What message do you have for your sannyasins in Russia?

Beloved master, a friend is going to visit russia in a couple of weeks. Do you have a message for your sannyasins over there?

I am not a sadist. I don't want you to be unnecessarily persecuted, tortured, harassed. There is no need when you can go underground so easily. The politicians will prove absolutely impotent; they cannot do anything to you. In Mohammedan countries we have sannyasins. They were also feeling bad that they cannot be like every other sannyasin, and the movement cannot grow. Now it can grow everywhere; now there are no barriers. It is the same thing -- the politicians may talk of democracy, they may talk of dictatorship, it doesn't matter. Politicians are simply politicians. Their minds function in the same way, their cunningness is the same. Yes, their masks may be different. In these four years we have seen that the American politician has only the mask of a democrat. Behind democracy is hypocrisy and nothing else. This whole world is tortured by politicians in different names, exploited…

Beloved Osho, after six years of sannyas and a long, hard struggle with authorities and legal hindrances, I recently succeeded in leaving my home country -- the soviet union. Sitting in darshan just a few meters from you, and seeing you, and hearing you talk for the first time in my life, I remembered all my sannyasin friends who are not able to travel to you, and my joy was mixed with deep sadness. Do you see the soviet union under gorbachev becoming a more open society, so that your message of love and meditation will spread more easily there?

According to Karl Marx, communism can happen only when there is a very developed form of capitalism and a class struggle. Russia was still a pre-capitalist country, still living under feudalism, under the czars. There was no capitalist class, and there was no proletariat. Karl Marx could not have logically conceived that Russia would be the first communist country, the first to have the great revolution. But it happened like that: Russia was the first and China was the next -- and Marx could not have thought either of Russia or of China. Perhaps it is going to be again a mysterious phenomenon. People think America is a democracy -- which is utterly false. And people think that in America there is freedom of expression, freedom of individuality, that what the constitution of America says is not only written in the constitution but is lived by the country, and that…

Beloved Osho, when I see you here with us, my heart melts, and your silence beckons me from out across the sea. When you speak, my thirsty being drinks deeply of your cool draught, then rests its drunken head at your feet. When I remember you, I fly like a bird in the open sky. But when you dance with us beloved master, it feels as if all things are set right with the universe, and the incredible sense of harmony vibrates skyward from this temple of life. Even my guitar closes its eyes and sheds a tear of contentment.

Milarepa, this is the moment I have been living for: to share with you the miracle that has happened to me. I try in every possible way to make a way towards your heart. Slowly, slowly people are getting the clarity and the insight and the heartfulness. Temples are not made of bricks and stones. Temples are made of dancing hearts -- I mean real temples. I know this is not only your situation. There are many who will share your question as their own. But living in this insane world... You can understand my difficulty. I wanted it to happen all over the world, but those insane people are against themselves; they are completely closed. They are open to any kind of stupidity, but they are not open to sanity. They are ready to do everything for destruction, but they are not ready to make this small life a…

Beloved Osho, seeing such unbelievable changes in russia these past two years, due to gorbachev's leadership, do you have a special message for him? Would you at all consider going to russia if he would have the courage to welcome you and your people? Do you think that one day russia could be the country of the future of humanity?

Jivan Mada, yes, it appears as if unbelievable changes have been happening in Russia in the past two years. But as far as I am concerned, I was waiting for those changes; they are not unbelievable. Sixty years of oppression, exploitation and mass scale butchery were preparing the ground. No night is without a dawn. Sixty years was more than enough; it was absolutely certain that it would come to an end. Gorbachev is the first ray heralding that the morning has come. Many more changes will be happening in the future. Their speed is going to accelerate, because for sixty years the people have not tasted freedom, have not tasted trust, love; they have known only a fascist regime, which was ready to kill anybody for any small excuse. They have lived under the shadow of death. I welcome the dawn; the birds have started singing, and the flowers…

Fifth question, Osho, Some days ago you said that in Russia your sannyasins live without mala and robes. Recently, at a camp in Indore, Ma Anand Mridula said that those who do not wear the mala and robes can suffer harm on levels they cannot even know. Can the compassion of an enlightened one descend again into the ravines of anger? Out of this fear I have returned my sannyas, because I was neither a sannyasin inwardly, nor have I worn the mala and robes for two years. Kindly shed light, with compassion, on my state of mind!

You have heard the story of the mouse, haven’t you? The mouse, greatly troubled, recited the Hanuman Chalisa and devoted himself to Hanumanji. In the end, Hanumanji had to appear. He said, “Why, you son of a mouse, why are you after me? You are Ganesha’s vehicle—why harass me? Why don’t you talk to Ganesha?” The mouse said, “Ganesha does not listen; he is always sitting right on my chest. How can any words come out? Such a heavy body—my breath is going out; where will words come from? That’s why I remembered you. Just this much kindness: make me a cat. I am tired of being a mouse. If Ganesha doesn’t torment me, then the cat does. If Ganesha lets me go, the cat falls upon me.” To get rid of him, Hanumanji said, “All right—be a cat.” Two days later, he was again reciting the Hanuman Chalisa, meowing…