Absurd Prayer – A Spiritual Story by Osho

Let me tell you a small story. It happened that Moses was passing and he came across a man who was praying. But he was doing such an absurd prayer (not only absurd, but insulting to God) that Moses stopped. It was absolutely unlawful. It is better not to pray than to pray in such a way, because the man was saying things which are impossible to believe.

The man was saying, “Let me come close to you my God. my Lord, and I promise that I will clean your body when it is dirty. Even if lice are there, I will take them away…. And I am a good shoe-maker, I will make you perfect shoes. You are moving in such ancient shoes — dirty, gone completely dirty…. And nobody looks after you, my Lord. I will look after you. When you are ill, I will serve and give you medicine. And I am a good cook also!”

This type of prayer he was doing! So Moses said, “Stop! Stop your nonsense! What are you saying? To whom are. you talking — to God? And He has lice on His body? And His clothes are dirty and you will clean them? And nobody is there to look after Him, and you will be His cook? From whom have you learned this prayer?”

The man said, “I have not learned it from anywhere. I am a very poor and uneducated man, and I don’t know how to pray. I have made it up myself and these are the things that I know. Lice trouble me very much, so He must be in trouble. And sometimes the food is not good — my wife is not a good cook — and my stomach aches. He must be also suffering. This is just my own experience that has become my prayer. But if you know the right prayer, you teach me.”

So Moses taught him the right prayer. The man bowed down to Moses, thanked him, tears of deep gratitude flowing, and he went away. Moses was very happy. He thought that he had done a good deed. He looked at the sky to see what God thought about it.

And God was very angry! He said, “I have sent you there to bring people closer to me, but you have thrown away one of my greatest lovers. Now he will be doing the right prayer, but it won’t be a prayer at all — because prayer has nothing to do with the law. It is LOVE. Love is a law unto itself; it needs no other law.”

But Moses is the lawgiver. He founded the society: he brought the Ten Commandments. Those Ten Commandments have remained the foundation of the whole Western world: Judaic, Christian, Mohammedan — all three religions depend on the law of Moses.

So the whole world has known only two lawgivers: the East knows Manu and the West knows Moses. Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, they have been supplied the law by Manu, the law has been given by Manu, and Moses has given to Mohammedans, Christians, Jews.

These two lawgivers have created the whole world. And there must be something — both are `M’: Manu and Moses. Then comes Marx who is the third `M’. China, Russia — he has given the law to them. These are the three great `M’s’ — lawgivers.

Osho – “Come Follow To You”