According to Osho, communism as an “ism” is dangerous because every ideology solidifies life into dogma. He rejects communism but champions communes—living together nonpossessively, creatively, and meditatively while honoring each person’s space. Communes replace the outdated family, offer richer human variety, heal psychological fixations, and enable true communion (heart-to-heart) beyond mere communication.
Skip rigid -isms; live in a loving shared community where people keep their freedom and children learn from many caring adults.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT COMMUNISM? Raja, I don't think about such things -- in fact, I don't think at all! I am certainly interested in communes, but not in communism. The moment something becomes an "ism" it becomes dangerous. The idea of a commune is beautiful: people living together in a nonpossessive way, neither possessing things nor possessing persons; people living together, creating together, celebrating together, and still allowing each one his own space; people creating a certain climate of meditativeness, of love, and living in that climate. I am certainly interested in the idea of the commune -- it simply means where communion is possible. In the world there is no communion possible. Even communication is not possible, what to say about communion! Communication means a dialogue between two minds -- even that is not possible -- and communion means a meeting of two hearts.
Question: OSHO, WHY ARE YOU AGAINST COMMUNISM? They all start almost at the same time, but from there, from the very impregnation, opportunities are different. Nobody knows those who have died, what kind of people they were. Somebody may have been an Albert Einstein, somebody a Ravi Shankar, somebody a Michelangelo. Nobody knows about those poor people who simply died in the first race and were not given any other chance. And then small things in the life of the child.... You cannot make them equal. For example, when Napoleon Bonaparte was six months old, his nurse, who was taking care of him, had just left him for a moment and a wild cat jumped onto Napoleon, put both his paws on his chest, and looked into his eyes. Immediately the nurse came back and chased the cat away, but Napoleon, for his whole life, remained afraid of cats.
Osho, the vernacular newspaper here has been propagating that your discourses, your teaching, aim at spreading communism—and that you are almost on a par with Mao. And today another question has been raised: comparing you with J. Krishnamurti. What are your thoughts on this?
First of all, as I understand it, any intelligent person in the world—from Buddha or Mahavira or Christ up to today—will inevitably, in some sense, be a communist. But the meaning of communism should be made clear. The endeavor of all wise people has always been to bring about a society where each human being attains a state of equality, and where each person has equal opportunity for growth. If communism means the effort toward equal opportunities for growth and the equality of human beings, then I am a communist. And whoever is not a communist in that sense is an enemy of humanity. But if someone thinks that “communists” are the blind devotees of Marx who, by force, crush all democratic sentiments and impose dictatorship; who murder the entire vision of God, truth, love, and soul—if that is what is meant by communism, then no one could be more…
According to you, nobody is able to impart the truth. Is what you say not true then?
What I am telling you is only an indication and should not be regarded as true in itself. Truth is far removed from indication. It is not the indicator you have to see, but where it directs you. While you are looking in that direction what you will perceive is the truth. There is no way to speak that truth. No sooner has it been uttered than it becomes false. The truth can never be expressed; however, it can become one's experience.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, ARE YOU IN FAVOR OF COMMUNISM? Now this is pure fiction; just to compete with the Jainas there had to be twenty-four. But Hindus at that time had the idea of only ten avataras. Seeing that Jainas and Buddhists had twenty-four, they immediately changed their number; so any scripture that is written after Gautam Buddha and Mahavira says, "We also have twenty-four avataras." But then, to defeat this competition forever, they managed this idea of thirty-three million gods. Marx is another gift of the Jews to the world -- and really a Jew! And the reason that he is the founder of communism is not any compassion for the poor. No, not at all -- it is jealousy of the rich. This you have to understand clearly, because that will change the whole attitude. His father was poor, his father's father was poor.