On Gods & Big Stones
What do you do when you go to a Hindu temple, or a Mohammedan mosque, or a Christian church, or a synagogue? – you are worshiping things which you yourself have created. And that shows man’s utter stupidity: first you carve a statue of God and then you prostrate yourself before it. This is your religion. Why don’t you start touching your own feet? There is no difference.
Mohammedans have been in difficulty, because Mohammed, fourteen centuries ago, found that the people of Arabia were worshiping three hundred and sixty-five statues. Kaaba was their temple, and for every day one statue was worshiped. And even Mohammed, uneducated, could see the foolishness of it – you make the statues, and then you worship them – so he destroyed all those three hundred and sixty-five statues. I am not in favor of his destruction. Instead… the same thing started again. He himself started it, because he found man is so much in love with his own misery that he cannot understand the idea of freedom – because to be free is to be free of misery.
The same Kaaba where three hundred and sixty-five statues used to exist also had a big square stone. It was not an ordinary stone, it was an asteroid. Every night you see stars falling – but stars don’t fall, and it is good and compassionate of them that they don’t fall, because they are so big that if they fell on the earth, the whole earth would disappear as if it had never existed. What you see, and call falling stars, are nothing but small stones…
But sometimes big stones also fall, and the Kaaba is one of the biggest stones that has fallen. Because it had fallen from above, the people who worshiped the three hundred and sixty-five statues thought that it was a gift from God, and they placed it in the middle of the temple. The temple was vast – naturally, to accommodate three hundred and sixty-five guests. It was a five star hotel! And it was just a coincidence that the stone of Kaaba fell there. Mohammed destroyed all the statues, but he could not destroy the men’s memories, he could not destroy the men’s imaginations.
Not finding the statues, they started worshiping that great stone. It seems that man is afraid to be free. He wants some father in the sky, at least for complaints and prayers. He needs a father in the sky as God, to take care of him. Without God in the sky, he feels like a lost child. It is a father fixation, psychologically. Then there is no need to believe in God… because it is only a hypothesis. And it is up to you what to make of the hypothesis.
The Jewish God in the Old Testament says, “I am a very angry God, I’m very jealous. I am not nice! Remember, I am not your uncle! I cannot tolerate another God.” The Mohammedans have inherited the Jewish conception of God. That’s why they have been destroying statues and temples, beautiful pieces of art: because there is only one God and one holy book and one messenger, Mohammed.
This is a fascist attitude, ugly, inhuman. What is the problem if there are millions of gods? The world will be far richer. Why are you stuck with one god? Judaism, Christianity, Mohammedanism, all such religions which believe in one god believe in dictatorship, not in democracy. What is the problem? Gautam Buddha is perhaps the first democratic religious person, who says that every man is a potential god and finally, all are going to blossom into godhood.
Osho – The Messiah, vol 2, chp 1
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