Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 20. BASE YOUR RULE ON THE RULE
come when they became close to each other. But when they are really close, even closest to each
other, they feel disillusioned, almost cheated by their own hopes.
Nothing is lacking in their relationship, in their intimacy and trust, yet the hoped-for happiness
remains a distant dream. Then the lovers begin to fret and fume at each other, they begin to suspect
each other. Each of them thinks that while he is doing his best, the other has his reservations, or is
deceiving him. Now they are besieged by worries and anxieties that they never had before. But the
real reason is that unless lovers become totally one, they can never be content and happy.
For this reason I say the lovers of today are devotees of tomorrow; they have no way but to turn to
devotion. When they know for themselves that it is impossible to be one with an embodied person,
they will turn to God, who is bodiless, because it is quite possible to be really one with him. So
sooner or later every lover is going to turn into a devotee, and every word of love is going to turn into
a prayer.
This is how it should be. Otherwise there is no escape from the torture and misery of love. A lover
who refuses to be a devotee is bound to be in everlasting anguish. Ironically, while his longings are
those of a devotee, he is trying to fulfill them through ordinary love. His aspirations are running in
one direction and his efforts in another, and so frustration is inevitable. He so longs to be one with
another that nothing should come in between them, not even the thought of ”I” and ”thou”. But he
has chosen a wrong medium for the fulfillment of his longings.
No two persons can come so close to each other that the thought of ”I” and ”thou” cannot come
in between them. It is impossible. Only two non-persons, non egos, can achieve this unity and
oneness. And since God is a non-person, a devotee can be one with him the day he ceases to be a
person, an ego. As long as a devotee remains a separate entity, fusion with God is impossible.
God is not an entity as a devotee is; God’s being is like non-being, his presence is like an absence.
This aspect of God is significant! and needs to be understood rightly.
We always ask, all devotees have asked why God does not manifest himself. We forget that if he
becomes manifest, meeting with him in the sense of fusion, unity, oneness, will be impossible. Such
fusion is possible only with the unmanifest. Devotees have always said to God, ”Where are you
hiding? Why don’t you manifest yourself?” This is an utterly wrong question. If he really becomes
manifest, then a great wall will rise up between the seeker and the sought, and oneness will be
simply impossible.
Because he is unmanifest, a merger with God is possible. Because he is invisible and infinite like
the sky, the devotee can drown himself in his being, which is as good as non-being. He is visible
nowhere, and so he is everywhere. If he becomes visible, union will be impossible,
Eckhart, a seer of extraordinary vision, has expressed his thanks to God in a strange way. He says
to God, ”Your compassion is infinite that you are so invisible no one can see you, no one can find
and meet you. One reaches for you everywhere and you are nowhere to be found. And this is your
singular compassion for man, because this way you teach him a lesson. The lesson is that unless
a person becomes as invisible as you are, unless he becomes a non-being, an absence like you,
union with you is impossible.” God is formless, and so when a devotee becomes as formless, when
he becomes a non-entity, an absence, he becomes one with the ultimate.
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 389 Osho