Guilt

Why does religion create so much guilt?

Religion does not create guilt -- if it creates guilt it is not religion. Yes, Mohammedanism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, they create guilt. Let that be your definition of religion: if it creates guilt it is not a religion. It is something else pretending, something else garbed as religion, posing as religion -- but it is not religion. Religion creates celebration, not guilt. These are hidden things which don't want to expose themselves. These so-called religions are more political than religious. Their whole idea, desire, ambition, is how to dominate people, how to control people. And naturally, guilt is one of the best mechanisms ever evolved to control people, to dominate people. Make them feel guilty! Once they start feeling guilty they are in your control. All dictators do that, all politicians do that. And your priest is just a politician behind the mask. The popes, the SHANKARACHARYAS, are all politicians;…

Aren't a lot of the problems of the western mind the result of the sin-and-guilt in christianity?

Yes, that is bound to be. The concept of sin creates a very different consciousness around it. This concept is lacking in the Eastern mind. Rather, it is substituted for by the concept of ignorance. In Eastern consciousness the root of all evil is ignorance not sin. Evil is there because you are ignorant. So the problem is not of guilt but of discipline. You have to be more aware, more knowing. In the East, knowledge is transformation -- and meditation is the instrument for that transformation. With Christianity, sin became the center. And it is not only your sin. It is the original sin of humanity. You are burdened with a concept of sin. This creates guilt, tension. That is why Christianity could not really develop meditative techniques. It only developed prayer. What can you do to fight sin? You can be moral and prayerful! There is nothing like…

Swami Shantiswarup Bharti has asked: “Your talks on spirituality and religion are very dear to me. But when you say something about politics or society, I can’t agree. This creates a sense of guilt. What should I do now?”

A sense of guilt can be erased in only two ways. Either drop sannyas. If you are so insistent on clutching political and social opinions—so eager to hold on to your own ideas—then drop those sweet words you like to hear. You will be free of guilt. Free yourself from sannyas. Or, if truly the talks on spirituality and religion are so dear to you, can you not pay even this small price—that you drop your two-bit political opinions and social notions! And what are your political opinions and social notions worth, anyway! You have no awareness of yourself—what on earth will you understand of society? You don’t even know who you are, and you think you can have a perspective on politics! Except for the Buddhas, whatever people say about society and politics springs only from their foolishness. And the irony is, we don’t want enlightened ones to say…

I always feel guilty even though there is no apparent cause. Why?

And she has created guilt. The child will go but now she will be creating guilt in the child. See, the child will go, and I'm all for the child, he should go, such mothers should not be listened to -- but now a problem will be created. The child will go outside as a thief, feeling guilty, heart palpitating, perspiring, always afraid that somebody might see. And he is not doing any sin, he is just playing in the sun. By and by this guilt will settle. Whenever he asked to go out he was told no and whenever he went out it was a crime against the mother. Now the guilt settles. Now suddenly, when you are forty years old, one day sitting outside on the lawn you feel guilty for no reason at all -- for no apparent reason. The sun is there and the butterflies are…