Is developing technology considered child's play?

Osho, you emphasize playfulness, leela. But is it possible for a playful mind to be a plastic surgeon or a scientist?

You will see it in the East: people have become dull, people have lost all joy of invention -- because all luxury has been condemned; it is a sin to seek comfort. But if you are not seeking comfort then there is no point in exploring, if you are not seeking luxury then all search stops. Then all that you need is a shelter, food, clothes -- but there you are finished. And when you don't explore you don't become rich, when you don't explore you stop growing. In the East it has happened, it has happened terribly: because the so-called priests and religious people condemned all luxuries, man became uninventive. The East is poor because of the saints -- because people are bound to remain poor if they don't explore. If people are satisfied with just whatsoever is the case they become more and more poor every day, because…

Osho, on the one hand you are in favor of modern technology and believe that the flower of religion will bloom only in countries that are industrially advanced. On the other hand, you also describe the paradoxes of Western industrial civilizations. “Either the machine will survive or man”—this is your own statement. Moreover, among the great ones, saints, and devotees of the past whose words you interpret, none of them believed that religion is not for the poor. How are all these to be reconciled?

Rajkishore! I am in favor of technology. But that does not mean there are no deadly possibilities tied to it. I warn about those dangers too. A wise person can turn poison into nectar, and a fool can turn even nectar into poison. Science has placed a tremendous power in human hands—technology, the world of machines. With it this whole earth can become a paradise. The age-old dream of a heaven somewhere high in the skies can descend upon the earth—upon our earth. Science has released a vast energy. But there are hazards. I caution about those as well. The greatest danger is that the mechanical may dominate the human, that man becomes a mere slave to the machine. Human mastery must remain. If man is the master and the machine the servant, it is auspicious. If the machine becomes the master and man the servant, it is disastrous. So…

Osho, the Gita’s view is that the world is a descent from the superior to the inferior. Accordingly, the Hindu notion of the decline from Satya Yuga to Kali Yuga also seems right. But known history tells us that humankind has been moving gradually from human sacrifice, slavery and poverty toward prosperity and freedom. What is the fact in this?

First, when a child is born, he is innocent; his slate is blank. There is nothing bad written on it, and nothing good either. The child is not a saint; he is innocent. Nor is he a sinner. The sinner is not there at all—and the burden of being a saint is not yet upon him. He has not yet said yes or no. He has not yet chosen the bad or the good. He is still without alternatives. He has made no choice. He is choiceless. He does not even know what is good and what is bad. The division has not arisen; the child lives in non-division. This state of the child was once the state of the whole society; this is what the Hindus call Satya Yuga—the age of truth. And it seems right; it even seems scientific. Because the story of one person’s life is the…

You highly praise capitalism, while you overlook the achievements of russia. Has not technology been developed in russia? Have not the russians reached the moon? Don't they have everything which capitalism has?

That is why you ask how technology can be possible -- a big thing like technology will take twenty years at least. I say, it will not happen even in twenty years if you think that it will take a long time. And it can happen in just ten years if you decide to start the work right now. It is a matter of being clear and positive and starting the work immediately. And the matter is so urgent that if you do not go with a sense of urgency and go fast, you will be nowhere in the world fifty years from now. Maybe the distance between you and the rest of the world will be the same as exists today between the aboriginals of Bastar and the people of Bombay. It is already happening and happening every day. We are not aware of how things are moving on…

Question: OSHO, TO ME THE FUTURE OF THE EAST APPEARS BLEAK WHICHEVER WAY ONE LOOKS AT IT -- EITHER POVERTY AND STARVATION THROUGH FATALISM, OR WESTERNIZATION THROUGH CAPITALISM -- FOR IS IT NOT NECESSARY FOR THE EAST TO BECOME WEST BEFORE PEOPLE AGAIN BECOME INTERESTED IN THEIR INNER SEARCH? IS IT NOT NECESSARY FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE EAST TO BECOME MATERIALLY RICH BEFORE THEIR SPIRITUAL POVERTY AGAIN BECOMES EVIDENT? BUT THE BURDEN OF THE WEST ALREADY LIES HEAVY ON THE WORLD: THE ATOMIC BOMB; VIOLENCE THROUGH FRUSTRATION; THE AUTO-MATIZATION OF THE SOUL; THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FORESTS AND THE POLLUTION OF THE AIR AND SEA SO THAT IT IS UNCERTAIN WHETHER THE ENVIRONMENT CAN MAINTAIN ITS DELICATE BALANCE. CAN THE WORLD SUPPORT ANOTHER WEST? In fact, for the first time in human history millions of people will be able to become Buddhas.