Why have the saints sung such glory of human life?

Question: Second question: Osho, why have the saints sung such glory of human life? Chaitanya Prem! First thing: life itself is glorious. Life is the unique gift of the divine. Life is benediction. You did not earn it. You may be squandering it, but you did not earn it. It has descended; it has rained upon you from some unknown realm. No one asked you whether you wanted to be or not—how could anyone ask? When you were not, how could you be asked? Life in itself is glorious. From life, all doors open—the doors of meditation, of love, of liberation, of nirvana. Life is an opportunity, a great opportunity! You can make it, or you can destroy it. You can sing a song, or you can break the flute. Life is a vast opportunity. So first, life is in itself incomparable. And then human life is even more incomparable.

Osho, why have the saints always portrayed life as sorrow? Is this pessimism justified?

The saints have not portrayed life as sorrow. The saints looked into life and found it to be sorrow. That is not a “portrayal.” They never tried to prove that life is sorrow; they saw it—and it was sorrow. Now, if a thorn pierces your foot and you say, “I feel pain,” will anyone object, “Why are you depicting it like that? This is pessimism”? Someone has a festering ulcer, is in excruciating pain, and says, “I am suffering.” And you say, “Don’t describe it like that; that’s pessimism. One ought to be an optimist—say the ulcer gives you great joy!” What will change by saying so? The saints looked at life and described it as it is. That is not a philosophy of the saints—that life is sorrow; it is their experience that life is of the nature of suffering. Leave the saints aside—what is your experience? Just examine…

Yesterday Dhabbu-ji was saying, Osho, I finished my worship and then saw my little niece, a while later, sitting on the same seat with eyes closed, hands folded, swaying and singing: “Do bechaare, bina sahaare, phirte maare-maare!” (Two poor fellows, without support, roam around hounded!)

Dhabbu-ji told me this, and I burst out laughing. I asked, “Ninu, what’s this?” She said, “Please be quiet, I’m doing puja, Uncle!” Dhabbu-ji said, “Puja? But that’s a film song, not a hymn!” She quickly shot back, “In puja you and Grandma also sing ‘Om Jai Jagdish Hare’—that’s a song from the pictures too.” What difference does it make what you’re singing? Whether it’s a bhajan or a film song—within your sleep, all is equal. Even if you dream of heaven, it makes no difference. Even if gods appear in your dream, nothing changes. When you wake up, you’ll find all dreams were false. Some people are lost in worldly dreams; others are lost in dreams of renunciation. And these renouncers you’ve kept calling “great souls.” Their sleep is just like yours—no real difference at all. Even their dreams are like yours, because a dream is a dream; what…

We are already gods but unaware of it, because we have never searched for our own being. If we could find ourselves we would find god too. But there are thousands of fools who are searching for god and they don't know at all who they are. Now, searching for god not knowing who the searcher is, is absolutely stupid. First we have to know the seeker, the searcher. And the miracle is that the moment you have found the seeker, you have also found the sought. Then there is no need to seek god, because he resides in the innermost core of your being. He is your very being, he is your very consciousness. So I don't teach worship, I only teach meditation because meditation is the technique to discover your being. In discovering it, all is discovered; in knowing it, all is known.

Osho, why is life so dear? Every thing, every person, all creation, the manifest and the unmanifest too! Color, sound, movement, taste—even discord! Just remembering it, the heart brims over, tears flow, the breath draws long. Speech stops. There is sobbing. I cannot say anything! My eyes close and I just sit.

Consider this: this man does not know how to bow. He says, “I will bow when my condition is met.” Even in bowing there is a bargain, an ego. “If you want me to bow, if it pleases you that I bow, then fulfill my condition. I will bow only to my conception. How you are—I have nothing to do with that. You stand there with a flute and peacock plume—stand if you like; that is not my creed. I bow to my creed. Take the bow and arrow, then I will bow.” This is the obstacle. How can trees take bow and arrow in hand? How can the sun? How can the moon and stars? It is difficult. And the Divine stands at your door like the sun, but you will not bow. If Baba Tulsidas did not bow, how will you? “Take the bow, then I will bow.”…