Why are so many sannyasins German?

Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHY ARE SO MANY OF YOUR SANNYASINS GERMAN? The whole credit goes to Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler led the strong German spirit -- particularly the youth -- into such a hell, into such suffering and misery, into such utter failure, that the German mind since then has been searching for somebody who is just the opposite of Adolf Hitler. They have found the anti-Adolf Hitler in me. It is not just a coincidence. Nature follows certain laws. If the second world war was a long nightmare, the reason was that the Germans followed a man who was giving them hope, the promise of a better world. And by the end of his life Adolf Hitler started proclaiming himself the reincarnation of the Old Testament prophet, Elijah.

Beloved Osho, since germans make the largest national number of your sannyasins, what is hidden in their roots that push and drag them to that controversial relationship with you?

I am a German! And soon Germany will be the first sannyas land. No politicians can prevent it, it is just destined to happen.

I call my religion "religionless religion." I call it religionless because it has nothing to do with all the religions which have existed up to now. But still I call it religion, because I also want to deny the atheists, the anti-religious. They both were part of the old game. The theist and the atheist, they were the polarity in the past. If I simply call this a religionless phenomenon, it becomes atheism, and it is not atheism. I want to insist that I am not a theist nor an atheist. In fact, both are idiots -- they are discussing about something which does not exist. One is saying God is; another is saying God is not. But both are concerned about God, and they are wasting their whole life arguing about God. So I am giving a new term to religiousness.

You have thousands of german sannyasins. Is this the reason why the german politicians seem jealous of you?

It is only one of the reasons. I have more sannyasins in Germany than in any other country, and this certainly makes the German politicians afraid of me. But the greater fear is that these sannyasins had come to me either in India or in America. There are millions more young people, younger and fresher minds in Germany. If I go to Germany, then the whole youth of Germany is going to be with me. One thing they understand is that I have some kind of heart-to-heart relationship with the younger generation. I don't have any gap; the generation gap does not exist for me. They don't have any connection with their own youth, and they are afraid that if I come to Germany then thousands more German young people will become sannyasins. Every nation has certain characteristics which it has developed down the ages: when a German decides to…

Beloved master, why are there so many german sannyasins who come here year by year for a couple of months and totally refuse to go into one of the european communes? Why is the atmosphere in germany so hostile that we are not allowed to go into the streets alone, even in daytime? How can we live with this hostility? Here I have the possibility of being alone. I love the space here, and nature surrounding me. Germany is tight and the communes are in the cities.

Germany is still being followed by the shadow of Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler has contaminated the German mind to such depths that even the new generation, which has not known Adolf Hitler and what he did in Germany, in some way carries the impact. Adolf Hitler has the unique distinction in the whole history of man of killing ten million people. There have been Alexander the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Napoleon Bonaparte, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Nadirshah -- but they have all proved pygmies in comparison to this madman, Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler is in the air. The German mind is still the by-product of this man, so when German sannyasins come here, they find a totally different atmosphere. They feel respected, loved; they feel their dignity, and they start deep down relaxing. So when the question comes of them going back, they don't want to. They have tasted something better…