True religion has been destroyed — not by the irreligious, but by the so called religious people of the world. Not by those who do not believe in God, but by those who believe in God, heaven and hell, and all that nonsense. True religion has nothing to do with God. Neither is it a lust for rewards after life, nor is it a fear of punishment in hell. Kahlil Gibran said, “Your daily life is your temple and your religion. Whenever you enter into it take with you your all.”
True religion knows no past, no future — but only this very moment, only the present. True religion is not in temples and mosques and synagogues and churches. Those who try to find it there are making their efforts in vain. It has to be found not by anything that is made by man, but by something which has made the whole existence — man himself included. You cannot sculpt God in a statue because God is the very source of life, and nothing else.
The source of life has no face of its own, it has no hands of its own, it has no eyes of its own; but if you are silent, peaceful, loving, suddenly your hands start quivering with a new source of energy. Your hands become God’s hands, your eyes start seeing in a totally different way — they become the eyes of God. Everything remains the same and yet everything changes, because you have changed. Godliness is a way of life, a style of life, living in tune with existence.
God is not a person, but simply a certain way of falling in tune with existence, of falling in love with all that surrounds you. True religion is nothing but love, unbounded, unfettered. Temples are not the places where God lives, those are the places which we have created to deceive ourselves.
Godliness is all over the space, everywhere, but to be so overwhelmed, so possessed and enchanted by God that each single moment becomes flooded with him needs courage, needs guts, needs a heart uncluttered — open, available, receptive. To avoid this, we have created small temples. These temples are not to find God, but to avoid God.
Your religions are not religion, but an escape from religion. They are like toys, poor substitutes, dead, with no life, with no song, with no dance. But it is strange that the whole of humanity has been deceiving itself. To accept this simple fact that your daily life is your temple and your religion is going to become a great transformation.
Then you cannot cheat your customers. You cannot be possessive of your children — because they are closer to godliness than you are. Their innocence is a bridge, your knowledge is a wall; you can only be respectful to the children. His presence will be felt even in your wife, in your husband, in your friend, in your enemy — because except him nobody else exists. Reflections on Kahlil Gibran’s: The Prophet, Osho Times International, courtesy Osho International Foundation, www.osho.com