Persecution

Question: BELOVED OSHO, ARE YOU PERSECUTED FOR YOUR IDEAS OR FOR YOUR ACTIONS? My ideas are my actions; otherwise I am a lazy man. I have been telling my people that I am the lazy man's guide to enlightenment. Action! Just the very word freaks me out! But ideas are enough; they are more powerful than any action. I have only ideas, and I am persecuted for my ideas. I have never done anything, good or bad, for which I can be condemned or praised. All that I have done in my life is to find out the truth about anything that is the concern of the moment and say it forcefully, emphatically, with the authority of my own experience. And I don't think any action is needed.

Beloved Osho, the united states government proudly proclaims itself the land of the free and the home of the brave and points to its constitutional protections of fundamental rights. At the same time it twists and breaks its own laws to persecute you who embody freedom and truth. It seems the politicians always tell the biggest lies in the loudest voice. The worst tyrants talk most about peace and freedom. Could you please comment.

On celebration days the population of the commune -- which was only five thousand -- used to rise to twenty thousand. We had every arrangement for twenty thousand people. We created new kinds of tents which can be air-conditioned, which can be centrally heated, which can be used around the year, whether it is hot or cold, or snow is falling. These were our own invention. They could be folded in ten minutes and could be put up again in ten minutes. We were keeping those tents for the fifteen thousand people coming for festivals. The festivals were exactly what festivals should be -- twenty thousand people eating together under one roof, and while people were eating, somebody was playing guitar and somebody was dancing and somebody was playing on the flute. That was my idea always, that people should live as festively as possible. Their lives should be one…

Osho, why are the common masses against you, when what you say appears to us the very truth?

The king simply slipped away, took his fastest horse and rushed as fast as it was possible, away from the palace where the dream had happened. By the evening he had gone hundreds of miles, and he was very happy that he had come so far away: "Now it will be difficult for death to find me at the place, at the fixed time." The sun was setting. He had reached the outskirts of the city of Damishk. Just to rest... because the whole day he had not eaten, he had not even taken a cup of water. Time was so precious! Thirst is not going to kill you just in one day, hunger is not going to kill you just in one day. He was going to rest in a garden just outside of the city. He went into the garden and was tying the horse to a tree,…

Osho, why are society and the government against you? Why is there a continual attempt to suppress your voice?

As it should be, that is exactly what is happening. This is proper; it has always been so. If society did not oppose what I say, my words would not be true. Only when society opposes my words is there proof that there is some truth in them. Society only opposes truth. With lies society is always at ease. Lies cannot harm society; society digests them and makes them part of itself. It cannot digest truth. Hence Jesus has to be crucified. Hence Socrates has to be given poison. Hence stones have to be thrown at Buddha. What is happening is right. It is just as it should be; it is happening according to the law. Do not be anxious about it. Do not waste time in it. What I am saying is of a kind that society will not tolerate. Only a few brave individuals can bear it. Society…