According to Osho, Bakunin’s individual anarchism is a beautiful but impractical utopia aimed at abolishing state, law, and authority without a psychological foundation; it stays political and reactive. The rebel of a new vision weds rebellion to enlightenment: transform individuals through meditation, unrepression, love, and awareness. Then social orderless harmony—anarchism—arises as a by-product, like a shadow, rather than a forced goal.
Bakunin wants to tear down rules now; Osho says first grow wise, loving people—then rules fade by themselves.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved master, what is the difference between the individual anarchism of bakunin and the rebel of your vision?
Azima, I love Bakunin and his philosophy of anarchism, but he too, is an impractical, unpragmatic philosopher. He simply goes on praising the beauties of anarchism: no government, no armies, no police, no courts. And I absolutely agree with him. But he had no idea and no plan for how this dream could be made into a reality. Looking at man, you will need the government; looking at man, you will need the police. Otherwise there will be a multiplication of murders, rapes, thefts... life will be a chaos. Anarchism would not come, only a chaos. People would start making gangs, those gangs would exploit the weaker people and life would not become better, it would become worse. Bakunin's anarchism is a utopia, a great dream. I don't talk about anarchism. My own understanding is if we can transform man, if we can bring more and more people to meditation,…
Osho, so it has come down to a question of awareness.
It is only a question of awareness! Only a question of awareness! In the confusion of our daily life, can we have this impartial experience? Yes, yes, absolutely. Only in this very life can you have it. Nowhere else can you. This society as it exists—should it remain as it is, or does it also need to be changed? It needs to be changed every day. So will it change through this very experience? No, no, no. Not necessarily. If this experience happens, then this society will indeed change—change every day. It won’t even need to be what it was yesterday. Then you are talking of anarchism. That would mean that what is to be done could be different in each duty, in each situation. It certainly can be. And in this experience we also think: this is nothing; not this, not this, not this. And then further, further—there is…
Osho, the other day you said that some people are born buddhist. I must be one of them, because I always feel deeply in tune when you speak on buddha or ikkyu. This is my natural climate. But I remember that I also felt like that when you were speaking on jesus, yoga, tao, sufism... Please help me to find out which is my true nature.
SUGEETA, you are a natural Rajneesh freak. The last question I HEAR SO MANY STORIES ABOUT YOU, ALL CONTRADICTING EACH OTHER. EVEN ABOUT YOUR PHILOSOPHY, NO TWO DISCIPLES OF YOURS SEEM TO AGREE. WHY IS IT SO? I HAVE NO PHILOSOPHY AT ALL. So how can my disciples agree on anything? I have no dogma, no creed. My assertions are not philosophic, but poetic. My assertions are not about the truth, they are only devices to help you awake. For one disciple I create one device, for another another. How can they agree? They will agree only when both have become awakened; their awakening will be the agreement. But when two persons are awakened they have nothing to say. They may laugh -- their laughters may agree. Or they may cry out of joy -- their tears may agree. But statements can't agree. You must be new here. Don't be…
Osho, you say the rajneeshees need to be unorthodox, untraditional, unconventional. It is clear what this means in a world full of traditions and conventions, but in your commune I find it more difficult to understand. Would you speak about the flavor of rebellion in your commune?
You were going to distribute wealth, not kill people. And now the czar is no longer the czar, you are in power: he is nobody, just a prisoner. What was the point of killing these people -- women, old women, children -- who have nothing left? You have taken everything from them -- now life also has to be distributed? I remember one time in Jabalpur.... Jabalpur w as one of the most vulnerable cities for Hindu -- mohammedan riots because both communities were almost equally balanced. And strangely, the division of the city was such that the Mohammedan community lived in almost half of the town and the Hindu community in the other half So riots were very simple and easy. It was almost every two, three years that there would be a riot. Anybody can create one, it is so simple. Somebody can just go and play on…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT IS YOUR NOTION OF REBELLION AND OF A REBEL? Giulia, my notion about the rebel and rebellion is very simple: a man who does not live like a robot conditioned by the past. Religion, society, culture... anything that is of yesterday does not in any way interfere in his way of life, in his style of life. He lives individually -- not as a cog in the wheel, but as an organic unity. His life is not decided by anybody else, but by his own intelligence. The very fragrance of his life is that of freedom -- not only that he lives in freedom, he allows everybody else also to live in freedom. He does not allow anybody to interfere in his life; neither does he interfere in anybody else's life.