Osho Quotes on Religious Man, Osho Sayings on Religious Man

Osho Quotes on Religious Man

1. Meditate, and let music become your meditation. Sing and let singing become your life, your very breathing, your very heartbeat. A very stupid idea has prevailed in the world, that only saints are religious. In fact, almost 99.9 percent of saints are not religious. The real religious people will be found in creative dimensions — dancers, poets, painters, singers, musicians, sculptors. The future belongs to the creative man.
2. To me the religious man is not one who is above nature, but is the man who is totally natural, fully natural, who has explored nature in all its dimensions, who has not left anything unexplored.
3. An authentically religious man belongs to no religion and belongs to no nation and to no race and to no color. He belongs to the whole humanity. All the nations are his. He does not believe in political boundaries created by the cunning and dirty politicians. And he does not believe in the discriminations created by the priests, by the popes, by the archbishops, by the shankaracharyas, by the rabbis. He believes that every human being has a divine nature, and every human being has the potential to grow into a beautiful lotus flower — a lotus flower that belongs to eternity, a fragrance that comes but never goes.
4. This is the whole philosophy of the religious man: that ‘I have nothing to do — just to celebrate, let things happen to me; just to dance and sing.’ It does not mean that a religious man becomes inactive. No. He becomes more active, but in his action there is no effort, there is no strain, there is no violence. It is not that he becomes inactive, dull, lethargic. No. He radiates with energy, he overflows with energy, because all that energy that was being wasted in effort is no longer wasted. He has too much of it — he can share. But now he functions as a vehicle. Now he has given his whole energy to the Whole. Now, wherever the Whole takes him, he goes. Now he is with the Whole and not against it.
5. The authentic religious man will live in the world without being disturbed by all kinds of disturbances. He will be simply a watcher, unperturbed. In fact the world is a good place because it gives you an opportunity to test your silence, your meditativeness, your watchfulness. Be in the world but don’t be of it. Be in the world but don’t let the world be in you.
6. A religious man is without strain. In fact a religious man is not trying to achieve anything. If you see that a religious man is trying to achieve something he is not religious, he is as worldly as others. He has only changed the name of his god, that’s all. Before he used to call it money, now he calls it meditation. Before he used to call it material, now he calls it something else — God. But, the achieving mind is there, and an achieving mind is the hindrance, the only barrier.
7. Existence is a family; we exist together. Life is togetherness, and that togetherness is God. If you cannot feel that togetherness, you will feel alien and you will always be afraid. To a religious man, fearlessness happens spontaneously. To a non-religious man, fear is the only way to be.
8. If you are really a pure man, a religious man, ego disappears; but if you are a puritan, a moralist, then ego is strengthened. This should always be the criterion to judge whether whatsoever you are doing is good or wrong: judge it by the ego. If ego is strengthened, then it is wrong: drop it as soon as you can, drop it immediately! If ego is not strengthened, it is good.
9. If there is something to seek, you are a worldly man; if there is nothing to seek, and the question ‘Who is this seeker?’ has become important to you, then you are a religious man. This is the way I define the worldly and the religious.
10. If you are uncreative it simply means that you must have practised your religion, you must have forced yourself into a certain pattern, and you have got blocked, frozen in that pattern. A religious person is flowing, streaming, river-like; seeking, exploring, always seeking and exploring the unknown, always dropping the known and going into the unknown, always choosing the unknown for the known, sacrificing the known for the unknown. And always ready. A religious man is a wanderer, a vagabond; into the innermost world he goes on wandering moving from one place to another. He wants to know all the spaces that are involved in his being.
11. The religious man befriends his nothingness. That’s what meditation is all about: befriending your nothingness. He enjoys it. He celebrates it. He dances it. He sings it. He goes again and again into it. Whenever he has a chance, whenever he has the opportunity, he closes his eyes, he drops into his nothingness, he disappears there. What is the very door of God. From there you connect yourself to the divine. Once you have started enjoying your nothingness, who bothers about politics?
12. To me, that is the very criterion of a religious man: he has no condemnatory attitude. He accepts everything, his world includes everything. It does not exclude anything. Sex is accepted, SAMADHI also. His world is very rich because nothing is excluded from it. He says, “Everything comes from that essential core of your being, so why deny it? And if you deny it, how will you be able to reach to the source?” Wherever you deny something, you cling there, you stop there. Then the journey cannot move to the very core.
