According to Osho, he is not a nationalist; India, like all nations, is a fragment that breeds misfortune. Honoring its Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam heritage, India should lead humanity by dissolving national boundaries and declaring itself international—ideally the first land of the United Nations. Science has already unified life; politics and nationalism are poison. Being simply human must replace all divisive identities.
India should drop borders and labels and, true to “the world is one family,” become a home for all humans rather than a separate nation.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, would you be kind enough to say something about your view of India? Ayub Syed, editor, ‘Current.’
Dear Ayub Syed! I am not a nationalist. India, Pakistan, China, Japan have no meaning for me. I do not see this earth as divided into fragments. The misfortune of the earth is precisely that it is divided into fragments. And as long as it remains divided, that misfortune will continue. Science has made the earth one; if only politics would step aside, humanity’s misfortune would end. Today the earth has all the means to make human beings happy and prosperous. For the first time, the earth could fill even the gods of heaven with envy. But politics will have to die if science is to win. Science opens the doors of good fortune; politics turns those very doors into misfortune. Scientists like Albert Einstein and Lord Rutherford discovered the atomic bomb. The atom could have proved a blessing for the earth, for such energy had come into our hands…
Beloved Osho, india, your homeland, has treated you badly and without due respect. Yet sometimes when I hear you speak, do I not detect a subtle fondness in you for india and her people? Osho, what do you love about india?
India, to me, is not only a country, but a concept... not just a land, but a way of life, a tremendously significant philosophy. So when I talk about India, it does not matter at all that they have treated me badly, that they would like me to be killed. They have made efforts -- unfortunately they failed. These are small things, and I don't take them into consideration. My consideration is for the India as a concept. It is the only part of the world which has gone deep into the interiority of man, which has discovered for the first time the ultimate in consciousness, the universality of individual beings. Science has discovered much, but no discovery of science can be compared to the discovery that India has made in the past. For ten thousand years continuously it has devoted its whole energy to finding out the meaning of…
Osho, you have titled this series of talks “Sahaj Yoga.” Do “sahaj” and “yoga” not seem mutually opposed?
Anand Maitreya! They don’t just seem opposed, they are opposed. But no ultimate truth of life can manifest without contradiction. Life is made of opposites—darkness and light, day and night, woman and man, negative electricity and positive electricity, birth and death. The very structure of life is woven of opposites. Hence the opposites are not only opposed; they are complementary to each other. If you have labored hard all day, you will be able to sleep deeply. Labor and rest are opposites, yet only the one who has worked can rest deeply—and the one who has not worked cannot. So the opposites are not only opposed, they complete each other. And only the one who has rested deeply at night can rise in the morning and engage in work again. One who has not rested through the night will not be able to work in the morning. Look closely at…
Osho, on seeing your ashram I had the sense of another world. How meaningful is this in our country, India?
Poverty, wretchedness, India’s problems—all can disappear; only give India a right perspective to resolve them. Our problems are of our own making; therefore removing them is easy. Today there is such technological progress in the world that India has no need to remain poor. If we are poor, perhaps it is because we want to remain so; we are poor because our ways of thinking are foolish. We have the most beautiful land, the most beautiful sky. We are not short of talent either. But we have forgotten to honor talent. So whenever a talented person is born here, he too has to leave India. We have become adept at honoring the dull-witted. We have invented such criteria that only the dull-witted can qualify. Someone gets up at five in the morning—our respect! Someone does not smoke—our respect! Someone eats only greens—our respect! Someone wears khadi—our respect! Someone performs daily…
Osho, I am a thoughtful young man who cannot stand the present condition of my country. Our India, crushed under superstitions and obscurantist, antiquated ideas, has become sheer hell. My blood boils seeing its rotten state, and I grow impatient to do something for this unlucky country. Osho, as an individual, what is my duty toward this nation? What can I do so that this country’s wretchedness, hunger, hypocrisy, indolence, and stench are wiped out?
In China, a six-thousand-year-old statement was found written on human skin: “I don’t like the present state of the country.” Six thousand years ago! In Babylon, on a brick almost as old, there’s a statement that if you read it you would think it is this morning’s Poona Herald editorial: “We don’t like the present condition. Students don’t listen to teachers; discipline is corrupt. Children don’t heed their parents. The very foundation of family has broken. Love has vanished from the world; hatred and enmity reign!” Six thousand years ago, the same complaint! And today, the same! When were conditions ever good? All the scriptures claim they were good before—but when was this “before”? There never was such a “before.” Conditions used to be worse. You call Rama’s time “Ram-rajya,” the rule of Rama. The conditions were worse than today. Don’t ever make the mistake of bringing Ram-rajya back! A…