Why does the feeling of God's presence diminish over time?

Beloved master, when I came here I felt god to be very near -- any moment and I would be with him -- but as time passes it seems impossible. He is not around; it is difficult to see him. Why is it so? Please say something about this.

Vedant Bharti, you must be carrying a certain image of God in your mind; hence you are missing. And unless you drop that image you are going to miss. God has no obligation to fulfill your idea of him. You must be carrying a certain idea that "God looks like this, behaves like this...." That's why it is becoming impossible: you are making it impossible. God can be known only by those who are capable of dropping all ideas about God. Any idea that you have accumulated in yourself in your ignorance is a hindrance. Drop all ideas about God and you will be surprised, you will be shocked, you will not be able to believe your eyes...because only God is! Then you will never ask, "Where is God?" You will ask, "Is there any place where God is not?" Then in the very ordinariness of things you will see…

Please explain why we don't feel the divine which is here/ now, within/without, which is you, me and all.

This is from Swami Yoga Chinmaya. Because you are too much, and too heavy on yourself. Because you cannot laugh, the divine is hidden. Because you are too tense, you are closed. And these things that you think -- that the divine is here/now, within/without, you/me -- are only head things, they are not your feelings. They are thoughts, not realizations. And if you go on thinking along these lines, they will never become experiences. You can convince yourself by a thousand and one arguments that this is so, but they will never become your experience. You will go on missing. It is not a question of argument, philosophy, thinking, contemplation -- no. It is a question of drowning yourself deeply in the feeling of the phenomenon. One has to feel it, not think about it. And to feel it, one has to disappear. You are trying an absolutely impossible…

Osho, how does the energy of thought transform into feeling?

Therefore I am not teaching you religious thoughts. I am initiating you into no-thought. Generally, what goes on in temples and mosques is just this: people full of worldly thoughts are stuffed instead with spiritual thoughts—nothing more. But what difference does it make? You have given the disease a pious, pretty name; what changes? So long as you want to be anything, so long as you harbor the ambition to become something in the future, so long as you are eager for tomorrow, you will remain unquiet. The stream of thought will keep flowing. And as long as the stream of thought flows, you will remain cut off from God. I am telling you that religious thoughts are just as great an obstacle between you and God as worldly thoughts. Thought is the barrier; no-thought is union. Gorakh has said: See the Unseen, ponder what is seen, seat the Invisible…

Osho, devotees have had visions of God. And if we do not take His name, then how will we have the vision? If we do not visualize His form, then how will the vision happen?

If no vision happens, that is auspicious. Because there is no benefit in falling into any delusion or any imagination. Yes, it may be that the dream is very sweet and feels very good. But still, a dream is a dream. Imagination is imagination, no matter how much happiness it seems to give. And the imagination that gives pleasure is more dangerous than the one that gives pain. Why? Because it is easier to wake up from a painful imagination, whereas a pleasurable imagination makes you want to sleep even more; the desire to wake does not arise. Blessed are those who see painful dreams, because in them the urge will arise to break the dream. And unfortunate are those who see very pleasant dreams, because then the desire to awaken from those dreams does not arise. It becomes a very fatal, very poisonous, very intoxicating state. I am not…

A friend has asked: you have shown us the method of negation for realizing the truth or the divine being -- the method of excluding everything else in order to know the self. Is it possible to achieve the same result by doing the opposite? Can we not try to see god in everything? Can we not feel him in all?

Actually, God is "that which is." He exists as much in a mosque as he does in a temple. He exists as much in a slaughterhouse as he does in a place of worship. He exists as much in a tavern as he does in a mosque. He is as present in a thief as he is in a holy man -- not one iota less; that can never be. Who else is dwelling in a thief if not the divine? He is as present in Rama as he is in Ravana -- he is not one iota less in Ravana. He exists as much within a Hindu as he does within a Mohammedan. But the problem is: if we come to believe that the same divinity exists in everyone, our God-manufacturing industry will suffer heavily. So in order to prevent this from happening, we keep on imposing our respective…