At the doorsteps of God
The fear comes at the moment when
you come to dissolve your last part, because then it will be irrevocable; you
will not be able to come back.
I have told many times a beautiful poem
of Rabindranath Tagore. The poet has been searching for God for millions of
lives. He has seen him sometimes, far away, near a star, and he started moving
that way, but by the time he reached that star, God has moved to some other
place.
But he went on searching and searching — he was determined to find God’s home — and the surprise of surprises was, one day he actually reached a house where on the door was written: “God’s Home.”
You can understand his ecstasy, you
can understand his joy. He runs up the steps, and just as he is going to knock
on the door, suddenly his hand freezes. An idea arises in him: “If by chance
this is really the home of God, then I am finished, my seeking is finished. I
have become identified with my seeking, with my search. I don’t know anything
else. If the door opens and I face God, I am finished — the search is over.
Then what? Then there is an eternity of boredom — no excitement, no discovery,
no new challenge, because there cannot be any challenge greater than God.”
He starts trembling with fear, takes
his shoes off his feet, and descends back down the beautiful marble steps. He
took the shoes off so that no noise was made, for his fear was that even a
noise on the steps… God may open the door, although he has not knocked. And
then he runs as fast as he has never run before. He used to think that he had
been running after God as fast as he can, but today, suddenly, he finds energy
which was never available to him before. He runs as he has never run, not
looking back.
The poem ends, “I am still searching
for God. I know his home, so I avoid it and search everywhere else. The
excitement is great, the challenge is great, and in my search I continue, I
continue to exist. God is a danger — I will be annihilated. But now I am not
afraid even of God, because I know His home. So, leaving His home aside, I go
on searching for him all around the universe. And deep down I know my search is
not for God; my search is to nourish my ego.”
Osho – “Beyond Psychology”
No comments:
Post a Comment