Question :

Why do you call yourself Bhagwan? why do you call yourself God?

 

 

Because I am, and because you are. And because only god is. There is no other way, there is no other way to be. You may know it, you may not know it. The only choice is between ignorance and knowledge. The choice is not between whether to be a god or not to be a god; the choice is whether to recognize it or not.

 

You can choose not to call, but you cannot choose not to be. But it has to be understood, because it is one of the most radical standpoints about life. Life is made of one stuff. Call it god, call it matter, call it electricity. One thing is certain — that life consists of only one stuff.

 

At the deepest, life is one unity. You can call it whatsoever you like. Scientists used to call it matter, now they have decided to call it electricity. Religious people decided to call it god, non-religious people decided to call it the world. But one thing is certain — that there exists only one thing. Now, calling it A, B, C, does not matter.

 

Whatsoever you call it, it does not change the reality, but it can change you. It will show your attitude. A person who calls the world matter, cannot grow. He has dropped all future possibilities. He has closed his door. He has denied his destiny. Now he has no opening — he is a windowless atom, a monad… closed, going nowhere.

 

Because matter cannot have any destiny, matter cannot have any growth. Matter cannot have any potentiality. Matter cannot have any experiencing. The moment you say that life is nothing but matter, it does not change life. Because you call it matter, it does not become matter, but by calling life matter, you become a closed thing.

 

By calling life matter, you become a thing. You lose your personality you lose that throb of aliveness. Something inside you suddenly goes dead. Then you are a grave; you will drag. The dance will be lost. Your life will become more like prose, it will not have any poetry then. When you call this life god, you bring poetry to it. You bring a vision, you open doors.

 

You say, ‘More is possible.’ You say, ‘We are not the end.’ Higher realms of possibilities arise in your vision. You start dreaming. The moment you say this existence is divine, dreams become possible. Then you can live a life of adventure: God is the greatest venture, it is the greatest pilgrimage. Calling existence divine, you bring something new to your vision.

 

Then you are not finished, then you are not a full stop. Then you are a rushing river moving towards the ocean. By calling existence divine, you bring dynamism to your life. Then you are not stale, stagnant. Then fantastic possibilities are there. Just courage is needed, and you can go on and on… and there is no end to it. There are only two ways to give a label to life.

 

One is the way of the realist — he calls it matter. The other is the way of the poet, the dreamer — he calls it god. I am an unashamed poet. I’m not a realist. I call myself god, I call you god, I call rocks god, I call trees god, and the clouds god…. The whole consists of only one stuff and I have chosen to call it god, because with god you can grow, with god you can ride on great tidal waves; you can go to the other shore. God is just a glimpse of your destiny.

 

You give personality to existence. Then between you and the tree it is not emptiness. Then between you and your beloved it is not emptiness — god is bridging everything. He surrounds you, he is your surround. He is within and he is without. When I call myself god, I mean to provoke you, to challenge you. I am simply calling myself god so that you can also gather courage to recognize it.

 

If you can recognize it in me, you have taken the first step to recognizing it in yourself. It will be very difficult for you to recognize it in yourself, because you have always been taught to condemn yourself. You have always been taught that you are a sinner. Here I am to take all that nonsense away. My insistence is that it is only one thing that is missing in you — the courage to recognize who you are.

 

I call myself god to help you, to give you courage. If this man can be a god, why not you? I’m just like you. By calling myself god, I am not bringing god down, I am bringing you up. I am taking you for a high journey. I’m simply opening a door towards the himalayan peaks. Once you start recognizing that you are also divine, you become unburdened.

 

Then there may be errors, but there are no sins any more. You are not a sinner. You may be mistaken, you may be wandering on astray paths, but you are not a sinner. Whatsoever you do, you cannot lose your godhood — that is your nature. You can be a sinner, but still you cannot lose your godhood. Then, by becoming a sinner, your god becomes a sinner, that’s all.

 

You can be a fool, but that simply shows that god within you has chosen to play the game of being a fool, that’s all. Millions of forms, but all forms divine. Millions of forms, all complementing each other and making this whole world a great cosmos. Calling myself god, I am just hinting something to you. I’m not interested in what you call me — that is pointless.

 

It is just indicative, a gesture. I’m saying to you, ‘Look at me! I’m just like you. If I can recognize the divinity within me, if I can respect my own being, why not you? Be respectful towards your own being.’ It is not going to help that you go and worship a stone in the temple unless you start worshipping yourself, unless you start being respectful to your own being, unless you feel reverence for your own existence… that’s what I mean when I call myself god.

