The house where God lives

You are enlightened! You are Buddhas, pretending not to be, pretending to be somebody else. And my whole work here is to expose you! […]

There is a beautiful story of Rabindranath Tagore.

He says: I was searching for God for thousands of lives. I saw him… sometimes far away, close to a distant star. I rushed… by the time I had reached there, he had gone further ahead. It went on and on.

Finally I arrived at a door and on the door there was a signboard:

“This is the house where God lives – Lao Tzu House.”

Rabindranath says, I became very worried for the first time.

I became very troubled. Trembling, I went up the stairs. I was just going to knock on the door and suddenly, in a flash, I saw the whole point.

If I knock on the door and God opens the door, then what?

Then everything is finished, my journeys, my pilgrimages, my great adventures, my philosophy, my poetry – all the longing of my heart – all is finished! It will be suicide.

Seeing the point so crystal clear, Rabindranath says: I removed my shoes from my feet, because going back down might create some noise – he might open the door! Then what?

And from the moment I reached the bottom of the steps, I have not looked back.

Since then I have been running and running for thousands of years.

I am still searching for God, although now I know where he lives.

So I only have to avoid that Lao Tzu House and I can go on searching for him everywhere else.

There is no fear… But I have to avoid that house – that house haunts me; I remember it perfectly.

If by chance I accidentally enter that house, then all is finished.

It is a beautiful insight.

Man lives in problems, man lives in misery. To live without problems, to live without misery, needs real courage.

I have lived without any problems for twenty-five years, and I know it is a kind of suicide. I simply go on sitting in my room doing nothing. There is nothing to do!

Osho, The Goose Is Out, Ch 10, Q 4 (excerpt)

Series compiled by Shanti
All excerpts of this series can be found in: 1001 Tales

Photo by Chuck Givens on Unsplash