According to Osho, Hasidism became rigid after Baal-Shem’s death: the living presence that made it a flowering, spontaneous river vanished, leaving only words, legends, and footprints. People began imitating forms, fulfilling duties, and clinging to tradition; priests and the collective mind/ego institutionalized it. Without a living Master, truth turns into dead teaching, and orthodoxy naturally hardens.
When the founder died, people copied his words and rituals instead of living his spirit, so rules replaced life.