| 
Part V : Osho’s controversial discourse series: Beware of
Socialism
In April 1970, Osho gives a series of very controversial discourses,
which upset many Gandhians and Communists. These are published
under the title: Beware of Socialism. Communists are attracted
to Osho towards the end of this period of travelling and when
Osho settles in Bombay.
When I criticized Gandhi, all the communists and socialists started
coming closer to me; they thought that I must be a communist.
Who else is going to criticize Gandhi? The president of the communist
party told me, "We can be immensely helped by you because
we don't have any person of your charisma who can influence the
masses."
But I said, "Wait. I did not speak against Gandhism because
I am a communist - now you have created another trouble, I will
have to speak against communism."
And again the same advice: "No, Osho, you have to be very
discriminating. These people can be of immense help to you. The
communist party is the most organized party in the country and
if they are behind you, your work...."
I said, "Forget all about work. First let me finish the
communists because they have come under a misunderstanding and
I don't want anybody to be with me under any misunderstanding."
And I had to criticize communism just because of their desire.
And this has been happening politically, socially, religiously....
last601
So when the communists saw that the Gandhians were angry with
me, they thought it was an opportunity*. If I can be their representative,
it will be an immense help for them to gain power in India, because
they have heard that I don't believe in any religions; they have
heard there is no God, no heaven, no hell. They felt, "This
seems to be perfectly agreeing with us."
In fact, my emphasis was far deeper than their own philosophy.
So when I said that there are no religions, but there is something
higher than religion and that is religiousness; there is no God
as a person, but as a presence, and the whole universe is full
of godliness...I walked on their fingers! Immediately all communists
disappeared from my audience. But a few courageous souls have
remained, and have become accustomed to my stepping on their fingers.
And they have learned one secret:
With me it is not ideas that matter.
With me it is your transformation that matters.
And your transformation is possible only if your mind slowly,
slowly becomes calm and quiet. pilgr16
A friend wants to know if I am paid by the capitalists for supporting
them.
No payment so far, but if there is a suggestion please bring it
to me. It is strange, the whole pattern of our thinking is such.
When I speak in favor of socialism I receive letters saying that
I am Mao's agent and paid by China. And when I criticize socialism
they say I am in the pay of America and I am an agent of American
capital.
Is it a crime to think? Do only agents think, and no one else?
I wonder if the questioner himself is connected with some agency.
If not why this question?
We cannot imagine that one can think independently. We say one
must be an agent. This means that man does not have a soul of
his own and he cannot think on his own. social02
The first thing to understand is that socialism today stands
as an enemy, in opposition to capitalism. But whatever socialism
may be, it is the child of capitalism. Capitalism arose out of
the system of feudalism. And if capitalism is allowed to develop
fully, it will lead to socialism. And socialism, allowed to run
its full course, will turn into communism. And in the same way
communism can lead to anarchism. But the basic condition is that
these systems should be allowed to evolve fully, completely. But
a child can be forced prematurely out of its mother's womb, and
the mother may feel tempted to have a child sooner than later.
An impatient mother may want to have the child in five months,
instead of nine; she will escape four months of labor and see
her child earlier. But such a child will be a dead child, not
a living one. And even if the child survives, it will be worse
than dead....
Remember, if capitalism is developed properly, socialism will
be its natural outcome - in a pregnancy of nine months the child
comes out of its mother's womb naturally and silently. So, talk
of socialism when capitalism has not yet grown to its full height,
is suicidal.
I am myself a socialist, so it will surprise you when I ask
you to beware of socialism. I also want the child of socialism
to come to India, but on one condition - that it completes its
full nine months in the mother's womb. This country has not achieved
capitalism as yet. So talk of socialism here at this moment is
as dangerous...as dangerous as it proved in Russia, and is going
to be proved in China. China is out to kill millions, and yet
socialism will not come there, because nothing in life happens
before its time. The law of life does not permit haste. This country
has yet to develop its capitalist system....
What do I mean when I warn you against socialism? I ask you to
let the time of pregnancy be complete. Capitalism is that time
of pregnancy - let it complete nine months....
My understanding of the problem is this: It is only the Tatas
and Birlas who can produce that enormous wealth which is needed
for distribution. Distribution cannot happen otherwise.
