According to Osho, a true rebel can never be a disciple: needing a master denies rebellion. The rebel is a master unto himself, learns from all sources as a free friend, not a follower, believer, or sheep. The right relationship is love and respect without surrender—no psychological slavery—so transformation happens in freedom, like lions walking alone.
A real rebel doesn’t follow a master; he learns as a free friend while keeping his own freedom and responsibility.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved master, can a true rebel be a disciple of a master, or must he be simply a friend of the master?
So remember it: there is no question of anybody being your master. These masters have exploited you enough! It is time to stop this exploitation. An authentic human being cannot reduce you to a sheep. If there is any sin, Jesus has committed it, and that was making you sheep, and posing as your savior. And when he was being caught, just a few minutes before, his disciples asked, "What about us?" He said, "I will be coming soon to deliver everybody who has faith in me from all suffering and misery. And I will take you to the house of my father in paradise." Two thousand years have passed, and that guy has not been seen since then. How long can you stretch the word "soon"? And I can say, with categorical certainty, that he is not going to come back again. He could not save himself! -- how…
Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHAT ARE THE QUALITIES OF A REBEL? A rebel simply lives his life in the moment, with awareness, with no desire to dominate, either while he is living or when he is dead. He does not have any lust for power. He is a scientist of the soul -- that is the fourth dimension. Just as science uses doubt, skepticism, inquiry, he uses the same methods for his inner search. Science uses them for objective reality, he uses them for his subjectivity. But he does not condemn doubt, he does not condemn skepticism, he does not condemn disobedience, he does not condemn a nonbelieving approach to reality. He enters within his own being with a scientific mind. His religion is not superstitious -- it is scientific.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT IS YOUR NOTION OF REBELLION AND OF A REBEL? A rebel is one who throws away the whole past because he wants to live his own life according to his own longings, according to his own nature -- not according to some Gautam Buddha, or according to some Jesus Christ, or Moses. The rebel is the only hope for the future of humanity. The rebel will destroy all religions, all nations, all races -- because they are all rotten, past, hindering the progress of human evolution. They are not allowing anybody to come to his full flowering: they don't want human beings on the earth -- they want sheep. Jesus continuously says, "I am your shepherd, and you are my sheep...." And I have always wondered that not even a single man stood up and said, "What kind of nonsense are you talking?
Beloved master, what is the difference between the old sage and the new rebel?
If the world is a school, then the poor should be given all the pleasures so they can get a little bit ready; otherwise even in heaven they will feel too guilty to enjoy anything. They will bring their conditioning with them. But the society was happy that the poor were told that they would inherit the kingdom of God. Then there is no need of any revolution here, there is no need to revolt against the structures which are making them poor. The old sage was anti-revolutionary. He was for those who were oppressing and sucking the blood of the people. The new rebel will not be an agent of the bloodsuckers, of the parasites. He will not say, "Blessed are the poor." He will not say, "Suffer your misery patiently, because after death you are going to inherit the kingdom of God." There is no kingdom of God…
Beloved master, what is rebellion? And what is the difference between reaction and the action of the rebellious man?
Joseph Stalin became the leader of the revolutionaries. Stalin was not his real name, "Stalin" was given to him by the people. It means "man of steel." And certainly he proved to be a man of steel, with no heart. He killed almost one million people after the revolution. Just suspicion was enough; there was no need for any trial, for any investigation. The communist party suspects that somebody is against the revolution -- there is no proof, but the man has to be immediately destroyed. The Russian revolution has proved one thing absolutely: that czars were never so violent; they had never killed one million people. And the society was not so deeply enslaved -- that's why the communist revolution was possible. Now in Russia no revolution is possible, people are completely enslaved. Even to think against the status quo today is betraying the religion of communism. People are…