Is Christianity the only religion that has caused sexual perversion?

Beloved master, is christianity the only religion that has caused sex perversion? What do you say about hinduism?

One of the great Hindu monks, Nityananda, the master of Swami Muktananda -- Muktananda was very well known in America. Nityananda had only one unique quality: his belly. I don't think in the whole history of man anybody had such a big belly! When he lies down you can see a strange shape. When I saw him I told him, "You don't have a belly, your belly has a head and legs, because that is your major part!" But he is worshipped, he is thought to be enlightened. And his belly is proof enough. And now this man cannot be celibate: he is eating so much that he will create sexual energy. What is he going to do with that energy? Anything that he will do will be a perversion; and the easiest way is always homosexuality, because if he is found with a woman, all his respectability and great…

Osho, I am a priest. I don't agree with your observation that religion creates sexual perversions. Please don't ask for my name, but I hope that you will answer my question.

Okay, Sir. I will call you Reverend Banana! I hope that you won't feel offended -- no offense is meant. It is only that I can't take anything seriously, particularly priests. And you will feel happy that you are nothing compared to one of my sannyasins. I had given him the name Swami Parinirvana; PARINIRVANA means transcendental freedom. But my sannyasins are so beautiful people, they have changed his name to Paribanana. Now it means "a transcendental banana"! So you are nothing compared to Paribanana. And to show respect I will call you Reverend Banana. The first perversion is that you are so coward you cannot even write your name. What kind of truth-seeker you are? You cannot write to what religion you belong; you want to hide all these facts. You must be living a very cowardly life behind masks, behind a facade, a beautiful facade. But a man…

Osho, catholicism, mohammedanism, hinduism, jainism and buddhism, which are the most "religious" of religions, seem most concerned about purity, cleanliness and sexual abstinence. Yet, the preside over the most unhygienic, malnourished and miserable peoples of the earth. Is there a connection?

God was trying to find a customer. He asked the French, "Would you like to have few commandments?" And the French said, "No. First you show us some sample." And he said, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." They said, "Stop! If we don't commit adultery, then what we are going to do? We don't want such commandments." He asked the Hindus, and he asked others, but nobody was willing. And then he asked Moses, "Would you like to have few commandments?" And Moses being a perfect Jew said, "How much it costs?" And he said, "Free! It costs nothing" Moses said, "Then I will have ten!'; That's how he got those ten commandments. And they are torturing the Jews for three thousand years. It is time to get rid of all that. It was his trip, why you should be on his trip? Do your thing! Why go on doing…

Osho, the one who tends a dhuni (sacred fire) all year—well, in terms of sexual perversion, can we place both on the same level? Or is there any difference between the perversion in the two?

I understand; what you say is quite right. The discovery of psychology over the last hundred years is that to cause suffering to others, or to cause suffering to oneself, or to honor the miserable, or to support the possibilities of suffering, is in one way or another a distorted form of the sex-energy—a sexual perversion. This is absolutely true. In fact, it is necessary to understand this. In truth, kama or sex is the lowest possibility of bliss—of pleasure. One should understand that sex is a natural, spontaneous pleasure given by nature. If one rises above it and discovers greater joy, then the need for the pleasure of sex no longer remains. If one rises above it and finds greater joy, then the pleasure of sex is no longer needed. Gradually, kama is transformed—it transforms—and ultimately it can become brahmacharya (celibacy). But if one does not seek greater joys…

All the religions of the world are responsible for homosexuality and the other perversions. Even because of a repressed mind people have made love to animals. And now the homosexuality has brought the world to the ultimate destructive disease AIDS. And all the religions are responsible for it. I have spoken against repression because I want sex to be accepted, just as you accept everything else in life naturally -- sleep, eating, clothing, you don't make any fuss about it. But there are religions, for example Jainism believes that clothing is unspiritual. Now if you make clothing unspiritual then you will create trouble for many people. Even the Jainas themselves have never been able to go out of India, for the simple reason that the climate will not allow them to remain naked.