What gives hypocrisy so much force and attraction?

Osho, all the wise ones have strongly opposed hypocrisy. Yet there is something about hypocrisy that it keeps slipping into the very sects that follow them and finds a life there. What gives hypocrisy so much force and attraction?

Hypocrisy is utterly weak; there isn’t a trace of strength in it. And there is no attraction in hypocrisy—there is great repulsion in it. But hypocrisy does not walk on its own feet; in fact, it has no feet of its own. Hypocrisy moves under the cover of ideals. Wherever ideals are handed out, hypocrisy will inevitably arise. Hypocrisy is the shadow of ideals; as in the blazing noon, if you walk, your shadow appears. Whoever moves through life with ideals will leave behind the shadow of hypocrisy. And yes, this is hard to grasp, because we assume ideals and hypocrisy are opposites. They are not opposites; they are companions. Inevitably companions. Create any ideal and, instantly, hypocrisy is born. What is needed is a religion that is not idealistic but realistic. That is exactly what I am telling you—a realistic religion. Then hypocrisy cannot arise. Suppose someone tells you,…

Osho, you and Shri Krishnamurti seem very opposed to having ideals in life. It is true that ideals create a great deal of hypocrisy. But if we look from the other end, the danger appears that without the challenge of ideals, growth will become impossible. There will be no difference between human and animal. So is the mistake in choosing the wrong ideals? Would you be gracious enough to say something on this?

By “ideal” you mean: distant stars in the sky… to become this, to become that. In that race of becoming you forget how you are. What is, gets forgotten; what should be, fixes your gaze. But what is—that alone is real. A man has tuberculosis—that is the reality. He “should” be healthy, he should be a wrestler like Muhammad Ali or Gama—that is an ideal. So he hangs Gama’s picture at home, does a daily arati to it. And he has TB—rotting within—while his eyes are fixed on Gama’s picture! What will come of it? Will TB vanish? The truth is: because of it, the very means of release from TB is lost. Your eye is not on TB; it is stuck on Gama’s picture. Your eye should have been on TB—then something could be done, treatment could happen. A man is burning with anger and sits with the ideal…

Can cowardice and hypocrisy also be beautiful? Can I accept even my cowardice, my hypocrisy, my miserliness and a tendency towards privacy that you yourself have called "idiocy"? And if I accept such tendencies, all of which tend to bottle me up, how will I get free?

See the beauty of fear, see the alchemical work of fear. It is simply trying to prepare you for the situation so that you can accept the challenge. But rather than accepting the challenge, rather than understanding fear, you start rejecting it. You say, "Ashoka, you are such a great man, a great sannyasin, and you are trembling? Remember what Osho used to say, that there is no death, that the soul is immortal. An immortal soul, and trembling? Remember what Krishna said: 'Death cannot destroy you, fire cannot burn you, weapons cannot penetrate you.' Remember! And don't tremble: hold yourself in control!" Now you are creating a contradiction. Your natural process is that of fear, and you are bringing in an unnatural process to contradict fear. You are bringing ideals to interfere in the natural process. There will be pain, because there will be conflict. Don't bother whether the…

Question: OSHO, I AM A HYPOCRITE. WHAT SHOULD L DO? Narayandas Diwari, IT IS GOOD, it is beautiful that you recognize, that you confess that you are a hypocrite. This is the beginning -- the beginning of sincerity, the beginning of truth. Hypocrisy cannot remain long now any more. Hypocrisy can remain only if it goes on pretending that it is not hypocrisy. It exists by pretending to be that which it is not. Once you recognize that you are wearing a mask, the mask has already started slipping. You have become aware that this is not your face. The mask can remain on your face only so long as you go on believing, pretending, deceiving others and yourself that it is your real face. And the problem is: if you deceive others you will start deceiving yourself finally.

Osho, in the Gita the signs or qualities of one who has attained the divine wealth are described. By cultivating them one by one, does divinity become available? Or, when divinity is attained, do these qualities come of themselves like flowers?

The first is easy to see as wrong. The second deceives because it is “right,” yet still wrong. What does it matter whether you are beautiful or not? What matters is that you think yourself beautiful. If an intelligent man struts that he is intelligent, it is as sinful as a fool strutting that he is intelligent. The real issue is the strutting—the stiffening of the ego. There is another danger: he who is not intelligent but thinks he is may one day awaken; but the truly intelligent who thinks he is intelligent is hard to awaken—you cannot even prove him wrong. The real danger is to take oneself to be somebody and stiffen in it. The demonic mind always considers itself somebody—whether it is or not. Ravana’s ego was not empty vanity; it was pride—there was substance to him, a great scholar. His stiffening was not baseless; thus it…