Why do people hide behind God?

Why are you hiding behind Lord Mahavira—behind God?

My point is that things should be clear. If I enjoy eating, let me eat to my heart’s content; but why make an excuse by first “offering it to God”? A man used to come to Ramakrishna. Whenever Kali’s day came, when Dussehra arrived, he would give a grand feast and celebrate with great pomp. Many goats were slaughtered and all that. Then the man grew old. Ramakrishna asked him, “These days you don’t celebrate Dussehra? What happened—everything stopped?” He said, “Now I have no teeth.” Ramakrishna said, “Fool! When it was for your teeth that you had goats killed, why were you dragging Kali into it? At least be straight and honest. If you want to eat goat, eat goat. But cutting a goat before Kali and then eating it—that’s your cleverness. You are deceiving—yourself and others. The point was only to eat goat, and by making Kali the…

Osho, alongside this, if someone holds the notion that God is the doer and the witness—that whatever happens is fine, just be a witness. But when someone sees a person speaking wrongly and he stops him, saying, “This is wrong,” harsh words slip out. Then everyone tells him, “You shouldn’t have done that; by speaking so harshly you hurt his heart.” Yet I feel those words were made to be spoken by God—that it was said, “This is wrong.”

No. If it was voiced by God, then those who are grabbing your neck and saying, “These were harsh words”—were their words not voiced by God? The matter is finished—what’s the problem then! You claim yours came from God, and these others telling you that by abusing you did very wrong—where did that come from? You leave them outside God. Then it becomes dishonesty—plain dishonesty. This is exactly the dishonesty that keeps going on all the time. And if everything is being made to happen by God, then what question remains?

Question: BELOVED OSHO, ARE THESE ILLUSIONS OF GOD AND EGO ONE AND THE SAME? Tomorrow simply means that which never comes. It is postponing living. It is a beautiful strategy to keep you suffering. Politicians want you to suffer, priests want you to suffer, your educational system wants you to suffer. They all teach you that sacrifice is great: Sacrifice -- only then will you be able to find something to rejoice in; sacrifice is the way. I say it categorically, No! Sacrifice is the invention of the cunning people. There is no need to sacrifice anything because all that you need to rejoice is already here within you. But the ego cannot rejoice in the present. It cannot exist in the present; it exists only in the future, in the past -- that which is not. The past is no more, the future is not yet; both are non-existential.

Why is life so lovely? Every object, person, creation, manifested and unmanifested too! Color, sound, movement, taste -- strife too. Osho, in this remembrance the heart becomes full, tears flow, breath expands, talk stops, crying happens. I cannot say anything Osho. The eyes close and I sit down.

Become acquainted with god in all his infinite gestures. He has given such a vast temple whose canopy is the sky! He has given such a vast temple where every night there is Divali, a festival of lights. He has lit so many lamps! Scientists have not yet been able to count them. You can count the stars with the naked eyes but it will not be more than three thousand. Counting and counting the scientists have gotten tired of counting. Four billion stars have already been counted. But this is only the beginning. There are more stars, many more. The more scientists count it seems there are more ahead, more ahead... There doesn't seem to be any end. Every night there is Divali and such blind people, no one sees Divali! Every morning his spring Holi festival happens, so much red powder is flying, so many flowers are blooming,…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, IF THERE IS NO GOD, WHY WERE YOU BEING CALLED BHAGWAN? There is a place in India, Mohenjo Daro... it has been found to be the ancientmost city in the world. There are seven layers in Mohenjo Daro. It seems that civilization had to face some calamity seven times. When the first layer was found, it was thought that this is all: we have found Mohenjo Daro. That was determined to be seven thousand years old. But a little more digging and another city was found underneath the first city which must have been ten thousand years old. Then the work continued. The people who were working on the excavation went on digging and city after city.... Seven cities have been found in Mohenjo Daro. The seventh seems to be at least twenty thousand years old. They have temples, they have statues of God.