Worship

Osho, does worship have no value at all? And if it does have value, then why oppose it?

But this is exactly your condition at the crossroads of life. From where do you come? Who are you? Where are you going? What is the purpose of your being? No—there is not even the leisure to think of such things. Worship means: to sit near someone, in someone’s presence, where these matters are pondered, contemplated, meditated upon; where life’s fundamental questions pierce your very being like arrows. Therefore worship—lest you forget! You asked: Does worship have no value at all? It has value; but what you take to be worship has no value. What is your worship? You go to the temple, hastily ring the bell, knock your head before a stone idol, and run! You have done this so many times—what has it given you? Worshipping stones, you often become stone-like. Naturally so. You become like what you worship. So choose your object of worship carefully, for the…

Osho, without seeing God, whom should I worship—how, and where? Please be compassionate and explain!

Jageshwar, When you have not seen God at all, why worship in the first place? Why does the question arise—whom should I worship, how, and where? That’s strange. It’s like a naked man asking, “If I take a bath, where shall I wring out my clothes? And even if I wring them, where shall I dry them?” When you have no sense of God yet, how will you worship now? No realization of God—and you want to go further! That’s Sheikh Chilli stuff, castles in the air. But often such foolishness passes for metaphysics. When you asked it, you probably thought you were asking a very profound, very religious question. You are asking something utterly pointless. It’s like the house isn’t even built, the foundation hasn’t been laid, and you are already worrying about the roof—should it be tiles or asbestos sheets? Worship will come later; first there must be…

Osho, will my worship and prayer ever be accepted? I am extremely meek and weak—lustful, greedy, egoistic... all sins are in me.

The one drinking wine in the tavern, and the one going to temple or mosque praying, “O Lord, call me to paradise where streams of wine flow—call me soon”—what is the difference between them? One asks for wine here, the other asks for wine there. One is short-sighted; the other sees a little farther—into the hereafter. What is the difference? One’s greed is small, the other’s greed is large. One says, “A mugful here will do”; the other says, “That won’t satisfy me; I want cascading fountains.” One is short-sighted, another a bit far-seeing; There is no real difference in the intent of the ascetic and the wine-drinker. There is no difference in the outlook of your so-called ascetic and your so-called indulger. Whoever asks is an indulger; whoever gives thanks is a renunciate. Give thanks for what is given—it is so much! This golden existence! This honey-sweet existence! Each…

Osho, you told last night about the hindu system of creating a mud idol for worship, and after the worship, about its visarjan dispersion -- into the sea or a river. This happens on the outer physical plane. What is the psychological and inner meaning of this outer ritual? What is it that must be created inwardly? What is it that should be dispersed and when should it be dispersed? Secondly, please explain whether this dispersion is a gradual process or a sudden happening and whether it is an act of awareness or just a let-go?

LIFE is a learning and an unlearning also. One has to learn many things, and then one has to unlearn them -- and both are necessary. If you do not learn, you remain ignorant. If you learn and cling to it, you become knowledgeable but you remain unwise. If you can also unlearn that which you have learned, then you become wise. Wisdom has a childlike quality, but it is just "childlike" -- not exactly the same. The child is ignorant and the sage is wise. The child has yet to know and the sage has gone beyond. The child has no knowledge, the sage also has no knowledge. But in a child it is negative, in a sage that "no knowledge" has become positive. He has crossed beyond, he has transcended. So this is one of the basic principles of spiritual explosion: to unlearn, to go on unlearning, that…