Didn’t you hear the message?

It happened on a full-moon night. It was midnight, and surrounded by friends I was in a boat on a lake. All around me were rocks bathed in moonlight. Everything was unbelievably beautiful. It seemed as if I was in a city of dreams. The boatman stopped rowing the boat and we became still in the middle of the lake.

But my friends were not there. They had brought me with them, but I could not tell whether they had been left behind or gone ahead. Even though I was surrounded by them, I was alone on the lake because they were all lost in many things, which I knew nothing about. Their talking related either to the past, which was not there, or to the future, which was also not there. But their consciousness was not there with them. They were not present for that wonderful lake and for that dreamlike night, just as if the present did not exist for them.

Then suddenly one of them asked, “Does God exist?” What answer could I give him? I pondered because how could they, who had no relation to the liveliness of the present moment, have any relation to God? Life itself is God. The realization of life is the realization of godliness. So I said to them, “Friends, is this a lake? Is this the moon? Is this the night? And aren’t we all present on this lake in this wonderful full-moon night?”

Naturally, all of them were startled and said, “Yes. How can there be any question about that?”

But I continued, “For myself I have no doubt, but I am convinced that you are not here. Please think again. A person who is present in the physical sense can only gather an idea of the physical existence of this world, but the one who is present with all his consciousness can experience God here and now. Godliness is present, but only for those who are attentive to it, for those who are really living.”

Again, I was reminded of an incident and I told them about it:

A few people had gathered outside an office. One of them was to be chosen for the post of wireless operator. All the applicants and candidates were busy discussing useless things. Then slowly some sounds started emanating from a transmitter, but they were all so engrossed and lost in their conversations that the low-level signals did not attract their attention.

But one young man was sitting apart from them, alone in a corner. He got up at once and went into the office. The rest of them did not see him getting up or going into the office. They observed him only when, with a smile, he came out of the office with an appointment letter in his hand.

Naturally, all of them were speechless and, in anger, they asked the young man, “Sir, how did you happen to get inside before anyyone else? All of us were here much earlier than you. You were the last in the queue. How could you be appointed without us being considered first? What is this highhandedness? What is this injustice?”

At this, the young man started laughing and said, “Friends, how can I be blamed for this? Anyone of you could have been appointed, and perhaps I have been appointed after all of you have been considered. Didn’t you hear the message given out on the wireless?”

They all spoke with one voice, “What kind of message? What message?”

Then the young man said to them, “Weren’t you aware of the wireless signals? The sound produced on the transmitter clearly said, ‘I want a person who is always careful and attentive. The appointment letter is here ready for the person who hears this message and enters the office before everyone else.’”

God’s messages are also raining down on us every day. Nature is the language of his signals. The person who is silent and attentive, who stays alert to these signals, will definitely be invited in.

Osho, Earthen Lamps / The Earthen Lamps, Ch 20 – A collection of fragments from discourses, letters to friends, incidents and records of conversations, translated from Hindi, titled Mitti Ke Diye (मिट्टी के दीये)