People in charge feel exposed when you question their favorite beliefs, so they try to stop you instead of debating you.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, do you see a political reason why you are being so tenaciously persecuted -- beyond the historical fact that all men of truth, like jesus, buddha, socrates, have also suffered persecution?
He prevented me from being allowed to purchase any land, any house, any property. I don't have any money, but he also prevented my friends who have been trying to spread my word. The commune in Poona has existed for twelve years, but all the properties that we have purchased are not in our name; they are still in the name of their old owners. We have paid the money but the ownership has not been transferred. In every possible way... but the reason was political. They were all exploiting Mahatma Gandhi's name in elections, and I was the only person in the whole country who was saying, "It is time that you forget Mahatma Gandhi. Thank him for the last time for trying to gain the freedom of the country, but now it is time to be free of him. The country needs technological progress; otherwise people are going…
Beloved Osho, the united states government proudly proclaims itself the land of the free and the home of the brave and points to its constitutional protections of fundamental rights. At the same time it twists and breaks its own laws to persecute you who embody freedom and truth. It seems the politicians always tell the biggest lies in the loudest voice. The worst tyrants talk most about peace and freedom. Could you please comment.
On celebration days the population of the commune -- which was only five thousand -- used to rise to twenty thousand. We had every arrangement for twenty thousand people. We created new kinds of tents which can be air-conditioned, which can be centrally heated, which can be used around the year, whether it is hot or cold, or snow is falling. These were our own invention. They could be folded in ten minutes and could be put up again in ten minutes. We were keeping those tents for the fifteen thousand people coming for festivals. The festivals were exactly what festivals should be -- twenty thousand people eating together under one roof, and while people were eating, somebody was playing guitar and somebody was dancing and somebody was playing on the flute. That was my idea always, that people should live as festively as possible. Their lives should be one…
Osho, why are the common masses against you, when what you say appears to us the very truth?
The king simply slipped away, took his fastest horse and rushed as fast as it was possible, away from the palace where the dream had happened. By the evening he had gone hundreds of miles, and he was very happy that he had come so far away: "Now it will be difficult for death to find me at the place, at the fixed time." The sun was setting. He had reached the outskirts of the city of Damishk. Just to rest... because the whole day he had not eaten, he had not even taken a cup of water. Time was so precious! Thirst is not going to kill you just in one day, hunger is not going to kill you just in one day. He was going to rest in a garden just outside of the city. He went into the garden and was tying the horse to a tree,…
Osho, why are society and the government against you? Why is there a continual attempt to suppress your voice?
As it should be, that is exactly what is happening. This is proper; it has always been so. If society did not oppose what I say, my words would not be true. Only when society opposes my words is there proof that there is some truth in them. Society only opposes truth. With lies society is always at ease. Lies cannot harm society; society digests them and makes them part of itself. It cannot digest truth. Hence Jesus has to be crucified. Hence Socrates has to be given poison. Hence stones have to be thrown at Buddha. What is happening is right. It is just as it should be; it is happening according to the law. Do not be anxious about it. Do not waste time in it. What I am saying is of a kind that society will not tolerate. Only a few brave individuals can bear it. Society…
Osho! In the morning discourse on May 22 a young man threw a knife and tried to kill you, but failed. What’s surprising is that no newspaper criticized the incident, and no “high-ranking” person made any statement about it! Nor did any paper or magazine print praise for the loving way ashram residents treated that man. Why are intellectuals and ordinary people all so full of indifference? Osho, your main ashram stands in such a dead country—where even a branch would seem pointless.
Israel cannot accept me. Christians cannot. Communists cannot. Wherever I live there will be trouble. I did not decide to live in India by accident; it is the most feasible place. So don’t worry, Kailash Goswami, “In such a dead country is it right for you to live?” Where there are corpses, there most is the need for someone to awaken the dead. Where there is illness, there a physician is needed. Where there is disease, there must be treatment. And yes, this country is dead—long dead. Yet great potential lies hidden here. The country that gave birth to Buddha, Krishna, Mahavira, Kabir, Nanak, Farid—that country has fire hidden under ash. The ash is five thousand years old. If we can remove it, the embers can glow again. And remember, we haven’t used our genius for five thousand years. That can be a benefit—like land left fallow for years accumulates…