Belief Systems

Beloved master, what is the difference between a christian, a communist and a commune member?

The bishop was going crazy. And the next Sunday came -- he went to church a little early, because he was not yet ready to answer Burke. He thought perhaps by praying to Jesus Christ, God the Father and the Holy Ghost, he may be able to answer the question. It was dark when he reached the church. He prayed. But he had not slept for seven days; rather than praying, he fell into sleep, and he saw a dream. The dream was: he is at a railway station purchasing a ticket for paradise. The train is just about to leave. He rushes into the train, because he wants to see who the people are who have entered paradise -- the faithful or the virtuous? He was surprised when the train reached paradise. It looked so dull and so dusty and so dead, he could not believe it. He inquired…

Osho, you have been speaking about the importance of being oneself. Could you talk about the paradox of being an individual and melting into the commune?

But the pseudo-religions have done just the opposite. They are against love. You can understand now, why they are against love: because love will destroy the personality, and the pseudo-religion depends on your personality. The pseudo-religions have made a great effort -- all these churches and priests and sermons -- and what are they doing? Their whole work is to create the personality. They manufacture personality -- of course, different kinds of personality: a Hindu personality, a Christian personality, a Mohammedan personality. These are different models of personalities. All these religions are just like factories creating different models of cars, but the function is the same. The pseudo-religions are all afraid of love. They talk about love, and they teach you marriage. They talk about love and they say marriages are made in heaven. It is not something that you have to find out; God has already found the person…

Osho, our commune is not like any of the traditional ashrams or monasteries. Would you talk to us more about the function of your commune?

IT is necessary first to understand the traditional structure of an ashrama, and also of a monastery. It will give you the background to understand the meaning of my commune. The ashrama is an Eastern concept based on renouncing society, its comforts, conveniences. An ashrama is a group of people living together in austerity, self-imposed poverty, starvation in the name of fasting; torturing the body in order to have control over the physical by the spiritual; doing all kinds of exercises so that they become able to concentrate on the idea of God if they are Hindus, or on the idea of the ultimate growth of human consciousness if they are Buddhists and Jainas. But the goal is far away for all the three -- you can call it God, you can call it the Buddha, you can call it the Jina. They are different words signifying nothing, but pointing…

Another friend has asked; let me take that question as well.

In this country the stark selfishness you see everywhere lies behind the teachings of the so‑called religious. Each person absorbed in his own little worries, with no concern for anyone else. Behind this are not the hands of “bad” people but of the so‑called good, for they teach: each individual should seek his own liberation, cancel his own sins, accumulate his own merits. There is no such thing as society; we are not connected; we are all traveling separately. This notion has turned India’s social life into a madhouse, an ugliness—a very filthy pit—because everyone is busy with his own worry. His own worry. The day Jesus was crucified—perhaps you don’t know—there was a man in the same village with a toothache. Jesus is being crucified—the most loving of men is about to be hung on the cross—and a man has had a toothache since the night before. From morning…