Why has human faith in religion waned?

Osho, why has human faith in religion waned?

Then there is a further fall. This is when, around Buddha, people hear, oppose, accept. Then two-and-a-half thousand years pass. One generation hands it to the next. Those who had heard from Buddha, or at least seen him—some hint of truth must have reached their ears; some touch of Buddha’s presence must have touched them; some color of Buddha must have fallen upon their souls—however slight, it fell. Then their sons and their sons’ sons believe because the fathers believed, the forefathers believed, people have always believed—and then belief becomes blind belief. What you call religions are superstitions. They should have been bid farewell long ago. New editions of truth descend from the sky every day. A new Koran descends every day. God has not grown tired, has not exhausted Himself with Mohammed. Jesus is not God’s only son—as Christians say, the only begotten. Nor did God come to an…

Question: Second question: Osho, why has the man of this century become irreligious? Understand this: religion lives from the future. The pandit-priest lives off the past. Therefore the pandit-priest and religion never truly meet. In my view, the pandit-priest is the most irreligious person in the world. He has only one concern—that his shop keep running. He drags in the old by any excuse. There is unrest in the world—he says, “Perform a yajna—a great Shatachandi—for world peace!” What has your fire sacrifice to do with world peace? How many have you performed already—has world peace come? Leave the world; bring peace to a single neighborhood and show us! Leave the neighborhood—those five hundred Brahmins who gather to burn up ten million rupees in a ritual, there is such turmoil among them—constant quarrels over who grabs how much.

A question has been asked, Osho: Why is religion declining? Why is it in decay? So many saints have been, so many mahatmas, so many of their teachings, so many religions—and yet why is religion deteriorating?

In Japan, after the First World War, there was a very great general, famous the world over; the whole of Japan was crazy about him. A young man, training in the military at that time, also aspired to become such a general. After passing all the exams, he suffered a head injury in a swimming test and was expelled from the military. He was so distraught—his longing was to become a general—that he performed harakiri. Somehow he was saved. Afterward his father took him to America. There, little by little, he began acting, doing drama. Later, a film was made about that general, and the young man played the general’s part. In his old age the general went to see the film. He wrote to the actor: “I am astonished—if I had to choose, you would seem the real one and I the imitation.” The actor treasured that letter. He…

Dive inside yourself and find out where this 'I' exists. As soon as you start searching you will find that it does not exist. The graveyard is empty of ghosts. The existence of the self is empty of 'I', and then what is left over is God; what is experienced is surrender; and then what exists is Brahma. 16. An old woman was very sick. As she was alone in the house she was in great difficulty. One day early in the morning two nice ladies, looking very religious, came to her. They had sandal marks on their hands and also a rosary of beads. They started serving the old woman and said: By God's grace everything will be all right. Faith is power; and it never goes waste. That simple old lady trusted them. More so because she was alone, and a lone person wants to trust people.

Osho, you say the same thing in countless ways. But when I listen to you, it feels as if I am hearing it for the first time. And I feel so much joy that I don’t feel like going back home. What should I do—what can I do—so that I can just keep listening to you!

You will feel as if you have been made to rise out of season, before time—as if you were not yet to go and yet had to go. And if you go in that way, your home will become even more desolate than before. I do not want to make your home desolate; I want to make your home a temple. I want that when you go home, your home’s new form is revealed. I do not want to tear you away from home, from the world, from family life. That is the newness of my sannyas: I do not want to sever you from the world; I want to join you to the world in such a way that your connection with the world becomes a connection with the Divine. Let the world no longer be a barrier between you and the Divine; let it become a means. If…