According to Osho, India’s poverty springs from a centuries-old, otherworldly philosophy preached by so‑called saints that brands this world as illusory, discouraging science and technology. Politicians reinforced it—he cites Gandhi’s anti‑scientific stance and glorification of poverty—so energy never built material foundations. The remedy is to honor this world as real, embrace science, and integrate material and spiritual growth to create wealth within and without.
We’re poor because we were taught this world doesn’t matter, so we ignored science and work; value this world, use technology, and grow inside and outside together.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Why is india so poor?
The so-called saints are responsible. Down the ages, India has lived with a wrong philosophy -- a philosophy that teaches other-worldliness, a philosophy that teaches that the world is illusion and only the other world is true. You have not seen the other world, the true world; you have to believe. And the world that you have seen, and see every day and experience every day, is illusory, is maya. This foolish philosophy is the root cause of India's poverty. If the world is illusory then why care about science, why care about technology? What is the point? If the world is illusory, poverty is also an illusion, the beggar on the street is also an illusion, the starving person is also an illusion. The West has lived with the idea that only this world is real. Hence it has become rich, at least outwardly rich. The West has denied…
Beloved Osho, what are the causes of poverty in india, and the downfall of the economic condition? How can india come out of this mess and create richness?
Don't harm anybody, but don't let anybody harm you. Then only can a nonviolent person survive in the world, and not become a coward. Jesus says, "If somebody hits one of your cheeks, give him the other cheek too." Christians are hypocrites, they have never followed it. They have been killing, they have been murdering, they have been burning living people. They have been doing everything which goes against Jesus -- and still they go on preaching Jesus in the churches. And no Christian raises the question: "Our lifestyle for two thousand years is absolutely against the teachings of Jesus." The West has made an arrangement: a teaching is a teaching; it is good, pay respect to it. The Bible is holy -- but your religion is Sunday religion, only on a holiday. You go to the church and that's all. Six days do everything wrong that you can do;…
Osho, India has been a prosperous country!
No. Only a certain class in India was prosperous. India as a whole was never prosperous; only some strata were. From that affluent class came the religious people. From that affluent class the talk of religion also spread. India was never prosperous. As a society it was never prosperous. But yes, India was contented in its poverty. Therefore, rebellion against poverty never arose. Do not take this to mean that India was prosperous. India would still have been content in its poverty if the contact with the West had not come. The poor in India had no anxiety about it. But contact with the West created restlessness, and it planted in the poor the idea that being poor is the result of the social order. Poverty is not a necessity. But the affluent in India had convinced the poor that poverty is the fruit of your own sins, that being…
Osho, in a country like India, where inequality and poverty have deep roots, don’t your teachings help maintain the status quo? Religion in the past offered no effective challenge to feudal injustice. How are you dealing with the apparatus that sustains poverty, unemployment, and corruption?
On the other hand, in my ashram, talent is coming from the West—and you won’t let them come. Scientists, engineers, doctors, physicians, professors want to come and live here, but Morarji Desai doesn’t want to let them in. All Indian embassies abroad have been instructed: if anyone wishes to come to my ashram, do not grant entry. And you know Indian “efficiency”... such foolishness that they even write such things in official letters. A famous dentist wanted to come and live in India. He wrote to apply, and the Indian embassy in America replied: if you wish to go to Shri Rajneesh Ashram, Poona, permission cannot be granted. They wrote that outright. What to say of Indian efficiency! At least keep it hidden. If you wish to go to any other ashram, permission can be granted. But he doesn’t wish to go to any other ashram. I could gather the…
Osho, in one discourse you said that India is declining in its spiritual values. Please tell us whether any ray of hope is visible ahead?
Love! Do not be in opposition to the naturalness of life; do not deny life. Embrace life, with a great yes. For through that embrace one day you will be able to embrace God too. God is hidden here—in these trees, in these people, in these hills, in these mountains. Learn to love this existence. Your so-called religion teaches you to hate existence—teaches you to hate the nature outside and the nature within you. Love nature, for nature is God’s veil. Love nature, and you will be able to lift the veil. There is certainly a ray of hope. The ray of hope is never destroyed. However dark the new-moon night becomes, the morning will come. Morning is bound to come. However long the night of new moon, and however deeply this country has sunk into wrong notions, still there are some who are thinking, reflecting, meditating. It is precisely…