Priests and Politicians : The Mafia of the Soul

 

 

Priests and the Politicians Have Always Been in a Conspiracy Against Humanity

 

Organized religion is a totally different affair, so I have to make it clear to you that authentic religion is always individual. The moment truth is organized, it dies; it becomes a doctrine, a theology, a philosophy -- but it is no longer experienced, because the crowd cannot experience. Experience happens only to individuals -- separately.

It is almost like love. You cannot have organizations of love -- so that you need not bother; the organization will take care, the priest will love on your behalf. But that's what has happened to religion. Each time a man discovers the truth, immediately one of the most cunning parts of humanity, the priests, surround him. They start compiling his words; they start interpreting his words; and they start making it clear to people that if you want to know truth, you have to go via them -- they are agents of God. They may call themselves prophets, they may call themselves messengers; they may choose any name, but the reality is, they are self-appointed agents of God. They don't know God, but in the name of God, they exploit humanity.

Organized religion is another form of politics. Just as I have always condemned politics as the lowest activity of human beings, the same is my attitude about organized religions. You can see it: the priests and the politicians have always been in conspiracy against humanity. They have been supporting each other. They have divided things between themselves so that your worldly life belongs to the politician, he is the ruler there, and your inner life belongs to the priest, he is the ruler there. [....]

 

Organized religion is only a content-less, meaningless word; hidden inside is the politics of numbers. And you know perfectly well -- as the election comes near, your politicians start going to see the shankaracharya. For five years, nobody goes to visit the shankaracharya, but when the election comes near, then the prime minister goes to visit the shankaracharya. He goes for a pilgrimage to the temples, high and deep in the mountains of the Himalayan range. For what? Suddenly, a great religious urge has arisen... which subsides as the election ends. [....]

 

Organized religions -- whether it is Christianity or Hinduism or Mohammedanism -- have not been seekers of truth. In two thousand years, what truth has organized Christianity added to the statements of Jesus? So what is the need of this organization? It is not increasing religiousness in the world, it is simply repeating what Jesus has said -- which is available in books for anybody to read. In twenty-five centuries, how many Buddhists have searched for the truth, or have found the truth? -- just a long line of parrots repeating what Gautam Buddha has found.

 

And you should be reminded that Gautam Buddha was not part of any organized religion; neither was Mahavira part of any organized religion, nor was Jesus part of any organized religion -- they were individual seekers.

 

Truth has always been found by individuals. That is the privilege of the individual, and his dignity. Organized religions have created wars – just like politicians have done. Their names may be different... politicians fight for socialism, for communism, for fascism, for nazism, and organized religions have been fighting for God, for love, for their concept of what truth is. And millions of people have been killed in the clashes between Christians and Mohammedans, between Christians and Jews, between Mohammedans and Hindus, between Hindus and Buddhists. Religion has nothing to do with war; it is a search for peace. But organized religions are not interested in peace – they are interested in becoming more and more powerful and dominant.

 

I condemn the organized religions in the same way I condemn the politicians – they are nothing but politics. So when I said to you that religious people should be respected, honored – the politicians should go to them for advice – I was not talking about organized religions; I was talking only about religious individuals. And a religious individual is neither Hindu nor Christian nor Mohammedan. How can he be? – God himself is not Hindu, not Mohammedan, not Christian. And the man who knows something of the divine becomes colored with his divinity, becomes fragrant with godliness.

 

In the ancient East these religious people were our highest flowers, and even kings and emperors used to go to them to touch their feet and to be blessed -- to ask their advice on problems which they were unable to solve.

If we want the world to remain alive, we have to bring back our ancient childhood days when the religious person had no interest of his own. That's why his eyes were clear, his heart was pure love, his being was nothing but a blessing. Whomsoever came to him was healed, his problems were solved; he was given new insights into rotten old problems.

Organized religions should disappear from the world -- they should drop this mask of being religious. They are simply politicians, wolves hiding themselves in the skin of sheep. They should come into their true colors; they should be politicians -- there is no harm in that. And all the time they are politicians, but they are playing the game in the name of religion.

Organized eligions don't have any future.

They should drop their disguise and come truly out in front as politicians, and be part of the political world so that we can find the authentic religious individual -- who will be very rare. But just a few authentic religious individuals can lead the whole world towards light, towards immortal life, towards ultimate truth.

