How can Sannyas avoid becoming just another empty church after the teacher is gone?

When you are gone, how can sannyas avoid becoming just another empty church? Is there anything that can be done about it besides that you will be coming back?

I am not coming back. About that you must be absolutely certain: I am not coming back. That is also a hope through which you would like to postpone, through which you would like to create a future, so that you can go on avoiding the present. I am not coming. If you want to have any contact with me, this moment you have to make it. Nobody knows about the tomorrow, I may not be here. And I am not coming back. Don't be tricky with me. You have been tricky with Jesus and Buddha and everybody. Mm? You go on hoping that Jesus is coming, he will come and he will deliver you. Why should he come to deliver you? Can't you stand on your own feet? Can't you become responsible for your own self? If you are not responsible for your own self you will not have…

What to do when you die? Stay together and run the risk that the movement will turn into a stale sort of religion, or dissolve and be open for the call of another living master?

The second thing: each religion becomes a Church by and by. It has to, by the very nature of things. While the Master is alive it is one thing; when the Master has gone it is quite another. But for those who loved the Master, the Master is always there. For the people who loved Raman Maharshi. the Master is there. They still have the same feeling. when they go to Arunachal, his place, his mountain, and when they sit near his samadhi, it still has the same fragrance, the same freshness, the same presence, the same radiance. And Raman still answers and Raman still instructs and Raman still comes into their dreams, into their visions. For them there is no need to go anywhere; they have found their Master. There are others also who go to Raman's place -- but he is no longer present there. They think that…

Beloved Osho, you have just been saying that the words of the master become mere words after the master is gone. What will happen after you are gone?

For a simple reason I have been able to contact millions of people around the world: I am not confined to any tradition. I am not burdened by the past, I am completely weightless. So anybody who is burdened -- and who is not burdened? -- becomes interested in me, particularly the young people who are fed up with all the nonsense that is being taught in the churches and the synagogues, in the temples, in the mosques. All these people, these churches, synagogues and mosques, are trying to bridge the gap. You have heard the phrase "generation gap." Between you and the church, between you and the synagogue, there is not just a generation gap, there is a gap of hundreds of generations. And in trying to bridge it, they are proving themselves buffoons, because truth never compromises. It cannot -- with whom will it compromise? Compromising truth means…

Osho, I frequently hear a question being asked about the ashram.... There is so much vitality here now and so much creativity with all these shows and music and fashions and crafts, as well as events happening abroad, that people are wondering what will happen when you are gone. When you leave your body will the ashram become a dead institution, and will you just become deified and forgotten?

These people who are wondering what will happen, are the same people who will create a dead institution. My people cannot create a dead institution -- it is impossible. Those who have been in communion with me will have learnt one thing absolutely, categorically: that life cannot be confined into institutions; the moment you try to confine it into institutions you destroy it. So while I am alive they will celebrate. When I am gone they will still celebrate. They will celebrate my life, they will celebrate my death, and they will remain alive. Remember, religions are created by guilty people, and I am not creating any guilt here. There are certain mechanisms.... If Jesus had not been crucified, there would have been no Christianity at all. The real founder of Christianity was not Jesus Christ but the high priest of Jerusalem, the rabbi, and Pontius Pilate. These two persons,…

Osho, so many dull and crazy religions once started with a wonderful and enlightened person. Please tell me, will your sannyasins become as dull and crazy as all the other stupid religions? I am afraid to fall into another institution.

Shiva's wife, Parvati, died. Now he is the god of destruction, death, but he could not accept the death of Parvati. You see the human element? He took the dead body of his wife, carried her on his shoulders for twelve years around the country in search of a physician. There may be someone -- who knows? -- a magician, a physician, a miracle man who will revive her. He loved her so much... Now you cannot carry a dead body for twelve years. The body became rotten, it started falling into pieces. Somewhere the hand fell, somewhere the leg fell -- that's how the Hindu sacred places were born. Wherever any part of Parvati fell, one sacred place was born. So there are twelve most sacred places in India. Those places are just graveyards of parts of Parvati. Unless the whole dead body disappeared... Shiva carried her in search…