According to Osho, governments fear certain teachings because they uproot their authority: he questions traditions, organized religion, and politics as a ‘dirty game,’ demanding leadership by genuine intelligence and humanity. Unable to answer his critique, bureaucracies and clergy fear exposure and loss of control. Such teachings awaken individual awareness and love, inspiring independent minds who won’t be easily manipulated—therefore institutions react with bans, smears, and exclusion.
They’re scared because ideas that make people think and love for themselves weaken the grip of bosses, priests, and politicians.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Why are all the governments so afraid of you?
They are afraid because whatever I am saying, whatever I am doing, is cutting their very roots. I am against all traditions. I am against all religions because I don't think that religion can be organized, it is an individual affair. I am against governments because I don't want governments to be in the hands of politicians. I want governments to be in the hands of the geniuses, talented people, the cream of the society. I would like man in politics, but not political man. Their humanity should remain untouched by their politics. Politics is a dirty game; very few people in the whole history of politics have been able to remain men in politics. I consider the present president of Greece as one of the men who is not a politician, but a man in politics. While every government in Europe has been afraid to give me a tourist…
Osho, why are society and the government against you? Why is there a continual attempt to suppress your voice?
As it should be, that is exactly what is happening. This is proper; it has always been so. If society did not oppose what I say, my words would not be true. Only when society opposes my words is there proof that there is some truth in them. Society only opposes truth. With lies society is always at ease. Lies cannot harm society; society digests them and makes them part of itself. It cannot digest truth. Hence Jesus has to be crucified. Hence Socrates has to be given poison. Hence stones have to be thrown at Buddha. What is happening is right. It is just as it should be; it is happening according to the law. Do not be anxious about it. Do not waste time in it. What I am saying is of a kind that society will not tolerate. Only a few brave individuals can bear it. Society…
[NOTE: This is a typed tape transcript and has not been edited or published, as of August 1992. It is for reference use only. The interviewer's remarks have been omitted where not relevant to Osho's words] INTERVIEW BY EPOCA MAGAZINE, ITALY QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) WERE YOU AFRAID OF THE POSSIBILITY (INAUDIBLE) ANSWER: All people around the earth have proved gullible. Otherwise there will not be Christians, Hindus, Mohammedans, Buddhists, Jainas, communists. All these religions prove only one thing: that people are gullible. And so gullible that they can believe in a God nobody has seen. They can sacrifice their life to a God who does not exist, who has never answered anybody's prayer, who is the greatest lie on the earth. They are so gullible that they can believe that there are holy books written by God. The VEDAS are holy, Hindus believe.
Beloved Osho, many contemporaries and enlightened ones -- raman maharshi, meher baba, george gurdjieff and j. Krishnamurti -- have worked with people, but people get more offended by you than by anybody else. Osho, where does your technique differ from that of other enlightened ones?
The question is very fundamental. It arises in many people's minds, and it needs a very deep insight into the workings of different masters. We will take each of the masters named in the question separately. Raman Maharshi is a mystic of the highest quality, but a master of the lowest quality. And you have to understand that to be a mystic is one thing; to be a master is totally different. Out of a thousand mystics, perhaps one is a master. Nine hundred and ninety-nine decide to remain silent -- seeing the difficulty, that whatever they have realized is impossible to convey in any possible way to others; seeing that not only is it difficult to convey, it is bound to be misunderstood too. Naturally, one who has arrived to the ultimate peak of consciousness will most probably decide not to bother with the world anymore. He has suffered…
Beloved Osho, is it possible that as modern intelligent people become more and more accustomed to change as part of their daily lives, they will also become more open to your radically innovative approach to life?
That was the reasoning of the pope when he said to Galileo, "You should change in your book where you have written that the earth goes around the sun. It should be changed because according to the Bible the sun goes around the earth." And Galileo said, "Just a small statement: what difference does it make to you?" And the pope said, "It is not a question of a small statement. If one statement in the Bible is proved wrong, then suspicion arises in the believers -- that if one statement is wrong then what guarantee is there about other statements? And if God can write one statement wrong, then he is not infallible. You have to change it. It is not a question of factuality, of science. The question is the whole prestige of the Christian religion." -- On that small statement, which has nothing to do with Christianity,…