Today, a fundamental misunderstanding about the meaning, role, and function of religion has greatly undermined the already shaky structure of human values and social responsibility. In spite of the prominent role that religion plays in people’s lives, the fundamental understanding about religion is basically neglected in pursuing non-religious goals. We are actually caught in a vicious circle, and the challenge before us is how to break from it. How do we make dharma regain its place in the lives of people without their becoming captives of its peripheral manifestations? Most religions seem to have lost connection with their source. In many centuries of the past they have collected so much superstition and nonsense that it has distracted people from or have confused them in regards to the original message. But, by and large, religion as it is seen and followed today has become part of social hypnosis.

While political reforms, eco-planning, conservation projects and policies regarding sustainable development may provide temporary relief to slow down the massive devastation to our planet earth, very little will change until humanity once again can feel the beauty of a night sky glittering with stars or breathe alive the innocent freshness of wild forest. Basically, the environment is dying because something in our hearts is already dead. The sad truth is that we have lost touch with the living bridge of feeling which, as the Latin root of religion: religare shows, binds man to the cosmic web of life. What is desperately needed is a radical paradigmatic change in our antiquated understanding of religion.

Society is made of relationships which are maintained through the application of ethical and moral codes. Often, we hear an outcry for enforcing “moral order” or for returning to “old fashioned values.” Such talks of morality are essentially driven from one or the other institutionalized religious teaching. For example, one may come across an impassioned plea to stress on the moral values based on Christian belief.  But then, is morality of Christians different from that of the Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists? If yes, then there can never be peace in the world.

A dynamic worldview reflects an organic and integrated consciousness. It is a paradigm based on a holistic awareness. A man aware of the dangers of fire will not play with it, he does not have to follow any religion to know the truth about the fire. Similarly, a truly religious man aware of himself, the life around him, his place in the universe is unlikely to cause harm either to himself or to the world around him. On this issue, observations made by Osho are very relevant:

“As you become more and more silent, serene, calm, and quiet, as you start understanding your own consciousness, as your inner being becomes more and more centered, your actions will reflect morality. It will not be something that you decide to do, it will be something as natural as roses on a rosebush.”

 …2

Since time immemorial attempts have been made to reduce God to a set of concrete, conceptualized, and ritualistic definition. This may have served the purpose of the priest in asserting non-empirical factors in shaping religion into an almost chaotic, superstition-ridden random belief system; it certainly deprived people in experiencing God as a presence rather than as a person.  Today, science carries implicit pressing message that the universe is nothing but an energetic presence. As science continues to go deeper into the matter, it is mystified in observing the fact that matter is essentially a mass of energy, that it is energy which is manifested in the myriad forms throughout the universe. Undergoing a radical change in its perception and understanding, it is now being realized that science and religion are not “separate and mutually exclusive.”

Science also has come to see that it is an expanding universe. The very word brahman too means that which is ever expanding. In other words, God is not the “creator,” rather it is creativity. God is an uninterrupted process of creativity. As humans, our ultimate fulfillment is in creatively manifesting our energy. Osho, declares:

“The urge to create is the first stirring of the divine within you. The urge to create is the presence of God. You have the first message; the first ripple has reached you. It is the beginning and the birth of prayer... To be creative is to be religious.”

In the ongoing creative process, God is what Krishna says in the Geeta: a catalytic agent. God does not do anything, only his energetic presence works. Hydrogen and oxygen become water when electricity is passed through it -- it is the missing link. Electricity does not mix, it simply is there. Krishna says, He does not create, His very being, His very presence makes creativity possible:

             Mayadhyakshena Prakritihi Sooyate Sacharacharam
          Hetunanena Kaunteya Jagat Viparivartate (Bhagavadgeeta, 9/10)

(My very presence alone creates the universe and in my very presence itself the universe keeps dissolving and recreating again.)

To be religious, therefore, is to realize that God is a creative presence; that I am a manifestation of God’s creativity and I too can creatively manifest God. Religiousness consists in recognizing that we need to create God every moment -- we are the rock, we are the sculptor, and we are the carved image as well.

However defined or explained, every religion asserts views regarding the creation and the creator, the place of mankind in the ultimate scheme of things, heaven and hell, reward and punishment, the nature of ethical and moral values. But in view of how historically  religion has been conceived and practiced to the detriment of human life and values, there is enough to justify the failure of  this most significant phenomenon of human experience. Religion, is more likely to play a vital role only if we are ready to accept and grapple with its core, intrinsic, subjective, qualitative and transcendental aspects which  Osho calls, “religiousness”.

…3

In Osho’s vision, “Religiousness can become just a way of life. A religious person will walk differently than a non-religious person. What will the difference be? The difference will be his awareness. A religious person will act differently from a non-religious person. What will the difference be? His action will come out of love. A religious person will create a different kind of fragrance around himself, naturally, obviously -- because there will be no ego, so there will be no shadow around him. A religious person will live a luminous life; a light will go on filtering out from his innermost core. A religious person will be A CONSCIOUS PERSON -- not Christian, not Hindu, not Mohammedan.”
(OSHO, The Wisdom of the Sands, Vol. 2, Ch. 4)