Debate

You wanted to challenge the pope to a public debate during his last travel to india, but it didn't happen. Why? Particularly on which points did you want to contest with the pope?

Not only had I challenged him for a public discussion on fundamental questions of religiousness, I had opposed the Hindu chauvinistic people who were opposing him. I was the only one in the whole of India who raised his voice to say that the pope should not be opposed in such a way, that this is ugly. The better and more human way is to invite him respectfully to public debates, wherever he goes. India has thousands of years' experience in argumentation. There is no problem in arguing about fundamental questions, but throwing stones, shouting, screaming, protesting... All these are ugly things. I hope the pope will remember, when I come to Italy, that I was the only one who was opposing the people who were opposing him in these inhuman ways. The fundamental questions I want to discuss publicly -- amongst his own people, in his own citadel, in…

I would love to see you in a direct debate with people who oppose what you are saying. Would you accept an invitation from dutch television when you come to holland?

I would love to. But the debate has to be really direct, and you have to choose people who are capable of debating. Ask the archbishop there, ask your prime minister there, because they are the people I am speaking against continually and it would be good to have an encounter face to face. But don't bring pygmies to me. I am a simple man; I simply call a spade a fucking spade.

Beloved Osho, you have said many times that a dialogue is not possible through debate. But shankara announced his universal victory and defeated innumerable intellectuals in a debate on the meaning of the scriptures. After the defeat they had to become shankara's disciples. Please explain what kind of debate on the scriptures this was.

Shankara agreed to debate with Bharati. But he found he could not reply to the questions asked by her, because she did not ask any question regarding Brahma or knowledge of Brahma. As he had already defeated Mandan on that topic. She had understood from the debate with Mandan that it was useless to talk to this young man about Brahma. She thought "This young-looking person is actually a very ancient being." And Mandan certainly knew more than Bharati. That is why Bharati had fallen in love with him, married him, and was looking after him. She had seen him defeated by Shankara on the subject of Brahma, so she asked Shankara questions regarding sex. Shankara was young. He was thirty years old and was unmarried. He found himself in a difficult situation. He said, "I want six months' time to reply to these questions because I am unmarried and…

Osho, why do you liken devotion to love? Is there no other apt analogy?

I know why this question has arisen in you. For centuries your so‑called religious people have condemned love—called it base, impure, a sin. Hence you feel, “Wouldn’t some other analogy be better?” Somewhere within you there is condemnation of love—rejection, fear. I understand you—and I understand your so‑called saints as well. But the one who fears love has not understood love; the fear has arisen out of ignorance. The one who is afraid of the courtyard has not understood it. The courtyard had walls—and it had the sky; he focused on the walls and forgot the sky. I want you to focus on the sky and forget the walls. The walls are there and will remain. Man is encased in the wall of body; as long as you have a body, there will be walls. How will they disappear? You cannot get rid of even your own wall—how will you…