 

-Osho, "The Hidden Splendor, #8, Q1"

 

 

 

 

Learn to Understand the Language of Existence

 

The priests who represent religion are not its friends. They are the greatest enemies of it, because religion needs no mediators: between you and existence there is an immediate relatedness. All that you have to learn is how to understand the language of existence. You know the languages of man, but they are not the languages of existence.

 

Existence knows only one language:

And that is of silence.

 

If you can also be silent you will be able to understand the truth, the meaning of life, the significance of all that exists. And there is no one who can interpret it for you. Everyone has to find it for himself. Nobody can do the job on your behalf -- but that's what the priests have been doing for centuries. They are standing like a China Wall between you and existence.

 

-Osho, "Zarathustra: A God That Can Dance, #22"

 

 

 

 

You Have to Sow Seeds for Lotuses

 

The politicians, and the priests of all the religions, the governments and the bureaucracies, all are creating enough mud. Now we have to grow lotuses. You have not to be drowned in their mud; you have to sow seeds for lotuses. The lotus seed is a miracle, it transforms the mud into the most beautiful flower.

 

-Osho, "The Razor’s Edge, #11"

 

 

 

 

Only You Are Capable of Knowing Your Source of Life

 

There is no God, except your own consciousness. There is no need for any pope, or for Ayatollah Khomeini, or for any shankaracharya, to be mediators between you and God. These are the greatest criminals in the world, because they are exploiting your helplessness.

 

Just a few days ago, the pope declared a new sin: that one should not confess directly to God; you have to confess through the priest. Confessing directly to God, communicating directly with God, is a new sin. Strange... you can see clearly that this is not religion, this is business -- because if people start confessing directly to God, then who is going to confess to the priest and pay the fine? The priest becomes useless, the pope becomes useless.

 

All the priests are pretending that they are mediators between you and the ultimate source of life. They know nothing of the ultimate source of life. Only you are capable of knowing your source of life. But your source of life is also the ultimate source of life -- because we are not separate. No man is an island; we are a vast continent underneath. Perhaps on the surface you look like an island -- and there are many islands -- but deep down in the ocean, you meet. You are part of one earth, one continent. The same is true about consciousness,

 

But one has to be free from churches, from temples, from mosques, from synagogues. One has to be just oneself, and take the challenge of life wherever it leads. You are the only guide. You are your own master.

 

-Osho, "The Rebellious Spirit, #11, Q1"

 

 

 

 

The Politicians Don’t Want Everybody to Become Rich

 

All these religions are living on poverty. The poor go there because they are suffering; it is unbearable, they need some kind of consolation. The rich don't go there; they are not suffering. And if they are in a certain anguish, these priests are not capable of helping them. The rich people, feeling frustrated, have to search for somebody who can help them out of their anguish. They don't want opium.

 

The politicians don't want everybody to become rich, because it is more difficult to enslave rich people than poor. It is easier to purchase the votes of the poor than to convince the rich people to vote for them. The richer a person becomes, the more out of hand he is as far as politicians are concerned. A richer person, if he has any psychological problem, will go to a psychoanalyst, not to a priest. He will go the East to find some meditator to help him realize himself so that he can go beyond the mind, but he will not go to these ordinary priests who don't know anything.

 

-Osho, "Socrates Poisoned Again After 25 Centuries, #12"

 

 

 

 

You Have to Be Aware Who the Criminals Are

 

I don't have any interest in the outside world, in politics, but I have immense interest in you. You are living in a world which is ugly, sick, one foot in the grave. And I don’t want you to be drowned with this sick world.

 

That’s why I speak against many things. My interest is in you, my sannyasins. I speak against politics because I don’t want my sannyasins to remain ignorant of who the real criminals are in this world. That’s why I speak against the priests and religions, because I don’t want any single loophole for you. You have to be aware who the criminals are. The problem is that those criminals are thought to be great leaders, sages, saints, mahatmas, and they are tremendously respected around the world; you would never think that they could be criminals. So I have to insist continuously, every day.

 

-Osho, "The Last Testament, Vol. 2, #23"

 

 

 

 

The Politician Cannot Become Religious

 

I have said that, and I repeat it: the really religious person cannot be interested in politics. And the politician, remaining a politician, cannot have any religious experience, any taste of that flight to the unknown. But I have never said that there is no hope for a better world.

