Communes last when they fit in and rely on society; if they try to stand alone and fight the system, society shuts them down, rich or not.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, the communes of mahavira and buddha survived even after their lifetimes, but your communes are not surviving in your lifetime although they are self-sufficient. Does survival of communes depend on social structure, affluence of the society, prevalent religions, or national and international politics? Please comment.
And women have greater capacity for becoming fat than men -- it is a biological privilege, because the woman has to be able to become pregnant, to become a mother; then for nine months she cannot eat well, she throws up, she is carrying such a load in her belly. And every day the child needs more and more food. It is a very strange situation: the woman cannot eat, and the child wants more food because he is growing. Hence nature has made woman's body capable of collecting more fat for emergency measures. So even if she does not eat, the child can get as much as he needs from the reserve fat the woman has; and the woman can also go on eating her own fat -- and nine months is a long time. So the woman has immense capacity. If she uses her full capacity, then man…
Osho, you have been speaking on several occasions against socialism, and yet I feel that in this commune the first experiment of an alive socialism is happening. Is this another of your contradictions?
THE REAL SOCIALISM can only be the fragrance of a commune deep in meditation. It has nothing to do with the social structure or the economy. Real socialism is not a revolution in the society, it is not social: it is the revolution in the individual consciousness. If many people who are going through an inner revolution live together, then there is bound to be a new quality. You can call it socialism; the better word will be "communism", out of "commune". Only a commune can have communism, but a commune exists only once in a while. When Buddha was alive a commune grew around him; he called it sangha, another name for commune. The meaning of sangha is: where the initiates have dropped their egos and are no more functioning like islands but have become one with each other, where a communion is happening. Communication is between the heads;…
Beloved Osho, rajneeshpuram was a rare experiment in the history of human consciousness where for the first time seekers of truth from the whole world gathered around a master. It was an international commune for the most intense and the fastest growth of human consciousness. The rajneeshpuram commune could not survive because of orthodox religions and international politics. Is there any hope of such a rare experiment happening again around you? Or is there any alternative experiment possible on an individual scale in the present situation? Or is it destined that such a rare opportunity for h
The commune in America was only a beginning; a beginning of many communes around the world. They will go on spreading -- because it is not only a question of orthodox religions and dirty politics, it is also a question of the future of humanity. And the future is always more important than the past. The past is heavy and long. The future is light, unknown. But the past is dead, and life belongs to the future -- and death cannot win over life. One commune can be destroyed. Thousands of other communes will arise. Of course my way of functioning will be different because the experiment in Rajneeshpuram needed me to be there, it was the first commune.... Every step had to be taken carefully. And within five years, so much was done that is not possible to do even in fifty years. But now the basic rules are…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF THE COMMUNES? I don't think much about the future because the future is born of the present. If we can take care of the present, we have taken care of the future. It is not going to come from nowhere, it is going to grow from this moment. The next moment will be growing out of this moment. If this moment is beautiful, silent, blissful, the next moment is bound to be more silent, more blissful. Now there are communes all over the world, and they are rejoicing in the present. Naturally, whatever comes in the future will be better.
[NOTE: This is a typed tape transcript and has not been edited or published, as of August 1992. It is for reference use only.] INTERVIEW WITH SWAMI JAY PRAKASH FOR DAINIK NAW PRABHAT, INDIA Q: BHAGWAN, AFTER THE FAILURE OF RAJNEESHPURAM COMMUNE, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE FUTURE OF THE COMMUNES? A: First, it was not a failure. Do you think murdering Socrates by poison was a failure of Socrates and his philosophy. In fact, that was the ultimate victory of the man. He proved that a single man and his truth is more powerful than the whole society with all its powers, riches, population, armies. They could do only one thing to this man: they could kill him. But by killing the man the truth is not killed. In fact, on the contrary, by killing Socrates they have made his truth immortal.