Temples, Churches, Mosques

 

 

Except for this existence, you don't have any sacred place. This is the only holy, sacred temple. There is no other temple. All other temples are false, substitutes to deceive and cheat you.

 

-Osho, "Hari Om Tat Sat, #4, Q1“

 

 

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All the temples are false, all the mosques are false, all the churches are false. I am not condemning them; I am simply stating a fact -- because they are creations of the imagination. I do not say destroy them, I say enjoy them -- but do not think that this enjoyment is leading you toward the ultimate. Enjoy the creations. It is a good game; nothing is wrong with it. People are going to the movies, people are going to dancehalls. Why should they not be allowed to enjoy a religious fantasy? In their temples, in their mosques, in their GURUDWARAS, they should be allowed -- they are free! And it is better to have a religious fantasy than not to have -- anything. But do not think that you are realizing the Brahman there; you cannot. He is not there, so you cannot do anything. You can enjoy yourself. -- You can enjoy your fantasy, your dream world.

 

If this is understood, then temples can exist. They are beautiful, artistic creations but do not be lost in them. Go there, but do not be lost there. Go on remembering that whatsoever is worshipped by the people is not the real Brahman, because the real Brahman is hidden in the worshipper. This is the emphasis. When I worship, I am there and the object of worship is there. Where is Brahman? -- in the object of worship or in the worshipper? The emphasis of the Upanishads is: it is in the worshipper, not in the object of worship. The object of worship is secondary; it is created by the worshipper. The value of what you feel there is projected by you; it is given by you. It is a gift to the object from you.

 

You can put a round rock in your house and you can worship it as Shiva -- it is SHIVALINGA. And the rock was lying in the street or just on a riverbed for millions of years. No one worshipped it; no one knew that this is Shiva. The river never cared; the animals passed by it, they never looked at it. And suddenly you transform the rock. Suddenly the rock becomes an object of worship, sacred, and now no one can touch it. And people were walking over it. Their feet touched it for centuries. Now suddenly you create a pedestal. You put the rock there. You say that this is Shivalinga, that this is the symbol of the god Shiva, and then you worship and you feel very good.

 

Nothing is bad about it. The rock is beautiful and if you enjoy, then enjoy. But remember, the rock is simply a rock and Shiva is your creation. You have projected him; you have made that rock into a Shiva. The god is created by you; the rock is not even aware. And if the rock could see you it would laugh: "This man has gone mad. What are you doing worshipping me?" The worshipper -- creates the worshipped, the devotee creates the god.

 

The Upanishads say that there you will not find the real, you will only find the imagined. Move, rather, into the worshipper; penetrate into the worshipper. Forget the objects of worship and just try to know who is this worshipper -- who is this who is worshipping? Who is this who is praying? Who is this who is going to the temple? And if you can find out who this is who worships, you have found the Brahman. [....]

 

The Upanishads are trying to throw you to yourself. Forget the object of worship... just move within. And how can you move within? It is easy to forget the object of worship, but it is difficult to move within because there are objects still in the mind which go on clinging around you. Whenever you close your eyes, there is a world of imagination around you: dreams go on floating, images come up, thoughts move in a procession. Again you are in a world. The world of things is no more there, but the world of thoughts is there. Unless this world of thoughts also ceases, you cannot know the worshipper.

 

And how will it cease if you go on cooperating with it, go on creating it? You cannot destroy the world of things because you never created it. Remember, -- you cannot destroy the world of things. How can you destroy the hills, the earth, the moon, the stars? You cannot destroy them because you never created them! But you can destroy the world of thoughts because you are the sole creator there. No one else has helped you. You alone have done the whole work.

 

Thoughts exist because you cooperate with them. Do not cooperate -- this is the only technique. Be indifferent. Just look at them without loving them, without hating them, without condemning them, without appreciating them, without saying they are good, without saying they are bad. Do not say anything; do not take any attitude. Just be indifferent, an onlooker.

 

The clouds are floating in the sky. You sit under a tree and you just see -- the clouds floating; you do not take any attitude. You do not say, "Why are these clouds floating? They should not," or "They should." You do not take any attitude. You just simply become an observer, and you look at the clouds passing in the sky.

 

In the same way look at the thoughts passing in the inner sky. Do not take any attitude. The moment you take an attitude you have started cooperating. The clouds in the outside sky will not disappear if you do not take any attitude, but the clouds in the inner sky WILL disappear. They only exist because of you. If you are indifferent, they simply go. They are invitees. You may know it or you may not know it -- they are guests you have invited before.

 

It has been very long ago, and you have forgotten that you have invited them. It may have been in some other life that you invited them. But nothing happens to your inner world uninvited. Each thought has been invited, and now it comes and still you give energy to it. You can give energy in two ways. If you are against it you will also give energy. In both ways the thought will feed upon it.

 

There is only one way to be disconnected, and that is to be indifferent. Buddha has called it UPEKSHA. He said if you are indifferent to the process of thoughts, they will disappear.

 

Insist on being indifferent. Do not take any attitude, do not choose. Just remain a witness, and they will disappear. And when they disappear, suddenly the worshipper is revealed: suddenly you are revealed to yourself. That revelation alone is Brahman, and NOT THIS THAT PEOPLE WORSHIP HERE.

 

-Osho, "The Supreme Doctrine, #6“

 

 

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In Sri Lanka, in Kandy, they have a great temple devoted to a tooth of Buddha. Every scientific test has proved that it is not a tooth of a human being, it is too big; it can only be that of an animal. But who cares about it? Kandy attracts more pilgrimages to Sri Lanka than any other temple because it has a tooth of Gautam Buddha.

 

Scholars sometimes seem to be so stupid. There was a hair in Srinagar, in Kashmir, thought to be Hazrat Mohammed's. Mohammedans worshipped it because that was the only relic left from the body of Mohammed. Nobody knows whose hair it is, and there is no way to prove that it is Mohammed's hair. But a few years back it was stolen.

 

Then there was great fuss all over the world amongst the Mohammedans. That mosque, Hazrat Bal...bal means hair; even the bal is to be called Hazrat, Osho -- "revered hair." And it was such a difficult situation. Riots started happening because Mohammedans thought certainly it must be the Hindus. And Hindus are a very small minority in Kashmir. Even though Hindu leaders in Kashmir declared again and again, "We are not concerned at all with your religion," it was to no avail.

 

Finally the Indian prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, had to send the chief of the armies with a great number of soldiers to surround the mosque and somehow manage to restore the hair.

 

Now, how can you manage? Somehow it was managed: somebody's hair has been put in the tube which was empty. Now everybody is happy that the hair has been found. What kind of stupidity...? What will you do with the hair? If you find the whole head of Mohammed, that too will not help. But people are concerned with absolute absurdities, so much involved, and this is because of the scholars, the so-called learned who provoke the masses.

 

-Osho, "Isan - No Footprints in the Blue Sky, #1"