According to Osho, a Jonestown-style collective suicide could never happen in his ashram: he teaches only the 'death' of the ego and mind, not the body. Jonestown was derangement, not religion. Sannyas means psychological death—continual dying to the past—so one lives wakefully. He rejects calls for martyrdom, urging disciples to live consciously; dying is easy, living in awareness is the real path.
No—here the only ‘death’ is letting go of ego and past so we can live awake, not kill our bodies.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, some people compare your ashram with Jonestown. Could something like the collective suicide that happened in the Guyanese jungle happen here? Could you ask your sannyasins to make some such symbolic sacrifice for you or for your beliefs?
Sannyas is suicide—in the true sense, true suicide. Because only after that does true life begin. Here there is nothing left for suicide to claim. Here there is no possibility of it. Here there is stillness. Here there is peace. From that peace, songs of joy are arising. And it is not that the sannyasins are singing; the sannyasin is simply allowing God to sing from within. You also asked whether I could ask my sannyasins to make some such sacrifice symbolically for me or for my beliefs. First, I have no beliefs. I do not teach beliefs. I teach freedom from beliefs. I teach how to be rid of knowledge. I do not give you knowledge; I take knowledge away from you. I want to give you emptiness. Another name for emptiness is meditation. As long as there is knowledge, there is no meditation. When all knowledge drops, meditation…
Why are you so much against asceticism? Isn't asceticism a valid path to god?
Path? It is a pathology. To be an ascetic simply shows that you are masochistic, that you are suicidal, that you enjoy torturing yourself. And by torturing yourself you can create a certain character, but the character will be only on the surface. It will not transform you, it will only be a pretension. It will be only a face, a facade, a camouflage. Ascetics have existed in the world because there are suicidal people. And there is a death instinct in man -- Sigmund Freud has called it "thanatos." Sigmund Freud's contribution to human growth is immense. In his early life he discovered the life-instinct -- sex, eros. And then in his later life, when he was getting old, he discovered another thing -- thanatos, against eros. There are two basic instincts in man: one is to live, another is to die. Both are there. If the instinct to…
Beloved Osho, I have been asked again and again by journalists and politicians: 'is there some possibility of another jonestown in your commune?'
And no Jewish source says that there was a resurrection, no contemporary source says that there was a resurrection. Only the New Testament, the four disciples of Jesus, say that there was a resurrection. It is fictitious. If there was a resurrection, then what happened? If Jesus resurrected, then when did he die? Where did he die? Where lies his body? Christians don't have any answer for that. There was no resurrection. But because of the resurrection and the crucifixion, the cross became the symbol of Christianity. I call it, therefore, Crossianity. It became death-oriented. It became anti-life. In fact, all the religions have been anti-life. They are all looking for a better life -- after death. You know the Jewish and Christian story, why Adam and Eve were expelled from the paradise of God. What was their crime? For what were they punished? God had told them that they…
But my people are concerned about me, and if somebody comes to assassinate me, I will not hinder him. That is his freedom, I will not interfere with it, although he is interfering with my life, but even at the risk of my life, I will not interfere into his freedom. But my people -- why should I interfere in their freedom to protect me. So those few guards are here. And what a strange thing that in a world which has gone nuclear -- just those toy guns -- do you think we are going to attack America or Soviet Union? Q: YOU DECLARED DEATH AS THE BIGGEST ORGASM OF ALL TIMES ONCE. DO YOU WANT TO LEAD YOUR DISCIPLES INTO THIS SUPER ORGASM, OR DO YOU FEAR ANOTHER JONESTOWN AMONG THEM? A: No. This is the only place where Jonestown cannot happen.
Osho, after sannyas it is as if everything has changed. I have changed, the world has changed. The birds’ voices have turned into music. The drops rising and falling in the fountain appear to dance. When I sit in Sufi meditation, it seems as if everything is happening to please me. Inside, an unprecedented bliss is felt. It seems the outer music is arising from within me. As if, become a goddess, I am seeing everything. Is this some new direction of madness, or tiny steps moving toward light? Please shed light!
Asha Satyarthi! When sannyas happens, of course everything changes. Sannyas is not just changing clothes. Sannyas is an inner transformation. It is a new way, a new method of seeing life. It is a new dimension of living. The old sannyas was anti-life. So it brought no benefit to the world. It harmed the world—certainly harmed it. Who knows how many homes were ruined, how many families destroyed. Who knows how many women became widows while their husbands were still alive. Who knows how many children became orphaned while their fathers still lived—fatherless. Surely, millions of children must have begged. And who knows how many women became prostitutes. The burden of all this lies on old sannyas. On the head of old sannyas is a large bundle of sins. And the irony is: in return for so much sin, what did old sannyas gain? Dry, shriveled people, devoid of the…