If I warn you against socialism, it does not mean that I am the
enemy of socialism. In fact, the socialists of the day are its
enemies, for they do not know what they are doing. They are setting
on fire the very house they live in. They will be burned, and
with them the whole country will be burned.
India's poverty is very chronic. So think well before you take
a step in this direction. Let not the capital-forming process
in this country break down. In fact, it is already weakening,
but we do not see it. It seems we have decided not to see anything
with open eyes. The government is making a mess of everything
it undertakes to do. For every one rupee invested in the private
sector of industries, we have invested two in the public sector.
But all the public undertakings are running at a loss. Yet the
government says that all the industries should be nationalized....
Many people find contradictions in what I say. But what I say
is so simple, so clear. I repeat: Socialism will stem from capitalism
if the latter is allowed its full growth. But capitalism should
go only after it has completed its job. But today, unfortunately,
the capitalist himself is gripped with fear. He cannot say with
courage that capitalism has a rationale to be, to live. He also
says socialism is right. And there are reasons for it.
The capitalist is afraid. He is afraid of the great crowd all
around him. He is scared by the slogans and the flags and the
noise raised by the power-hungry politicians. And in panic he
says. "Then socialism is right." I see even the biggest
capitalist is terrified; he is trembling. He thinks he has committed
a sin; he feels guilty. And it is amazing....
In the course of the coming four talks I am going to discuss with
you the many sides of this problem. And I would like you to send
me your questions. if you have any, in writing, so that I can
deal with them at length.
It is a very vital question, and deserves serious consideration.
Lots of rethinking is necessary on every side of the problem.
The effort is worth it. It is not necessarily so that what I say
is right; it may be wrong. So I invite you just to think, and
objectively. I don't expect more. If so many of us here think
together and have a perspective of socialism, it will help the
whole country." social01
I am against communism, because if a person is deprived of his
private possessions, something of his individuality dies. His
private possessions are a kind of safety around him, that keep
him alive as an individual. false06
I have met Stalin's daughter, Svetlana. After Stalin's death
she came to India. Just by chance I happened to be in Delhi, and
the woman I was staying with...she is a rare woman. I will
not tell you her name because what I am going to say refers to
people who are still alive, and particularly to a person for whom
I have tremendous respect. This woman is now nearabout seventy-five.
I have never come across a woman that old and yet so beautiful....
She invited me, saying, "If you pass through Delhi, stay
with me this time."
I was staying with her and she told me, "Svetlana is here.
Would you like to see her?"
I said, "That's very good. I wanted to meet Stalin, but no
harm; some part of Stalin...at least royal blood!"
When I asked her, "How was he behaving with your mother?"
she just started weeping.
She said, "He was a monster. He used to beat my mother. He
used to beat me for any small thing and we could not say a single
word against him, because he would do the same to us as he would
have done to anybody else - he would kill us. We were treated
just like servants."
Even Stalin's wife could not enter his room without knocking and
asking permission. She had to make an appointment - and they
lived just in the same house. Stalin was very much in favor of
what he called women's liberation. And people thought it was not
women's liberation; it was just making all women prostitutes.
Everybody was against it. The whole of the communist party's high-ranking
people were against it; not a single person was in favor. That's
why the policy was dropped.
Otherwise everything that was private became public - and
by public it simply meant it became state-owned. Your house, your
horse, your hands, your land - everything became state-owned.
Hence, in Russia it is not communism.
I call it state capitalism.
The state became the only monopoly - capitalist. In America
there are many capitalists; in Russia there is only one capitalist.
And certainly to have many is better. ignor27
Only when people become enlightened, when there is nothing but
a pure consciousness, is communism possible; otherwise that day
is just a utopia.
The word `utopia' is very beautiful. It means `that which never
comes'. Only in enlightenment is there a possibility of equality,
and to the enlightened person all beings - they may not be enlightened
now - are going to be enlightened someday. So intrinsically, every
being - every living being, the trees are included - wherever
there is life in any form, they are all on the way, moving, evolving,
going higher. And the goal is the same: to become awakened, to
become absolute purity, consciousness, blissfulness, ecstasy....
I am a communist as far as man's intrinsic potential is concerned,
and I am not a communist as far as man's actuality is concerned.
