Form

Osho, it is said, “bhaktya anuvritya.” Then devotion must be to a form. The sun is manifest with form in the sun realm; in the same way, why is God not with form?

Who said God is not with form? All forms are his. God has no form of his own. You are looking for God’s own form; that is why the question arises as to why God is not with form. In the tree, God is a tree; in the bird, a bird; in the waterfall, a waterfall; in a man, a man; in a stone, a stone; in a flower, a flower. If you look for God’s particular form, you will go on missing. The one to whom all forms belong cannot have a form of his own. Now this is quite a curious thing. It means: the one of whom all forms are, he himself can only be formless. It sounds a bit upside down: the one who has all forms is formless! How could the one of whom all names are, have a name of his own? The one…

A friend has asked, Osho, why should we be religious when neither the beginning nor the end is known, and there is no trace of God or soul? The enlightened ones speak of truth—if that truth is real, why can’t they make everyone experience it?

No one is telling you to be religious—at least Lao Tzu would not. The so-called religious people have created so much disturbance that it is better you do not become one of them. Lao Tzu does not say, “Be religious.” He simply says: be what you are. You may ask, why should I be what I am? Because that is the only thing you can be. There is no way to be anything else. Yes, you can try to be something else—and in that trying your life can be wasted. You may then say, why not waste life? No one can stop you. And precisely for this reason even the enlightened ones are defeated and cannot give you the knowledge of truth—because you say, why should we know the truth? What can the enlightened do? They can speak. They can try to awaken in you the thirst for the joy…

And in rest is all, because when you are totally restful God is available to you. You enter into the kingdom of God only when you are totally relaxed -- no tension, no desire, no mind -- just like a small child, a nobody, and totally relaxed. Let that be your work on yourself. Arihant means one who has killed the real enemy. Self-ignorance is the real enemy, unconsciousness is the real enemy. To live like a somnambulist is to be one's own enemy. The enemy is not outside you, it is hidden in your own mind. It is your mind -- and one has to go beyond it. The only way to go beyond the enemy, to kill the enemy, is to be more and more alert, more and more conscious of your thoughts, of your acts, of your desires, of your feelings.

This seems impossible. Can you jump from form to formlessness? The form will only take you to another form. If you ask Krishnamurti he will it is not possible. How can you jump from the form to the formless? How can you jump from the word to the wordless? All jumps are from form to formlessness, because in a deeper sense, form is the opposite of formlessness. Form is a part of formlessness, and an indivisible part. It may seem separate to us -- because of our limited vision. In fact form and formlessness are indivisible. When we stand on the seashore and look at the sea, we feel that they are separate, and that this shore and the opposite shore, far across the sea, are also separate.