 

I respect my being. I don’t feel any condemnation about me. I am happy as I am. I am tremendously happy as I am. I am tremendously grateful as I am. The indian term for god, Bhagwan, is even better than god. That word is tremendously meaningful. It simply means ‘the blessed one’ nothing else. Bhagwan means ‘the blessed one’ — one who is fortunate enough to recognize his own being. It has no christian associations.

 

When you say ‘god’, it seems as if I have created the world. I deny all responsibility! I have not created this world. I am not that much a fool. The christian idea of god is one who has created the world. Bhagwan is totally different. It has nothing to do with creating the world. It simply says one who has recognized himself as divine. In that recognition is benediction.

 

In that recognition is blessing. He has become the blessed one. You can also become. If I can become, why not you? Nothing is lacking — just a courage to penetrate your own soul, just a courage to enter yourself. You have been taught to be sinners — condemned crushed, crawling on the earth. Your wings have been cut and destroyed. Calling myself Bhagwan, I would like simply to say to you to gather courage, reclaim your wings… the whole sky is yours.

 

But without wings it is not yours. Reclaim your wings and don’t allow anybody to condemn you. Respect yourself! If you cannot respect yourself, you cannot respect anybody else. When you respect yourself, a great respect arises. Then you respect the tree, the rock, the man, the woman, the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars. But those ripples of respect arise only when you have started respecting yourself.

 

I call myself Bhagwan because I respect myself. I am tremendously fulfilled as I am. I am the blessed one. I have no discontent. That is the meaning of Bhagwan — when you have no discontent, when each moment of your life is a fulfillment… when you don’t desire anything in the future; your present is so full, overflowing… when there is no hankering.

 

That’s why we call Buddha Bhagwan. He has denied god in his cosmology. He says there is no god, no creator. Christians become very puzzled when Buddha says there is no god, no creator. Then why do Buddhists call him Bhagwan?

 

Our meaning of Bhagwan is totally different. We call him Buddha, Bhagwan, because he has now no more desires. He is contented. He is happy and at home. He has come home — that is his blessedness. Now there is no conflict between him and existence.

 

He has fallen in accord, in harmonia. Now he and the whole are not two separate things. They vibrate in the same way. He has become part of the orchestra of the whole. And by becoming a part of this great orchestra of stars and trees and flowers and winds and clouds and seas and sands, he has become blessed - we call him Bhagwan.

 

Go on this adventure. Once you use a certain word, that word creates many things -- words are very creative. If you call the world just matter, that very word pulls you down. So there is nothing else? just matter? Then all else that looks superior to matter must be illusory.

 

That's why a materialist goes on saying that the samadhi of Patanjali is illusion, the nirvana of Buddha is imaginary, the satori of zen masters is just a game of the mind. Why does the materialist go on denying these things? Once you have this concept of matter, that everything has to be reduced to matter, then there are many things that cannot be reduced to matter. How to reduce the experience of satori into matter? The only possible way is to deny it, say it is not.

 

Nietzsche says god is not, god is dead, because if god is, then you have to accept Jesus, you have to accept Buddha, you have to accept Patanjali, Lao Tzu, Zarathustra. They are like rainbows... bridges between the known and the unknown. But you have to raise your eyes towards the sky.

 

If you look down into the earth and you go on digging there, you cannot look at the rainbows. If you deny the existence of sky itself and somebody says, 'Look up!' you will say, 'Where? There is no up.' And if somebody says, 'I am seeing a beautiful rainbow in the sky,' you will say, 'You must be hallucinating, you must be in a delusion. What are you talking about? There is no sky, so there is no possibility for any rainbow.'

 

By denying god, we deny all possibilities of all rainbows. But then man becomes stuck. Then you are not going anywhere, then you are a stagnant pool... just waiting to die. For a materialist there is nothing else -- just waiting to die. His life becomes a tremendous burden, anguish.

 

Jean-Paul Sartre calls man a useless passion. If there is no god, he is right. If there is no god, then why are you existing, for what? If you cannot become god, then what is the point of it all? Why go on existing and why go on carrying this anguish, angst, this anxiety, this tense life? Why? Why continue this nightmare? Why not drop out of it?

 

In one of Dostoevsky's great novels, 'Brothers Karamazov', one character says to god, 'If I ever meet you, I want to give back this ticket that you gave me to enter into the world. Take it back! I don't want to be here; it is so pointless.'

 

Jean-Paul Sartre is right. If there is no god then existence is meaningless. Then it is just a tale told by an idiot, full of fury and noise, signifying nothing. Then it is a madhouse.

 

With god, with the very concept of god, things start falling in line. Then it is not just a tale told by an idiot; then life has meaning. The meaning comes from the beyond. The meaning always comes from the transcendental. The meaning is always surpassing that which is. If you deny all future possibilities, then meaning disappears, then life is futile.

