Have efforts toward equality only begun with socialism in Russia, or have inequalities existed since the beginning of the world?

Osho, have efforts toward equality begun only now, since socialism came to Russia? Haven’t inequalities existed since the world began?

The evolution of consciousness—look! In the evolution of consciousness, equality is a very highly developed state. Inequality is the ordinary state. Even to be ready to regard yourself as equal to another is a great attainment—that the other is my equal! The mind keeps saying, “How can another be equal to me?” Inequality is the natural impulse. That is why creating disparity has been the norm. Consciousnesses that create equality have appeared—Mahavira is one of them—but they were individual. Gradually their density has increased, and it has reached a point where now a substantial portion of equalizing consciousnesses is present on the earth. The day the consciousnesses with the tendency toward inequality keep waning—when that tendency keeps diminishing—on that day equality will prevail across the earth. It takes a long time. But even that “long time” looks long to us only because our reckoning of time is very small. It…

We want self-realization, and what you said last evening was something quite different. What has it to do with self-realization?

Have you ever heard ,a socialist say that man needs a soul too. Socialism ends up with three demands of mall: bread, clothes and housing. Man needs nothing more. He need not think at all -- thinking will land him in unnecessary trouble. It is good that he be deprived of the bother; then he will live undisturbed. like an animal lives. He should have plenty to eat and drink, he should be properly clothed, he should have good housing, he should work and live happily. What use is thinking? It only brings worry and trouble of every sort. It even leads to rebellion. The socialist not only says so, he also works to this end -- he creates devices to eliminate thinking. And their best device is this: Before the child begins to think, indoctrinate him with socialist concepts and beliefs so that his mind is in shackles --…

Another friend has asked: Osho, what is the relationship between the method of meditation and jati-smaran (recollection of past lives)?

But the one who becomes skilled in this—who can fully awaken any day’s memory up to the age of five—will find that the memories begin to awaken completely. And you should test it. As today passes, note down some events and lock them up. After two years, try to recall today. Most of it will have been forgotten. Then remember—and after remembering, break the lock and compare whether what you recalled matches what you had written. You will be amazed—astonished—that besides what you wrote, many more details have come back which you did not even note at the time. They will all be there in memory. Buddha called this alaya-vijnana. There is a corner of the human mind he called the storehouse of consciousness. Like a junk room in the house where we keep all the odds and ends, there is a storehouse that collects memories—where everything from birth after…

What about socialism not as a means of creating equality but only as a means of providing everyone with the basic necessities of life?

The less successful capitalist countries and the undeveloped countries, the poor countries that have no capitalism at all, have become more and more socialistic, while America has not become socialistic. According to Marx, socialism is a natural outgrowth of capitalism so America should be the first socialist country. It has not been so. Socialism exploits the jealousy of the poor. To me, it is the greatest exploitation that has happened on earth. Capitalism has exploited the labor of the poor and socialism has exploited their souls. It is through jealousy that socialism steps in. But through jealousy, no revelation, no transformation can be achieved. It can kill, it can destroy, but it cannot create. Socialism is a fiction. It is not scientific. To me, only a capitalist society is a scientific society. I am not saying that capitalism will remain as it is. It will go on growing and changing…

Osho, my question is this: Krishna removed Sudama’s poverty. But seeing that, did it not occur to Krishna to consider the causes of poverty in society and to think about changing the economy? If Mahavira and Buddha had not thought about it, that would be one thing—but why would someone as comprehensive as Krishna, who gives full importance to worldly matters as well, not think of it? Perhaps religious men simply never thought. And the one who did think—Karl Marx—was not religious. Please also tell us about yourself: you are concerned with religion and the soul; will you think about the economy

Today in Russia we changed everything, but other people became dominant; they are no less dominant than the earlier ones—rather, more so. Today in China we replaced one set, and another became dominant. So long as there are distances between man and man—of intelligence, thought, ability, talent, power—it is impossible that no one will dominate; someone will. And it is impossible that no one would want someone to dominate him; some will want it too, because they cannot live without being dominant or being dominated. So this shifting goes on. The ways of one age start seeming absurd to us, because we accept another kind of domination. In Krishna’s time this was naturally accepted. The poor were willing to be poor; the rich felt no prick of conscience at being rich. For as long as the poor accept their poverty, there can be no pang in the rich. The rich…