According to Osho, remembering the 'Beloved' is effortless because the beloved is a lived reality, felt through love, while 'God' or the 'Supreme Self' is usually a secondhand concept - an empty, fear-colored word. Begin with total love for the beloved; as love deepens, body turns to soul, love flowers into prayer, and the beloved becomes a window through which the real God is discovered.
It’s easier to remember someone you truly love and know than an idea you only heard about; deep love then opens the door to feel the divine.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
It is found that remembrance of "beloved' or "darling" is more spontaneous and easy than the remembrance of "god" or "supreme self." why is it so?
Rather than thinking of God as your father, it is better to think of God as your beloved; because a father is an authoritative figure, unnatural, social, formal. Once it never existed; sometime it may disappear again. It is better to think of God as your beloved; and it is better to move through the beloved towards the ultimate beloved. You will be moving naturally, spontaneously, and there will be no repression, and there will be no unnecessary harshness in your lifestyle -- you will not become a masochist. And if you can go to God laughing, why go weeping? If you can go to God dancing, then why not go dancing? I don't teach you a God who is against life and love. I teach you a God who is the very depth, the very ground of life and love. You can drop the word "God" if it creates…
Osho, will the longing for that Supreme Beloved arise even in my dry heart?
Within you, Krishnatirth, the longing to attain Him has already arisen. Otherwise you would not be here; otherwise you would not be a sannyasin; otherwise this question would not arise. But somewhere there is a misconception—drop it: the head is not the heart. Do not give too much prestige, too much value to thinking. Give it to feeling! And feeling is a very different matter. In the morning the sun rises and you say to someone, Ah! What a beautiful morning! What a lovely sun! The birds are singing! The fresh dawn descending! These colors spread across the sky! These sunrays sparkling in the dewdrops clinging to the leaves! What a beautiful morning! What a sweet dawn! And if someone says, Prove it—what is beauty? What is its definition? What do you mean by calling it beautiful?—what will you do? You will be left utterly defeated. In this way the…
Osho, in devotion the remembrance of the Name is greatly praised. In this context there is a popular couplet: “Keep chanting the name of Ram as long as there is breath in the body. Someday the Compassionate One will catch the hint in his ear.” Why doesn’t the Compassionate One listen quickly?
A mother is talking to her son. A new baby is due; nine months are complete. The mother is preparing the boy for the new guest in the house—this is necessary. The little boy… she tells him: You should be very happy. Your new brother is coming. From God’s house, your new brother is coming! But the child looks a little sad and a bit upset. The mother asks: What is it? Why are you upset and sad? Aren’t you happy that your new brother is coming? He says, No—because every day I pray to God that this time I should not get a brother. Send a little horse. It seems my prayer was not heard. Now no brother and such—I don’t want that. I want a horse. And he says to his mother, If it’s not too much trouble for you, then a horse… even now if something can…
Osho! I set out to seek the Beloved; how is union with the Beloved attained?
Yog Neelam! The Beloved is not far. Not even so far that any meeting would be needed. There has only been forgetfulness, not separation. Separation cannot be. The Beloved abides within. He is the breath of our breath, the heartbeat of our heart. Without him we have no being. Because he is, we are. As the ocean is, so the waves are. The ocean can be without waves, but the waves cannot be without the ocean. Yet a wave can fall into a delusion—the delusion that “I am separate from the ocean.” In that very delusion, forgetfulness happens. Only forgetfulness happens; separation cannot. The whole search for the Beloved is nothing but remembrance—re-remembering. That is why the saints have called this search surati. Surati means remembrance, recollection. Surati is the folk form of the word smriti. What the Buddha called smriti, by the time of Kabir and Nanak became surati—dearer,…
Osho, how does the remembrance of the Divine begin? How am I to remember God? I have no clue to God at all.
Have you ever known any joy through the ego? The ego aches like a wound; the smallest things hurt. The greater the ego, the greater the pain in life. Remove the source of this pain. Then some true Master will knock at your door. Or, unawares, you will recognize a Master in one in whom you had never seen one before. Sometimes he was living right next door and you did not hear; you met daily on the road, exchanged greetings—and still you never saw. You need the eye to see; the ego does not allow such an eye to be born. Ego is a great curtain. One way is this. If this too feels hard—if letting the ego drop is not easy, if recognizing the Master is not easy—then there is another way: search in nature. In waterfalls, trees, winds, the moon and the stars. Do not search for…