There Is No Need To Believe In God

Interaction: Osho

How can one believe in a God one cannot see?
Who is telling you to believe in God? I am against all belief. Belief is irreligious, as much as disbelief is. Belief means you don't know yet you have accepted something. It is cowardly ­you have not inquired. You are pretending; you are a hypocrite. Believers don't know and yet they pretend as if they know. And the same is true about disbelief.

In the first place there is no need to believe in God. And if you believe you will never be able to know God. Belief is always a barrier. Belief means you are carrying a prejudice, and you will not be able to see that which is. You will project your own idea.

Don't carry any idea of God, for or against. Don't carry any image of God. In fact God is absolutely irrelevant ­ be meditative! And meditation means: drop all thoughts, ideologies; all knowledge. Drop the mind itself. And then when you are in a state of no mind, something unimaginable, unbelievable, unpredictable, inexpressible is experienced. You can call it godliness, truth, nirvana, or whatever you want to call it. You are free because no word describes it; hence any word is as good as any other. God is not a person, hence God cannot be seen in that sense. God is a presence.

There is no God but godliness. It is a quality, a fragrance. You experience it, you don't see it. It is not something out there as an object; it is something in here, in your heart. It is your subjectivity, your consciousness. So there is no question of belief or seeing either.

But people are brought up in all kinds of beliefs and they go on seeing through their prejudices. So anything that fits with their prejudices enters inside; anything that does not fit with their prejudice is prevented from entering.

In fact, God is not a religious but a philosophic subject. It is for those people who go on endlessly into logic-chopping and hair-splitting.

A religious person is more interested in the very source of his being, who he is: "Who am i?" That is the most fundamental religious question ­ not God, not heaven, not hell. And if you can find the truth of your own being you will have found all the truth that is necessary to know and is worth knowing. But don't make a philosophical inquiry; otherwise you will end up with a conclusion. And all conclusions are dangerous because once you conclude you become fanatical about your conclusion, you start clinging to it. You become afraid of truth ­ because who knows? Truth may disturb your conclusion, and your conclusion is so cosy and so convenient, and it has helped to give you a certain feeling of security. Your conclusion cannot be bigger than you. Your conclusion will be as high, as deep, as you are high and deep; it will only reflect you.

God is not a conclusion arrived at by logical processes ­ by believing, by discussing, by analysing, no. When all mind processes have ceased, something suddenly wells up within you. You will feel tremendously ecstatic, blissful, at home, at ease. For the first time existence will be your home. You will not be an outsider. There will be no conflict between you and existence. You will be able to bloom into thousands of flowers. That is God ­ or better, godliness.

From `Ah, This', copyright Osho International Foundation, http:www.osho.com