 

I call myself god because I would like to introduce you to a life of passionate meaning, full of meaning... a life of significance, grandeur, beauty, truth. With god, everything becomes possible. Without god, everything becomes impossible.

 

A man without god is not a man at all. He resembles man, but he is not a man because he has no transcending meaning in him. He is like a tree without flowers. The tree exists in a futile way, no fulfillment. Unless flowers bloom and the fragrance is released to the winds, the tree exists in vain. You can go and listen deeply; you will find it crying and weeping. Deep in its heart you will find pain. When flowers come to a tree, poetry has started happening, something transcendental.

 

Can you ever imagine flowers by looking at the roots? If you have never seen any flowers and I bring the roots of a beautiful flowering bush and show you the roots, can you imagine that flowers are possible from looking at ugly roots? You will simply deny. But hidden in these roots are flowers.

 

Somebody is needed to nourish these roots, to protect these roots, to water these roots, to give them light and shade and sun and wind and rains, and one needs to be tremendously trusting that something is going to happen, because long will be the awaiting. Then one day just a miracle happens -- the tree is blooming. You cannot believe your eyes. How did those ugly roots get so transfigured? so transformed? How have those ugly roots become such beautiful roses? Impossible. Illogical. It should not really happen. It goes against all reasoning. But it is so.

 

If you exist without a god, you are a tree without flowers, a rosebush without roses. And what is a rosebush without roses? Just thorns....

 

When I call myself Bhagwan, I am simply saying to you, 'Look at me -- the roses have bloomed. And what has happened to me can happen to you. So don't feel desperate and don't feel depressed. Look at me and your hope will come back, and you will not feel hopeless.

 

'Allow me to enter you. At least allow my fragrance to enter your nostrils. Let me get to your heart. Let me stir your heart a little so that your own flowers start growing, your own buds start opening their petals.'

 

Calling myself Bhagwan is just a device. I can drop it any day. The moment I see it has started working, the chain has started. The moment I see that now it is no more needed... a few people have become a flame; then they will be enough proof. There will be no need to call myself Bhagwan.

 

They will be enough proof. If a few of my sannyasins start blooming, I will drop calling myself Bhagwan. The device will have worked.

 

A few years back, one day I called Yoga Chinmaya and told him to find a new word for me because I was going to function in a new way. I was known all over the country as the acharya. The acharya means a master, a teacher, and I was a teacher, and I was teaching and travelling. That was just the introductory part of my work; that was to invite people.

 

Once the invitation reached, I stopped travelling. Now those who want, they should come to me. I have gone to their home, knocked on their doors. I have told them that I am here and any day the desire arises in them, they can come. I will wait. I have shown them the path towards me. And then one day I called Yoga Chinmaya and I told him, 'Now find a new word for me because the word "teacher" will not be enough.'

 

He brought many names for the new function that I was going to take. He said, 'Maharishi, great seer.' I said, 'That is comparative -- seer and great seer, rishi and maharishi. No, that is not good. And everybody cannot be a seer. It is a talent. A few people can become seers, everybody cannot become a seer.'

 

Then he said, 'Paramahansa, the great swan?' Again it is comparative. And it is a symbol of hierarchy. In certain old sannyasin orders, Paramahansa is the last stage. Just as in buddhist terminology, Arhat is the peak, one has arrived. In hindu terminology, Paramahansa is the peak -- but it shows graduation, step by step. It is mathematical, calculative.

 

He said, 'Then what about Avadhuta? That too is another comparative term, belonging to another sect of sannyasins. It is again parallel to Arhat and Paramahansa, and belongs to the Tantrikas. Avadhuta is their last stage. But it shows achievement.

 

I said, 'Find something which is universal. Find something which is not relative.' And then he found 'Bhagwan'.

 

It is a non-comparative term. You cannot be godlier than god; godder than god you cannot be. It is a non-comparative term. And it does not show any achievement; it simply shows your nature. Not that one has to become god; one is god, one has simply to recognize

 

It does not show any talent. There is somebody who is a great poet, somebody who is a great seer, a great visionary; somebody a great painter, somebody a great musician, somebody a great dancer -- these are all talents. All cannot be great dancers; you cannot all be Nijinskys. And all cannot be great painters; you cannot all be Van Goghs. And you all cannot be great poets; you cannot all be Tagores and Pablo Nerudas.

 

But Bhagwan you all are. It does not show an achievement; it simply shows your universality, your very nature. Already you are god.

 

I loved the term. I said, 'That will do. At least for a few years it will do; then we can drop it.'

