According to Osho, the devil's allure arises from centuries of repressing one face of the divine—the destructive, dark, salty side—especially in Christianity's one-sided 'sweet' God. Repressed energy rebounds and becomes fascinating, even rebellious, while a partial God feels lifeless. Recognizing existence as a polarity (creation-destruction, light-dark) dissolves Satan's glamour: integrate both aspects of life as divine, not split.
When you ban the dark parts of life, they build pressure and start to look exciting; see both light and dark as parts of the same God and the temptation fades.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, the devil seems to be as popular as mao tse tung these days. Why? Why is the devil so attractive?
THE DEVIL IS NOTHING BUT THE OTHER SIDE OF God. The religions have been praising God and condemning the Devil, and the Devil is the other side of God. The word 'devil' is beautiful; it comes from a Sanskrit root which means divine. 'Divine' and 'devil' both come from the same root, DEV: in Sanskrit it becomes DEVADATA -- gods. The Devil and the Divine, both are the same -- but if you repress one part of God, one aspect of his being, sooner or later it is going to assert itself. Now there are churches, in the West particularly, churches devoted to the Devil. Disciples of the Devil are growing, mushrooming all over the world. The First Church of Satan is there in America, where people gather and worship Satan. Satan means 'devil', that is Arabic for 'devil'. All kinds of bizarre things are going on in the world,…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHY DID THE HOLY BOOKS HAVE TO INVENT THE IDEA OF THE DEVIL? In Germany Adolf Hitler was the prophet of God; in England he was the devil. Mothers used to make their children afraid. If they were playing outside and their mother did not want them to stay outside, just one thing was enough: "Adolf Hitler is coming" -- and they would run in. Adolf Hitler in England, and in every other country wherever he has invaded or was trying to invade, was the devil incarnate. All the religions need the devil. It is a safety for God. Adam and Eve fell from grace, committed the original sin because of the devil. Otherwise, God was so good: he had given them all.
The devil is one who has not learned yet how to share, how to give. The devil means a metaphysical constipation. It takes in but it never gives out. It goes on hoarding and hoarding; it becomes like a tumour. That's why all over the world, in all the mythologies, the devil is painted black. It is meaningful. It will be good to understand it. The devil is the first attitude towards light, of hoarding, clinging, possessing. Almost ninety-nine percent of people live like devils. God gives to them but they don't share. That which is given to them they never give to others. That which has been a gift to them they completely forget and claim it as their own. They have turned a tremendous energy into bitter poison. That which could have been very nourishing becomes suicidal. The ambrosia is reduced to being poisonous.
There is no devil at all. I have searched everywhere (laughter) -- I have not found any devil. Because I never did the basic thing in which you are bound to find the devil: I never repressed. It is repression that becomes devil. If you repress then the temptation, if you repress the desire for anything then that desire remains inside you. You can force it for a time-being but you cannot force it forever, because to keep it repressed energy is needed - you start getting tired. Sometimes you need rest and when you are resting the repressed desire starts uncoiling like a serpent. Hence the serpent became the symbol of the devil; it is significant that it was the serpent who seduced Adam and Eve in the beginning. Serpent represents the repressed, coiled energy. You have forced it, it is there in the unconscious.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, IS THE DEVIL REALLY MALE? God being a woman will create trouble. Then the devil will be a man -- because they have to be polar opposites. Perhaps the women's liberation movement has not thought about the implications of what they are doing. I would like God to be the man and tortured by the devil, the woman, rather than vice-versa, because good can be tortured by bad, but bad cannot be tortured by good. But the question simply has not come up around the world -- and women are insisting that God is a woman. It is really strange that nobody has bothered about the devil, who is a more important person than God. God is only a VIP, the devil is a VVIP! God may have created the world, but the devil is running it -- and running it so devilishly and so perfectly.