Have I missed my chance to expose the hypocrisy of the world's governments and politicians?

Beloved Osho, you said last night that when you find a place to settle you will begin exposing the hypocrisy of the world's governments and politicians one by one. I am not exposed yet. Have I missed my chance?

The ambition that is created is that you have to become someone in the world; you have to prove that you are not an ordinary person, you are extraordinary. But for what? What purpose does it serve? It serves only one purpose: you become powerful, others become subservient to you. You are an extraordinary person. They are poor fellows -- Mahatma Gandhi class; they can only be clerks, they cannot become anything more. They don't have guts. You have castrated the whole humanity in different ways, and this castration is very political. So those who are in power go on remaining in power from generation to generation. Now in India, after forty years of the freedom struggle, one family has been dominating. It has become a dynasty, not a democracy. And it is impossible to remove them because in forty years they have managed everything so that they cannot be…

Osho, just seeing sadhus and saints makes me bristle, even angry. I see nothing in them but hypocrisy. But with you—God knows what you’ve done—reverence wells up! What is the secret of your influence?

Buddha asked, “What are you doing?” They said, “This is not killing; not violence. The souls of these animals will go to heaven.” Buddha joked, “Then why not kill your parents? Send them to heaven. The door is open—why send animals? Send your parents, your wife, your children. Send everyone—and then go yourself! But don’t send these animals. They don’t want to go—they’re writhing, they want to run. They are pleading for mercy. They cannot speak—look into their eyes, they are beseeching. They are bleating: ‘Let us go.’ They don’t want heaven—and you are sending them. The yajman who is funding this sacrifice wants heaven—send him!” Clever folks have always been around. Tricks kept running; we kept bearing them. Sin and merit are difficult to determine. On one side are people along the Amazon who eat humans—and it is no sin to them. On the other side are the Quakers…

Osho, you are always immersed in bliss—what is the secret of it? When will I be able to attain this ecstasy?

Yogananda, I have given you the name Yogananda; the whole secret is in it. A human being can live in two ways: either cut off from existence, or in oneness with it. Whoever lives separate will live in sorrow—anxiety and anguish. That is natural, for to live apart from existence is like a tree pulling its roots out of the earth and trying to live. It will wither; the leaves will droop, flowers will cease to bloom. Spring will come and keep coming, but that tree will never become a bride, never a bridegroom. For it there will be no spring. If the roots have been torn from the soil, what remedy can even the honeyed month of spring offer? Then where is bliss, where is ecstasy! Then there is no dawn—only a dark new-moon night, a night with no morning. Such a life is called ego. And the tree…

Osho, all the wise ones have strongly opposed hypocrisy. Yet there is something about hypocrisy that it keeps slipping into the very sects that follow them and finds a life there. What gives hypocrisy so much force and attraction?

Hypocrisy is utterly weak; there isn’t a trace of strength in it. And there is no attraction in hypocrisy—there is great repulsion in it. But hypocrisy does not walk on its own feet; in fact, it has no feet of its own. Hypocrisy moves under the cover of ideals. Wherever ideals are handed out, hypocrisy will inevitably arise. Hypocrisy is the shadow of ideals; as in the blazing noon, if you walk, your shadow appears. Whoever moves through life with ideals will leave behind the shadow of hypocrisy. And yes, this is hard to grasp, because we assume ideals and hypocrisy are opposites. They are not opposites; they are companions. Inevitably companions. Create any ideal and, instantly, hypocrisy is born. What is needed is a religion that is not idealistic but realistic. That is exactly what I am telling you—a realistic religion. Then hypocrisy cannot arise. Suppose someone tells you,…

Osho, I have heard that a seeker has to pass through four stages of sadhana: tariqat, shari’at, marifat, and haqiqat. The last is haqiqat, where the seeker meets his beloved and comes face to face with Truth. Osho, please explain the first three states.

These words are from the Sufis—very significant, and very straightforward. The first is tariqat. Tariqat means: the way, the method, the discipline, the means, the yoga. Tariqat means: something has to be done; only then will you attain—without doing, you will not receive. One has to walk a path; find the way; make a footpath. One has to bring some discipline into life, give it an order. Tariqat means learning the way to become worthy of it. When you go to have an audience with an emperor, you learn the etiquette of his court. You don’t just walk in. If you do, you will not be accepted. You learn how to sit there, how to stand there, how to bow there. If you are going to meet an emperor, you must taste something of the flavor of the emperor’s way of life. If you are going to meet the Divine,…