According to Osho, he came to Greece because he considers it his country and wanted to see his people—whether they had matured or regressed. He visited briefly to deliver a forgotten message: reclaim your Socratic heritage and potential, stop following corrupt religious and political leaders, and return to light and intelligence. He would not stay, only look and remind.
He came for a short visit to check on Greece and remind people of their lost wisdom and to stop following the wrong leaders.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
How and why did you come to greece?
It is my country, and I wanted to see my people. I wanted to see whether they have grown up or still they are retarded. And I am sorry to say they have fallen far more than when I left them. The day I left them Athens was at its peak, the most intelligent, the very cream of the world. Now it is nothing. It has no importance in any area, in any dimension. If people had followed Socrates, if they had followed Plato, Aristotle, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Epicurus, they would have been the very crown of the world today. But rather than following Socrates, they followed those idiots who poisoned him, and they are still in the hands of the same idiots who are the cause of their degradation. The religious heads, the politicians are in constant conspiracy against every nation. I have come just to have a look. I…
Beloved Osho, isn't it amazing that of all the places in the world, the first two stops on your world tour should be the land of buddha and the land of zorba?
It is. But one thing should be understood about it: in reality Zorba comes first, Buddha comes afterwards. Zorba is the beginning, Buddha is the fulfillment. Zorba is the roots, the trunk, the branches. Buddha is the flowers, the fruit, the fragrance. In reality this is the order. But I went first to Nepal, the birthplace of Buddha, and then I came to Crete, the land of Zorba. That has a significance.... When you approach a tree, first you see the flowers, the fruits. They come last as far as the tree's growth is concerned, but when you go to the tree, those are the first to be seen. And only if you want to go deeper into the reality of those flowers will you find that behind those flowers are hidden roots in the earth. In life, Zorba comes first, Buddha comes second. But when you start exploring the…
Beloved Osho, when I came to greece to see you, everything reflected more and more of the zorba. Now, being here in india, everything around you is reflecting more of the buddha. Osho, does this depend on being in greece or india?
In Harapur, seven thousand years ago, they had bathrooms attached to their bedrooms, they had bathtubs, and they had a very special arrangement for circulation of water in the city. The hot and cold water in your bathroom is not a new thing; it was available in Harapur, in Mohenjo daro. They had swimming pools. It must have been a very highly cultured society. At the time of Gautam Buddha, just twenty-five centuries ago, even then the West was not very evolved. And you can see it. We did not crucify Gautam Buddha, and the West crucified Jesus Christ five hundred years after Gautam Buddha. And what Jesus was saying was nothing compared to Gautam Buddha. Gautam Buddha was saying that there is no God; still, nobody thought of crucifying him. Jesus Christ was not saying anything against Judaism; on the contrary, he was simply saying that he was their…
Beloved master, we poor modern greeks don't know what the true religion of our ancestors was. So-called scholars have no answer as they are confused by the rich mythology of poets. However, at delphi only three admonitions were engraved on the original temple: be, know yourself, keep the measure. Would you, beloved master, reveal how these three mysterious precepts -- including meditation, self-awareness, et cetera, but no god -- could constitute the whole religion acceptable to men like socrates, heraclitus and diogenes?
Once this settles in the mind of people, great people start disappearing. Slowly, slowly a country like Greece, which has brought humanity many flowers, became poor on both counts. The outer poverty is not so important, because it can be destroyed easily, but the inner poverty is very difficult. It is not easy to create Socrates or Heraclitus or Pythagoras. We have destroyed the atmosphere in which such roses blossom. By destroying these flowers we have destroyed the possibility of other flowers who could have blossomed. What is the point, if this kind of treatment is going to happen? One Christian missionary -- a great thinker in his own right, Stanley Jones -- used to come to India. I had become very friendly with him just by chance, because the church in which he used to speak was just near my house. I said to him once, "Jesus has promised…
Beloved Osho, can you tell us what happened to you since we last met on that beautiful morning in crete, some weeks ago?
Gurdjieff became so capable that if he was sitting between two persons, to one person he would appear immensely peaceful and silent -- half of his face, one side profile. And to the other he will appear to be murderous, dangerous, criminal -- the other profile, the other side. And when both persons would talk about Gurdjieff, how could they agree? They were bound to disagree: according to one they have met -- a very silent, peaceful person, and according to the other -- a very murderous, dangerous, criminal type. When asked, Gurdjieff would say, "They are both right. I can manage not only to divide my being and my action, I can manage to divide even my face into two parts." I was presented a statue of Buddha from Japan -- a very beautiful statue, but very strange. In one hand he is holding a naked sword, and in…