According to Osho, the ashram is not India’s but humanity’s—an international fraternity beyond political borders. ‘Foreign’ isn’t a single place; seekers come from everywhere. Ideally, one of six would be Indian, mirroring the world ratio; in fact, Indians may be slightly more due to proximity. Here, divisions like nation, race, and ideology dissolve; only seekers of the divine gather.
The ashram belongs to all humans, so people come from many countries, and the number of Indians is about their share of the world.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, why are you so opposed to politics?
I am not against politics. Politics is only a symptom. I am against the inferiority complex in man; that inner sense of smallness. And politics is a symptom of that very disease. The more a person suffers from an inferiority complex, the more he hankers after position. The more he is filled with inferiority, the more he hankers after wealth. Understand this. An inferiority complex means: inside you feel, “I am nothing, a nobody, a two-bit fellow.” But this rankles. “I—and two-bit!” The mind cannot swallow it. “I will show the world that I am somebody. I’ll become a prime minister, a president. I’ll amass the world’s wealth and prove to the world that I am somebody.” Politics is the device to fill that inner sense of two-bit-ness, meaninglessness, emptiness. Politics means ambition—whether for money or for office, it makes no difference. Sometimes it is even the ambition for renunciation;…
Question: First question: Osho, on this land of India I directly see the radiance of Krishna, Buddha, Mahavira, Kabir, Nanak, and such great souls shining through you. Will India remain foremost in spirituality, or will foreign seekers take the lead? For foreign scientists, engineers, doctors, thinkers, seers are rushing to Poona as if the whole world’s treasure is this ashram. The truth, nonviolence, compassion, love, the feeling of surrender that these foreigners have learned and absorbed in your presence—through meditation and discourses—clearly shows in the ashram’s activities. Will the land of India then be deprived of your wealth? Will hypocrites like Satya Sai Baba, by producing watches and dropping ash, not reduce India itself to ash? Or will such great beings continue to incarnate on Indian soil in the future? Please be gracious and explain.
Osho, India is a land whose very life-breath is religion. One proof is that even the most insignificant gurus here do not keep their number of disciples below a hundred thousand. But it is surprising that a guru as radiant as the sun, like you, has so few Indian disciples. Kindly shed some light on this.
Ramanand Agnihotri! No country has religion as its life-breath! Not India, not China, not Japan, not Iran, not Pakistan—no country. Countries cannot be religion-breathed. Countries are political units; what could they possibly have to do with being religion-breathed! Do countries have any prana—any life-breath at all? If there is no life-breath, how will there be religion-breath? Individuals are religious, not countries. Not castes, not communities, not organizations—only individuals. That is the dignity of the individual. Did it never occur to you that first there must be life-breath? At the very least, there should be life—religious or irreligious—but life. Do countries have any life-breath? These are political fictions, political tricks. Just a while back, before 1947, Pakistan was India; now it is not. What will you say? Is Pakistan now religion-breathed or not? Before 1947 it was; now? Now it is not. Bangladesh earlier was religion-breathed because it was part of…
Beloved master, your message is universal, but is it only for those without a religion? Why are not your fellow indians crowding at the gate to get in?
He used to say that the Gita and the Koran and the Bible have the same message, but he worshipped the Gita and he called the Gita his mother. Then what is the Koran? He has not even called the Koran his auntie! The Gita is his mother -- and of course he has chosen a few pieces from the Koran and from the Bible which are in agreement with the Gita. Anything that disagrees with the Gita has not been chosen by him, so the Gita remains the criterion. Now this is so clear, that anything that does not fit with the Gita is wrong; it may be in the Koran, it may be in the Bible, but it is wrong. He would not say it so clearly because he was a politician. I am not a politician -- I say things as they are. I call a spade…
Osho, on seeing your ashram I had the sense of another world. How meaningful is this in our country, India?
Poverty, wretchedness, India’s problems—all can disappear; only give India a right perspective to resolve them. Our problems are of our own making; therefore removing them is easy. Today there is such technological progress in the world that India has no need to remain poor. If we are poor, perhaps it is because we want to remain so; we are poor because our ways of thinking are foolish. We have the most beautiful land, the most beautiful sky. We are not short of talent either. But we have forgotten to honor talent. So whenever a talented person is born here, he too has to leave India. We have become adept at honoring the dull-witted. We have invented such criteria that only the dull-witted can qualify. Someone gets up at five in the morning—our respect! Someone does not smoke—our respect! Someone eats only greens—our respect! Someone wears khadi—our respect! Someone performs daily…