According to Osho, God is not a 'who' but the totality of existence—impersonal godliness, the living suchness of life, love, and light. God is realized, not believed: when the ego-I disappears, the ever-present divinity flowers within as fragrance, not an object. You cannot meet God as separate; reality is one, and everything—yourself included—is that divine allness.
God isn’t a person in the sky; it’s the life and love in everything that you feel when your “me, me, me” gets quiet.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
I Am That · Discourse 2
1980-10-12 · Buddha Hall · English
Osho, what is god?
GOD is not a person. That is one of the greatest misunderstandings, and it has prevailed so long that it has become almost a fact. Even if a lie is repeated continuously for centuries it is bound to appear as if it is a truth. God is a presence, not a person. Hence all worshipping is sheer stupidity. Prayerfulness is needed, not prayer. There is nobody to pray to; there is no possibility of any dialogue between you and God. Dialogue is possible only between two persons, and God is not a person but a presence -- like beauty, like joy. God simply means godliness. It is because of this fact that Buddha denied the existence of God. He wanted to emphasize that God is a quality, an experience -- like love. You cannot talk to love, you can live it. You need not create temples of love, you need…Read the full discourse →
Jharat Dashahun Dis Moti · Discourse 4
1980-01-24 · Pune · Hindi · English translation
Osho, what is the definition of God?
Words are very small. If you say God is light, then what of darkness? The scriptures have said that God is light. Suppose we accept this as a definition—then what about darkness? Where will darkness go? Darkness is too; in fact it is far more than light. Light sometimes is and sometimes is not; darkness is always, eternal. Where will you place darkness? If you say God is light, darkness is left out. If you say God is darkness, then light is left out. If you say God is both darkness and light, a contradiction arises: they cannot be together. Try to have both darkness and light in the same room. If you bring in light, darkness disappears; if you preserve darkness, you cannot have light. Then how can both be together? That becomes an impossibility. So you cannot say “both” either. Then the fourth device is to say: it…Read the full discourse →
Kya Sove Tu Bavri · Discourse 3
1965-06-19 · Bombay · Hindi · English translation
Osho, is the soul itself God?
Yes, that very essence is God. That very essence is God. In truth, from childhood we are given certain notions: we are told there is a God sitting up in the sky who runs everything. There is no such God sitting anywhere. The whole universe is not only matter; within matter, consciousness is also hidden. The name of that totality—the total consciousness hidden throughout the whole cosmos—is God. God is not a person. God is the name of the entire flow of the total consciousness. And the name of the entire flow of insentience is the world. Here we are so many people sitting together. Two kinds of happenings are taking place here: so many bodies are sitting here, and so many consciousnesses are sitting here...Read the full discourse →
Hari Bolo Hari Bol · Discourse 6
1978-06-06 · Pune · Hindi · English translation
Osho, where is God? If we are to seek, where should we seek?
Is it a boat or the moon’s shadow upon the ocean’s waters? When will that boat of light touch the shore of night? Is that untouched lunar shade a frolicsome ripple, A fleeting kiss of light on parched, impatient lips? Dream, or ideal, or resolve—call it what you will— A jewel of a ray, a blossom on the body of dusk! Beyond the reach of clay—are all things false there? Are eyes, fixed on limits, chained to the horizon’s bar? How can literate eyes read what the heart hums within— What fragrance once inscribed as verse upon the gentle breeze! Let the unreachable become reachable—this is the abyss’s longing; Made vocal, written upon the deep heart of the ocean! What is that song of the Unseen the moon keeps writing— Boundless love on the boundless grief of the bounded! The quarters beat the drum, the sky is sound, Time sings,…Read the full discourse →
Walk Without Feet Fly Without Wings And Think Without Mind · Discourse 2
1978-01-02 · Buddha Hall · English
Question: DO YOU BELIEVE IN YOU? DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD? WHO IS GOD? NO, I DON'T BELIEVE IN ME... I CANNOT, BECAUSE I AM NOT. There is nobody I to be believed in, and nobody to believe in it either. If you believe in yourself, you believe in an illu-sion. The very belief will prevent you from knowing the reality. Once you start believing in an illusion, you start losing contact with the real. To know the real, all illusions have to be dropped -- and the greatest illusion of all is the ego, the 'I'. You ask me: DO YOU BELIEVE IN YOU? No, not at all. That's why I am able to know. You ask: DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD? No again -- because to believe in God is not to know Him. Belief is always out of ignorance. Those who don't know, they believe.Read the full discourse →