 

This is true, that the politician cannot become religious -- for the simple reason that politics, all politics, politics as such, is power politics. It is will-to-power. One wants to dominate, one wants to possess, one wants to be the decisive factor in people's lives. These are the qualities of the ego. Obviously this type of person cannot be religious because religion is basically the experience of egolessness.

 

In religion there is no place for will-to-power. In fact, in religion there is no place even for will. Will-to-power is far away; even will-to-be is not there. One is in the hands of existence, in a deep let-go. This let-go is what I call religiousness. That's why I said that religion and politics are opposite dimensions.

 

-Osho, "From Darkness To Light, #21, Q1"

 

 

 

 

Priests and the Politicians Have to Disappear from the Earth

 

There is no need for poverty, there is no need for misery, there is no need for so much sickness. There is no need for man only to live seventy years. These are just because we have not tried intelligence in living. Wherever we have tried it, we have reached heights of immense dimensions.

 

Only as far as man is concerned, we are dependent on God.

 

It is only three hundred years since science came into being. It revolted against the world and all kinds of superstitions. And within three hundred years science has given man so much that in thirty thousand years, religions have not been able to provide. And this too, against the priests, against the politicians, science has contributed. If politicians and priests are not there, man can take a quantum leap.

 

There is no barrier between man and paradise. But the priest wants people to be poor, because only the poor need him. It is a simple business ideology. The politician wants people poor, because only the poor can be conditioned. They are illiterate, uneducated, and they are so much in suffering that any hope and they are ready to buy it. It may be God, it may be communism, it may be revolution -- something in the future, faraway. The poor are ready to buy it.

 

The politicians have been selling hope for thousands of years. The priests have been selling hope, and it is really strange that after such a long time they are still doing good business. And man seems to be fast asleep, without looking at the whole strategy.

 

The priests and the politicians have to disappear from the earth. Only then the new man -- rich, comfortable, skillful, creative -- can come into being

 

-Osho, "The Last Testament, Vol. 1, #29"

 

 

 

 

The Politician Is Sick Because of His Ego

 

The political man is a sick man, psychologically sick, spiritually sick.

 

Physically he may be perfectly okay. Usually politicians are physically okay, their whole burden falls on their psyche. You can see that. Once a politician loses his power he starts losing his physical health. Strange... when he was in power, so burdened with so many anxieties and tensions, he was physically perfect.

 

The moment power is gone, all the anxieties are also gone; now, they will be somebody else's business. His psyche is unburdened, but in that unburdening all his sickness falls on his body.

 

The politician suffers, as far as his physiology is concerned, only when he loses power; otherwise politicians tend to live long, physically well. Strange, but the reason is that their whole sickness is taken by their psyche, and when the psyche takes on the whole sickness, then the body can live unburdened. But if the psyche releases all its sickness, where is it going to go? Lower than the psychic is your physical existence -- all sickness falls on the body. Politicians out of power die very soon. Politicians in power live very long. It is a known fact, but the cause is not well known.

 

So the first thing to be understood is that the political man is psychologically sick, and psychological sickness tends to become spiritual sickness when it becomes too much, when the psyche cannot hold it any more. Now, be careful: if the politician is in power, then his psychic sickness is bound to spread to his spiritual being, because he is holding his psychic sickness, so it does not fall downwards. It is his power, he thinks it is his treasure; he won't allow it to fall down.

 

I am calling it sickness. To him it is his whole ego trip. He is living for it; there is no other purpose for him. So when he is in power he holds his sickness tightly, but he does not know anything about the spiritual realm, so those doors are open. He cannot close those doors; he has no idea that there is something more than his mind. When he is in power, his psychological sickness, if it is too much, after a certain point overflows his psyche and reaches to his spirituality. If he is out of power then he tends not to hold all that stupidity. Now he knows what it was, now he is aware that it was nothing worth holding. And anyway there is nothing to hold; the power is gone, he is a nobody.

 

Out of desperation, he relaxes -- perhaps I should say, relaxation comes to him automatically. He can sleep now, he can go for a morning walk. He can gossip, he can play chess, he can do anything. Psychically he finds himself loosening. The doors that he had kept closed between his psyche and the body start opening, and his body is bound to suffer now: he may have a heart attack, he may get any kind of sickness; everything is possible. His psychic sickness will flow to the weakest part of his body. But in power it flows upwards, towards his being, of which he is unaware.

