as the sky within which, spreading my own wings, I fly unbound, untiring; I cross, like a royal swan, without fatigue, your love-tinged Lake of Mind, bewildered and enraptured. What is this fire of longing that keeps burning, ceaselessly, in the heart, spreading wider and wider? What is this rapture that has risen today from my inner-veena, that the whole world has begun to glow? I know: this is the fire you have kindled; I recognize: this is the raga of love you have awakened in me.
Osho, who are you?
And there will be ten percent of cases when you will feel ecstatic. Then don't think that I am giving this ecstasy to you -- nobody can give truth to you. I can inspire you, I can challenge you. I can invite you, I can seduce you into the journey, but I cannot give the truth to you. You have to find it yourself; I can only show your face. I am simply a mirror, Deben. Fanfani is on an official visit to France and he is taken to the Louvre. The museum director shows him around and they stop in front of a painting. "Cezanne?" Fanfani asks. "No," replies the director, "Renoir." They come to another painting and again Fanfani asks "Pizarro?" "No, Your Excellence, Degas." After walking around a little more he stops in front of another one and asks, "Is this a self-portrait of Toulouse-Lautrec?" No, Your…
Beloved Osho, I wish your forgiveness for asking you very personal questions. I am only asking because I feel these are the questions which are burning in the hearts of many people. Who are you? Why have you come into the world? What is your work here, and how will your work be accomplished?
You ask and I answer you, but I myself cannot ask any questions. As far as I am concerned there is no answer, and there is no question. I go on living just like the waves in the ocean or just like leaves of the tree or just like clouds in the sky, without any question and without any answer. And the moment I became aware of this whole absurdity of questions, something fell down completely, totally. It was a resurrection. I was reborn, reborn in a cosmic dimension -- not as an I, but as cosmic consciousness itself. In this cosmic dimension, everything is a play. Once you understand -- not only understand but realize that all is a play -- you are at ease completely, absolutely. Then there is no tension. You are relaxed. There is no ego. The ego cannot relax. It lives on tensions, it feeds…
Beloved Osho, who are you? Somewhere I feel the answer will be there when I realize who am I, yet, what I get is already so much. To sit at your feet is the greatest blessing of all my lives. Suddenly, I know I am loved by existence. What a deep, deep joy to realize this. I am dancing in your garden. This is more a song of my heart than a question. Who are you, my beloved master? My tears flow in awe and wonder.
And remember, I make a great difference between belief, faith and trust. Belief is not trust, it is just to repress your doubts. Faith is the whole system of all your beliefs together. In a very systematic way, logical way, all beliefs are connected together and then it becomes your faith, your religion. Trust is just the opposite. It is not to repress your doubt, it is a spontaneous uprising in you, when there is no doubt. The question of repressing doubt does not arise; you have simply come in contact and you have felt your heart beating in the same tune, in a deep synchronicity with the master. It is a heartfelt experience; you know reality cannot be otherwise. Although you have not reached yet, you are on the right path. Your hand is in hands which are pouring their warmth and love, and making you courageous enough to…