If a teacher doesn’t make you promise anything and lets you come and go, you can’t betray them—you’re just free to choose.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Maneesha has asked a question: BELOVED OSHO, HAS ONE ONLY RECEIVED A HIT IF IT HURTS?
Maneesha, a master hits not to hurt but to heal. And a disciple receives the hit with tremendous gratitude, not with anger. Unless a hit is received with gratitude it cannot do its work of healing. You are all full of wounds, and they all need to be exposed to the sun, to the open sky. Unless you allow yourself to be exposed completely, you cannot get rid of those wounds. The normal way in the world is to hide the wounds so nobody knows about them -- go on hiding them deeper and deeper in the unconscious, so even you forget them. But to work on the consciousness, cleaning it from all the wounds is absolutely necessary. Those wounds have to be brought into the open. You are asking, "Has one only received a hit if it hurts?" No, Maneesha. If it hurts you have missed. If it does…
Beloved Osho, in the video the other night, for the second time I heard you saying that no master has been betrayed by a woman. I don't understand that. What about sheela and her gang? Didn't they betray you? So far as I'm concerned, in the moment, I can't imagine betraying you, but I can't say for sure that I would never do it. I don't know what I would do if I was in the position of sheela. Saying all this, my heart hurts, but my mind keeps on going and doesn't understand. Please comment.
Prem Samyo, a master can be betrayed if he requires your faith. You cannot betray me, because I don't require your faith. You can be with me; you can choose to go away. Being with me is your free choice. Going away is also your freedom. Nobody can betray me. I don't give you the chance to betray. I have removed the very basis, the very possibility. Thousands of people have been with me, and walked with me as long as they could manage. And when it was impossible for them -- and I am an impossible man, so it is not their fault -- then they took off on a road separate from me. But I don't have any complaint, because I was never expecting them to hang around me forever and forever. In fact, I have to work on so many people that I want a few old…
Osho, why do disciples betray the Master? Vijayanand and Mahesh now speak against you. And a sannyasin, Swami Chinmay, has written in Current that when my Master speaks against politics he falls below religion; and also says that since I am a living disciple I can therefore speak against my Master.
He does not understand me. He does not know what I am saying or what is happening here. He has just assumed. These things will happen. As my sannyasins increase and a wave arises, many will dye their clothes, string malas, announce themselves. People flock to a rising sun; they try to profit from it. Such a gentleman has no value. His statements have none—he does not know my vision of life. Religion is not a subject with boundaries. Religion has no limit. Religion is the name of the whole of life. Whatever life includes, religion has the right to speak about. The politician cannot speak about religion, for politics has limits; but the religious man can speak about politics, for religion has no limits. Religion is boundless. It envelops the whole of life, like the sky. Nothing is to be left outside religion. The religious person’s vision applies to…
Osho! Why do disciples betray their master? Just now vijayananda and mahesh are speaking against you. And one sannyasi, swami chinmaya has written in 'current', "when my master speaks against politics he is falling beneath religion" -- and along with this: "I am a living disciple, this is why I can speak against my master."
I will speak on poetry also, because religion has a poetic aspect too. This is why in this country we have given two names to poets: poets and rishis. We have called a rishi, that poet in whose poetry truth speaks, in whose poetry the experience of god speaks. One who has dyed his poetry in religion we have called a rishi. For instance Rabindranath should be called a rishi, not a poet. His GITANJALI should be valued the same as any Upanishad. He is a rishi. What he has said is not only meter, rhythm, grammar and knowledge of language. What he has said is a stream of experience. Nectar has flowed. Nectar -- that is not his! Nectar -- that is coming from above. He is merely like a medium. As if a flute is put on somebody's lip and is played. The illusion may come to the…
Beloved master, do I betray my real self, and only myself, by not letting go?
In this commune, you cannot betray anybody except yourself. In the outside world the situation is different. You can betray Christianity, you can betray Jesus Christ, Moses, Mohammed. You can betray communism, Karl Marx. You can betray a thousand and one things, for the simple reason that they are all asking for your faith. Betrayal comes as the other side of faith. I am not asking for your belief, I am not asking for your faith. There is no way to betray me or anybody else here. This is a commune of individuals, totally independent, living out of their freedom and responsibility. There is nobody above you. You are alone here! So if you betray, you can betray only yourself. Let this sink as deep as possible in you, because every faith creates rebels, and every belief creates disbelief. The very seed of betrayal is sown in the idea of…