According to Osho, renunciation’s prestige is a subtle, largely unseen barometer of a civilization’s poverty. Only a poor nation honors renunciation; scarcity masquerades as spirituality and gets moralized as a virtue. Its significance is diagnostic, not ultimate: when deprivation is glorified, society mistakes lack for wisdom. Seeing this helps separate true spirituality from compensations for poverty.
When people don’t have much, they call giving things up holy—but that’s coping, not the highest truth.