Why are rituals and rules considered limiting?

Why are you so much against rituals and rules?

BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT RELIGION, and they cannot be religion. I am against rituals, but that does not mean that a religious person cannot go into a ritual. But when a religious person goes into a ritual, it is not a ritual at all. His heart is in it; then his words have wings. So remember it: I am against the ritual when there is no heart in it. Then it is a ritual! But if there is a heart... just remember those three mystics, those three Russian mystics, praying to God: "You are three, we are three -- have mercy on us!" This too is a ritual, a simple one, of their own invention; this too is a prayer -- but their heart was in it. A famous story about Moses: He was passing through a forest. He saw a man praying. But the man who was praying was…

Osho, is it really true that even the devil cannot deceive the Marwaris?

Sahajanand! After hearing yesterday’s discourse, even Nasruddin got riled. I had said that even the devil cannot deceive a Marwari. So the mulla thought to himself: To hell with the Marwaris! Today I’ll trick a Marwari in such a way that her seven generations will remember it. It was dusk; the sun had set, and because of a power failure the street was dark. Nasruddin saw that the neighbor, the Marwari Seth Dhannalal’s new daughter-in-law, was coming along with a long veil drawn, a beautiful bag dangling from her hand. The mulla thought, A good chance—let me give this Marwari woman a taste today. He quickly got up and fell into step with her. Half past seven in the evening, the darkness, and then that long veil! The woman thought, My husband has come. She said, Listen, dear, I feel like having a Coca-Cola. The mulla understood she was taking…

Osho, you said religion is sadhana, not ritual. But many of the very things Saraha would call ritual—such as bhajan and kirtan—have become parts of practice in your ashram and elsewhere. Kindly explain.

And that priest who blows the conch in the temple, and the adhan that rises from the mosque—there is no real difference. If there is soul in the conch’s sound and soul in the adhan, they are two styles of the same call. The priest’s way of calling in the temple is to ring the bell and blow the conch; in the mosque, instead of bells there is the adhan. It is the same call. The essential question is: from whom does the call arise? Is it truly his, or is he parroting someone else? Does the voice issue from him, is it his own? Are his life-breath and being in it? If not, it is all futile. Then you can buy plastic flowers in the market, place them in the window; perhaps the neighbors will be fooled. Mulla Nasruddin watered the flowers in his window every day. The neighbors…

Osho, the Buddha gave his sannyasins minute and detailed rules regarding diet and daily routine, conduct and behavior—such as looking no farther than four cubits ahead, exactly how monks and nuns should relate to one another, what to eat, what to wear, where to go and where not to go, and so on. Why don’t you set such things for your sannyasins?

Buddha said that so that monks would not start asking. It is ugly if a Buddhist monk becomes a beggar. A monk is not a beggar. He is not asking for anything. If you give—good; if you don’t—good. He will only bless you. And if he starts asking, he becomes a burden. Suppose he stands before a poor man’s house and demands kheer; if the poor man cannot give, he suffers; if he does give, he is strained. Whatever dry bread the poor can offer—accept that. If he gives nothing, do not harbor ill will or complaint. That is why it was said. Buddha could not know that life is such that a kite might drop a piece of meat. That is an exception. No kite is going to drop meat every day. But now this Buddhist monk asked, “What shall I do? And you say: do not eat meat.”…

Osho, the siddhas Saraha and Tilopa have said that rites and rituals are not religion. Please tell us, according to them, what is religion? What is their message?

Chant it for five minutes and the siddhi will happen; then whatever you want you will get.” For this the man had served three years. People serve even to get the goodies, the reward. Now that the sweets were given, he left the fakir and ran home. As he was descending the temple steps, the fakir called out, “Listen, brother! I forgot one thing. While you chant the mantra for five minutes, remember: no thought of a monkey should arise.” The man said, “What nonsense! I haven’t thought of a monkey in all my life—why would it come now?” But he hadn’t even reached home when thoughts of monkeys began to appear. He scolded himself, “What am I doing?” But the monkeys kept multiplying; they peeped within, giggled and laughed, made faces! He was terrified: “If this was the condition, the foolish fakir should have kept quiet!” Not a single…