The whole basis of idol-worship is on the fact that there is a connection between your mind and the mind of the Supreme Supreme Soul. A bridge is needed in the middle to connect the two.
You are related, only one bridge is needed. That bridge can be built, the use of its construction is an idol. And of course that bridge will be tangible, because you will not be able to establish a direct relationship with the intangible.
You have no idea of the intangible. No matter how much one talks about the incorporeal God, the intangible God, that thing remains, you do not have any idea. In fact, all the experiences that you have with your brain are experiences of the tangible, experiences of the shape.
You do not have any experience of the formless. No word will be able to remind you of someone who has no experience. And you will continue to talk about the formless and will continue to live in shape.
If any relation is to be established with that formless, then something has to be created which is formless from one side and formless from the other side.
This is the secret of the idol. Let me explain it again to you. A bridge has to be made which is shaped towards us and becomes formless towards God. Where we stand, one end of it should be tangible, and where God is, the other end becomes its intangible, then only then can a bridge be formed.
If it is an idol then a bridge will not be built, if that idol is absolutely intangible then it will not be a bridge. The idol will have to do a double job. Wherever we stand, its end should be visible, and where God is there, be lost in the formless.
That is why this word ‘Idol-worship’ is very wonderful. And the meaning that I will tell you, it would never have come to your mind. If I say that the word idolatry is very wrong, then you will be in great difficulty.
In fact, the word idolatry is absolutely
Actually the word idol-worship is absolutely wrong. It is wrong because the person who knows how to worship, the idol is destroyed and for whom the idol is visible, he has never worshiped, he has no idea of worship.
And in the word idol-worship we are using two words – one for worship and one for idol – both of which never come in the experience of the same person.
Among them the word idol belongs to those who have never worshiped; And worship belongs to those who have never seen an idol. If it is said in another way, then it can be said that what is worship is the art of destroying the idol. The name of the art of erasing the shape of the idol is worship.
Its tangible part has to be dropped, dropped! In no time it becomes intangible. In a short time, worship begins from what was the tangible part on this side, and when worship takes hold of the seeker, within a short time that end is lost and the intangible appears.
Credits: Osho World Foundation, New Delhi
Book: Deep Water Penetration
Discourse no. compiled from 4
Introduction
Osho Rajneesh was born on 11 December 1931 in Kuchwara village under Raisen district in Madhya Pradesh. Osho was the eldest of his father’s eleven children. In the 1960s, he came to be known as ‘Acharya Rajneesh’ and ‘Osho Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’.
Osho gave new meaning to the mystics, philosophers and religious ideologies of the whole world. With his revolutionary ideas, he made millions of followers and disciples. On 19 January 1990, Osho merged with God.
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