Journalism

Beloved Osho, what is healthy journalism? Can journalism survive on positive news? Please explain your vision on the responsibility of the media.

Nandita, by healthy journalism, I mean journalism which nourishes the whole personality of man -- his body, his mind, his soul -- journalism whose whole concern is to create a better humanity, not just to report what is happening. Journalism should not be just a news medium, it should also be great literature -- then it is healthy. Even yesterday's newspaper should remain of some worth, so that even today it can be read. It should not be so momentary. But if you are only a news medium then naturally, once the day has passed, the news is old. You should make something that never becomes old, and always remains new. That's what great literature is. Dostoevsky's novels, or those of Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, or Turgenev, Rabindranath Tagore ... they will remain significant as long as humanity remains, and as fresh as ever. Something in your journalism should have…

Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHY ARE THE JOURNALISTS ALWAYS WRITING AGAINST YOU? Sudarshan, feel happy that they are always writing; don't be worried about what they write. It they are writing that means something is happening here. And they can only write against because when you write something in favor you have to experience what is happening here; without experiencing it you cannot write a favorable report about it. You have to be here for a few months. They come only for one day, they look around, they see the meditators -- but by seeing the meditators you can't see meditation. They see that something is happening and something so new for them that it does not fit with their idea of an ashram, of a monastery. Hence, naturally they turn against me, they become antagonistic.

Osho, are all the journalists blind? Can't they see the truth? Why are they continuously spreading lies about you?

A journalist is taught by his profession to always remain at a distance: "Look from the outside." And from the outside you can never know how things are. A pretty young woman was traveling in a train across Texas. A dapper looking man walked up to her and whispered something in her ear, whereupon she gave him a stinging slap in the face. A tall Texan seated across the aisle stood up and asked her, "Is this man molesting you, Ma'am?" "He certainly is," she replied. "He just offered me ten dollars if I would go with him to his sleeping compartment." Without hesitation, the Texan pulled out his pistol and shot the man. "Good God!" cried the woman. "That's no reason to kill him!" "I will kill any man," replied the Texan, "who tries to raise the prices in Texas." If you had looked only from the outside you…

Beloved master, why is it that the journalists never seem to understand you?

Kavyo, it has nothing to do with me. They have never understood Jesus, Socrates, Buddha, Kabir. They cannot understand; it is against their investment. The journalist lives on creating sensations. Any news is news only when it is sensation. They live on rumors and they have to make rumors very spicy. They have no interest in truth, because truth is never news. Truth is so ancient, truth is always the same. I am saying the same truth. Buddha said it, Christ said it, and all those who have known. It is nothing new -- how it can be news? And they come here in search of news. They have to invent -- and it is really interesting how inventive people can be. Just a few days ago I was reading a report in a Punjabi magazine about this commune, this ashram. The man says, the journalist says, that he has…