13. The Bauls say, “The man who has understood the futility of things becomes religious.” If you are running after having, you will become a manipulator: constantly in conflict with others, constantly trying to crush others, by any way and any means trying to reach to the top. You will lose all spontaneity.
14. A religious man slowly slowly becomes aware that only God is, so whatsoever happens, happens through him; whatsoever happens has a message. If the birds sing, they are singing in praise of God; if the trees bloom, they are blooming in meditation; if the mountains are silent, that silence is nothing but prayer.
15. Existence needs you as you are. The first principle of an authentic religious man is to accept himself as he is, without any judgment — and only from there does your authentic pilgrimage begin.
16. Meditate, and let music become your meditation. Sing and let singing become your life, your very breathing, your very heartbeat. A very stupid idea has prevailed in the world, that only saints are religious. In fact, almost 99.9 percent of saints are not religious. The real religious people will be found in creative dimensions — dancers, poets, painters, singers, musicians, sculptors. The future belongs to the creative man.
17. A religious man is not a Christian, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist, or a Mohammedan. All these are ways of knowledge. A Christian says, ‘I know.’ And his knowledge comes from the Christian dogmas. The Hindu says, ‘I also know.’ And his knowledge comes from the Vedas and the Gitas and his dogmas. And a Hindu is against the Christian, because he says, If I am right, you cannot be right. If you are right, then I cannot be right.’ So there is great argument and there is much dispute and much debate and  unnecessary conflict.
18. A real religious man is one who has no past, who has no autobiography, who is continuously new, each moment slipping with God. He does not bother; what has happened has happened — finished! Put a full stop on it, and never look back. Go on…He is always calling you ahead, and ahead. He is always persuading you to move into new territories of being: from lust to love, from love to prayer — and there are higher realms than prayer. And He is constantly on the move. If you follow Him, the only way is to be constantly on the move.Be a river.
19. Just look around at life and try to see the humorous side of things. Every event that is happening has its own humorous side, you just need a sense of humor. No religion has accepted the sense of humor as a quality. I want a sense of humor to be a fundamental quality of a good man, of a moral man, of a religious man.
20. Mind is crazy; mind is mad. Mind creates divisions, fragments. Mind creates nations, races — white and black, poor and rich. Mind is the devil. When you can feel that you are one with all, you have gone beyond mind. To feel one with all, to feel a unison, is to be good. And to act out of that oneness is to be religious. A religious man has no character. A religious man has a spontaneity. A religious man has a moment to moment contact with the whole. That contact is never lost. He lives prayerfully. A nonreligious man may be apparently good, moral, he may have a character, but he is frozen, dead. He acts out of that character: out of the mind, out of knowledge, out of rules. He is never in contact with the whole.
21. Ego can arise in any situation. The ego is very subtle and its ways are very mysterious. On anything, ego can feed itself. You meditate and through your meditation your ego can be strengthened: “I am a meditator.” And the whole point is lost, the whole meditation is lost. “I am a religious man. I go to church every Sunday, never miss.” The ego has arisen. It has taken a religious shape, but the shape doesn’t matter. “I fast,” or “I take a certain food,” or “I do this or that” — any ritual. “I do yoga” — whatsoever. If you feel that your “I” is strengthened, know that you are not on the path of knowing, you are falling down into ignorance.
22. A man of true understanding remains alone; he does not join any party, any organization, any church, any religion. He is available to every form of understanding, but he remains impartial. To me this impartiality is one of the fundamentals of religion. A Christian is not religious just because he is a Christian. A Hindu is not religious just because he has become part of an organized doctrine. A Jaina is not religious because he has chosen a certain party line. An authentically religious man is individual. He is alone, and in his aloneness there is great beauty, great splendor. I teach you that aloneness. I teach you the beauty, and the grandeur, and the fragrance of aloneness. In your aloneness you will reach to the heights of Everest. In your aloneness you will be able to touch the farthest star. In your aloneness you will blossom to your total potential. Never become a believer, never become a follower, never become a part of any organization. Remain authentically true to yourself. Don’t betray yourself.