What could be the reason for a lack of interest in religion while being eager about politics?

Osho, I can’t get interested in religion at all, but I am very eager about politics. What could be the reason?

I have heard: in a village a young man spread his bedding in a family’s veranda at night. The owner asked, “Why are you laying your bed here?” He said, “I am doing satyagraha.” “For what? What have I done to you?” “You did nothing. I want to marry your daughter. Until you marry her to me I will fast unto death. I will do satyagraha.” The news spread; a crowd gathered. Naturally, people side with satyagraha. “He is nonviolent, good, in khadi.” People garlanded him. First two or four of his friends did, then imitative people joined. Flags appeared. The poor father panicked. He did not want to marry his daughter to that loafer. What to do? The whole village condemned him: “What are you doing? Will you take his life? You’ll regret it all your life! See his love—this is love. Even Majnu didn’t do this. He has…

Osho, why are you so opposed to politics?

I am not against politics. Politics is only a symptom. I am against the inferiority complex in man; that inner sense of smallness. And politics is a symptom of that very disease. The more a person suffers from an inferiority complex, the more he hankers after position. The more he is filled with inferiority, the more he hankers after wealth. Understand this. An inferiority complex means: inside you feel, “I am nothing, a nobody, a two-bit fellow.” But this rankles. “I—and two-bit!” The mind cannot swallow it. “I will show the world that I am somebody. I’ll become a prime minister, a president. I’ll amass the world’s wealth and prove to the world that I am somebody.” Politics is the device to fill that inner sense of two-bit-ness, meaninglessness, emptiness. Politics means ambition—whether for money or for office, it makes no difference. Sometimes it is even the ambition for renunciation;…

Osho, until now religion and politics were regarded as mutually opposed dimensions. But today it seems clear that religion and politics are two sides of the same coin. Today in Bhuj, the mahant of the Swaminarayan sect, Hariswarupdasji, has labeled your entry into Kutch as “an attack on Kutch culture.” And a politician, Mr. Babubhai Shah, has called you “a hunter in the garb of a sadhu”! On this blackboard of religion and politics, your religiosity seems to stand out like white chalk.

Italian friends come. I put a mala around their necks and say, “Look at me,” and they instantly close their eyes! Only Italians do that, no one else. I was surprised: whenever I say, “Look at me,” they close their eyes. I ask them to look; they close their eyes. Something is amiss between us. Perhaps they are right—because to see me, closing the eyes is indeed a way. That is how women look: more loving, more inward. When a woman embraces someone, she closes her eyes. Therefore, women are not as keen about a man’s color, form, features as they are about his refinement. Women are touched by different things than men. A man looks at complexion, form, features—head to toe, hair color, skin tone, nose, eyes. A woman takes less interest in these; her interest is elsewhere. She sees how graceful the man is, how humble, how simple,…

Osho, you make statements on politics; then why shouldn’t you be considered a politician?

Then just now, when Indira won, Vinoba remained silent; when he was informed that Indira had won, he clapped in happiness. The newspapers reported: Vinoba clapped in joy, became ecstatic! Two days later came the statement: I did not clap because of Indira’s victory; it just so happened that at that moment I was in a playful mood. At that very moment you were in ecstasy—neither a moment before, nor a moment after! What a coincidence that precisely then the mood to clap arose! Two days later he must have done the accounting that this clapping could prove costly. Politics is always calculation, arithmetic, maneuvering and cleverness. I tell you: by speaking on politics I am not a politician, and Vinoba, remaining silent, without giving statements, is a politician. Politics is a style of life; statements or non-statements make no difference. If there were even a little politics in me,…

Is zen against politics?

Zen is so much against politics that it never talks about it. It is so much against politics that it cannot even be against it. If you are against it, it will affect you. Then somehow you will remain in some way related to it. To be against is to be related. When you are very much against, you are very, very related. It is a way of relationship -- you are related to your enemy too, sometimes even more than you are related to your friend. Zen is so much against politics that it does not say anything about it, but it is against it. any religion, any religion worth calling a religion, is bound to be against politics because the very phenomenon of religion is non-political. What is politics? Politics is ambition, politics is ego, politics is aggression, politics is violence, politics is an ego-trip. How can a…