According to Osho, religion and politics are opposite dimensions: politics is the will-to-power—ego seeking to dominate—while religion is egolessness, a let-go beyond even will-to-be. Hence a truly religious person cannot be interested in politics, and a politician, remaining political, cannot taste the religious unknown. Real change arises from hope and surrender to existence, not from striving to control.
Religion is about letting go of control; politics is about grabbing control—so you can’t do both at once.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, I have heard you say that religion and politics are opposite dimensions: a religious man cannot be interested in politics, and a politician can never become religious while remaining a politician. If this is true, is there no chance for a better world?
I have said that, and I repeat it: the really religious person cannot be interested in politics. And the politician, remaining a politician, cannot have any religious experience, any taste of that flight to the unknown. But I have never said that there is no hope for a better world. This is true, that the politician cannot become religious -- for the simple reason that politics, all politics, politics as such, is power politics. It is will-to-power. One wants to dominate, one wants to possess, one wants to be the decisive factor in people's lives. These are the qualities of the ego. Obviously this type of person cannot be religious because religion is basically the experience of egolessness. In religion there is no place for will-to-power. In fact, in religion there is no place even for will. Will-to-power is far away; even will-to-be is not there. One is in the…
Osho, is it possible for a politician to be a religious man or for a religious man to be a politician?
IT is absolutely impossible for a political man to be religious, because the ways of politics and religion are diametrically opposite. You have to understand that it is not a question of adding something to your personality -- religion is not an addition. If you are political, you can be a painter, you can be a poet, you can be a musician; these are additions. Politics and music are not diametrically opposite; on the contrary, music may help you to be a better politician. It will be relaxing, it will help you to get unburdened of the whole day and the anxieties that a politician has to go through. But religion is not an addition, it is a diametrically opposite dimension. So first you have to understand the political man, exactly what it means. The political man is a sick man, psychologically sick, spiritually sick. Physically he may be perfectly…
Why do you say that politics and religion are diametrically opposite?
Because they are. It is not a question of my opinion -- they are, because politics is an ego trip and religion is dropping of the ego. The politician cannot be religious, and the religious person cannot be a politician. It is absolutely so, it is categorically so. The politician is always trying to have more power. For what? -- to enhance his ego, to show to the world that "I am somebody." And the religious person has dropped that whole stupid business. HE KNOWS HE IS SOMEBODY, so what is the point of saying or showing to anybody? He KNOWS! The politician pretends; the religious person knows. He has come inside his own being, and he has known the King of kings -- the Master of masters there. So what is the POINT now? Striving for a bigger chair and a higher post -- what is the point? You…
Osho, do you think that it is not possible to be honest, intelligent, religious, and yet be in politics?
IT IS impossible. It is ABSOLUTELY impossible, CATEGORICALLY impossible. If you are intelligent, why should you be in politics? It is for the stupid, for the mediocre. The intelligent person will have much more important things to do. The intelligent person will not be interested in dominating others. His whole interest will be in knowing himself To dominate the other is a way of escaping from one's own inner meaninglessness, inner emptiness, inner hollowness. It is an escape from oneself. The intelligent person iS not an escapist. Politics is an escape, a GREAT escape. It keeps you so occupied, day in, day out, that you cannot find even a few minutes for yourself. Even when you sleep you think politics; it continues in your dreams. To be a politician is a twenty-four hour job. You cannot relax because if you relax you will be left behind. It is a tooth-and-nail…
Question: The last question: Osho, you say a politician cannot be religious. Why? It is not a very difficult thing to understand that a politician cannot be religious. Politics means: how can I become powerful over others? The one who wants to be powerful over others is the very one who has no power over himself. It is his compensation. Psychologists—especially Alfred Adler—say that those who carry an inferiority complex, who feel within, “I am inferior, I am nothing,” are the very people who get involved in politics. Because they have only one device: if they can sit on a big chair, they can show the world that they are somebody. And if the world accepts that they are somebody, then perhaps they too can start believing they are somebody. They have no other way. Only people with an inferiority complex are keen on politics.