According to Osho, people oppose Rajneeshism because it explodes the guilt-and-fear foundations of traditional sado-masochistic religions. His path restores forbidden knowledge and the taste of deathlessness, enabling intelligence, joy, dance, and celebration—thereby ending ecclesiastical control built on sin, ignorance, and dread of death. Such freedom threatens entrenched moralism and power structures, so they condemn what liberates.
Many dislike Rajneeshism because it tells you to be wise and happy instead of guilty and scared, and that threatens the old rule-makers.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, rajneeshism is purely a religion of celebration, so why are so many people around the world against it?
The crucified Jesus is your religion. Compared to your misery, his misery is immense. Naturally, Christianity became the biggest religion in the world, because it is the biggest philosophy of being miserable. Jesus said, "Carry you cross on your shoulders. Everybody has to carry his cross on his shoulders." I don't see any point in it. Why carry a cross on your shoulder? Are you mad? Rather, carry a flute with you, a song, a beautiful flower -- a rose I can understand. But then you will be hated by all those who have missed the joys of life. But nobody else is responsible for their missing, they themselves are responsible. Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor." This is sheer nonsense. Wretched are the poor. But it gives solace to the millions of poor people of the world. Jesus says that those who are poor here will be able to…
Rajneeshism allows everyone into its fold, states Osho
Our religion should not be categorized with any other religion of the world because it has not tradition or dogma and it allows everybody without any discrimination into its religious fold. Rajneeshism does not ask anyone to renounce their religion and does not have any conflict with Buddha, Christ, Krishna, Lao Tzu, etc. Basically Rajneeshism has the essential core of all religiousness. The other religions are against each other's traditions and attitudes. In fact, these other religions are fanatic and each believes and fights that theirs is the true religion and others are false. This is not the case with me or Rajneeshism. A Christian can become a Rajneeshee and he is not asked to drop his love for Jesus, in fact he finds Jesus in me. The same is true for a Buddhist or a Mohammedan. Our commune consists of people from all religions who have found their religion's…
Osho, why are so many people attracted towards you from all parts of the world?
DON'T know! I am also surprised; it should not be so. The government is against me, the society is against me, all the religions are against me, and still people go on coming. All kinds of barriers are created, still people go on coming. Something mysterious is happening, something which cannot be explained. Something is transpiring which is elusive. That's why those who come as observers or spectators or journalists cannot catch hold of it. So they collect rumors in the town from people who never come here, and they go on reporting. Almost all over the world, in almost all the languages, there are rumors and rumors. This is very strange! The people have not experienced what is happening here, they have not been participants, and yet they think they have understood. There are things which can be understood only when you participate. You cannot know what love is…
Question: OUR BELOVED MASTER, GOSETSU AFTER BECOMING A MONK UNDER MA TZU, CAME TO SEKITO AND SAID, "IF YOU SETTLE THIS WITH ONE WORD, I WILL STAY HERE. IF NOT, I WILL LEAVE." SEKITO, KNOWING THAT THIS MAN HAD PROMISE, MADE A GESTURE, BUT GOSETSU DID NOT GET IT. SO GOSETSU TOOK HIS LEAVE AND MADE FOR THE GATE, WHEN SEKITO CALLED TO HIM "TEACHER!" GOSETSU TURNED AROUND, AND SEKITO SAID, "FROM BIRTH TO OLD AGE, IT IS ONLY THE FELLOW THERE AND NOTHING ELSE -- DON'T LOOK ANYWHERE FURTHER." AT THIS, GOSETSU WAS GREATLY ENLIGHTENED. HE STEPPED ON HIS STICK TO BREAK IT AND STAYED THERE. ONCE, SEKITO SAID TO HIS ASSEMBLED MONKS, "EVEN IF LANGUAGE IS USED, IT IS IRRELEVANT." HEARING THIS, YAKUSAN SAID, "EVEN IF LANGUAGE IS NOT USED, IT IS IRRELEVANT." SEKITO SAID, "HERE, EVEN A NEEDLE CANNOT GET THROUGH.
Question: OSHO, WHY ARE THE SO-CALLED RELIGIOUS PEOPLE AGAINST YOU? If you do what should be done, what is told by the others, then your nature suffers. Then you have to repress, and nothing that is repressed is going to remain repressed forever. It will assert itself again and again, it will start surfacing, because it is accumulating momentum, energy. Ruth was too shy to confess, so the priest offered his help. "Did he do this?" asked the padre, kissing her. "Yes, Father, and worse." "YOU mean he did this?" he said, touching her breasts. "Yes, Father, and worse." Finally he had intercourse with her. "You mean that is what he did?" "Yes, Father, and worse, too!" "What worse could he do?" "He gave me the clap, Father!" The so-called religious person is bound to be repressive, and those repressions will create perversions.