He should be given every support, every opportunity to grow in
his own way. A forced equality is destructive, destructive of
all that is valuable. There should be big trees, tall trees reaching
to the stars, and there should be small bushes; they both enrich
existence. There should be lotuses and there should be roses and
there should be marigolds. The variety, the difference, the inequality
makes life richer, makes life more livable, lovable....
Inequality in humanity is a psychological truth.
Equality is a spiritual truth.
One should not get mixed up. tahui14
When I said, twenty years ago, that men are not equal, the Communist
party of India passed a resolution against me, condemning me.
And the president of the Communist party of India, S.A. Dange,
declared that soon his son-in-law, who is a professor, is going
to write a book to confute my idea that men are not equal. He
has written a book against me; although there is no argument except
anger, abuse and lies - but not a single argument to prove
that men are equal. zara203
He has written a thesis against me because I am confusing people's
minds. It is difficult to figure out whether I am atheist or theist,
whether I am a religious man or an anti-religious man. Through
the whole of his thesis he tries to figure who I am - and finds
that it is impossible, and that I am simply a confuser.
Amrit Dange, the president of the Indian communist party and one
of the oldest communists in the world, was part of the international
communist party at the time of the Russian revolution, he was
one of the members along with Lenin and Trotsky. Just by chance
we were in the same compartment, traveling.
He said to me, "Have you seen? - my son-in-law has written
a book about you. For three years he has been studying you. You
have created so much literature that it is going to be impossible
to do research on you. He was going mad, day and night. And you
seem to be impossible: it is not only that you contradict yourself
one time, you contradict again, and you contradict again. Finally
it became impossible to find what you mean, because.... And that's
the conclusion that he reached."
I said, "You throw the book out of the train. He is a fool,
tell him. Why did he waste three years? Life is so short and you
are a communist: Rinam kritva ghritam pivet - borrow ghee, drink
ghee. Why waste time with a madman like me?" - and I took
the book from his hand and threw it out of the window.
He said, "This is too much!"
I said, "You can pull the emergency cord. What purpose has
the red cord always hanging there? Pull the cord." But by
that time we were miles away from the book, and it was midnight.
Amrit Dange said, "There is no point in pulling the cord
- and even if I pull the cord, we have come miles, and it is midnight
- where are we going to find the book? And there is no need to
be worried: my son-in-law has all the books. They are not being
sold because people say that either...." There was a clear-cut
division in India - either somebody was for me, or somebody was
against me. Those who were for me were reading my books; they
wouldn't waste their time with his thesis. And those who were
against me did not want even to hear my name - what to say about
the book.
So he said, "We have all the books. Perhaps you are right;
he is a fool. Three years he has wasted, and he has published
it with his own money. No publisher was ready to publish it, 'Because,'
they said, 'the country is clearly divided; there are no neutral
people available, so who is going to purchase the book?' He published
it with his own money and now he is sitting on the whole lot."
I said, "You can go on distributing this way, the way you
distributed it to me. Distribute it. Let people read it even if
they cannot get any substance out of it - because he has not been
able in three years to find out what I mean. Nobody is going to
find out, because I am not stating logical, philosophical maxims.
I am a whole presence."...
Authentic religion will not be theistic or atheistic.
Authentic religion will not be materialistic or spiritualistic.
Authentic religion will be wholistic. It will not divide life
into compartments, it will destroy all the compartments of sinners
and saints, heaven and hell. person22
I have asked many communists, very old communists....
I asked Dange, "Have you ever meditated?"
He said, "Meditated - for what? Why should I meditate?"
I said, "If you have never meditated, then you don't have
the authority to say that there is no soul, no God, no consciousness.
Without going inside yourself, how can you say that there is nobody?
And see the absurdity of it: who is saying that there is nobody?
Even to deny you will have to accept that there is somebody. Even
to say that there is nobody, somebody has to be assumed."
dless24
One of my friends, Rahul Sankritayana, a scholar of Sanskrit,
Pali and Prakrit, was a Buddhist monk. But he also became interested
in communism because of the simple similarity that Buddha has
no God and Marx also has no God. So he started becoming interested
in Marxism, and finally he became a communist. And the Soviet
Union asked him to go to Moscow University to teach Sanskrit there.
So he went to Moscow.
Out of India, in Moscow, things were different. Here it would
have been impossible for him to remain a Buddhist monk and yet
fall in love. In the Soviet Union there was no difficulty. He
fell in love with a beautiful woman, Lola - she was also a professor
in the same university, and she had two children.
