What is the role of media in our lives?

Do you always read the newspapers, and do you watch television?

For seven years I have not read anything -- no book, no newspapers -- and I don't watch television. My eyes are more precious and I don't want to destroy them. My eyes are to watch the trees and the stars and the oceans, not stupid programs on television. Television is one of the things which is medically absolutely wrong... because light comes directly into your eyes. It is easier than reading, because you are just sitting and watching; so people go on watching for hours and burn their eyes. Small children are burning their eyes. Science has to be a little more alert. Television should be changed a little. In a movie your eyes are less hurt because the screen is not the direct source of light; it simply reflects light. The same is possible for television... or some other way... But eyes should not be in contact so…

Osho, so much has happened in my short life, and with regard to the Supreme—whatever was given or taken was his; I have no wish of my own. But this much is certain: whatever I gained and whatever I lost happened by his will. And when we were returning yesterday evening, there was another friend from our industry with us—he too is your devotee. We kept thinking we must meet Osho, because the last time you came you had spoken with Mahipal-ji and with Vishnu, that you would also like to meet some people from the industry.

There is nothing to be done—no need to fight, no need to strike. Such a person should become instantly dishonored by the whole society, instantly! But those who are not under a roof, who are standing in the sun—they too honor him, because he has a roof. Now that is the great difficulty. This person should be instantly dishonored. His whole game should end. It is a matter of changing social values. If a man is happy living in a big palace, the reason he is happy is social value. We should turn it into a disvalue. This is not a fight of high or low. In my view we must change values: what kind of person we will honor, why we will honor him—we must change all of that completely. If you honor the naked man, you will find a thousand men in Bombay standing naked. After all, why…

[To a sannyasin, a film-producer who is returning to the States, Osho said that meditation could be introduced to many people through the medium of film and television.... ] Books are very old media. The days for books are gone. People don't have that much time to read, because reading is active; you have to do something. Television is perfectly okay. You have nothing to do; you simply sit and see. So something that is active is not going to spread very fast -- rather, something that people can simply sit and see. And eyes are more powerful than ears. When you listen to something you tend to forget it, but when you see something, you remember. Seeing is the most primitive language, so through TV the most primitive has become the most modern. Children see... their language is pictorial.

Beloved Osho, for a commercial organization, marketing is the ultimate life source; however, some marketing professionals suffer from an element of contradiction in their personal lives. Vis-a-vis professional objectives, are we selling things to people that they don't need?

The responsibility of the journalist is to bring before the people authentic facts, to make them aware how to avoid perversions. Homosexuality is not a disease; it is just a symptom of a disease. The real disease is celibacy, which is being preached by all religions. Now it is a strange game. The same people who are the cause of creating AIDS are condemning homosexuals. And they are the real criminals -- if anybody needs to be behind bars, it is all your saints and all your preachers and all your priests. But not the homosexuals, they are victims -- victims of an absolutely wrong psychology being preached for centuries. Don't fulfill sick needs. Expose the fact that those sick needs are arising from a certain source. And create a protest in the minds of people so that the sources can be stopped. You cannot fight with the sick needs…

Beloved Osho, as meditation is deepening, I feel tension and frustration at not being okay with myself, melting more and more. Now as you push us on, another kind of tension will not allow me to be satisfied, except momentarily. I have heard you call this divine discontent. I remember once a friend said, "if you think this is it, you can be sure it isn't." this pushes me on to enquire more deeply. Beloved, laughter helps to move beyond tension, and with divine discontent I just need to remember to laugh at myself. Do you have a little something to remind me?

Certainly it is essential. Almost one third of the day is devoted to television. And what is the television doing? It is propagating the same ideas, the same advertisements, the same philosophies, the same attitudes that the government allows. Watching television eight hours a day continuously for years is a conditioning. Those ideas become imprints on your mind -- every day ... Solzhenitsyn is right that what is being done by television in America is being done by very primitive means in the Soviet Union. It is possible that there may be a revolution in the Soviet Union some day -- there is a limit of tolerance -- but in America there will not be any revolution. You can't revolt against such a sophisticated way of conditioning your mind. Adolf Hitler has said that there is no truth and there is no lie. The truth is the often repeated lie.…