Osho - Destiny, Freedom, and the Soul: What Is the Meaning of Life?

M an is a questnot a question, but a quest. A question can be solved intellectually, but a quest must be solved existentially. It is not that we are seeking some answers to some questions; it is that we are seeking some answer to our being.

It is a quest, because questions are about others. A quest is about oneself. Man is seeking himself. He knows he is, but he does not know who he is. Hence, a great inquiry arises in the innermost core of every human being at the moment of birth. We can suppress that inquiry, we can divert that inquiry, we can change that inquiry for substitute inquiries, but we cannot kill it. There is no way to kill it, because it is intrinsic to human nature. It is intrinsic to consciousness to know ones quest.

That inquiry is our very nature, and unless it is resolved, we remain searching. Of course, there are 999 ways to go wrong, and there is only one way to go rightso the search is full of hazards. The quest is not simple; it is very complexand it is very rare that a person achieves resolution. But unless you reach for it, you will continue in agony, in turmoil. You will remain a cry in the wilderness. You will not know what joy is. Not knowing yourself, how can you be joyous? And you will not know what benediction is. Not knowing yourself, there is no benediction.

You will hear words like contentment and blissfulness, but they will remain words. They wont have any meaning for you. The meaning has to be supplied by your experience. They will remain empty words, they will create much noise around you, but they will not signify anything.

Search is intrinsic to human nature. But then arises the problem that there are many ways to go wrong. How to find the right path?

Thomas Carlyle said, The misfortune of man has its source in his greatness. For there is something infinite in him and he cannot succeed in burying himself completely in the finite.

There is something in you that is higher than you, bigger than you, and there is no way to bury it somewhere in the finite. You can see it in your own life. You can seek money and power, but each time you succeed, you will find that you have failed. Each time you succeed, the success will bring nothing but the awareness of your failure. Money is there, but you are as dissatisfied as ever, or even more so. Power is there and you are as impotent as ever. Nothing makes one more aware of powerlessness than power. Nothing makes one more aware of inner poverty than richesbecause of the contrast. You can see that there are riches outside, but inside, you are a beggar, still desiring and asking and hankering and searching.

From one side, this seems to be a misfortunethe misery of man. From another side, it is his greatness. Carlyle was right when he said that the misfortune of man has its source in his greatness. What is this greatness? This greatness is the human capacity to surpass oneself, to go beyond oneself, to make a ladder of ones life, to jump out of oneself. Unless that jump has happened, you live in a wasteland; nothing will ever bloom there. You can make all the efforts possible, but the desert will remain a desert; you will not come across any flowers.

Those flowers start blooming only when you have started reaching somewhere close to truth. That is the quest. The quest is that the human being longs to become God. The quest is that the human being wants to become truth. You want to feel itthat I am truth. Nothing less than that will ever satisfy you.

W ho am I? has to be asked in the deepest recesses of your being. You have to resound with this question. It has to vibrate in you, pulsate in your blood, in your cells. It has to become a question mark in your very soul.

And when the mind is silent, you will know. Not that some answer will be received by you in words, not that you will be able to write it down in your notebook that This is the answer. Not that you will be able to tell anybody, This is the answer. If you can tell anybody, it is not the answer. If you can write it down in a notebook, it is not the answer. When the real answer comes to you, it is so existential that it is inexpressible.

I myself am a question. I know not who I am.
What to do? Where to go?

Remain with the question. Dont do anything, and dont go anywhere; and dont start believing in any answer. Remain with the question.

That is one of the most difficult things to doto remain with a question and not to seek the answer. Because the mind is very cunning, it can supply a false answer. It can console you; it can give you something to cling to; and then the question is not answered but suppressed. Then you go on believing in the answer, and the question remains deep down in your unconsciousness like a wound. The healing has not happened.

If you remain with the question, Im not saying that you will receive the answer. Nobody has ever received any answer. If you remain with the question, by and by the question disappears. Not because the answer is received; there is no answer. There cannot be, because life is a mystery. If there is any answer, then life will not be a mystery.

It has no answer to it; it cannot be solved. It is not a puzzle; it is a mystery. And that is the difference between a puzzle and a mystery. A puzzle can be solved, howsoever difficult it is to solve. A mystery cannot be solvednot that it is difficult. It is very simple, but its nature is such that it cannot be solved.