Why is untruth so influential?

Question: Second question: Osho, why is untruth so influential? Want to sell a car? Place a naked woman. Want to sell toothpaste? Place a naked woman. Want to sell anything. No connection whatsoever… I saw an ad: for a Parker fountain pen a naked woman was draped over a shoulder. What connection could a naked woman have with a Parker fountain pen? But there is a connection—the advertiser knows it. You won’t really buy the Parker; you’ll buy the picture. And if the naked woman appeals to you—and she will; that’s what the advertiser relies on—he simply associates what has to be sold with what already pleases you. Association—that’s the trick. Truth comes plain, simple, bare—without advertisement. It doesn’t stroke your weaknesses; it just stands there. Truth doesn’t “appeal.” Truth is religious; untruth is political. That’s why politicians give such grand promises.

Osho, in every dimension of life it is difficult to bow before truth and easy to bow before lies. Why this topsy‑turvy?

Mukesh, that’s why friendship with untruth is easy: untruth never asks to transform you. Untruth says you already are what you should be—indeed, you are even better. It builds bridges of praise for you. It gives you great consolation. And how many lies we have fabricated! So many that if you start searching, you will be shaken. Truth is one; lies are endless. Just as health is one and diseases are many, so truth is one. And truth will not flatter you; it will not cajole you. Truth will seem bitter, because you have become addicted to the sweetness of lies. Lies come sugar‑coated. Truth is as it is—naked. Those addicted to lies will avert their eyes from truth; truth will not go down on their tongues. Truth will taste very astringent, very bitter. Remember, we live by habit. I have heard: on a road at high noon a man…

Osho, this verse is from the Mundaka Upanishad: Satyam eva jayate nānṛtam, satyena panthā vitato devayānaḥ; yenākramanti ṛṣayo hyāptakāmā, yatra tatra satyasya paramaṁ nidhānam. That is: Only truth is victorious, not untruth. The path by which the desireless seers go, and where the supreme treasure of truth abides—that divine path opens to us only through truth. Is truth both the goal and the means? Kindly grace us with direction.

Devayāna means the realization and proclamation of one’s own divinity; freedom from tradition; freedom from the past; the art of living in the present. “Satyena panthā vitato devayānaḥ”—this path of truth is Devayāna; it is the road of rebellion; it is revolt. It is not Pitṛyāna. You cannot say, “My father believed, therefore I believe.” No—you must know. Knowing comes first. And one who has known has no need to believe. For the believer, the blessing of knowing never arises. The believer dies. The day he believes, he dies—because the search ends, inquiry ceases. Belief means: What’s left to do? I have believed. And this is what you have been taught: believe, have faith. Thus the whole earth is filled with hollow “religious” people—believers, not truly religious. Belief is always hollow. What is not your own experience, how can it be truth for you? I may say it is my…

Beloved Osho, I see that people go on saying that they want the truth -- nothing but the truth -- and freedom; they want to live in freedom. But when it actually comes down to it, nobody wants to hear the truth or live in freedom. They want to continue to live in lies and possess what they think they have. I see that in myself, and it is becoming less and less as I am walking the path with you. Why do we want to hold on to the ugly lies of life so much that we give up our trueness and our nature?

The court of the king was full. For the first time everybody was present; the queen was present, the princesses were present. The man said to the court and to the king, "I have brought the clothes. And for these clothes, the two, three million rupees that you have given are nothing. When you see the clothes you will see they are a thousandfold more costly. In fact you cannot appraise their cost on the earth; they are something that belongs to heaven. They are not found on the earth." The king was in a hurry. He said, "Open your box!" The man said, "The way it must be done has been explained to me. You give me your cap. First I will put your cap into the box, then I will take out the cap of God and put it on your head. Just one condition has to be…

Beloved Osho, what is truth? And whatever it is, why are most people not interested in it?

"Love God" -- I don't know how you are going to love God. You don't know what God looks like. You don't know from where to approach Him, which side is His face. The Indian god has three faces; from all the three sides you can approach him. The Hindu god has thousands of hands; you can hold any. But where are you going to meet these gods with thousands of hands, three heads ...? Just all junk. Nobody knows .... A small child was making a drawing. His father asked him, "What are you doing, so absorbed?" He said, "I am drawing a picture of God." The father said, "A picture of God? But nobody has seen Him, nobody knows how He looks. How can you make a picture of God?" The child said, "Just wait. Let me finish the picture and everybody will know how He looks." All…