Is claiming 'my sannyasins' an expression of ego rather than humility?

A gentleman, Chandrakant Trivedi, has asked: You don’t seem to have humility. When you say “my sannyasins,” isn’t that ego?

“And follow his conduct and precepts.” This is your very disease. A very amusing sutra from the Taittiriya Upanishad! To remove a small illness, you are handed a bigger one. Often that happens: to make you forget a small illness, it is useful to give you a big one. I have heard: in a doctor’s office—maybe it was Ajit Saraswati; why hide it now, better to say it—a young unmarried woman went in. And Ajit Saraswati told her, “You are not a virgin; you are pregnant.” She flared up: “What are you saying!” She buzzed like a wasp, face red: “I am absolutely a virgin. How could I be pregnant? I haven’t even been touched by a man—how could I conceive?” She stormed out, slamming the door—shouting, screaming, furious. Ajit Saraswati’s assistant asked, “What did you just say!” Ajit Saraswati replied, “Didn’t you see? I cured her! She had chronic…

Do all enlightened masters sound as egoistic as you do?

It is bound to be so. They sound egoistic because they cannot be humble in the sense you understand humility. Try to understand. It is a delicate point. Whatsoever you call humbleness is a function of the ego. It is a modified ego. The enlightened person has no ego so he cannot have a modified ego. He cannot be humble. In the sense you can understand it, he cannot be humble. Otherwise Krishna would not be able to say to Arjuna: "Leave all, and come to my feet. I am the God who created the whole existence. SARVA DHARMAN PARITYAJYA MAMEKAM SHARANAM VRAJA. Come to my feet." What egoism! Jesus would not be able to say: "I am the door, I am the way, I am the truth." "I and my Father in heaven are one." "Those who follow me will be saved... only those who follow me will be…

Osho, you said... then you will find that the devotee is God. The question arises: if one devotee prefers to be God and another wants to remain only a devotee, then which of the two is superior?

The one who wants to be God will not be able to be. And the one who wants to remain a devotee will become God. The question of superior or inferior does not arise, because only one of the two will happen. The one who does not want to be will be. The one who wants to be will be deprived. That very wanting is of the ego. But the matter is a little delicate. Sometimes humility too belongs to the ego. Beware that your humility may not be of the ego. Perhaps you are saying, “No, I don’t want to be,” because you know that those who refuse are the ones who attain. Then you are clever. Then your humility is adulterous. Your humility is not pure, not sacred, not virginal—it is like a prostitute. The one who wants to be God, whose ego says, “I must become God,”…

Till today in India, a poor man has not been able to earn the stature of attaining supreme sannyas. Why? Not because a poor man cannot become a sannyasin, but because if a poor man becomes a sannyasin, we have no measure by which to weigh him. How to call him great? He has left nothing! Had he left much, he could be great. The more he leaves, the greater he becomes. Even sannyas, in the end, is measured by money. Then it is no longer sannyas; it is wealth come back round as prestige. Even humility becomes a proclamation of ego. If someone in a village says, I am a very humble man; there is no ego in me; and you say to him, I know a man even more humble than you—he is instantly hurt. Ego is hurt whenever it sees anyone beyond itself.

Why do your statements seem to me to be arrogant?

IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN SO. It will always be so. When Jesus said, "I and my father are one," do you think people thought he was a very humble man? When Jesus said, "I am the truth, the way, the door," do you think the rabbis came rushing and fell at his feet and said, "Such a humble man! Never seen before." They said, "This man is arrogant. This man is egoistic." And logically, they look right -- this looks like arrogance! When Krishna said to Arjuna, "SARVA DHARMA PARITYAJYA MAMEKAM SHARANAM VRAJA -- leave all the religions aside and come and fall unto my feet," do you think people thought this a humble statement? "Leave all religions aside and fall unto my feet!" This is pure arrogance. And you will be surprised. It is said that the first words of Gautam the Buddha were... the legend has it that…