A while back I came across a beautiful story told by Osho. However much controversial Osho was in the eyes of many a people; the fact is that much of his writing when taken from perspective of growth and opportunity to learn are very valuable. The writings are unique in the way they approach certain ideas.

Anyways, let us begin the story. Once upon a time, there was a temple and the temple had many priests. On a certain night one of the priests dreamt of God and in the dream God told him that He would visit him the next day. The priest cannot believe what he had seen in his dream. The next morning he is skeptical about his own dream and wonders if he can share the details about his dream to anyone and what if people start making fun of him.

He does not appear to believe in his own dream and tries to forget that. However, there is something special about the dream and he just cannot get over the idea of God visiting the temple that day. Finally, he goes and talks to another priest. The other priest tells him that dreams are not meant to be true and among all the dreams the dream of God’s visit would be the last to be fulfilled. He asks the former priest to stay quiet else he will be a subject of ridicule and teasing.

The priest who had the dream finally decides to go talk to the head priest. The head priest who is now very old also does not seem to believe that God would pay them a visit. However, in order to quieten the young priest, he asks him to make preparations for God’s visit. Since it is an order from head priest every priest join in the efforts to clean temple premises, decorate the temple with beautiful flowers and also prepare a sumptuous meal.

And they wait.

They continue to wait through out the day. However, God does not turn up. Finally towards the end of the day, all the priests sit together and relish the meal. They laugh at the funny dream which the young priest had.

It becomes dark and everyone goes to sleep. The doors of the temple are shut. All the priests are sleeping in a hall. Just before midnight, the younger priest hears loud thunder. After the thunder it appeared as if a chariot had arrived at the door step of the temple. Because of the thunder all the priests had woken up. But they were too tired and did not want to make much of the noise which sounded like as if a chariot had stopped in front of the temple. They ask the young priest to ignore what he heard since at this time. They tell him that there cannot be anyone in front of the temple.

Few seconds later they hear as if someone is climbing the steps of the temple. The young priest again asks if they should go and check if God has arrived. However, the other priests tell him that such sounds are common and it does not mean that God is approaching the temple. And then there is a knock at the door. The young priest has also given up by now and believes it to be because of the wind that the doors are shattering. There is another knock at the temple door; but there is no response from inside the temple.

The next morning when the priests wake up, the notice that there are signs of chariot wheel on the street outside. They also notice imprints of feet going up the main door of the temple. They look at each other and cannot believe that God indeed turned up at their temple and they totally ignored him.

The story ends here. Osho told that normally we say that “Guest is God”, however in reality “God is Guest”. God is always on our doors and is knocking. However, we rationalize everything and are deluded by our knowledge and understandings and in that process let go of God. God is not bound to appear according to our assumptions, as per our timelines or as per conveniences. If we stay open, we will definitely see God. 🙂 And each one of us is capable of seeing God for sure. Sai Ram to you all. Peace and Love.