But the Soviet government did not allow him to take the wife
or children out of the Soviet Union. He could live there, but
he wanted to come back to his own country. And he was also afraid.
In a way the government was fulfilling his innermost desire -
how could he go to India with a wife and two children? He would
be condemned by everybody, particularly the Buddhists: "You
are a monk!" So he was happy in a way, that the government
itself did not allow it, so there was no question.
He came back. He told me, "When I first went to the Soviet
Union, I asked a small boy, `Do you believe in God?' He said,
`God? People used to believe in that in the dark ages. If you
want to see the statue of God, you can go into the museum.'"
But this is also programming. It is not that these small boys
know there is no God, or that even Karl Marx knew there was no
God. Only a man of immense meditation can know whether God is
or is not.
So you are programmed, and so deeply ingrained is the program
that you think it is your nature. Your fictions, your hopes, your
future...nothing is natural.
Nature knows nothing except this moment. Nature knows nothing
about hopes and desires and wants. Nature simply enjoys whatever
is available this moment, now and here. celebr05
Rahul Sankritayana told me, "The first thing that was shocking
to the Russians was my hands."
I said, "Your hands?"
He said, "Yes. Whenever I shook hands with them, they immediately
shrank back. They said, 'You must be a bourgeois. Your hands don't
show that you have ever worked.'"
I told the Buddhist monk, "You touch my hand. Then you will
know that you are a proletarian and I am a bourgeois! That will
give you great consolation." last129
I had one communist friend - he was really a great intellectual.
He had written many, nearabout a hundred, books, all on the communist
theme but in a very indirect way: they were novels. But through
the novel he was preaching the communist theme, so indirectly
that you would be influenced by the novel. The novels that he
has written are first rate - he was a first-rate creative writer
- but the result ultimately will be that he will be pulling you
towards communism.
His name was Yashpal. I told him, "Yashpal, you are against
all religions" - and communism is against all religions,
it is an atheist philosophy. "But the way you behave and
other communists behave simply proves that communism is another
religion."
He said, "What do you mean?"
I said, "I simply mean that you are as fanatic as any Mohammedan,
as any Christian. You have your trinity: Marx, Engels, Lenin.
You have your Mecca - Moscow; you have your kaaba - the Kremlin;
you have your holy book - Das Kapital. And although Das Kapital
is now a hundred years old you are not ready to change a single
word in it. In a hundred years economics has changed totally -
Das Kapital is absolutely out of date."
He was ready to fight. I said, "It is not a question of fight.
Even if you kill me that will not prove that you were right. That
will simply prove that I was right and you could not tolerate
my existence. You give me arguments."
Communism has no argument.
I said to him, "Your whole philosophy is based on the idea
that the whole of humanity is equal. This is psychologically wrong.
The whole of psychological science says that each individual is
unique. How can unique individuals be equal?"
But communism is fanatic. He stopped speaking with me, he stopped
writing letters to me. I used to pass through his city, Lucknow.
He always used to come to the station to see me - he stopped coming
to see me.
When many of my letters were not answered I wrote a letter to
his wife. She was a very loving woman. She wrote to me saying,
"You can understand - there is no need for me to tell you
that he is a fanatic. And you touched his weakest point. Even
I keep myself alert not to say anything against communism. I can
do anything, I can say anything against him, but I should not
say anything against communism because he cannot conceive that
anybody can be against communism."
He told me once, "We are going to take over the whole world."
I said, "Your project is a very small one, this earth is
very small. Why don't you join in my project?"
He said, "What is your project?"
I said, "My project is very simple. I am a man of very simple
taste and very easily satisfied. I am just going to take over
the universe. Why bother about a small earth which will be included
in the universe? No need to be worried about it." But communism
believes it is going to take over the whole earth, and almost
half of the earth they have already taken.
Their fanatic attitude will create the reaction in America to
become fanatically Christian. That seems to be the only alternative
for Americans, but they don't know.... You can survive communism,
but you cannot survive fanatic Christianity.
Just trying to save yourself from one danger your are falling
into a greater danger.
I can show you the way to survive communism - not only for you
to survive communism, but for you to help the whole world to get
rid of communism. it is very simple: just make people more rich.
Let poverty disappear, and there will be no communism left. dark29
|
