Why are all the so-called Indian gurus rushing to America?

Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHY ARE ALL THE SO-CALLED INDIAN GURUS RUSHING TO AMERICA? Nirmal, in the very ancient scriptures there is a story. Meditate over it. This is the story: that when destiny was being planned, the archetypal representatives of various peoples and schools were offered their choice of gifts. The Japanese asked to be given the Zen koan so that people would always be attached to the power of perplexity. The Hindu guru asked for the mantram and the assertion that everything was derived from his philosophy. Then an American-to-be was asked for his choice. Since he was to be one of the last peoples to emerge, most of the more attractive things had been handed out. But he was not long in asking: "Give me the dollar -- then they all will come to me, sooner or later!" Enough for today.

Beloved Osho, why are there so few american sannyasins? I recall you saying that america would be a very spiritual country because they had already mastered material abundance and found it did not satisfy. Why are they so sleepy? Please comment.

America has no roots. It is just a three-hundred-year-old country; it is passing through its childhood. Compared to a country like India which has been there for at least ninety thousand years, America is a just-born baby. So wait a little; babies don't tend to be spiritual. Secondly, America has promoted itself as being really rich. That is not true. Thirty million Americans are in utter poverty; millions of black people are not first-class citizens, and the people to whom the country belongs, the Red Indians, are kept in reservations. Those reservations are not very much different to the concentration camps in Germany -- in fact, they are more dangerous. In Germany, the concentration camps were made of barbed wire; you could not escape. The American reservations are open. If you want to go out, nobody is preventing you. They have created some psychological barbed wire -- invisible. The Red…

A friend has asked: Whenever there has been a crisis in religion, whenever darkness has descended upon the country, whenever there has been wrongdoing, God has taken birth as an avatar. Why does God not take an avatar now?

Those enamored of the past, those worshipers of death, also worship old age. The older someone is, the more valuable his words become. But donkeys also grow old; they don’t become wise by it. An old donkey remains a donkey; an old mule remains a mule. And a horse even when young is a horse. The truth is that the genius children have, the old never do. Only a very few fortunate ones preserve the genius of their childhood; otherwise society rusts the edge of everyone’s sword. And when the blade is blunted, we say, “Ah, what an ancient sword!” My words are as new as the morning dew, as fresh as a just-opened flower. Pundits cannot understand such words. They need old stones—and the older the better—and if the script upon them is in Brahmi, then nothing more is needed—their head bows to the ground. Worshipers of the ancient,…

Osho. Are you also the poor man's guru?

Certainly! Whenever you give me an opportunity to contradict myself I never lose it. I contain contradictions. I am vast. I never feel uneasy about contradictions; I love them. Yes, I am a poor man's guru. But if you understand me there is no contradiction. My definition of a rich man and my definition of a poor man have to be understood well. Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor because theirs is the kingdom of God." And mind you, he does not say theirs will BE the kingdom of God; he says theirs IS the kingdom of God. Let me repeat it: he says, "Blessed are the poor, because theirs is the kingdom of God." But who are the poor in Jesus' definition? -- the same people I call rich. I call a man rich who has become absolutely frustrated with the world, who has known all that it can…

Question: First question: Osho, on this land of India I directly see the radiance of Krishna, Buddha, Mahavira, Kabir, Nanak, and such great souls shining through you. Will India remain foremost in spirituality, or will foreign seekers take the lead? For foreign scientists, engineers, doctors, thinkers, seers are rushing to Poona as if the whole world’s treasure is this ashram. The truth, nonviolence, compassion, love, the feeling of surrender that these foreigners have learned and absorbed in your presence—through meditation and discourses—clearly shows in the ashram’s activities. Will the land of India then be deprived of your wealth? Will hypocrites like Satya Sai Baba, by producing watches and dropping ash, not reduce India itself to ash? Or will such great beings continue to incarnate on Indian soil in the future? Please be gracious and explain.