Why is the lie of GOD so successful?

WHY IS THE LIE OF GOD SO SUCCESSFUL?

Because you are a failure. It is your failure that makes the lie of God so successful. In your life you have not loved totally, you have not lived totally. You have never done anything totally; this is your failure.

I don’t mean by failure what you understand. You understand you are a failure if you are not superrich. You are a failure if you are not a great politician, a prime minister, a president. You are a failure if you are not world famous. That is not failure, that is simply the competitive, egoistic life.

And that kind of life is the most miserable, because you are continuously fighting, fighting, pulling others back by the legs, rising over people’s heads, making them as if they are steps for you to climb higher. Your life is violent, and a violent life cannot be beautiful. You are merciless; only then can you become super-rich. You don’t have any compassion; otherwise how can you exploit millions of people to such a stage that they are starving, and you are simply accumulating money which you cannot use? There is no point in accumulating more; it has just become a habit to go on accumulating.

The richest man in the world now is in Japan; he has twenty-six billion dollars. What are you going to do with twenty-six billion dollars? There is nothing that you can do with twenty-six billion dollars, but he is still running for more.

The people you think are successful are continuously running for more. Deep down they are not successful.

I have heard about a man whose seventy-fifth birthday was celebrated by his friends. But while they were singing and dancing and drinking and enjoying, suddenly they found that the man was missing. So one of his best friends, a great successful attorney, went out in the garden to look for the man. He was sitting under a tree, very sad.

The attorney went to him and said, ”This is strange. We are all enjoying your birthday. For you we have arranged this whole ceremony, and you are sitting here under a dark tree in darkness. What is the matter?”

He says, ”You are the matter!”

The attorney said, ”I am the matter. What have I done to you?”

He said, ”Remember, fifty years ago I came to you saying that I wanted to kill my wife, and what would be the punishment? You told me it would be at least fifty years in jail. And now I am feeling, if I had murdered my wife I would have been a free man today. Fifty years have passed. Because of you I suffered. I would have at least rested in the jail for fifty years and today I would have been free, and there would have been a real celebration. It is you who destroyed my whole life!”

A man is successful if he follows his own natural way and lives it as totally and intensely as possible. If you want to be a musician, you will not be a super-rich man. If you want to be a flutist, you are not going to be a great politician, but you will be utterly happy. Maybe there is only just enough to eat, but playing on the flute who cares? You simply disappear in your music. Your flute becomes your meditation. Your song, your dance becomes your meditation.

Anything that is totally lived is equal to meditation. You don’t need meditation. And a man who is living moment-to-moment, absolutely naturally, according to himself, has nothing to regret, is not a failure. Hence, a happy man, a blissful man, needs no God. It is your misery, your failure to be natural, that makes the life of God so successful. God fills your vacuum. But a man who lives totally has no vacuum.

I don’t have a God – not because I am philosophically atheist, no. I simply don’t need a God. I am so fulfilled in myself that I don’t need any religion, and I don’t need any prayer, and I don’t need any meditation. Every moment is so exquisite, so immensely ecstatic, who cares about all these stupid questions: God, heaven, hell? These are questions of insane humanity, and the insane humanity is bound to be exploited by the priests in the name of God.

So first they drive you nuts, then you have to bring coconuts to offer to them. It is a strange game. The priest is playing the ugliest game in the world. His whole success depends on your failure, and your failure depends on being unnatural.

If you understand, my approach is so clean and clear: just be natural, and God will not matter at all, nor heaven and hell, nor any priest. Every moment you will be so much in tune with existence that you will blossom like flowers, you will dance like peacocks, you will sing like cuckoos. Your life will have a totally different flavor. It will have the fragrance of a man who is utterly contented with himself and existence as it is, with no desire to change, no desire to make this existence better, no desire to bother about what will happen after death.

Socrates’ statement is very significant at this point. When he was facing death somebody asked, ”Are you afraid that you are going to be poisoned this evening as the sun sets?”

He said, ”Why should I be afraid? There are only two possibilities: either I will die, then there is nobody there to be worried, or I shall not die, then what is the worry? Only two alternatives, simple: either I will be completely gone, and gone, there is nobody left. Who is going to worry? Who is going to suffer? Or I will not die. If I don’t die, why should I worry? I know how to live. I have lived my whole life so joyously. If there is any life after death, I will continue to live, I know the art. If there is no life, I will rest. I know how to rest totally, eternally. There is no problem. Either I will be dancing or I will be resting.: But I know both are beautiful. Rest has its own beauty – eternal rest, no worry, no despair, no anxiety, no anguish. Or I will be dancing, I know the art. And my dance can go on eternally.”

A man who is really successful will have the same approach as Socrates. Who cares about death? Only people who have not lived are worried about death.

It is a very strange phenomenon. People who have not lived, who have simply hoped to live someday, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, or maybe after death, in paradise – those who have been postponing life, they are the only people who are afraid of death because they don’t know the art of living.

The art of living is simple. Be natural. Don’t be bothered by Manu, Moses, Mahavira, Mohammed – don’t be bothered at all by anybody. They lived their life, they never bothered about anybody.

Just learn that secret. Buddha lived his life, not according to any scripture, not according to any Vedas, not according to any discipline. He lived according to his own insight. That is his greatness. That’s what makes him a beautiful flower, a lotus, perfectly open to the sun, to the rain, to the wind, dancing, enjoying. Mahavira lived his own life. All the people who have lived their life totally, without any guilt, without any priest interfering, are successful people.

I know only of one success, and that is your life should be your life, your natural existence. But if you fail to be your authentic nature, then the lie of God is going to be successful. Then you have to look for somebody to take care of you. Then you are worried what will happen after death. Perhaps there is a God, how will you face him if you don’t worship him? It is better to worship: if there is no God, there is no harm; if there is God, you can always say, ”I was worshipping.” These people are chickens, they are not to be called human beings.

Be authentic, be natural, be honest in every act you are doing. And this is possible only if you enter into your being and find out the center. That is the only success in the world: to find out your center and then let the center guide you. The light will come from the center, radiating from you, and you will be a natural man. The natural man is the buddha.

The unnatural man is pathological, sick. Then he is bound to be exploited by the priests, or by the psychoanalysts – who are the new priests. They don’t have anything to offer. Their psychoanalysis is as bogus as the religions. They are the new rabbis, new bishops, new popes. They don’t give anything, they simply exploit you. And the priests have not contributed anything to humanity, they have simply exploited. They are the greatest parasites in existence.

God is Dead, Now Zen is the Only Living Truth 154 ♡♥Osho♡♥