Water
In all the primitive tribes water symbolizes life. Life is based on water: the human body is eighty-five percent water. And life depends -- the life of animals and the trees and man and birds -- all life depends on water. So water was one of the basic elements to be worshipped. Just as the sun was worshipped by all primitive people, water was also worshipped; both were respected as gods. And it is significant as a metaphor also.
Water represents a few things. One: it has no form, yet it can take any form, it is capable of adjusting into any form. You pour it into a pot, it takes the form of the pot; you pour it into a glass, it takes the form of the glass. It is infinitely adjustable. That's its beauty: it knows no rigidity. And man should be so unrigid, unfrozen, like water, not like ice.
Water is always moving towards the sea. Wherever it is, its movement is always towards the sea, towards the infinite. Man should be like water, always moving towards God. Water remains pure if it moves and flows; it becomes impure, stagnant, if it becomes dormant. So should be man and his consciousness, always flowing, moving, never becoming stuck anywhere.
It is by getting stuck that man becomes dirty, impure. If the flow remains and one is ready to move from one moment to another moment without any hang-ups, without carrying the load of the past, one remains innocent, pure.
-Osho, "The Rainbow Bridge, #7"