According to Osho, journalists write against individuals like him because they only glance from the outside, lack firsthand experience, and judge through inherited ideas of what a monastery or sannyas should be. Faced with something vibrant, alive, and new, their conditioning feels threatened, so antagonism is natural. Paradoxically, their criticism signifies that something real and unsettling to old ideals is happening.
They criticize because they only peek briefly, don’t experience it themselves, and their old beliefs feel scared by anything new.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHY ARE THE JOURNALISTS ALWAYS WRITING AGAINST YOU? Sudarshan, feel happy that they are always writing; don't be worried about what they write. It they are writing that means something is happening here. And they can only write against because when you write something in favor you have to experience what is happening here; without experiencing it you cannot write a favorable report about it. You have to be here for a few months. They come only for one day, they look around, they see the meditators -- but by seeing the meditators you can't see meditation. They see that something is happening and something so new for them that it does not fit with their idea of an ashram, of a monastery. Hence, naturally they turn against me, they become antagonistic.
Osho, are all the journalists blind? Can't they see the truth? Why are they continuously spreading lies about you?
A journalist is taught by his profession to always remain at a distance: "Look from the outside." And from the outside you can never know how things are. A pretty young woman was traveling in a train across Texas. A dapper looking man walked up to her and whispered something in her ear, whereupon she gave him a stinging slap in the face. A tall Texan seated across the aisle stood up and asked her, "Is this man molesting you, Ma'am?" "He certainly is," she replied. "He just offered me ten dollars if I would go with him to his sleeping compartment." Without hesitation, the Texan pulled out his pistol and shot the man. "Good God!" cried the woman. "That's no reason to kill him!" "I will kill any man," replied the Texan, "who tries to raise the prices in Texas." If you had looked only from the outside you…
Beloved master, why is it that the journalists never seem to understand you?
Kavyo, it has nothing to do with me. They have never understood Jesus, Socrates, Buddha, Kabir. They cannot understand; it is against their investment. The journalist lives on creating sensations. Any news is news only when it is sensation. They live on rumors and they have to make rumors very spicy. They have no interest in truth, because truth is never news. Truth is so ancient, truth is always the same. I am saying the same truth. Buddha said it, Christ said it, and all those who have known. It is nothing new -- how it can be news? And they come here in search of news. They have to invent -- and it is really interesting how inventive people can be. Just a few days ago I was reading a report in a Punjabi magazine about this commune, this ashram. The man says, the journalist says, that he has…
Although many journalists are very touched after meeting with you, the reports that actually appear rarely reflect this and sometimes are even negative. Can a journalist be authentic?
It is difficult for poor journalists to be authentic. They are really touched; I can see their faces, I have seen even tears of joy in their eyes. But when their reports come, they are negative. It has nothing to do with the interview that they have done with me; what they have written they could have written without the interview. They are talking about the gossip going around, about the archbishop preparing for a protest, that people are afraid that if I remain here then I will destroy their old tradition and I will corrupt their youth -- just the old charges which they had against Socrates, corruption of the youth. But in my heart I know this is not the journalist; this is just a poor human being serving under chief editors, owners, and following their dictates. They send him here not to report exactly what I am…
Osho! I feel that in your ideas, in your vision, there is the power to liberate this country from its ancient stagnation and orthodoxy and set it upon the path of progress. But the difficulty is that the intellectuals and journalists here treat you as untouchable and dismiss your ideas as useless raving. It is deeply disheartening. Kindly guide me.
Shvetaketu came back stiff with pride. He was young and returned with a mountain of scriptures on his head. He had earned gold medals in every subject, came home laden with honors. His father, Uddalaka, saw him from afar at the gate—saw his swagger and pride. The father felt great pain, because this was not why he had sent him to the gurukul. He had sent him to become wise. Instead he was returning utterly ignorant—stuffed with information. He was bringing back mountains of information. But no one becomes wise through information! Information is counterfeit coin—borrowed, stale, not one’s own, someone else’s. The father grew anxious; tears rolled from his eyes. Shvetaketu bowed at his feet, but only his body bowed; the father could see that his life had not bowed, because in his mind he knew he was now more knowledgeable than his father. Uddalaka asked, “Son, why this…