According to Osho, corruption is not inborn; nature and the child are utterly innocent. Corruption is a man-made conditioning that imposes ideals of 'should' over the truth of 'is,' turning living into a goal and splitting us from our nature. Society, fearing innocence, programs children early, creating lifelong tension and misery. The antidote is to honor being and let one's inner potential naturally blossom.
Corruption is learned when society makes us chase who we ‘should’ be instead of being who we are.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: OSHO, WHAT IS CORRUPTION? DOES IT COME IN A SEED OR IS IT LEARNED? NATURE is absolutely innocent. It knows nothing which can be called corruption. Corruption is something manufactured by man. The child is born absolutely innocent, there is no seed of corruption in him. The corruption is created by the society for its own purposes. It does not want innocent people around because there is nothing more dangerous, more rebellious, than innocence. All the societies are afraid of innocent people because they will not support anything that goes against their innocence, that goes against nature. Hence, the first thing every society does is to corrupt the child. The sooner you do it, the better, because as the child matures it becomes more and more difficult to corrupt him.
Does god exist? How can there be so much evil and corruption in the world if god exists?
God is a mythical word, a mumbo-jumbo word that is the invention of the priesthood. Actually, to ask whether God exists is absurd. For those who know, God is existence, or existence is God. Things exist, not God. A chair exists because a chair can go into nonexistence. To say that the chair exists is meaningful because its nonexistence is possible. God is existence, the very isness. When we say God exists we create something out of the word God, then God becomes a thing. But God is not a thing, nor is God a person. That is why you cannot make him responsible for anything. Responsibility only comes when there is a personality, when there is someone who can be responsible. God is not a person, he is pure existence. The word is misleading because the word personifies. It is better to use the word existence. The totality of…
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…
The zen master hakuin was honored by his neighbors as one who led a pure life.
ONE DAY IT WAS DISCOVERED THAT A BEAUTIFUL GIRL WHO LIVED NEAR HAKUIN WAS PREGNANT. THE PARENTS WERE VERY ANGRY. AT FIRST THE GIRL WOULD NOT SAY WHO THE FATHER WAS, BUT AFTER MUCH HARASSMENT SHE NAMED HAKUIN. IN GREAT ANGER THE PARENTS WENT TO HAKUIN, BUT ALL HE WOULD SAY WAS, "IS THAT SO?" AFTER THE CHILD WAS BORN IT WAS TAKEN TO HAKUIN WHO HAD LOST HIS REPUTATION BY THIS TIME, ALTHOUGH HE DIDN'T SEEM MUCH DISTURBED BY THE FACT. HAKUIN TOOK GREAT CARE OF THE CHILD. HE OBTAINED MILK, FOOD, AND EVERYTHING ELSE THE CHILD NEEDED FROM HIS NEIGHBORS. A YEAR LATER THE GIRL-MOTHER COULD STAND IT NO LONGER, SO SHE TOLD HER PARENTS THE TRUTH -- THE REAL FATHER WAS A YOUNG MAN WHO WORKED IN THE FISH MARKET. THE MOTHER AND FATHER OF THE GIRL WENT ROUND AT ONCE TO HAKUIN TO TELL HIM THE…
Osho, yesterday you said that jealousy is included in respect. I have immense respect for you, but the jealousy inherent in it keeps poisoning it, and I feel guilt and pain. Does reverence transcend this poison-laced respect?
It needs a little explaining—it's a delicate point. Whenever you respect someone, you do so because you see in that person something you do not have. You respect because you glimpse in the other something you would also like to possess. A beggar respects an emperor because he, too, longs to be an emperor. So on the one hand he respects, and inside he also envies. Because he is not yet an emperor but wants to be. You have attained what he wants to attain. He respects you as skillful, successful: “I stand far back in the line; you have gone ahead to where I should have been.” So you are powerful, clever, intelligent, strong—he respects you. But inside a fire of jealousy also burns—if he gets the chance, he would like to be in your place and push you aside. And if the beggar gets that chance, he will…