AIDS

Do you feel, as some people do, that aids is a curse from god due to licentiousness?

It is certainly a curse from God, but not due to licentiousness. It is a curse from God because of the teachings by the church of celibacy -- which is unnatural; of keeping monks and nuns separate -- which is unnatural, which is bound to create homosexuality. Homosexuality is a religious disease, and the church is responsible for it. God himself is responsible for it, because in the Christian trinity, God is there, the father, the son Jesus Christ is there -- and who is this guy the holy ghost? There is no woman there; it is a gay group! And I suspect this holy ghost is a boyfriend of God's.

Question: OSHO, WOULD YOU PLEASE SAY SOMETHING ABOUT AIDS? I do not know anything about even the first aids, and you are asking me about the last AIDS! But it seems I will have to say something about it. And in a world where people who know nothing about themselves can talk about God, people who know nothing about the geography of the earth can talk about heaven and hell, it is not inconceivable for me to say something about AIDS, although I am not a physician. But neither is the disease now called AIDS just a disease. It is something more, something beyond the limitation of the medical profession. As I see it, it is not a disease in the same category as other diseases; hence the danger of it. Perhaps it will kill at least two-thirds of humanity. It is, basically, the incapability to resist diseases.

Beloved Osho, aids confronts us with the immediacy of our death. Our seriousness seems to create more disease and paranoia. Instead of feeling like victims, how can we respond through celebration?

It did not answer even Jesus Christ, who was simply nuts -- calling himself the only begotten son of God. He was just a bastard. Every bastard can claim that he is the only begotten son of God, because the ordinary father is not his father. His father lives high above in the sky. Even Jesus Christ's prayer on the cross was not answered. In deep frustration he shouted at the sky, "Have you forsaken me?" Still, no answer. If that is the situation of the only begotten son, what about other poor human beings who are just born out of their father and mother, mortals? This book is holy? Then magazines like PLAYBOY, PLAYGIRL should start calling themselves holy magazines -- of course, in color... glossy. You say, "AIDS confronts us with the immediacy of death...." It is good that you become aware that death is there, absolutely certain.…

Q: YOU SAID BEFORE THAT THIS WAS SOMETHING THAT HAD TO HAPPEN SOONER OR LATER. A: Yes. Q: WHY NOT IN THE FIFTIES, WHY NOT IN THE SIXTIES OR SEVENTIES? WHY RIGHT NOW? A: There are reasons.... First, everything has to reach to a particular climax. You don't ask why the water evaporates at hundred centigrade degrees -- why not at ninety-eight and why not at ninety, and why not at hundred and one? It is simply something that is not in our hands. Everything happens at a certain point, at a certain climax, and there is no reason why, because there is nobody to answer it. No scientist can answer it, why water evaporates at hundred degrees -- there is no reason! It could have been ninety-nine. And there is nobody to ask about. We have to accept it as a fundamental law of existence.