Why do enlightened ones teach transformation of awareness while religions focus on conduct codes and rituals?

Osho, why is it that all enlightened ones teach the central transformation of awareness and awakening, yet the religions founded on them shrink into conduct codes and rituals? Aren’t all organized religions merely parts of society?

But the wife would not agree. She said, “I don’t get into talk of mistakes and corrections. Some ill omen might occur! What harm is it to us?” Lines remain: “It happened this way, it was done that way, it was said so.” Then our meanings, our blindness, are added to them. Religion becomes superstition; truth loses its peaks and becomes the falsehood of the valleys. And around that falsehood, crowds gather. Those who reached the Buddha in the beginning reached through their own awakening. Then they had children; those children had nothing to take from the Buddha, nothing to give. For them, religion is only a rite. Born in a Buddhist home—Buddhist; had they been born in a Hindu home—Hindu; in a Muslim home—Muslim. It is a matter of accident. Being born in a Hindu home is as accidental as a white cat sitting by a pot of curd.…

A question has been asked, Osho: Why is religion declining? Why is it in decay? So many saints have been, so many mahatmas, so many of their teachings, so many religions—and yet why is religion deteriorating?

In Japan, after the First World War, there was a very great general, famous the world over; the whole of Japan was crazy about him. A young man, training in the military at that time, also aspired to become such a general. After passing all the exams, he suffered a head injury in a swimming test and was expelled from the military. He was so distraught—his longing was to become a general—that he performed harakiri. Somehow he was saved. Afterward his father took him to America. There, little by little, he began acting, doing drama. Later, a film was made about that general, and the young man played the general’s part. In his old age the general went to see the film. He wrote to the actor: “I am astonished—if I had to choose, you would seem the real one and I the imitation.” The actor treasured that letter. He…

Osho, please understand one thing: in any country, if the society happens to be spiritualist, then those who don’t get a chance in it are pulled toward materialism; and in other countries, those who are materialists—when they don’t get a chance—are pulled the other way. So it is the chance-less who have erected the opposite cult. What do you say about this?

And remember, this small path that takes us from sleep into awakening is religion in the fundamental sense—this small path! Neither temples, nor rituals, nor sacrifices have anything to do with it. All this is meaningless. These are the devices of sleeping people. Temples, prayers, fire rituals, chanting mantras, repeating “Ram, Ram”—these are the creations of the sleeping. A sleeping man also manufactures a kind of religion—and then it becomes the cause of quarrels: Hindu, Muslim, Christian. These are differences of ritual, not of religion. One sleeping man builds one kind of temple—he doesn’t know what a temple is; he is building it himself. Ten other sleeping men build a mosque; ten more build a church. Then the three fight: ours is the true temple; whoever does not come to our temple will go to hell. Sleeping men also coin doctrines, create systems. They try to explain. But the explanations…

It is asked: Civilization, culture, and organized religion are ninety-nine percent conduct, imitation. Then what is religion?

That is exactly why religion has been lost. In your so-called civilization, your culture, and your so-called religions—there religion has been lost. Religion is—the manifestation of the consciousness within you. Religion is—the kindling of the awareness within you. Religion is—the arrival of wakefulness, the coming of meditation, the descent of samadhi. Religion has nothing to do with the outside; religion is an inner revolution. Then what people say outside—who cares! One lives in one’s own bliss, one lives in the festival of life. Then what others say—who cares! If they speak well—good; if they speak ill—good. If they honor you—fine; if they insult you—fine. Once the taste and the fragrance of the within begin to arise, outer values lose all meaning. I give you such freedom. But you do not want freedom; you want dependence. You say, Lay down rules. You feel meditation and samadhi are distant, beyond your capacity.…

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…