Chapter #7 Silent Period #7
Discourse Overview
Main Teaching: Osho answers journalists by declaring his commune the first and only true religion because it rests not on unverifiable creeds but on lived, non-dogmatic consciousness. He says other religions were premature experiments that failed because they depended on beliefs and fictions vulnerable to criticism. Historically, religiosity remained an individual attainment; this community claims to be the first communal flowering capable of fulfilling a religious person's needs. Its power, he argues, lies in having no fixed propositions and therefore being immune to refutation. On calling it a religion: the term is justified because religion here means an existential way of being rather than a set of doctrines. On other religions: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and others are called failed not from malice but because their dogmas became discredited or irrelevant. On dogma and superstition: by rejecting provable or disprovable beliefs, the movement avoids the superstitions that made other faiths vulnerable. On permanence: grounded in inner truth rather than propositions, this community may be the last religion needed to satisfy a truly religious life.
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Osho's Commentary
Q: THIS MORNING SOME JOURNALISTS ASKED, "WHY DO YOU CALL YOURSELF A RELIGION?"
Osho: Ours is the only religion, first religion in the history of the world. All other religions were only experiments that failed. So not only say to them that we are a religion, say to them that we are the only religion. Christianity has failed, failed its master, Christ. Mohammedanism has failed. Buddhism has failed. Hinduism has failed. Up to now, perhaps man was not mature enough to become religious, so only individuals have been religious. This is the only commune in the whole history of man which is religious.
So, tell those guys this is the only religion. All others are just premature experiments which have failed. And we are not going to fail. For the simple reason because we don't have any belief that can be proved untrue. We don't have any dogma that can be criticized. We don't live on fictions like Christians believing in God and the Trinity which they cannot prove. Hindus, mohammedans, Jains, Buddhists, they all live on fictions which have no logical roots, which are not scientific, but superstitious, utterly superstitious.
We have no superstition. Hence, nobody can criticize it. Nobody can destroy it. So, I say to you that this is the first religion, and perhaps the last religion. There may not be any need for any other religion. We may fulfill all the needs of a religious man.