Christianity

Who is a christian?

Difficult to say because I am not a Christian, neither is Christ a Christian. One thing is certain: that Christ is not a Christian, Buddha is not a Buddhist, Krishna is not a Hindu. To be a Christian one has to avoid being a Christ. TO be a Christian means to remain asleep. You are using another drug called Christianity to remain asleep. Somebody else is using another drug called Hinduism to remain asleep, but these are all drugs. A real man, a man of courage, has the courage to face reality as it is. A real man has the courage not to be second-hand. A Christian is second-hand, Christ is first-hand don't become second-hand. Go to reality, direct, immediate -- not through any belief system -- otherwise you will never reach to reality. The belief system will hinder you, it will not allow you: it is an imprisonment. So…

Greek people, as well as millions of people in the rest of the world, grow up as christians. How can they change, after two thousand years of christianity?

The older a conditioning is, the more rotten it is. It is just like an old building. You never say that the building is two thousand years old, so how can we destroy it? It is already used; even without your destroying it, it is finished. There are millions of Christians, but I have never come across a single Christ. A Christian is only a conditioning; you were not born as a Christian. If you were brought up in a Mohammedan home, you would be a Mohammedan. If you were brought up in a Buddhist home, you would be a Buddhist, and you would never remember that you were born as a Christian. No child is born as a Christian, Hindu or Mohammedan. Every child is born clean, fresh, just as a human being, innocent, tabula rasa. Howsoever old the conditioning is, it does not matter. Once you understand that…

Osho, one night you said that christianity has remained incomplete because for christians jesus died at the age of thirty-three when he was fiery, rebellious and active, with sun-like consciousness as his inner center. Does it mean that jesus could not achieve total spiritual growth, inner silence, inner peace and an inner full-moon stage of consciousness like buddha and mahavir? Please enlighten us on this point.

There is a story: Vivekananda achieved his first satori, his first glimpse of Samadhi, and Ramakrishna said, "Now I will keep this key with me; I am not going to give it to you. It will be given to you only three days before your death. Before you die, only three days before, this key will be given back to you. Now no more glimpses of Samadhi." Vivekananda began to weep and he said, "Why? I do not want anything. I do not want the whole kingdom of the world. Give me only my Samadhi. The one glimpse was so beautiful. I do not want anything more." Ramakrishna said, "The world needs you and something has to be done. And if you move into Samadhi, then you will not be able to do anything. So do not be in a hurry. Samadhi will wait for you. Move into the world;…

The second question is from another sannyasin. He has asked: WHY DO YOU NOT WANT TO ALLOW CHRISTIANITY TO ENTER THE SOVIET UNION?

YAKUSAN SAID, "OKAY. YOU COME AND FOLLOW ME, HOLDING UP MY BOWL" -- because I have not finished my breakfast. Now this was a very strange situation, going to the assembly hall... is he going to deliver the discourse, or eat his rice? And the monk felt a little embarrassed: "I am following him with the bowl of rice. What will people think of me? -- `That idiot! Why is he carrying the bowl with the rice, behind the master?'" <q>THE MONK DID NOT UNDERSTAND THE MASTER'S MEANING, AND UNGAN -- WHO WAS ALSO PRESENT -- ASKED, "MASTER, WHEN DID YOU LOSE YOUR ARMS AND LEGS?"</q> Why are you not carrying your bowl yourself? When did you lose your arms and legs? Even Ungan, who finally became enlightened, could not understand the meaning. The meaning was that the discourse is nothing but a nourishment. It is a spiritual nourishment. Just…