The first thing to be understood: God is not a person. But all the religions have talked about it in such a way that people get a false impression that God is a person, a personality. If you believe that God is a person then naturally you will want to see him, to know him, to recognize him; you will want to be near him. But God is not a person. The idea that God is a person is only a poetic symbol. God is an energy, not a person. This is why you will not find him anywhere; there will never be a moment when you will meet with him face-to-face. So this sutra is saying that there is no way to see God directly because it is only people or things that can be seen directly.
This also needs to be understood: that when I say God is an energy, that energy is also unique. Electricity is also an energy, gravitation is also an energy – energy is all around. It is not enough just to say that God, godliness is an energy. Godliness is a subjective energy, it is not objective. There is an energy which can be seen and there is another energy which is hidden within the seer. It is not in the seen but in the seer. One is objective energy like electricity, which can be seen. And there is a subjective energy, the energy of the inner being, which can never be seen because it is within the seer. Or it will be better to say that we ourselves are that energy and that energy is everywhere. It is also outside, but to see it on the outside first you will have to experience it within yourself.
And to the person who has experienced that energy within himself, it becomes manifest everywhere. This whole universe becomes nothing but the manifestation of this light to one who sees this light within. But the first experience of it, the first realization, will be within. It is the innermost energy.
Hence the search for godliness is not an outer search. In this search it is not necessary to go to the Himalayas or to wander in the mountains of Tibet; Kashi and Prayag will not help either, nor will Girnar or Jerusalem. No outer search has anything to do with godliness; hence you will not find it in any temple or place of pilgrimage. And because of this, a difficulty arises: if it were in some temple, in some holy place on Mount Everest or on Kailash, you could easily go there. That would be very easy because the outer journey is not difficult at all, you can travel anywhere you want.
But in the search for godliness, the difficulty is that it is not at the end of the journey – it is present within the seeker from the very beginning. It is not a goal to be reached, it is the innermost core of the traveler. If you are searching for it on the outside you will not find it, exactly because of your outside searching. You are looking in the wrong place. If you want to search for it you will have to look within. If you want to search you will have to stop wandering to holy places and look within.
To seek godliness all the doors of the senses need to be closed because the more you search on the outside the farther away you will go from it. The more you think that it is outside you the more you will forget that it is within you.
Godliness is not a person, so there is no way to see it on the outside. Godliness is an energy. But that energy also is not material: it is subjective, it is your innermost energy. This is why the first realization of it happens only when you look within yourself.
You never remember to look within yourself. You wander everywhere, you search everywhere; your eyes, your ears, your hands don’t leave any place unexplored. And everyone is not searching for godliness exactly: someone is searching for bliss, someone is searching for peace, someone else is searching for liberation. You may give it different names, but all these names are for the same search, the search for godliness. One thing is certain: everyone is searching, though the names for their search are different.
And there are only two alternatives: you can either search within yourself or you can search on the outside. These are the two dimensions. And the one who searches on the outside will go on wandering because even the first small glimpses will be happening from within. First it must be known within your innermost core of being. Because how can someone who cannot realize godliness within himself see it on the outside? If your inner flame is unlit, you can go on searching everywhere, and wherever you will go you will find only darkness because you are carrying it within yourself. You will not find the light. But if your inner flame is lit, you can go into deep darkness and there will be light because you carry your light within you. The search for godliness is a search into the depths of your own interiority, your own subjectivity.
-Osho, “The Message beyond Words, #15”