 

And what is the sickness?

 

The sickness is the inferiority complex.

 

Anybody who is interested in power is suffering from an inferiority complex; deep down he feels himself worthless, inferior to others. [....]

 

The political mind suffers from a wound of inferiority, and the politician goes on scratching the wound. Intellectually he is not an Albert Einstein -- he compares himself with giants -- psychologically he is not a Sigmund Freud.... If you compare yourself with the giants of humanity you are bound to feel completely shrunk, worthless.

 

This worthlessness can be removed in two ways: one is religion, the other is politics.

 

Politics does not really remove it, only covers it. It is the same sick man, the same man who was feeling inferior, who sits as a president. But just sitting on a chair as the president, what difference can it make to your inner situation? [....]

 

The ego is so subtle and so slippery. And the politician is sick because of his ego. Now there are two ways: either he can cover the wound by becoming a president, a prime minister.... He can cover the wound, but the wound is there. You can deceive the whole world but how can you deceive yourself? You know it. It is there, you have covered it. [....]

 

Inferiority creates ambition, because ambition simply means an effort to prove yourself superior. There is no other meaning to ambition but an effort to prove yourself superior. But why make an effort to prove yourself superior unless you are suffering from inferiority?

 

-Osho, "From Ignorance to Innocence, #15, Q1"

 

 

 

 

Drop All That the Priests and the Politicians Have Put into You

 

On the one hand the priest has given you the desire for the other world, the ambition for the other world, for the tomorrow. The politician is giving you this world: you can become the president.... Anybody in America can become the president, all citizens are equal. What nonsense! -- no two citizens are equal. And only the most cunning is going to become the president, not all... at least not those who would have been of any help to anybody.

 

Only ambitious people can reach to the highest political post in any country, because it is a race, and you need to be utterly ambitious to stake everything on it. And you are not to bother what you are doing, whether it is right or wrong. The end you have to keep in mind and do whatsoever you feel right to reach the end; whether it is right or wrong, no question. If you fail, everything is wrong; if you succeed, everything is right. Success is right and failure is wrong. That's the way politicians have been training everybody.

 

Drop all that the priests and the politicians have put into you, and as you unburden yourself, you start having glimpses of your pure being.

 

That's what I call meditation.

 

Once tasted, it transforms forever.

 

-Osho, "From Unconsciousness to Consciousness, #15, Q1"

 

 

 

 

Priests and Politicians Are Working Hand In Hand

 

Can't you see a simple conspiracy between the priest and the politician? The masses are befooled. The priest gives the sanction from God: certifies that this is the right man to be the president, this is the right man to be the vice-president, the prime minister. Of course the politician needs it because the masses will listen to the priest: the priest is impartial, he has nothing to do with politics, he is above politics....

 

He is not! The priest is in the hands of the politicians. [....]

 

What I am telling you is that these politicians and these priests have been constantly in conspiracy, working together hand in hand. The politician has the political power; the priest has the religious power. The politician protects the priest, the priest blesses the politician -- and the masses are exploited, sucked; their blood is sucked by both.

 

Remove God and you remove the politicians, you remove the politics, you remove the priest, you remove the conspiracy between the priest and the politician. And with these two removed, fifty percent of your miseries will disappear.

 

The idea of God gives you dreams of a better life... after death, perhaps in paradise or in another incarnation. So there is not so much to be worried about -- this life, it is a small thing, what does it matter? In millions and millions of light years, what does it matter, seventy years? It does not count at all.

 

There are stars so far away from us that the day you were born, their rays on that day started moving towards the earth -- they have not reached here yet. You will die, perhaps sometime then those rays will reach. And rays move with a tremendous speed, one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second. For that star, you never existed. Before you were born and before you died, no ray could reach here to see you, to touch you. As far as that star is concerned... and millions of stars are there, that far away. What to say about you -- there are stars whose rays have not reached the earth since the earth came into existence. And it may go out of existence and those stars will never come to know that there has been a planet like earth.

 

-Osho, "From Unconsciousness to Consciousness, Talk #13"