International reaction to Osho



International reaction to Osho
and the Communes
Just two days ago one of our Australian communes tried to purchase a holiday resort there. It has a huge building, and they wanted to make it a school for sannyasin children--it could manage at least one hundred and fifty children--and the resort could become a beautiful commune. The commune is in the city but they wanted to move out and to spread.
The fear went all over Australia. The whole media--television, the newspapers--was full of the same fear. Just as we have heard here that we are going to take over Wasco County.... I am sitting here, and they are saying in Australia that I am planning to come to Australia and we will try to take over. Already there are posters in Australia: Better dead than red. Strange, that red color seems to have become the monopoly of the communists. dark29

The German government is doing everything so that I cannot enter Germany. That is enough indication that the paranoia and fear have already reached into the hearts of those who are holding the power.
They have put a few cases against me. I have never been in Germany--I was really amazed. How can I commit any crime?--I have never been there. But they have put cases against me for two reasons. They can refuse entry to a man who is under litigation. Or they can let you enter and then imprison you because so many cases are against you; you cannot leave the country until all the litigations are over.
I rejoice at their fear. Whenever a government becomes afraid of me, it brings great joy to my heart. That means my work is happening. The governors, the presidents are somehow trembling within. To hide that trembling they will do all kinds of things.
But whatever you do, your edifice is crumbling. The fear is not coming because of me, the fear is in you....
In Germany we have many communes, and those are the only places where you will see people laughing, enjoying, dancing, singing. Every day, thousands of non-sannyasins are coming to our German discos. It became a problem to accommodate so many people. People are waiting outside the discos in line, so when the first group leaves they can enter.
No church can claim that there is a line outside waiting! Naturally the church is afraid, the government is afraid. What is going to happen to these people? And they cannot understand either your way of life or your freedom, or your thoughts, or your spontaneity. You are the strangest people they have come across.
Yes, Germans are one of the biggest groups among my sannyasins, and every day more and more Germans are turning towards me. I can give you the guarantee that Germany cannot remain anything other than a land of sannyasins--and that will be the absolutely certain prevention of any other Adolf Hitler happening.  dless05

In fact, in Germany we have won a case just now, because the minister concerned had stopped the opening of one of our discos on the grounds that these discos are strategies to attract young people and then convert them into sannyasins.
We went to the court--and it was absolutely absurd, we have never tried to convert anybody. But if people want to be converted, then to refuse is not gentlemanly either....
We won the case. It was so simple--not a single piece of evidence that we have converted anybody. We are not missionaries; the word "missionary" is a four-letter word. We don't interfere in anybody's life, we don't interfere in anybody's freedom; but if somebody feels at home with us, he is welcome. He is coming on his own decision--and if he wants to leave, nobody prevents him.
We won the case, and in The Rajneesh Times German edition, our legal expert who had fought in the courts against the minister wrote about the case and called the minister a "supra-fascist", a high-class fascist, so sophisticated that you would not be able to think that he is a fascist.
The minister filed a case of defamation against Sadhu and The Rajneesh Times but we proved that he is a "supra-fascist." His fascism is sophisticated, subtle. We exposed him from his statements, speeches; we gathered all the material and just placed it before the court.
The court must have been in a difficulty. It took six or eight months for them to make a decision, but they had to make it, because they know my people--that if they go against the truth, the case will move to the higher court. It must have been a shock to the minister that the court accepted that he is a "supra-fascist," and that we have not defamed him, we have simply stated a factuality.
Now, if that minister had any sense of shame, he would jump in the ocean and disappear forever. A court decision about him, and he is still clinging to his post, seems simply--the man is shameless! dless38

Just the other day I had the message that one of our centers (in Germany) has been attacked. All the windows were broken in a crowd attack. People took away whatsoever they wanted. And just after that a whole center has been burned.
Now, my people have not harmed anybody; they were just meeting there, meditating there. Even the policemen made the statement, "It is strange, because for two years we have been observing these people, and they are utterly innocent. They are neither political nor in any ideology--they just enjoy themselves. Why their houses should be burned is unexplainable." The police may not find the explanation, because the explanation is here... glimps18

