Pray Silently!

Sufis say, if you really want to pray, pray in such a way that nobody knows that you are a man of prayer. In the middle of the night when even your wife is snoring, sit silently in the bed and pray, and so silently that nobody comes to know..Don’t make a fuss.

The real man of prayer hides and prays, and the pseudo makes much noise about it. In fact, his prayer is nothing but noise; he goes to the temple shouting. In India every temple has a big bell; he rings the bell so the whole neighborhood knows. And if there are many people in the temple, then his prayer becomes very long; if there is nobody he finishes quickly. What is the point? – there is nobody to see. 
If there is a photographer, then see how prayerful he is, how his face becomes divine! If the news reporters are there then he will do REAL prayer. You will see his humbleness, his simplicity. He will fall down on the ground, he will roll on the ground, he will cry and weep – and all are crocodile tears, because when nobody is there he does not care a bit.

I have heard about a man who used to say a prayer every night to God, just one word. He would look at the sky and say, ”Ditto!” and cover himself under his blanket and go to sleep. What is the point of repeating the same thing again and again? Isn’t God intelligent enough to understand ”ditto”? Once some time he had prayed; now what is the point of repeating it again and again, the same prayer? And God knows it anyway. Just to remind him that ”I am praying” he says ”Ditto.”

Sufis say, pray in such a way that nobody knows. Why? For the simple reason that ego is very cunning. It wants to brag; it wants to brag even about religion, about spirituality, about prayer, about meditation. It wants to brag; it does not matter what it brags about. It will brag about money, it will brag about meditation, it will brag about power, it will brag about prayer. The ego wants to brag: ”I am doing something special, something great, something extraordinary. Don’t think that I am nobody – I am somebody!”

OSHO
Guida Spirituale
CHAPTER 1. GO PLACIDLY
26 August 1980 am in Buddha Hall