Is it impossible to enter religion through a sect?

Question: Second question: Osho, is it impossible to enter religion through a sect? It is possible. From wherever you are, entry into religion is possible. Because there is no place from which the path to the Divine does not exist. If such a place existed, it would mean there is somewhere God is not. So wherever you are, there is a way. But if you are inside a sect, then the meaning of the way is: leave the sect. As with someone locked in a prison—is there no way to be free from prison? There is. Climb the wall and get out; break the door; cut through the bars; do something so that the wall ceases to be a barrier—make a breach and go out. There is a way even from prison; you will have to seek it.

Osho, why is it that all enlightened ones teach the central transformation of awareness and awakening, yet the religions founded on them shrink into conduct codes and rituals? Aren’t all organized religions merely parts of society?

But the wife would not agree. She said, “I don’t get into talk of mistakes and corrections. Some ill omen might occur! What harm is it to us?” Lines remain: “It happened this way, it was done that way, it was said so.” Then our meanings, our blindness, are added to them. Religion becomes superstition; truth loses its peaks and becomes the falsehood of the valleys. And around that falsehood, crowds gather. Those who reached the Buddha in the beginning reached through their own awakening. Then they had children; those children had nothing to take from the Buddha, nothing to give. For them, religion is only a rite. Born in a Buddhist home—Buddhist; had they been born in a Hindu home—Hindu; in a Muslim home—Muslim. It is a matter of accident. Being born in a Hindu home is as accidental as a white cat sitting by a pot of curd.…

Osho, yesterday you called sects footpaths and religion the royal road. But almost all sects were formed in the wake of the enlightened ones who walked the royal road. Why, then, did those supremely enlightened ones not take care to see that sects did not arise behind them? And what are you doing to prevent it?

And know for certain: the sect that will arise behind Krishnamurti will be more dangerous—inevitably so, because Krishnamurti gave no help in its making. The one that will arise behind me will be as dangerous as any sect is, but less dangerous than Krishnamurti’s, because I have supported you. I have given you robes, names, sannyas. I have given you every facility for forming a sect. Because I know that what is bound to happen will happen; the best is that I cooperate. It will be a little more well-shaped, a little more far-reaching. The footpath will be a little closer to the royal road. What you would build on your own would wander very far afield. If it is built leaning on the royal road, it will remain alongside it. From that footpath it will not be too difficult to come onto the royal road. Whenever you wish, one…

Question: Second question: Osho, is religion rebellion? Religion is rebellion; a sect is not. A sect is status-quo-ism. A sect means: religion has died. Rebellion has died; it has become an organization. The breaths of revolution have stopped; a corpse lies there. What moved at the feet of Mahavira is religion; what sits as a load on the heads of the Jains is a sect. What Buddha said is religion; what the Buddhists are carrying is a sect. What Krishna sang is religion; what the Hindus are arguing about is a sect. Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Jews—these are the corpses of religion. They have nothing to do with religion, just as a corpse has nothing to do with the living person. How much you loved your wife, your son! You were ready to give up everything.

Osho, you have said that, in order that the chain not continue and no sect remain, you will present every religion before us. But wouldn’t that itself create a sect—one that takes up every religion in a new way and includes people from every religion? Why don’t you think that all religions could take on a single new form?

It will arise of its own accord.