According to Osho, references to figures like Hitler are provocative devices to unmask hidden violence and authoritarianism—even in celebrated leaders like Gandhi—not endorsements. He insists he is not anti-Semitic and loves Jews for their suffering. True nonviolence, he says, means never imposing one’s will; any coercion, however saintly its image, is violence. His comparisons challenge blind reverence and awaken individual freedom.
He brings up Hitler only to show that forcing others—even by ‘good’ leaders—is violence, and real spirituality means respecting freedom, not cruelty.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, during your recent interview with der spiegel, you made a statement about hitler, saying you love the man because he's crazy, and also that he lived a life of a discipline just as a saint lives in a monastery. You also compared him with mahatma gandhi and called him as moral as mahatma gandhi. This has caused a great deal of concern and confusion in germany, holland, and other european countries. My question is: is this an accurate reflection of your feelings about hitler?
And about small things Gandhi was really nasty. He wouldn't allow anybody to drink tea. In his ashram tea was prohibited, coffee was impossible to bring in. The question of alcohol did not arise. For forty years the people followed all kinds of ascetic disciplines, prayed morning and evening -- and the answer was millions of people either murdered or half-murdered; and Gandhi himself assassinated. If this is the result of practicing nonviolence, then I don't think there is any difference practicing violence. Adolf Hitler and Mahatma Gandhi both ended the same way. They both landed their countries in the same mess. I have said I have a certain love for Adolf Hitler, for the simple reason that at least he was straightforward; Gandhi was not. Adolf Hitler was not cunning. Whatever he wanted to do he did. He was a little crazy, but a crazy man managed to be…
Is it true that you admire hitler, and that you are anti-semitic?
Mohammedans were very happy that Mahatma Gandhi's son had become a Mohammedan; that proved the superiority of Mohammedanism over Hinduism! They gave him the title of Maulana; it is equal to Mahatma, a great soul. So he became Maulana Abdullah Gandhi. And Gandhi was so furious that even his wife had to tell him, "This is below you. You say every religion is one, so it does not matter whether he has become Mohammedan or if he becomes Christian. To you it is all the same. This is the time to prove that what you say you mean." But he was so angry he could not sleep the whole night, and he said, "If this boy had died at the very birth, I would have been happy." Do you think this is a nonviolent attitude? Even the desire that he would have died, is it not a subtle desire to…
Osho, god did not create people like adolf hitler in his own image. He created people like jesus christ, hazrat mohammed, krishna and buddha.
IT is not a question. It is a statement, an answer, but I have not asked the question. The person seems even to know whom God created in His own image and whom God did not create in His own image. The person seems to be an eyewitness. What was he doing there? Did God create him in His own image? Then what is he doing here? But I can enjoy even answering an answer. He says God did not create people like Adolf Hitler in His own image. What is wrong in Adolf Hitler? The followers of Adolf Hitler believe that he was the reincarnation of the great Jewish prophet, Elijah. It is as true as the Christian's belief that Jesus is the only begotten son of God, and the Mohammedan's belief that Mohammed is the only messenger of God. Nobody else believes it, but that is not the…
[NOTE: This discourse is published in the book: The Last Testament, Volume 1, as Chapter 21.] Ma Anand Rose DIE RAJNEESH TIMES COLOGNE, WEST GERMANY QUESTION: BHAGWAN, NO COUNTRY, NOT EVEN AMERICA, IS AS UPSET AS THE GERMANS AT YOUR PRESENCE IN THE WORLD TODAY, AND AT YOUR INFLUENCE ON INTELLIGENT AND CREATIVE PEOPLE. THEY ARE TRYING HARD TO SEE YOU AS ANOTHER HITLER. WHAT DOES THAT TELL ABOUT THE GERMAN MIND, FORTY YEARS AFTER HITLER'S DEATH? Answer: The ghost of Adolf Hitler, his long shadow, is still present. And Adolf Hitler is not something that you can confine to one person. It is something deep down in the German mind itself. Adolf Hitler would not have existed if the German mind had not been supportive of him.
The person may be a man or a woman -- does not matter. What matters is his essential being, how close he has come to his essential being. Closer he comes to it, a certain aura arises around his body, a certain fragrance. You can immediately recognize that here is someone who is very close to the center, and when somebody reaches the center, then it is as if a house was dark and suddenly you have switched the light on. Even from the outside you can see through the windows the house is on light. Ordinary people are just without light. Even from their windows you can see only darkness. And when a person reaches to his center of individuality, suddenly he is aflame. And you can see -- from his eyes, from his gestures, from his words, the way he walks. His words start becoming more poetic.