According to Osho, authoritarianism springs from an unacknowledged inferiority complex; to avoid being authoritative, see through the false hierarchy of superior/inferior, stop comparing, and recognize every person (including you) as uniquely themselves—not higher, lower, or even equal. Shift your energy from domination to creativity, love, and intelligence; when inferiority dissolves through awareness and creative fulfillment, the urge to impose vanishes.
Heal your feelings of not-enough, stop comparing with others, and put your energy into creating and loving rather than controlling.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, HOW CAN WE AVOID BEING AUTHORITATIVE? It is very simple. The people who are authoritarian are the people who are suffering from an inferiority complex. To hide their inferiority they impose their superiority. They want to prove that they are somebody, that their word is truth, that their word is law. But deep down they are very inferior beings. This is one of the reasons that all of the politicians suffer from an inferiority complex. Anybody who does not suffer from an inferiority complex will not go into politics at all. There are so many beautiful things in the world to do -- to paint, to sing, to dance, to create literature, to make beautiful statues, to create a Khajuraho. There is so much creativity available, but that is available only to a person who does not suffer from inferiority.
That happens: if you look to me as a great authority, one day or other you will rebel against me and the no will come. Don't look to me as a great authority -- I am not! The very word 'authority' is not right for me; I am not authoritative at all! I am not giving you any commandments, I am not saying to you to do this and not do that; if you do this you will be praised, rewarded and if you do that you will be punished and thrown into hell. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that if you do this you will be virtuous and if you don't do that you will be a sinner. I'm not condemning, I'm not judging you at all. How can I be authoritative? I accept you as you are; my acceptance is utterly total. I love you.
Beloved master, I feel a new kind of authority and love growing in me, a clarity about myself and love for myself and others. It feels like everybody is equal for me and I don't have a special affection towards anybody. I feel free and beautiful. And all these gifts are just given to me. I don't do anything to get them. Everything just happens. Can you say something about this?
"Everything just happens. Can you say something about this?" I can say only one thing, that you are not grateful. If everything happens and if it is authentic, following it will come a deep gratitude. That gratitude is not in your question anywhere. And gratitude is religiousness, gratitude is the only prayer. All prayers are just man-made. Gratitude is not a word, it is a deep feeling in the very center of your being. If that gratitude is felt, everything is right; then whatever I have said, don't take any note of it. But if gratitude is not there, then what I have said, ponder over it. Meditate more and don't get into such stupid ideas. To me, gratitude is the greatest experience that you can have -- not to God, not to me, not to anybody in particular... simple gratitude for this whole existence. These birds, these beautiful trees,…
Individual freedom and authority on one side, and authoritarianism and dictatorship on the other side, move man's life and his aspirations.
But the whole system is geared in that way. When I became a professor myself, I had to make a new arrangement. The arrangement was that in each forty-minute period, twenty minutes I would teach the syllabus as it is written in the books, and twenty minutes I would criticize it. My students said, "We will go mad." I said, "That is your problem -- but I cannot leave these statements without criticism. You can choose; when your examination comes you can choose to write whichever you want. If you want to fail, choose my part. If you want to pass, choose the first part. I am making it clear; I am not deceiving anybody -- but I cannot go on deceiving you by teaching you something which I think is absolutely wrong." The vice-chancellor finally had to call me, and he said to me, "This is a strange type…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, YOU HAVE TALKED ABOUT THE SUPERIORITY/INFERIORITY DIALECTIC AS THE BASIS OF AUTHORITARIAN AND FASCIST RELATIONSHIPS. IT IS ONE OF THE MIRACLES OF BEING WITH YOU THAT IN SPITE OF HAVING BEEN CONSTANTLY PERSUADED OF OUR UNWORTHINESS BY OUR PARENTS, TEACHERS AND PRIESTS, YOU ARE ABLE TO SHED LIGHT ON ALL OUR UNCONSCIOUS HABITS WITHOUT EVER MAKING US FEEL BAD ABOUT IT. YOU ALLOW US TO BE AWARE OF OUR POTENTIAL FOR ENLIGHTENMENT IN A WAY THAT DOES NOT MAKE US FEEL SUPERIOR, AND YET SIMULTANEOUSLY YOU NEVER MAKE US FEEL INFERIOR BECAUSE WE ARE NOT ENLIGHTENED. IN GROUPS, TOO, WHILE YOU ARE PRESENT, WE CAN REVEAL OUR NOTIONS OF INFERIORITY BUT BECAUSE YOU ARE THERE AND SIMPLY NOT PART OF THE EGOTISTIC INFERIORITY/SUPERIORITY GAME, DEPENDENCY AND SPIRITUAL SLAVERY CANNOT HAPPEN. BUT WHAT HAPPENS IN GROUPS WHERE YOU ARE ABSENT?