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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, on seeing your ashram I had the sense of another world. How meaningful is this in our country, India?

Poverty, wretchedness, India’s problems—all can disappear; only give India a right perspective to resolve them. Our problems are of our own making; therefore removing them is easy. Today there is such technological progress in the world that India has no need to remain poor. If we are poor, perhaps it is because we want to remain so; we are poor because our ways of thinking are foolish. We have the most beautiful land, the most beautiful sky. We are not short of talent either. But we have forgotten to honor talent. So whenever a talented person is born here, he too has to leave India. We have become adept at honoring the dull-witted. We have invented such criteria that only the dull-witted can qualify. Someone gets up at five in the morning—our respect! Someone does not smoke—our respect! Someone eats only greens—our respect! Someone wears khadi—our respect! Someone performs daily…

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…

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…