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• To be in romance with life is religion 

• A little positive medication

The Hindustan Times
New Delhi: 18 august, 2003

To be in romance with life is religion 
Swami Chaitanya Keerti 

Jesus says: God is Love. Osho says: Love is God. 
Love is the most essential feeling that is central to our life. Love is the nucleus of our existence. It is hard to imagine that one can be religious without being loving. Anybody who thinks love has nothing to do with religion is not in tune with the heart and spirit of life. 

Love becomes ultimate bliss when it is universal. Love becomes imprisonment and misery when it starts clinging and is possessive. On such a level it becomes one with godliness. 

Commenting on the statements of Jesus, Osho says: God is creativity. Or, if you allow me to say it, I would like to say that God is the very existence itself. God is life, God is love. God is this very world. Don't create a division, don't create a dualism. Only then can you revere life. Whenever you see life anywhere— a seed sprouting, a tree flowering, stars moving, a river flowing, a child laughing — remember God is near you. 

When a child laughs, look at the laughter. Enter into it. You have entered the very temple. When the river flows, watch lovingly. Be one with its flow; be in a deep reverence. For the Hindus all their rivers are goddesses while their hills are the deities. 

They have made the earth holy. It is one of the most beautiful things that has ever happened in human consciousness. Hindus call the Ganges: Mother. This is reverence for life. Hills they call gods. This is reverence for life. They worship trees. Those who have become intellectually sophisticated think they are stupid, superstitious people, but they are not. The tree is not the thing. When they are worshipping a tree or a river, they are worshipping life. 

A tree is more alive than any temple, than any church; a river is more alive than any mosque. The stone idols in your temples are dead; a tree is more alive. 

You may be superstitious, but the person who is worshipping a tree is not. He may not be aware of what he is doing, but a deep reverence for life in all its forms is there, a deep respect. 

A really religious person is in love with life. This is a higher kind of romance. And to be in romance with life is religion.