According to Osho, he has "already left India"—not as a change of address but as a transcendence of nationality. Therefore, finding a successor is not a matter of leaving India physically; it depends on consciousness and receptivity. The right successor arises wherever someone is empty, available, and aflame with understanding—geography is irrelevant.
You don’t need to go to another country to find the right person; when minds and hearts are ready, they meet anywhere.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Like tilopa and bodhidharma, do you think you will have to leave india to find a suitable successor?
YOU FOOLS! Can't you see I have already left India? I am no more here in India. And the last question... Chinmaya has been asking this question continuously for many days, and I have been avoiding it. But now it is time. He has been asking:
Maneesha has asked: beloved Osho, you have often said you will have no successors. But won't all those who love you be your successors in that we carry you in our blood and bones and so you are part of us forever?
Maneesha, the concept of the successor is bureaucratic. The very idea of succession is not the right idea in the world of consciousness. That's why I have said, I will not have successors. But you are right in saying that you will carry in your bones and in your blood my love, my insight. But don't use the word `successor', rather use the words `you will be me'. Why be so far away, a successor, when you can be me? Be so empty that I can make a home in you, that your emptiness can absorb my emptiness, that your heart can have the same dance as my heart. It is not succession; it is transmission. The very idea of succession is political. Only one person can be a successor, so there is bound to be competition, ambition. There is bound to be a subtle struggle to be closer to…
Question: First question: Osho, on this land of India I directly see the radiance of Krishna, Buddha, Mahavira, Kabir, Nanak, and such great souls shining through you. Will India remain foremost in spirituality, or will foreign seekers take the lead? For foreign scientists, engineers, doctors, thinkers, seers are rushing to Poona as if the whole world’s treasure is this ashram. The truth, nonviolence, compassion, love, the feeling of surrender that these foreigners have learned and absorbed in your presence—through meditation and discourses—clearly shows in the ashram’s activities. Will the land of India then be deprived of your wealth? Will hypocrites like Satya Sai Baba, by producing watches and dropping ash, not reduce India itself to ash? Or will such great beings continue to incarnate on Indian soil in the future? Please be gracious and explain. India will miss—if people are not ready to drop their ego. It will certainly miss.
Osho, India is a land whose very life-breath is religion. One proof is that even the most insignificant gurus here do not keep their number of disciples below a hundred thousand. But it is surprising that a guru as radiant as the sun, like you, has so few Indian disciples. Kindly shed some light on this.
Ramanand Agnihotri! No country has religion as its life-breath! Not India, not China, not Japan, not Iran, not Pakistan—no country. Countries cannot be religion-breathed. Countries are political units; what could they possibly have to do with being religion-breathed! Do countries have any prana—any life-breath at all? If there is no life-breath, how will there be religion-breath? Individuals are religious, not countries. Not castes, not communities, not organizations—only individuals. That is the dignity of the individual. Did it never occur to you that first there must be life-breath? At the very least, there should be life—religious or irreligious—but life. Do countries have any life-breath? These are political fictions, political tricks. Just a while back, before 1947, Pakistan was India; now it is not. What will you say? Is Pakistan now religion-breathed or not? Before 1947 it was; now? Now it is not. Bangladesh earlier was religion-breathed because it was part of…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, ON ONE OCCASION, ISAN, GOHO AND UNGAN, WERE ALL STANDING TOGETHER IN ATTENDANCE ON HYAKUJO. HYAKUJO SAID TO ISAN, "WITH YOUR MOUTH AND LIPS CLOSED, HOW WOULD YOU SAY IT?" ISAN SAID, "I WOULD ASK YOU TO SAY IT." HYAKUJO SAID, "I COULD SAY IT, BUT IF I DID SO, I FEAR I SHOULD HAVE NO SUCCESSORS." HYAKUJO TURNED TO GOHO. "WITH YOUR MOUTH AND LIPS CLOSED, HOW WOULD YOU SAY IT?" HE ASKED HIS SECOND DISCIPLE. GOHO SAID, "OSHO! YOU SHOULD SHUT UP!" HYAKUJO SAID, "IN THE DISTANT LAND WHERE NO ONE STIRS, I SHALL SHADE MY EYES WITH MY HAND AND WATCH FOR YOU." THEN HYAKUJO ASKED UNGAN, "WITH YOUR MOUTH AND LIPS CLOSED, HOW WOULD YOU SAY IT?" UNGAN SAID, "OSHO, DO YOU HAVE THEM OR NOT?" HYAKUJO SAID, "MY SUCCESSORS WILL BE MISSING.