According to Osho, the ashram is controversial because truth inevitably shocks and shatters people’s comforting illusions; he refuses to compromise with societal 'stupidities' and challenges all forms of religious fanaticism, not just one tradition. Such uncompromising truth-telling provokes anger and resistance, naturally creating many enemies—and, by life’s balance, many friends—just as with Socrates, Buddha, and Jesus.
People get upset when their comfy beliefs are shaken, and Osho shakes everyone’s beliefs—so controversy happens.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Why does so much controversy surround you and your ashram?
Krishna Prem, if it were not so, it would have been really a surprise, it would have been a miracle, it would have been unbelievable. This is the natural course. This is what was happening to Socrates. And what was his mistake? His mistake was that he was trying to tell the truth as it is. His mistake, his only mistake, was that he was not ready to compromise with the stupidities of the crowd. He lived in continuous controversy; he died because of those controversies. Do you think Jesus lived a noncontroversial life? Then why was he crucified? A reward for a noncontroversial life? He lived continuously in controversy; it is bound to be so. So it was with Buddha, so it was with Bodhidharma, so it has always been, and it seems so it is always going to be. Truth creates controversy, because it shocks people, it shatters…
Osho! Shri Girija Kumar Mathur, who has given poetry a new mode and a new dimension, is a resident of my village, Ashoknagar. He still lives there. He is interested in you—has read some books and also shows interest in your tape discourses. He says, “I do have the eagerness to meet him once, but I get nervous because his personality is controversial.” If you find it proper, kindly say something.
These are not their questions. But to show others, “Our questions are spiritual. We are not ordinary folk—we are seekers. Anger, lust—these we left behind long ago. Wealth, food—such cravings don’t beset us. In us devotion to God has arisen; we want to taste liberation.” Without annihilation there is no savor of abiding. Until you efface the ego, you will not find God. If you want God, one thing must be erased—you must erase yourself. Until you are annihilated—become a pure zero—you will not know the ecstasy of existence. Such is the paradoxical arithmetic of life: the one ready to vanish finds life; the one who clutches at life finds nothing but repeated death. Truth itself is paradoxical; therefore, how can those who have experienced it be anything but controversial? Their utterances become paradoxical. To speak truth, there is no other way but paradox. And to speak truth, compromises cannot…
Osho, why are so many people attracted towards you from all parts of the world?
DON'T know! I am also surprised; it should not be so. The government is against me, the society is against me, all the religions are against me, and still people go on coming. All kinds of barriers are created, still people go on coming. Something mysterious is happening, something which cannot be explained. Something is transpiring which is elusive. That's why those who come as observers or spectators or journalists cannot catch hold of it. So they collect rumors in the town from people who never come here, and they go on reporting. Almost all over the world, in almost all the languages, there are rumors and rumors. This is very strange! The people have not experienced what is happening here, they have not been participants, and yet they think they have understood. There are things which can be understood only when you participate. You cannot know what love is…
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,…
A: I will get negative response everywhere. Even I go to another planet, so what is the reason, what is the point. Coming to Nepal I will get the negative response. So it makes no difference to me whether I am in America, or in India or in Nepal. Wherever I am, I am going to get the negative response because I am going to speak against people's traditions, against their superstitions, against their religions, against their philosophies, against their whole past. So they are not responsible for being negative. I am responsible, because I have decided to say the truth, whatsoever the cost. And I am ready to pay the cost, and I am paying it. So there is no problem. Wherever I want to make people negative, I go there. I have come to Nepal, now I will make people negative here.