According to Osho, Gorbachev is the first ray of dawn after sixty years of oppression, heralding a second revolution in the Soviet Union—from fear to freedom. His deepest significance lies not only in political reforms but in opening Russia to meditation and diverse spiritual paths, cultivating inner, indestructible freedom. By sowing seeds of consciousness, he can transform a long-suppressed society into a flowering of trust, love, and truth.
He’s starting the morning after a long dark night and should bring not just new rules but ways for people to find inner freedom through meditation and true spirituality.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, seeing such unbelievable changes in russia these past two years, due to gorbachev's leadership, do you have a special message for him? Would you at all consider going to russia if he would have the courage to welcome you and your people? Do you think that one day russia could be the country of the future of humanity?
Jivan Mada, yes, it appears as if unbelievable changes have been happening in Russia in the past two years. But as far as I am concerned, I was waiting for those changes; they are not unbelievable. Sixty years of oppression, exploitation and mass scale butchery were preparing the ground. No night is without a dawn. Sixty years was more than enough; it was absolutely certain that it would come to an end. Gorbachev is the first ray heralding that the morning has come. Many more changes will be happening in the future. Their speed is going to accelerate, because for sixty years the people have not tasted freedom, have not tasted trust, love; they have known only a fascist regime, which was ready to kill anybody for any small excuse. They have lived under the shadow of death. I welcome the dawn; the birds have started singing, and the flowers…
Beloved Osho, a few months before his death edgar cayce, in one of his trance "sleep talks" said, "through russia comes the hope of the world. Not in respect to what is sometimes termed communism or bolshevism, no; but freedom, freedom! That each man will live for his fellow man. The principle has been born there. It will take years for it to be crystallized. Yet out of russia comes again the hope of the world." could you please comment?
If Gorbachev can introduce the Soviet Union to Gautam Buddha, to Mahavira, to Zarathustra, to Lao Tzu... why be so confined to Karl Marx? Why be so poor? Why not make the whole sky yours? -- all the stars and the whole beauty of the night, yours. Why remain confined? If he can open the doors for the spiritual search, then, certainly, he can fulfill the prophecy of Edgar Cayce that Russia is the hope for all of mankind. And I think him a man intelligent enough to understand that materialism is as confining as Christianity, as confining as Hinduism. I am making my people available to all dimensions because the whole past is your heritage. Why remain so poor, clinging to one small tradition? Why not allow the whole sky to be yours? Why not open your wings? Communism missed the first revolution because it was not revolutionary enough.…
Why has the state not disappeared after seventy years?
Gorbachev himself, before he does any act against communism, needs a great training in meditation. And after that, whatever he will do will be right. I can see the man is certainly intelligent and has good intentions for humanity, is a peace-loving person, but he has no depth of meditation. These are all superficial mind values, which don't go deep enough. They are only skin deep -- scratch just a little and all those values disappear. Meditation brings transformation from the inside. It is not an imposition of morality and commandments from outside. Anything that comes from outside is worthless -- morality, religion, spirituality, whatever you call it. Only that which blossoms within you like a lotus has ultimate value. Out of that arising of consciousness, you cannot do evil. Your every action will be spontaneous; it will come from your deepest being, and the deepest being cannot do any…
Their fourth question is: WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WENT TO THE SOVIET UNION?
"So it was not so bad that I was hungry and starving; Nansen was always holding out nourishment for me, through the window. And it was not only nourishment for my body; his attention, his care for me was also nourishment. I am nobody, and he took so much care. Every day he remembered me, that I would be standing outside. "Leaving his dining table, he would come and give me food, and he never asked, `Why do you go on standing outside?'" -- because that is one of the fundamentals of Zen: don't interfere into anybody's life. Everybody has a territorial imperative, a certain area. Don't enter into it; that is his dignity, that is his pride. Leave it to his intelligence. "And he was not only giving me food, he was giving me spiritual nourishment. It was not bad, Osho. Don't misunderstand me, and don't misunderstand my master,…