And I have opened a new area of sannyasins, that is, underground sannyasins--a special concession for communist countries, Mohammedan countries, the Middle East.
To me, wearing red clothes and a mala does not mean anything. To persuade you, I may give great explanations, esoteric, supernatural meanings of the color and everything. But in fact, it is just to give you an identity and the courage to stand in society alone.
It will make you strong, because everybody will be hostile. And it will give you a chance also to spread my word, because people will start asking you, "What has happened to you? Have you gone crazy? nuts? or what? Why do you go on wearing red clothes and a mala and the picture of this madman?"
They don't mean anything, but they are useful instruments for shocking people outside. If somebody is shocked, that means that is the beginning of his sannyas! His heart has already received its first shock, now many more will be coming.
But in communist countries they will simply imprison people, persecute them, kill them. In Mohammedan countries, they will simply kill them. Then it is pointless.
There, my sannyasins are underground sannyasins. They don't wear red, they don't wear the mala. Still they are being persecuted, still the government is trying to find out who are the people in connection with me.
People are being called by the KGB in Russia to be interviewed continuously every week, tortured with the same questions.
I have received the message, "Should we say who we are?"
I said, "There is no need to tell those idiots. It is enough that you know who you are."
But underground or overground, the moment your heart opens towards me, I am with you wherever you are. dless35

Somebody has said, "In America, the government sources think that you are planted here by the Soviet Union." And in the Soviet Union my books are banned! I have a few sannyasins there, of course underground; but they meet, and one woman got caught because she was the messenger taking books, magazines and other things. And they harassed her in every possible way.
They wanted her to confess that I am an American agent preparing people and sending them into communist countries to sabotage. She said, "But this is absolutely absurd!" She informed me, "This is strange. In America they thing you are from the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union people think that you are an American agent!" misery25

You say: I was born in South Korea. I left that country in 1984, and took sannyas in 1985. When I was staying in Rajneeshpuram in 1985, the South Korean Government arrested a lot of my friends and denounced them and me as communist revolutionaries. One of them was killed before the court date, and two of them were sentenced to death; the rest of them are all in jail now, and I have been suffering from this horrible calamity.
Your lovers in South Korea try to make their country free from U.S. imperialism, and to search for the path of truth simultaneously. Is it possible to do this?--to search for the path of truth and free one's own country from tyranny? Please comment for me and your lovers in Korea.
Prem Seung, there is no conflict between your search for truth, for your spiritual freedom, and your struggle against political tyranny--although matters become a little more complicated.
The priority should be your attainment of spiritual freedom, because political tyrannies come and go. And you cannot be absolutely sure that when you have overthrown one political tyranny, it will not be replaced by another. You can fight with the United States and its ugly attempt to keep South Korea under its power--to destroy people and their freedom.
Now they are killing your people, calling them communist. Tomorrow...it is going to happen out of necessity, because history moves like the pendulum of a clock. From one extreme to another extreme; that's the way of history and time. Because they are condemning you as communists--killing you, forcing you into jails, sentencing you to death--it will create the opposite movement, a movement towards communism....
It is a very complex game. You should not give it priority; the priority should remain your own growth. Whether the tyranny is of America, or the tyranny is of China, or the tyranny is of the Soviet Union, it does not matter. Tyranny is simply tyranny; it is murderous, it is criminal.
So rather than waiting for a beautiful future, when America is gone out of South Korea and South Koreans themselves are in power...don't trust it too much. History teaches something else; the people will remain in the same ugly situation, under the same horrors. Only the butchers have changed, but the murder remains the same.
I am not against fighting for freedom for your nation, but don't give it a priority. The priority should be for your spiritual freedom, which cannot be taken away either by America, by Russia, by China, or by anybody else. If you can manage, without any disturbance, to fight against tyranny also, then I am absolutely in support of it. But I don't think it is easy--it is very difficult. The moment you start fighting with governments, you get so much involved in that fight, you forget yourself completely....
Now it can be accepted as a rule: the revolutionary talks of great things, promises paradises, and when he comes into power, he proves a greater tyrant than the previous ones.
My hope is no longer in the promises of the revolutionaries; my hope is in the birth of the rebel. And a rebel's basic necessity--the essential transformation--is freedom of your individuality from your own past, from your own religion, from your own nation. Meditation will help to make you an individual; and only a commune of individuals who are all spiritually free, who have broken all the bridges that go towards the past, will have eyes that are fixed on faraway stars.
They are all, in a way, poets, dreamers, mystics and meditators. And unless we fill the world with these people, this world is going to change from one tyranny to another. It will be an exercise of utter futility.
Prem Seung, you are the priority. Get to your roots, find your self, become a rebel, and create as many rebels as possible. That's the only way you can help the future mankind in creating a Golden Future. rebel19

