Politics

Osho, what is the most astonishing law in this world?

A Sufi story. A thief, at night, began to climb into a house through a window. The window frame gave way, he fell, and broke his leg. The next day he went to court and blamed the householder for his broken leg. The owner was summoned and said in his defense: The one responsible is the carpenter who made the window. The carpenter was called; he said the contractor who built the wall hadn’t made the windowed section strong enough. In his defense the contractor said: My mistake happened because of a woman who was passing by—she drew my attention away. When the woman was presented in court, she said: At that time I was wearing a very fine dress. Normally no one even looks at me. So the fault lies with the dress, which was so exquisitely sewn. The judge said: Then summon the tailor who sewed it; he…

In your opinion, which is the ideal political regime and which is the worst?

Fascism is the worst, and meritocracy is the best. The criterion is anarchism. Whichever regime is closer to anarchism is better -- the closest to anarchism is the best -- whichever is farther away from anarchism is worse. Fascism is the farthest, dictatorship the farthest; they are the worst. Anarchism is my criterion. The best regime can only be meritocracy, which will be very close to anarchism. Just one step more and all regimes disappear. Anarchism... No government means absolute freedom, and freedom is the ultimate value of life.

Osho, why are you so opposed to politics?

I am not against politics. Politics is only a symptom. I am against the inferiority complex in man; that inner sense of smallness. And politics is a symptom of that very disease. The more a person suffers from an inferiority complex, the more he hankers after position. The more he is filled with inferiority, the more he hankers after wealth. Understand this. An inferiority complex means: inside you feel, “I am nothing, a nobody, a two-bit fellow.” But this rankles. “I—and two-bit!” The mind cannot swallow it. “I will show the world that I am somebody. I’ll become a prime minister, a president. I’ll amass the world’s wealth and prove to the world that I am somebody.” Politics is the device to fill that inner sense of two-bit-ness, meaninglessness, emptiness. Politics means ambition—whether for money or for office, it makes no difference. Sometimes it is even the ambition for renunciation;…

Osho, you make statements on politics; then why shouldn’t you be considered a politician?

Then just now, when Indira won, Vinoba remained silent; when he was informed that Indira had won, he clapped in happiness. The newspapers reported: Vinoba clapped in joy, became ecstatic! Two days later came the statement: I did not clap because of Indira’s victory; it just so happened that at that moment I was in a playful mood. At that very moment you were in ecstasy—neither a moment before, nor a moment after! What a coincidence that precisely then the mood to clap arose! Two days later he must have done the accounting that this clapping could prove costly. Politics is always calculation, arithmetic, maneuvering and cleverness. I tell you: by speaking on politics I am not a politician, and Vinoba, remaining silent, without giving statements, is a politician. Politics is a style of life; statements or non-statements make no difference. If there were even a little politics in me,…