As the Dhawajarohan is about to begin in Ayodhya, I want to share this beautiful explanation of “Bhagwan” by Osho and urge everyone of us to call Maryada Purushottam Ram as Bhagwan Ram NOT Lord Ram. The word Lord doesn’t even come close to the meaning of the word Bhagwan and Bhagwan Ram cannot be reduced to the word “Lord”.
Meaning of the Word Bhagwan
This is an excerpt from Osho’s discourses compiled into two volumes Secret of the Secrets. This discourse is from Volume 2 – Because of Love We are Together.
“In India we have three words for God; no other language has such richness. And certainly, because we have been working on the inward for centuries, thousands of years have been devoted to it, naturally we have followed all the possibilities of God’s existence. It is just like I have heard that Eskimos have nine names for snow because they know different kinds of snow. Now no other language can have nine names for snow; we never come across it so much. Now the West has all the words for science. In the East we have to coin words for scientific terminology; we don’t have it. But as far as religion is concerned the whole world will have to follow the East, because we have worked deep down into the interiormost being.
We have three words for God. The first is ‘Brahma’. It means the one, the undivided one, when the creator and the creation were asleep in each other. Now Christianity has no word for it. God created the world, Christianity says, so one day – it must have been Monday – God created the world… just that the working week starts on Monday… and He rested on Sunday, just a holiday. Theologians have even been searching for an exact date, and they have found one: four thousand and four years before Jesus, on a certain Monday, God created the world. Before that, where was the world? And before that, who was God? – because He had not created, so He was not a creator. God means ‘the creator’. But before creation, how could He be a creator? So creation was latent, potential, unmanifest in the creator. The creator and the creation were together, one. Christianity has no word for it.
We have; we call it Brahma. It is the state when the dancer has not started dancing; the dance and the dancer are one. When the dancer has started dancing, now there is a division. The singer has not sung his song yet, the song is fast asleep in the singer; the moment he sings the division starts.
The painter, once he paints, is separate from the painting.
The second word in India is ‘Ishwar’. Ishwar means the creator. The unity has broken in two, the duality has arisen. Now the world is separate and the creator is separate. Now Brahma, the one absolute, has become two.
The third word is ‘Bhagwan’. It means anybody who has again seen the unity – of the dancer and the dance, of the painter and the painting, of the poet and the poetry, of the creator and the creation. One who has seen the unity again, one who has comprehended the unity again in his being, he is called Bhagwan. Literally, the word means ‘the blessed one’.
It does not mean God, but because of the poverty of Western languages there is a problem. You have to translate ‘Brahma’ also as ‘God’; you have to translate ‘Ishwar’ also as ‘God’; you have to translate ‘Bhagwan’ also as ‘God’. This is simply a poor language, nothing else. Bhagwan literally means ‘the blessed one’.
Who is the blessed one? – one who has known the unity again, one who has reached to the original source again; he is called Bhagwan. That’s why we call Krishna ‘Bhagwan’, and Buddha ‘Bhagwan’.
And you will be surprised to know: Buddha never believed in any God; certainly Bhagwan cannot mean God. Buddha never believed in any God, he never believed in any creation or any creator.
Still, Buddhists call him Bhagwan, the blessed one, because he understood whatsoever the truth is.
You call it God, creator, truth, NIRVANA, enlightenment; that is not the point. He understood, and in that understanding blessings showered on him. He became Bhagwan, the blessed one.”
“…..By declaring myself Bhagwan I am simply saying that I have been blessed by existence. The grace has descended into me. I have seen. And the moment seeing happens you disappear, you are no more. The blessed one is one who is no more. I am not, God is: this is the EXPERIENCE that makes one blessed.
Now the paradox has to be understood. Man never meets God. Man can only dissolve, disappear; then God is. In your absence God’s presence descends. The whole work of religion is nothing but helping you to disappear as an ego. The moment you look into yourself and there is no 1, no ego to be found, but utter silence, utter emptiness, therewith the matter is settled… you are God.
You are God not against others – not that others are not God and you are God. You are God because then only God is! So I am not saying I am God and you are not God. In declaring myself, I am also declaring you divine; and not only you – the animals, the birds, the trees, the rocks, the whole existence consists of God and nothing else.”
So please stop referring to Bhagwan Ram as Lord Ram. He is Bhagwan – he is the original source, he is the blessed one and he has seen the unity. 🙏🏿
Jai Sri Ram.
Disclaimer – I post excerpts from Osho’s books and discourses and sometimes share his quotes. In most of the posts, the link to the full audio or full transcript is given. Osho is the Master, and to understand him, please listen to him or read his books. These excerpts are my limited interpretations with my limited understanding. Nothing original and I could be totally off the mark. The highlights and italics/bold font is also done by me.
Osho, crystal clear, never minces words. Really a Guru, an enlightened being, a Bhagwan.
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