You are asking me: if my people are going to be persecuted, who is going to be responsible--I or they? My whole effort is that whatsoever I am doing I am responsible for. If I am persecuted and assassinated, I am responsible for it. But if you are persecuted and assassinated, remember, it is your responsibility, not mine. Why in the first place did you join me? I will not allow you to shirk away from your responsibility. I will not take your responsibility on myself.
I am responsible for whatsoever I am doing, and whatsoever happens to me. You are responsible individually--because I don't believe in any collectivity. Every individual has to accept his responsibility for whatsoever he is doing, whatsoever happens to him.
I had started alone. Then people started coming by and by, and my caravan started becoming bigger and bigger, and now it is all around the earth. But those people I respect. They have joined me on their own decision; I have not persuaded anybody.
I have not given you any promises of a holy land. I have not given you any incentives after death. I have not given you any guarantee that if you are with me, soon you will be with God. I don't give you promissory notes, and I don't take any responsibility on your behalf, because I respect you. If I take the responsibility on myself, then you are slaves; then I am the leader and you are the led.
No, I am not the leader, and you are not the led. We are fellow travelers. You are not behind me but by my side--just together with me. I am not higher than you, I am just one amongst you. I don't claim any superiority, extraordinary power, and all kinds of nonsense which Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Krishna, Buddha, Mahavira, all are to be condemned for. Do you see the point? To make you responsible for your life is to give you freedom.
A few of the sannyasins--for trivia, absurd reasons--have left the caravan. I am not at all angry with them. They had joined; it was their responsibility. They have left; it is their responsibility. If they want to come back, it will be their responsibility.
Every single sannyasin is responsible, remember. You cannot dump your responsibility on me. I am simply taking my own doings, sayings, happenings on myself. If you feel that because of me you are persecuted, drop sannyas. Why should you be persecuted for me? Who am I?
But if your sannyas is your love affair with me, then take the responsibility: be persecuted. And persecution cannot do any harm to you, for the simple reason that we are not fanatics, we are not dogmatic. My people are open, vulnerable, available.... false23

Do you choose to come at this time in history. Is there something about this time that makes it a right wrong time for you?
No, I have not chosen anything. Whenever and wherever I had been, it would have been both a wrong time and a right time. It will be a little difficult to understand wrong, because wherever, whenever, in whatever century I would have been, I would have had to face the same hostility, the same antagonism, the same anger of the masses. That way it would be the wrong time.
But it depends on me to change the wrong time into the right time. The hostility of the people, the anger of the people, the enmity of the people are symbolic. I am unable to do anything only if people remain absolutely inattentive towards me. If they can ignore me, then I cannot do anything. That will be simply the wrong time; then it cannot be changed into the right time.
But if people are angry, they have given the indication that they are already emotionally attracted towards me. Their anger is because of their fear. They are angry because they are afraid: "This man is dangerous. Coming close to him, perhaps you will not have any way to escape." They are creating the hostility and anger and enmity just to protect themselves.
But when somebody has started protecting himself, that simply means he is already influenced. He already smells the truth, and he is not capable of facing it. That's why he is creating walls of hostility--so he does not need to face it. But he has already become interested in me, he has already shown some kind of emotions towards me. It does not matter that the emotions of anger and hate and hostility are not favorable. It is very simple to change them. Once a person is emotionally attracted towards me, his hate can be changed into love very easily, because hate and love are not very different things, just two sides of the same coin.
The only person who is difficult to change is one who has no emotional idea about you--neither of love nor of hate--who simply passes by your side as if you are not there. But it is difficult as far as I am concerned. It is difficult to ignore me. I will not allow anybody to ignore me. They will have to take notice, and they will have to take a certain stand, for or against. That is the beginning of my work.
Those who are for are already with me. Those who are against are getting ready, sooner or later, to be with me. Their very hatred is symbolic.
It is symbolic that they cannot ignore me. It is symbolic because their hate simply shows that they are afraid that if they don't hate, they will fall in love. But how long they can do this to themselves? Hate is not a very good space. They are not harming me, they are poisoning themselves. How long can they remain in this poisoning state? Seeing others with me dancing, singing joyously, living a life in its intensity and totality, they are burning with hate and creating poison in themselves.
What is the point? Just a little intelligence is enough to see that I am not harmed by your hate. You are harming yourself. Those who love me are immensely helped by their love.
Once this becomes clear to people, they start moving from one camp to another. It takes just a little patience. last218

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