 

I have chosen it for a specific purpose and it has been serving well, because people who used to come to me to gather knowledge, they stopped. The day I called myself Bhagwan, they stopped. It was too much for them, it was too much for their egos. Somebody calling himself Bhagwan?... it hurts the ego.

 

They stopped. They were coming to me to gather knowledge. Now I've changed my function absolutely. I started working on a different level, in a different dimension. Now I give you being, not knowledge. I was an acharya and they were students; they were learning. Now I am no more a teacher and you are not here as students.

 

If you are here as students, sooner or later you will have to leave, because you will find yourself in a wrong place; you will not fit here. Only if you are a disciple, then you can fit with me. Because now I am to give something more. If you are here for knowledge, then sooner or later you will see -- you have to go somewhere else.

 

I am here to impart being. I am here to make you awake. I am not going to give you knowledge, I am going to give you knowing -- and that is a totally different dimension.

 

Calling myself Bhagwan was simply symbolic -- that now I have taken a different dimension to work. And it has been tremendously useful. All wrong people automatically disappeared and a totally different quality of people started arriving.

 

It worked well. Chinmaya's choice was good. It sorted out well. Only those who are ready to dissolve with me remained, all others escaped. They created space around me. Otherwise they were crowding too much, and it was very difficult for the real seekers to come closer to me. The crowds disappeared. The word 'Bhagwan' functioned like an atomic explosion. It did well. I am happy that I chose it.

 

Now people who come to me are no more argumentative. Now people who come to me come to drink me, to eat me, to digest me. Now people who come to me are great adventurers of the soul. And they are ready to risk -- to risk any and everything.

 

Calling myself Bhagwan is a device. Sooner or later, when you have grown up and you have understood the point, and when your presence here has created a different quality of vibrations, I will stop calling myself Bhagwan. Then there will be no need. Then the whole atmosphere will be throbbing with godliness. Then people who will come, it will shower on them. It will penetrate into their hearts. There will be no need to call me anything -- you will know. But in the beginning it was needed, and it has been of tremendous help.

 

The last thing about it. I am not a philosopher. Always remember me as a poet. My approach towards life is that of poetry, is that of romance. It is romantic, it is imaginative. I would like you all to be gods and goddesses. I would like you to reveal your true being.

 

Calling myself god is a challenge. It is a subtle challenge. There are only two ways to settle with it. One is, you say, 'This man is not god, and go away, because then what are you doing here? If this man is not god, then why waste your time? You go away. Or, you accept that this man is god, and then you start being with me, and your own godliness starts flowering.

 

One day you will also be a god, a goddess. Accepting me as god is in fact deep down accepting the possibility that you can also be a god, that's all. The very acceptance that this man can be a god, stirs something that has been fast asleep within you. Then you cannot remain as you are; something has to be done. Something has to be transformed, something has to be known. You cannot live at rest any more. A dream has taken possession of you.

 

I was reading an anecdote:

 

The cute and efficient young maid seemed to enjoy her work until one day without warning she gave notice.

 

'Why do you wish to leave?' the lady of the house asked. 'Is there anything wrong?'

 

'I just can't stand the suspense in this house a minute more,' the maid replied.

 

'Suspense?' said the confused mistress. 'What do you mean?'

 

'It is the sign over my door,' the girl explained. 'You know, the one that says: Watch ye, for ye know not when the master cometh.' 'Watch ye, for ye know not when the master cometh.'

 

She misunderstood it, but it created a continuous suspense, uneasiness. 'Watch ye, ye know not when the master cometh....'

 

If you decide to go with me, you will become more and more watchful. And the more watchful you will become, the more you will be able to understand me, the more you will be able to understand what has happened, what has transpired within my soul. You will become more and more a participant in this happening, in this dance, in this singing.

 

And by and by you will see -- the master is coming. And it is not coming from the outside, it is coming from your innermost core, it is arising from your depths.

 

The master cometh, the god comes, but not from the outside. He comes from your very center. He has been there waiting for you to call him. He has been there since eternity waiting that some day you will look in.

 

I looked in and I found him there. My message is simple -- that I have found the god within me. My whole effort is to persuade you -- look within, the master cometh. Yes, it is possible. Yes, he comes. And he does not come from the outside; he explodes from the inside. He arises in you. He is your future, he is your destiny.

 

You may know it, you may not know it. You are already in him and he is already in you. The only question is how to become aware. 'Watch ye, for ye know not when the master cometh.'

 

The only question is of becoming a watcher on the hills. Become a witness -- alert, observing -- and you will be fulfilled.

 

- Osho, “Moving into the Unknown, #4, Q1”