Conscience

 

 

You have been conditioned to deny, you have been conditioned to say 'no'. You have not yet known how to say 'yes'. You have been conditioned to condemn. You were condemned and the same you are doing to others. You go on condemning yourself also, and of course the same you have to do with others. You cannot do otherwise.

 

Your parents were telling you, 'You are wrong, this is not right, this should never be done,' and a thousand and one times they have repeated it. And you have gathered one message: that you are not accepted as you are, you are not loved for your simple being.

 

If you fulfill their desires they love you; their love is a bargain. If you follow them like shadows, they appreciate, they approve. If you just become a little free and you try to be an individual, they are against you -- their eyes, their behaviour, everything changes. And every child is so helpless -- just to survive he has to be political, he has to accept whatsoever the parents are saying.

 

Then there is society, then there is the establishment of education. And by and by you go deeper and deeper into the mess, and everybody is there to force you to follow him. Then there are priests and politicians, all do-gooders, and they all want you to follow them, and they all have trained you. Your mind is a conditioned mind. That's why you cannot accept yourself and you cannot accept others.

 

But the possibility exists. If you understand this -- that this is just conditioning -- you can drop out of it clean, right now! Don't get identified with it, that is the only way. Don't think that this is you; just remember that this is society speaking through you. Don't call it your conscience, it is not your conscience. It is a pseudo-conscience created by the society. It is a trick, it is a very dangerous trick. But the society has put inside you its own ideas and they function as your conscience. In fact, they don't allow your real conscience to surface, they don't allow your own consciousness to come and take charge of your life.

 

Society is very political. Outside it has posted the policeman and the magistrate; inside it has posted the conscience. That is the inner policeman, the inner magistrate. And it is not even satisfied with this arrangement -- above it has posted a god, the super-policeman, the head constable. So he is looking from there; even in your bathroom he is watching you. Somebody is following you continuously, you are never left alone to be yourself.

 

Drop this -- this is your idea, you are clinging to it. It has been given to you by others. It has been given so early that you don't remember, but it is a political arrangement. It is not religious.

 

Religion is an unconditioning. The very process of religion is to make you unconditioned, to free you of all conditions, and to allow you whatsoever you are meant to be, to allow you your destiny.

 

Drop out of this conditioning. That's what a real drop-out has to be. It is not just dropping out of the society -- that won't help because where will you go? Even if you become a hippie and you drop out of the society, you will create an alternate society, and again there will be rules, and again there will be conditionings.

 

If you move in the ordinary society, the establishment, you are expected not to have long hair. And if you move amidst hippies you are expected not to have short hair. But it is the same.

 

If you are moving in the established society, you are expected to take a bath every day. And if you are living with hippies and you take a bath every day, they will think something is wrong with you. But it is the same thing, upside down.

 

You cannot move out of the society. Many times it has been tried, but only alternative societies are created, and they become their own establishments.

 

You can move out of the society only in a very subtle way, there is no gross way. The subtle way is to drop inside, out of the layer of conditioning. Just remember that now you are mature enough,..you need not bother what others say; you have to be yourself. And enjoy, start enjoying this freedom, and then you will be able to impart freedom to others also. Because if you want your freedom to grow you will need people who are free around you, because freedom can prosper only with free people.

 

-Osho, “The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 1, #6“