According to Osho, the crowd - blind, timid, and attached to safety - abhors simple, natural truth because it threatens collective lies and demands individuality. Authentic clarity exposes inherited falsehoods, so the many defend their comfort by abusing the few who see. Like sheep resenting lions, they prefer artificial doctrines that keep conformity intact; truth's fragrance unsettles noses trained to stench.
When someone speaks plain truth, groups who rely on shared illusions feel exposed and scared, so they gang up and attack the truth-teller.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, your philosophy of life is so simple, natural and true—yet why does the crowd still hurl abuses at you?
Dhirendra! Because a crowd is a crowd. Crowds are of sheep, not of lions. Crowds are of the blind, not of those who can see. Those with eyes have the strength to walk alone. The crowd walks by clutching at one another. The crowd belongs to cowards, not to the brave. Lions don’t flock; there is no herd of lions. Why do sheep move in a flock? Because in a crowd there is a sense of safety: “We are so many; danger will be less. There is company; nothing will go wrong.” The crowd is blind. I call its gait the gait of sheep. The crowd’s opinions have no value. If a crowd could understand, it wouldn’t be a crowd—individuality would be born. In anyone within whom even a little wisdom arises, he becomes a person; he ceases to be a fragment of the crowd. Even while in a crowd…
Osho, why are the common masses against you, when what you say appears to us the very truth?
The king simply slipped away, took his fastest horse and rushed as fast as it was possible, away from the palace where the dream had happened. By the evening he had gone hundreds of miles, and he was very happy that he had come so far away: "Now it will be difficult for death to find me at the place, at the fixed time." The sun was setting. He had reached the outskirts of the city of Damishk. Just to rest... because the whole day he had not eaten, he had not even taken a cup of water. Time was so precious! Thirst is not going to kill you just in one day, hunger is not going to kill you just in one day. He was going to rest in a garden just outside of the city. He went into the garden and was tying the horse to a tree,…
Osho, what kind of justice is it that you are distributing nectar, yet people want to poison you! You want to give humankind a new life, and people are trying to snatch away your life! Does history keep repeating its mistakes?
You see this all around. The crowd has no insight of its own. No one in a crowd has their own seeing. That is precisely why they gather in a crowd. They think others will have the insight; the others think they will. No one has it. Kabir says: “The blind push the blind; both fall into the well.” The blind are shoving the blind. The blind have become leaders of the blind—and then all fall into the well. And you can see that every person has fallen into a well. In whose eyes is there a ray of joy? In whose being are the songs of love? Upon whose lips is the taste of nectar? Who has recognized God? Who has had a glimpse of the eternal life? Whose feet are ankleted with the eternal—whose life is a dance, a song, a celebration? All are sad—utterly sad. Everyone’s life…
Someone asked Anand Tirth, “If Osho were to tell you to commit suicide, would you do it?” Anand Tirth replied, “It would be my good fortune that he considered me worthy of that. If he were to say so, I would commit suicide immediately.”
When a person is loved so much that someone feels it would be their good fortune to die at his word, then a few abuses are also necessary—otherwise the meal becomes tasteless. It needs a little salt. Pure sugar creates diabetes. Not only sweet—now and then the bitter gourd is enjoyable too. So people also send a few dishes of bitter gourd. As far as I am concerned, I am delighted even with that. You too should begin to be delighted by it. And there is a law of this world: everything is kept in balance. If so many people love me, if so many are my friends, then just as many will be filled with anger toward me, and just as many will behave with enmity. Only then can balance be maintained; otherwise it cannot be. This world is like a tightrope on which an acrobat walks, constantly weighing…
Osho, you are speaking out of such compassion! The people of this country don’t understand it and get angry. Can you not accomplish your work without taking so much risk? You are softer than a flower. We have fallen in love with you. You are the very foundation of our lives. I am afraid.
There is not the slightest need for fear. Because what is, cannot be destroyed; and what is not, will inevitably pass. Man is the sum of both—the mortal and the immortal. The mortal will go, sooner or later, this way or that. The mortal has to take leave, so there is no reason for fear there. And the immortal is forever; there too there is no reason for fear. Be fearless! Do not cling to what must wither. Do not get too attached to my flower. Recognize my fragrance; that will not fade. You say: “You are speaking out of such compassion! People of this country don’t understand it, they become angry.” This is the eternal way. This has always been people’s manner. Neither their ways are new, nor my love is new. Neither their defeat is new, nor my victory is new. It has always been so. They are…