India

Osho, you have titled this series of talks “Sahaj Yoga.” Do “sahaj” and “yoga” not seem mutually opposed?

Anand Maitreya! They don’t just seem opposed, they are opposed. But no ultimate truth of life can manifest without contradiction. Life is made of opposites—darkness and light, day and night, woman and man, negative electricity and positive electricity, birth and death. The very structure of life is woven of opposites. Hence the opposites are not only opposed; they are complementary to each other. If you have labored hard all day, you will be able to sleep deeply. Labor and rest are opposites, yet only the one who has worked can rest deeply—and the one who has not worked cannot. So the opposites are not only opposed, they complete each other. And only the one who has rested deeply at night can rise in the morning and engage in work again. One who has not rested through the night will not be able to work in the morning. Look closely at…

Osho, would you be kind enough to say something about your view of India? Ayub Syed, editor, ‘Current.’

Dear Ayub Syed! I am not a nationalist. India, Pakistan, China, Japan have no meaning for me. I do not see this earth as divided into fragments. The misfortune of the earth is precisely that it is divided into fragments. And as long as it remains divided, that misfortune will continue. Science has made the earth one; if only politics would step aside, humanity’s misfortune would end. Today the earth has all the means to make human beings happy and prosperous. For the first time, the earth could fill even the gods of heaven with envy. But politics will have to die if science is to win. Science opens the doors of good fortune; politics turns those very doors into misfortune. Scientists like Albert Einstein and Lord Rutherford discovered the atomic bomb. The atom could have proved a blessing for the earth, for such energy had come into our hands…

Osho, you never speak about the greatness of India, nor do you say anything in praise of this country’s leaders. Why?

Chandulal! How did you land up here? And did you bring Dhabbuji along or not? You’ve come to the wrong place. Here we don’t discuss nations and the like. What value is there in the lines man has drawn on a map? Here the earth is one. What India, what Pakistan, what China? If you want to hear that kind of talk, go to Delhi. Why have you come here? And don’t stay here too long—the air here is dangerous! If you linger, you might start dancing, singing, humming; then you’ll forget all about India and the rest. What need is there to praise India? And why do you want India praised? To gratify the ego. Why not praise Pakistan? Why didn’t you ask why I never speak about Pakistan’s greatness? Pakistan was once India; now it isn’t. Burma was once India; now it isn’t. Afghanistan too, once upon a…

Beloved Osho, india, your homeland, has treated you badly and without due respect. Yet sometimes when I hear you speak, do I not detect a subtle fondness in you for india and her people? Osho, what do you love about india?

India, to me, is not only a country, but a concept... not just a land, but a way of life, a tremendously significant philosophy. So when I talk about India, it does not matter at all that they have treated me badly, that they would like me to be killed. They have made efforts -- unfortunately they failed. These are small things, and I don't take them into consideration. My consideration is for the India as a concept. It is the only part of the world which has gone deep into the interiority of man, which has discovered for the first time the ultimate in consciousness, the universality of individual beings. Science has discovered much, but no discovery of science can be compared to the discovery that India has made in the past. For ten thousand years continuously it has devoted its whole energy to finding out the meaning of…