RITUAL AND RELIGION

Once you ritualise any prayer, it is dead. Once you rehearse, you have already missed. So that has to be remembered, because that temptation comes to every mind -- to make a ritual, because a ritual comes easy.
You repeat it every day and you become more and more efficient. You become a sort of an expert. Then consciousness is not needed and you can do it robot-like. That's how it is going on in temples, mosques, churches; everything is ritualised. Ritual is dead religion. Religion is alive ritual -- and when I say 'alive ritual', I mean what comes in the moment. You create it. Your worship, your prayer, your ritual, comes out of your being. It is a response. It will change every day. There is no need to make it change because then again you come in. Sometimes you will see that it is the same as it was before, but still it is not the same. There is a subtle difference, because it can never be the same. No moment is ever repeated. Says Heraclitus, 'You cannot step in the same river twice.' One of his disciples said to him, 'Master, I tried. Not only are you right, but I was puzzled very much because I could not even step once. The river was flowing continuously and by the time you reach the bottom of the river, the river that you had touched on the surface is no more there. It is different water.' The disciple said, 'Master, you are right, but I tried. You say it is difficult to step twice. I say it is impossible to even step once, because the river is flowing constantly.' Heraclitus laughed and he said, 'You are right. You got it! That's what I meant.'
So never make anything a ritual. Every morning move thrilled with the new sun, not knowing what is going to happen. You may dance, you may sit silently, you may have a little chit-chat with the sun. You may say something or you may simply listen to what the sun is saying to you. Nobody knows... nobody needs to know. One simply moves full of wonder, wondering what is going to happen... thrilled. This, Hindus call 'brahmamuhurt' -- the moment of the morning; they call it the moment of God, and for a few people that is the moment of God. They can confront reality sooner in that moment than ever. And that is your moment. Hence I give you the name 'ravidasa'. So become a servant of light, and wherever you see light, even an ordinary light, feel prayerful. You may see sometimes in India that somebody puts on the light and people will bow their heads or will say 'Jai Ram, Jai Ram'; they will remember God. That has become a ritual now, but if it is not ritualised, it has tremendous significance. Light is a symbol of God, so wherever you see light, feel worshipful. The temple is there. Look at the mysteries of light -- just a small flame, but the most mysterious thing in the world and the whole of life depends on it. The same flame is burning in you. That's why continuous oxygen is needed, because the flame cannot burn without oxygen. Hence the emphasis of Yoga to breathe deep to breathe more and more oxygen so that your life burns deeper and the flame is more clear and no smoke arises in you.
.. so that you can attain to a smokeless flame.

[Excerpted from A Rose is a Rose is a Rose, Osho]