Why is religion declining and deteriorating despite the presence of saints and teachings?

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…

Osho, Buddha says that the religion of the saints never grows decrepit; then how is it that the religions of Krishna, Mahavira, Buddha himself, and Jesus have become so decayed? Kindly shed some light on this.

So Buddha thought: better to say, “Accept whatever falls into your bowl.” A kite will not drop it again; the question will not arise repeatedly; best not to leave a hole in the rule. Buddha said, “Accept it.” And from this small incident all Buddhists became meat-eaters! Man is very dishonest. People then devised a trick: “Buddha did not oppose meat-eating. Had he been opposed, he would have told that monk to discard the meat. Buddha accepted meat!” Thus Buddhists across the world became meat-eaters. That the disciples of the greatest practitioner of nonviolence would become meat-eaters seems inconceivable. But man finds his contrivances. Buddha said: “Let no one kill an animal for food.” He had no idea how clever man is. The line came to mean: if the animal dies by itself, you may eat it! Do not kill for food. So monks began to eat animals that had…

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…

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…

Osho, why is it that all enlightened ones teach the central transformation of awareness and awakening, yet the religions founded on them shrink into conduct codes and rituals? Aren’t all organized religions merely parts of society?

But the wife would not agree. She said, “I don’t get into talk of mistakes and corrections. Some ill omen might occur! What harm is it to us?” Lines remain: “It happened this way, it was done that way, it was said so.” Then our meanings, our blindness, are added to them. Religion becomes superstition; truth loses its peaks and becomes the falsehood of the valleys. And around that falsehood, crowds gather. Those who reached the Buddha in the beginning reached through their own awakening. Then they had children; those children had nothing to take from the Buddha, nothing to give. For them, religion is only a rite. Born in a Buddhist home—Buddhist; had they been born in a Hindu home—Hindu; in a Muslim home—Muslim. It is a matter of accident. Being born in a Hindu home is as accidental as a white cat sitting by a pot of curd.…