Osho on Devotion

 

People ask me what, in my religion, will be the place of worship, of devotion, because they think worship and devotion are impossible without a God.I want to say to you that they are impossible with a God. The whole idea of God is so ugly that I cannot be devoted to such an idiotic hypothesis. I cannot worship God, I don't see any reason to worship Him.

To me devotion is the refined quality of love

It has nothing to do with to whom. It is not a question of to whom it is addressed: Jehovah, God, Jesus, Buddha. It is not a question of it being addressed.

Devotion is a quality in your heart

You feel full of reverence for everything that is.

You feel a great love for all that is.

It is not a question of whether the person is worthy of it or not... because love is not a business. It is not a question of whether the other is worthy or not, the question is whether your heart is overflowing with love or not. If it is overflowing it will reach to those who are worthy, it will reach to those who are un-worthy.It will not discriminate at all.

The cloud is full, and it showers. Do you think it showers on good people's forms only, and avoids bad people's forms? -- that it showers only on good Christians, good Hindus, good Jews, and it simply does not shower on the form of an atheist? It simply showers because it is so full.

Devotion is overflowing love.

Ordinary love is addressed to somebody. That is the raw quality of love, not yet refined. It needs some object, and it is in a very small quantity -- that's why lovers are so jealous. There is a reason behind it which they may not know. They may think jealousy is not good, and of course it is not good; but why it is not good they don't know. They think jealousy is not good, but that is not the point. To have such a small quantity of love energy, that is not good -- -and out of that, as a by-product, comes jealousy.

The woman is afraid her lover may be loving some other woman too. And he has such a small quantity of love, how can she afford for him to go to some other woman? If he goes to some other woman then she remains starved, because she knows him and how much love he has. It is not even enough for herself, so how is she able to have a project of share-a-home? -- no.

The man is so afraid that if his wife is just laughing with the neighbor, that is enough to make him boil within, because he knows how little laughter she has. If she is wasting it with the neighbor then what about him? So if she is happy with the neighbors -- laughing, smiling, gossiping -- and when the husband comes home, she is Lying down; she has a headache.... Strangely enough, as the husband enters the compound, immediately the wife starts having a headache. Just a moment before she was laughing with the neighbor, but her husband -- the very word gives her a headache. "So he is back again -- the same rotten old fellow."

But the real problem is because both have such a small quantity of love -- and both are aware of it. And you know that if love is given to somebody else then your share is lost. It is like share-a-home, but you don't have any home anymore -- somebody else is sharing it.

Devotion is love overflowing. Even when there is nobody, it is overflowing -- to things, to tables, to chairs, to walls. It is just overflowing, it is not a question of to whom. And this you have to understand.

It is a fundamental law of my religion:

As awareness grows, simultaneously love grows.

They cannot remain separate, they move together.

If you can grow in love, you will grow in awareness.

If you grow in awareness, you will grow in love.

 

It is easier to grow in awareness because there are very definite, scientific ways to grow in awareness. With love it is difficult, because it is a very slippery thing, it slips out of your hand. Awareness you can hold tight. But don't be worried: if you are growing in awareness, simultaneously your love will always keep on the same level as your awareness. This is my experience.

I never say a single thing which is not my experience. I have not ever seen in me a single inch of difference between awareness and love. Just let your awareness go higher, and love immediately moves to the same level. They always keep the same level. When awareness is at its peak, love overflows; and that overflowing love is devotion.

And when love and awareness are there, are you just going to sit and not do anything? Perhaps once in a while there will be a man like me who will simply sit and do nothing; but most probably everybody is going to do something. And that something will come out of awareness and love.

I call that act, worship.

Whatever you do -- you cook food, you clean a floor, you chop wood -- whatever you do, your awareness and your love is showering. It is worship. No mantra is needed, no prayer is needed, no God is needed.

In my religion there is a place for devotion.

There is a place for worship.

But there is no place for God at all.

I am keeping everything that is essential and discarding everything that is non-essential.

The priesthood was interested in the non-essential because that non-essential could be used for exploitation.

The essential cannot be used for exploitation.

The essential will destroy the priesthood immediately.

If your awareness grows and your love becomes devotion, one thing is certain: you will not be a Jew, you will not be a Hindu, you will not be a Mohammedan. Your awareness cannot allow such stupidities. Your love, your devotion, will not allow you to go to a temple, to a mosque, to a gurudwara, to a synagogue, to a church, because it is simply idiotic, just Oregonian.

There is no point in going anywhere.

Wherever you are, your devotion is flowing.

Wherever a religious man sits:

There is the temple.

There is the church.

There is the synagogue. [....]

 

My religion has devotion as part of awareness.

The meaning of devotion is of love, not towards a God, but towards all that is.

My religion has worship; but then worship is not a certain chanting of mantras, prayers, Ave Marias....

Worship is your creativeness with a heart full of love and a being overflowing with awareness. And then whatsoever you do is worship.

Or if you happen to be a man like me, lazy, then not -- doing is your worship. I have never felt for a single moment that I am not a worshipper.

My worship is just not to do anything:

Just to sit silently, doing nothing.

And the grass grows by itself... and real grass!
 

-Osho, "From Personality to Individuality, #11"