According to Osho, scriptures are useless because they turn living inquiry into blind belief: they claim absolute authority, forbid reflection and change, and make people mentally blind. When a book becomes "scripture," it silences science and doubt, fuels persecution, and halts human growth. Books are valuable only when approached as fallible guides to be questioned, tested, and owned through one's own understanding.
Treating any book as unquestionable truth stops you from thinking; using books to think for yourself helps you grow.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: OSHO, ARE THE HOLY SCRIPTURES JUST USELESS? AND ARE THEY HOLY OR NOT? THE holy scriptures are not just useless, they are absolutely harmful. If they were just useless there would be no need to be concerned with them. They are positively harmful. They are preventing people from becoming religious because they make people knowledgeable, and people start thinking that knowledgeability is wisdom, it is enlightenment. Because they know about great words, theological doctrines, dogmas, philosophies, naturally they think, What else is there to know? You have crammed the whole BIBLE or GITA or KORAN; then what else is there? And by cramming the KORAN, the GITA, or the BIBLE, you have not gained anything. So the holy scriptures are not just useless. If they were useless there would be no harm: they could be preserved in libraries where many other useless books are preserved.
A friend has asked: Osho, according to your statements, all dharmashastras—the religious scriptures that express the ideas of Buddha, Mahavira, and so on—are useless. Then why shouldn’t the books through which your ideas are expressed also be considered useless? Why should a person not advance only through his own experience? What need is there to listen to you?
And in response there are Jain books that say the same: it is better to be crushed under a mad elephant’s feet than to take refuge in a Hindu Shiva temple. That is a great sin; death is better than that. I am against this mentality. This mentality has caused great harm. How could I be opposed to books, to ideas, to the experiences of those who have enriched life? But I am opposed to deadness, and to the insistence that whatever we are clinging to is the only truth. This is the sign of a violent mind. A nonviolent, loving heart does not make such insistences. It is always open to think and to inquire. Always impartial. I spoke to you about this the day before yesterday, so I will not go further into it now. Let me simply repeat: I am in favor of books; I am not…
Osho, you said that scriptures and religious texts are of no use—except after enlightenment. Please explain this clearly. It is generally held that after enlightenment there is no need for any scripture.
When Buddha first attained enlightenment, he came to Kashi. He stayed under a tree outside the city. No one knew him then, no one recognized him. He was an insignificant, unknown, unfamiliar beggar—a bhikkhu. The king of Kashi, much troubled and anxious one evening, went out in his chariot for some air. As he left the town, the sun’s rays were slanting; Buddha was sitting, leaning against a tree, sunlight on his face. The king said to his charioteer, “Stop, stop! This man is something extraordinary—so luminous, so peaceful! I have never seen eyes so full of music, so full of joy! Stop; let me go near him a little.” As when you pass a garden brimming with fragrance and you feel like pausing a while; or when, parched by the sun, you come under the shade of a great banyan and feel to rest awhile—so it happened to that…
Osho, is there really no benefit at all from the scriptures?
And then a unique thing happens—not only the Gita will bear witness, the Quran too will bear witness to you, and the Bible as well. For one who has understood the truth of life through meditation, all scriptures become witnesses together; then there is no contradiction among them. Then there is no difference of Hindu and Muslim, Christian and the rest. But if you have not heard the inner truth, have not seen it, have not read your inner book—the real book, whose pages lie yet unturned—and you read the Gita, you will become a Hindu, not religious; read the Quran, and you will become a Muslim, not religious. And to be religious is a far greater thing than to be a Muslim. We need freedom from Muslims, from Hindus, from Jains and Buddhists. If there were no Christians and Parsis in the world, the world would be better. The…
Beloved Osho, what is the difference between the emptiness of the child before the formation of the ego and the awakened childlikeness of a buddha?
Whether you are for it or against it doesn't matter -- your concern shows where your ego is hanging. And I will include the capitalist in it also: his whole concern is how to gather money, hoard money -- because money has power over matter. You can purchase any material thing through money. You cannot purchase anything spiritual, you cannot purchase anything that has any intrinsic value; you can purchase only things. If you want to purchase love, you cannot purchase; but you can purchase sex. Sex is the material part of love. Through money, matter can be purchased, possessed. Now you will be surprised: I include the communist and the capitalist both in the same category, and they are enemies, just as I include Charvaka and Mahatma Gandhi in the same category, and they are enemies. They are enemies, but their concern is the same. The capitalist is trying…