Why do you criticize priests?

Question: BELOVED OSHO, OF THE PRIESTS AND ONE DAY ZARATHUSTRA MADE A SIGN TO HIS DISCIPLES AND SPOKE THESE WORDS TO THEM: HERE ARE PRIESTS: AND ALTHOUGH THEY ARE MY ENEMIES, PASS THEM BY QUIETLY AND WITH SLEEPING SWORDS!... THEY ARE BAD ENEMIES: NOTHING IS MORE REVENGEFUL THAN THEIR HUMILITY. AND HE WHO TOUCHES THEM IS EASILY DEFILED.... HE WHOM THEY CALL REDEEMER HAS CAST THEM INTO BONDAGE -- INTO THE BONDAGE OF FALSE VALUES AND FALSE SCRIPTURES! AH, THAT SOMEONE WOULD REDEEM THEM FROM THEIR REDEEMER!... OH, JUST LOOK AT THESE HUTS THAT THESE PRIESTS HAVE BUILT THEMSELVES. CHURCHES THEY CALL THEIR SWEET-SMELLING CAVES! OH THIS COUNTERFEIT LIGHT! OH THIS MUSTY AIR! HERE, WHERE THE SOUL MAY NOT FLY UP TO ITS HEIGHT! ON THE CONTRARY, THEIR FAITH COMMANDS: `UP THE STEPS ON YOUR KNEES, YOU SINNERS!'... WHO CREATED SUCH CAVES AND PENITENTIAL STEPS?

Beloved master, why do you give the priests such a bad time? They don't stop you drinking and you only have to listen to them once a week.

Niranjan, it is enough to poison people if they have to listen once a week to all kinds of nonsense. For centuries it has been propagated... it has come into the air, it has become part of the atmosphere. It is not a question of listening to them once a week only; their vibe is everywhere. They go on reminding you in every possible way. Whenever you pass, there is a church or a temple or a mosque. Do you think it does not remind you of something? And they go on tolling bells in the churches just to remind you, "Don't forget we are still here!" And the towering churches, you can see them from anywhere; they are reminding you. These are subtle processes of reminding you. In India you cannot pass a street without coming across a temple -- everywhere temples. And it is so simple in India…

Question: OSHO, WHY DO PEOPLE CRITICIZE YOU AS A SELF-STYLED AND SELF-APPOINTED GOD? The people who go to the churches, to the temples, to the synagogues, are going for absolutely wrong reasons. What are their reasons for going there? They are going there to pray to God to grant them some of their wishes, so that some of their desires will be fulfilled. They have tried hard and they are not succeeding, and they would like God to do some miracles for them. Here is an English public schoolgirl's prayer: 'Holy Mary, I believe that without sin thou didst conceive. Now I pray in my believing that I may sin without conceiving.' They are going there in search of some miracles, they are not interested in discovering the truth.

Question: BELOVED OSHO, AND WHEN HE ENTERED INTO THE CITY ALL THE PEOPLE CAME TO MEET HIM, AND THEY WERE CRYING OUT TO HIM AS WITH ONE VOICE. AND THE ELDERS OF THE CITY STOOD FORTH AND SAID: GO NOT YET AWAY FROM US. A NOONTIDE HAVE YOU BEEN IN OUR TWILIGHT, AND YOUR YOUTH HAS GIVEN US DREAMS TO DREAM. NO STRANGER ARE YOU AMONG US, NOR A GUEST, BUT OUR SON AND OUR DEARLY BELOVED. SUFFER NOT YET OUR EYES TO HUNGER FOR YOUR FACE. AND THE PRIESTS AND THE PRIESTESSES SAID UNTO HIM: LET NOT THE WAVES OF THE SEA SEPARATE US NOW, AND THE YEARS YOU HAVE SPENT IN OUR MIDST BECOME A MEMORY. YOU HAVE WALKED AMONG US A SPIRIT, AND YOUR SHADOW HAS BEEN A LIGHT UPON OUR FACES. MUCH HAVE WE LOVED YOU.

Osho, what is the relationship between meditation and patience?

If you sit to meditate to remove mental restlessness, you will keep looking back again and again: “Has it gone yet?” And the irony is that when you begin to meditate, restlessness will increase. Because what has been repressed will start surfacing; catharsis will begin. The rubbish you have kept hidden within and never allowed to express—meditation will break open those doors too. It will clean the house. Dust piled up for years, for births, will rise again; there will be gusts and storms. For a while even the little peace you had will be lost. Then you will panic: “I came for peace, and even what I had is gone.” Without patience, you could even become unhinged, because meditation brings such a great storm. The disease is not from a day or two; it’s from lifetimes. Meditation will break through all the layers to reach your innermost core. In…