Country

Osho, why have you chosen this dead country as the field of your work?

Precisely for that! Because it is dead, it must be revived. What is the point of reviving those who are already alive? One treats the sick, not the healthy. This country is dead, and has been dead for centuries. It must be breathed back to life. And this country is a precious one. It ought not be dead. Its deadness is a costly loss. This country must live. It must be rejuvenated, for it holds a great treasure. If it is reawakened, light will spread to the whole world. But the country lies dead. It lies like a corpse upon its own treasure. It neither benefits from that wealth itself, nor allows anyone else to benefit from it. Life must be breathed into this corpse; it must be awakened—because no other land holds such a treasury. That is exactly my predicament. This country is dead, yet it holds a vast…

Osho! In the morning discourse on May 22 a young man threw a knife and tried to kill you, but failed. What’s surprising is that no newspaper criticized the incident, and no “high-ranking” person made any statement about it! Nor did any paper or magazine print praise for the loving way ashram residents treated that man. Why are intellectuals and ordinary people all so full of indifference? Osho, your main ashram stands in such a dead country—where even a branch would seem pointless.

Israel cannot accept me. Christians cannot. Communists cannot. Wherever I live there will be trouble. I did not decide to live in India by accident; it is the most feasible place. So don’t worry, Kailash Goswami, “In such a dead country is it right for you to live?” Where there are corpses, there most is the need for someone to awaken the dead. Where there is illness, there a physician is needed. Where there is disease, there must be treatment. And yes, this country is dead—long dead. Yet great potential lies hidden here. The country that gave birth to Buddha, Krishna, Mahavira, Kabir, Nanak, Farid—that country has fire hidden under ash. The ash is five thousand years old. If we can remove it, the embers can glow again. And remember, we haven’t used our genius for five thousand years. That can be a benefit—like land left fallow for years accumulates…

Osho, from your powerful discourse yesterday it was clearly felt that you are awakening India to its limitless potential. It is India’s supreme good fortune to have a guide like you, and yet why does it not accept what you say? Why does it not move on the path of all-round development? Why instead does it scorn and ignore you? Osho, I request you to say something.

I heard of a circus man whose act was to lie on a bed of nails. Sharp spikes that would leave your hand bleeding if you touched them—he would lie on them. There is an art to it; there are points on your back where there is no sensation. If you don’t believe it, ask someone—your wife will enjoy it—to prick your back with a needle. Wherever you feel pain, say “Ram! Ram!” and wherever you feel nothing, have her mark it. There are many points where you won’t feel the prick—no sensitivity. The art is to align those points; the spikes must touch only those spots. One day, on a day off, he was laying out his bed of nails at home. His wife was shocked: “What are you doing? It’s a holiday!” He said, “It is—but how will I sleep? I’m habituated. Unless I lie on this spiked…

Osho, someone once told me Poona is the Oxford of India—a city of culture and a representative of the country’s elite. But here, almost every night, well-dressed people ride scooters or cars around Koregaon Park and mercilessly beat sannyasins—especially sannyasinis—with sticks. And now, as if sticks were not enough, they’ve started using iron chains. Osho, what kind of people are these?

In the West you can bathe naked at the seashore—no problem. No man will pounce on you. Here the situation is the reverse. If your arm is showing, it means you lack character; you are attackable. If you were wrapped in a sari, you would be certified as a lady of a “good family.” Here people are weighed by their clothes. So Western visitors naturally face difficulties. They continue to behave as they learned from childhood. There is nothing wrong in that behavior. Among decent people, bathing naked at river or sea should be no issue. Nakedness is natural. Yes, wear clothes in office and market—but there should be some place where one can move free. Here there is none. Mulla Nasruddin went to his doctor. The doctor had hired a newly trained Western girl as an assistant. Mulla kept staring. Inside he said, “You’ve hired such a beautiful girl…