What is your view regarding the Sikh–Nirankari conflict?

Osho, what is the relationship between meditation and patience?

If you sit to meditate to remove mental restlessness, you will keep looking back again and again: “Has it gone yet?” And the irony is that when you begin to meditate, restlessness will increase. Because what has been repressed will start surfacing; catharsis will begin. The rubbish you have kept hidden within and never allowed to express—meditation will break open those doors too. It will clean the house. Dust piled up for years, for births, will rise again; there will be gusts and storms. For a while even the little peace you had will be lost. Then you will panic: “I came for peace, and even what I had is gone.” Without patience, you could even become unhinged, because meditation brings such a great storm. The disease is not from a day or two; it’s from lifetimes. Meditation will break through all the layers to reach your innermost core. In…

Osho, these days in the country, what do you have to say about the communal conflicts taking place in the name of religion?

So, Bansal, don’t bring up the word “these days.” This has always been so. Quarrels in the name of religion have been continuous. Quarrels have been only in the name of religion. The reason is clear: we harbor a fundamental misconception about religion. As with a lamp—when it burns there is light; when it goes out, the light ends—so when a Buddha, a Mahavira, a Lao Tzu, a Jesus-like person ignites, there is light; and when that person departs, the light departs. But the lamp goes out and we get busy worshiping the darkness. Once the lamp is extinguished, only darkness remains. Granted there was a lamp there once and there once was light—but now there is only darkness. When the lamp burns, there is religion; when the worship of darkness begins, there is a sect. And what will sects do if not fight? What will the blind do if…

Osho, The Nirankari Baba, Gurbachan Singh, was murdered by a religious fanatic. Baba did not denigrate any religion. His only “fault” was that he did not regard the Guru Granth Sahib as the final Guru-bani; he also gave respect to the scriptures of other religions. We fear that in this way a worshipper of truth will not be allowed to speak the truth. Please explain: how can we be free of those who throttle truth?

Naturally the Jains were happy—but the Hindus were angry. The Muslims were pleased; the Christians were pleased—they even hoped to make Gandhi a Christian. They tried hard. There came a moment when Gandhi too began to think he should become a Christian. In Africa the missionaries wooed him—if a man praises Jesus so much, why not make him a Christian? Gandhi acknowledged three as his gurus: one was a Jain—Shrimad Rajchandra, so the Jains were happy that a Jain ascetic had been accepted as Gandhi’s guru—and the other two were Christians—Tolstoy and Ruskin. The Christians were happy too. Not one Hindu among them. These were his three gurus: one Jain, two Christians. Therefore Muslims did not murder him; Hindus did. You’ll be surprised—I was born in a Jain household—and no one is as angry with me as the Jains are. Naturally, they hoped I would propagate their religion to the…

Osho, until now religion and politics were regarded as mutually opposed dimensions. But today it seems clear that religion and politics are two sides of the same coin. Today in Bhuj, the mahant of the Swaminarayan sect, Hariswarupdasji, has labeled your entry into Kutch as “an attack on Kutch culture.” And a politician, Mr. Babubhai Shah, has called you “a hunter in the garb of a sadhu”! On this blackboard of religion and politics, your religiosity seems to stand out like white chalk.

Italian friends come. I put a mala around their necks and say, “Look at me,” and they instantly close their eyes! Only Italians do that, no one else. I was surprised: whenever I say, “Look at me,” they close their eyes. I ask them to look; they close their eyes. Something is amiss between us. Perhaps they are right—because to see me, closing the eyes is indeed a way. That is how women look: more loving, more inward. When a woman embraces someone, she closes her eyes. Therefore, women are not as keen about a man’s color, form, features as they are about his refinement. Women are touched by different things than men. A man looks at complexion, form, features—head to toe, hair color, skin tone, nose, eyes. A woman takes less interest in these; her interest is elsewhere. She sees how graceful the man is, how humble, how simple,…

Osho! Basically, you are a herald of religion—of the original, essential religion. You yourself seem to be religion. But the surprising thing is that right now your strongest opposition comes from the religious establishment itself! The recent statements by two Shankaracharyas are fresh examples. Would you kindly shed some light on this?

The death of his father shook Shankaracharya utterly. But the mother, already in grief, would be left alone if Shankara took sannyas. She refused. The story says: Shankara went to bathe in the river, and a crocodile caught his leg. A crowd gathered on the ghat; the mother came running. Shankara said, “The crocodile says it will let go if you allow me to take sannyas.” What could the mother do? With tears she said, “All right, then become a sannyasin—at least live. If you live, even as a sannyasin, I will see you some day.” And the story says the crocodile let go. That is just a story; crocodiles were not that wise then, nor now! If man is not so wise, what of crocodiles! I spoke of Mulla—he did marry. Fourteen-year-old girl, eighty-year-old groom. The next day friends asked, “How was the wedding night?” “Don’t ask—great joy! Only…