“God is the ocean you are in, because God is another name for life.”
Beloved Osho,
“Excuse me,” said the ocean fish, “you are older than I, so can you tell me, where do you find this thing they call the ocean?”
“The ocean,” said the older fish, “is the thing you are in now.”
“Oh, this? But this is water. What I am seeking is the ocean,” said the disappointed fish as he swam away to search elsewhere.
This is an old parable. But this is one of the beauties of parables – that they never become old, they always remain relevant… because the parable is about you – not about the fish, not about the ocean.
Everybody is searching for truth; everybody is searching for God; everybody is searching for the miraculous, the mysterious source of life. And the situation is the same: the younger fish is asking the older fish, “Where is this thing they call the ocean? I hear so much about it.”
And the older fish said, “You are in it.”
And naturally, the younger fish said, “But this is water and I am searching for the ocean.” She was so disappointed that she said, “It is better to go away somewhere else to find the truth – what the ocean is.”
God is the ocean you are in, because God is another name for life. You are breathing God in and out every moment. It is God who is beating in your heart. It is God who is flowing in your blood. It is God who is your marrow, your bones, your intelligence, your very consciousness. But because the fish is born in the ocean – it is so close – she thinks, This is only water.
This is only air that you are breathing in and out. And people are searching just like the fish, and they will never find – unless they stop searching and just start looking at what they are, what their consciousness is, what their life is. And they will be surprised that there was no need to go anywhere. All that they were searching for they were surrounded by on the outside, and they were filled by it in their innermost being.
The whole existence is God. It is the religions which have created the fallacy that God created the world – so they have given you an idea that the world and God are two, so that you will have to search for the creator.
I want you to destroy that duality completely. God is not the creator, but the creation itself. He is in the trees and he is in the rivers and he is in the moon and he is in the sun and he is in you.
Except God, there is nothing else.
The seeker is the sought, the hunter is the hunted, the observer is the observed. And the moment you realize this, such a deep relaxation comes, such a peace descends deep in you that you have never dreamt of before. Such clarity comes to your eyes that everywhere you start seeing immense beauty, immeasurable beauty, tremendous goodness. In the smallest things of life you start feeling the heartbeat of the universe.
This is our temple, and this is our God, and we are part of it. The worshiper is not separate from the worshiped.
To understand this organic unity is the true religion.
Osho, The Rebellious Spirit, Ch 13, Q 5
Series compiled by Shanti
All excerpts of this series can be found in: 1001 Tales
Featured image by Hiroko Yoshii on Unsplash
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