What is the significance of the sangha in spiritual practice?

Osho, a question has arisen about institutions and the sangha. Souls like Mahavira attained themselves by seeking themselves, not by following anyone else. This seems entirely true; and yet, by creating the fourfold sangha of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen, did Mahavira not in fact create an organization? Did this formation of a sangha not become, in a direct sense, imitation? What might Mahavira have meant by having people follow after him? And isn’t a body of sannyasins and an organization forming around you exactly like Mahavira’s? Please clarify briefly.

Everything deteriorates in human hands. There is only one remedy: if only we could say to those who loved Moses, Please, do not worship the flute—learn to play it. If those around Moses learned to play—even if they could not play as Moses did—if they at least learned to play, one thing would be certain: no one would plate the flute with gold or stud it with jewels. Because then they could say: the worship of the flute is not of the flute, but of the music that arises from it. And that music arises only when the flute is hollow. Fill it with gold and no music will arise. Do not worship Mahavira and Buddha; rather, what happened in their lives—the heights that manifested, the summits they touched—if we too set out, even for smaller hills, perhaps there will be no distortion. But we get busy worshiping. Worship itself…

Osho, you usually criticize the crowd. But in support of Buddha’s sangha you cited Gurdjieff and gave great importance to group power. Please explain the difference between the power of a sangha, a group, and a crowd.

Sangha means: those utterly asleep in the thick night do not come near a Buddha; those who are already awake have no need to come—one who has awakened, who has become a Buddha unto himself, why should he come? For what? And the one fast asleep—how will he come? He will pass by a Buddha and feel no thrill. He will pass through the Buddha’s breeze and not even feel its touch. He is deeply asleep. Between these two are the people who are neither awakened enough to be Buddhas nor so asleep that they have no longing to become Buddhas. From those filled with drowsiness yet aflame with the urge to be lit, from those unlit lamps with the longing to burn—a sangha is formed. But the fundamental basis of a sangha is the awakened one at the center. The second word is organization. The day the Buddha departs,…

A few small questions: Osho, Buddha said the journey to truth is solitary. Then why did he create the vast Sangha?

So that many people could set out together, each alone, on the journey. The Sangha was not created to go together. No one can enter samadhi together. One has to go alone. The journey always ends in aloneness. But in the beginning, if there is company, great reassurance, great courage arises. When you meditate alone, trust doesn’t come that anything will happen. You have lost trust in yourself. Meditate with ten thousand people: you may not trust yourself, but you begin to trust the crowd of nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine. Each of them is in the same condition. They too don’t trust themselves. And why would they? The total earning of a whole life is rubbish. No real experience has come. Their very faith is lost that “I can still find peace.” Impossible! Even if joy happens to them, they will think, “This is some fantasy, or someone…

If some one wishes that the ancient tradition -- ideas about Sannyas should be adhered to, then the flower of religion will soon fade away in this world. It is necessary to give birth to a new ideology about Sannyas if we wish to protect the flower of religion in this world. SANGH AND SANGATHAN Now a question arises: If nonstealing means nonfollowing, why have all prophets, religious leaders etc. created organisations for their followers? For example why did Mahavira create four-fold organization of sadhu-sadhvi and shravak-shravaki? In reply I shall say that meanings of words undergo a great change in course of years. Some words which had a particular meaning 2,500 years ago, do not have the same meaning today. And great errors are made due to this. A big change has taken place between what Mahavira called a sangh and what we understand by it today.

Osho, even in the presence of a Buddha, is it still essential that the seeker find his own solution?

That is why Buddhas have created families. The Buddha created the sangha. He formulated three refuges. The first was: “Buddham sharanam gacchami”—I go to the refuge of the Buddha. But as long as the Buddha is alive this is easy. When the Buddha is no longer in the body, an ordinary person finds it difficult—how to take refuge in one who is not visibly present? He is invisible; even his feet are not visible—how to take refuge? So the Buddha made a second formula: “Dhammam sharanam gacchami”—if there is no Buddha, take refuge in the Dhamma. But Dhamma is a very subtle, ethereal thing. Dhamma means the law by which the universe moves. Yet it is not seen. So the Buddha made a third formula: “Sangham sharanam gacchami”—take refuge in the Sangha; the community of monks, the family. The Buddha is the subtlest. Buddhahood means: one who, awakened, has realized…