Question :

Beloved Osho,

What do you think about Communism?

 

 

Raja, I don't think about such things -- in fact, I don't think at all! I am certainly interested in communes, but not in communism. The moment something becomes an "ism" it becomes dangerous. The idea of a commune is beautiful: people living together in a nonpossessive way, neither possessing things nor possessing persons; people living together, creating together, celebrating together, and still allowing each one his own space; people creating a certain climate of meditativeness, of love, and living in that climate.

 

I am certainly interested in the idea of the commune -- it simply means where communion is possible. In the world there is no communion possible. Even communication is not possible, what to say about communion! Communication means a dialogue between two minds -- even that is not possible -- and communion means a meeting of two hearts. Where communion is possible, there exists a commune.

 

The idea of the family is rotten now. It has worked, it has done its work, it is finished. There is no future for the family. In fact, the family has been one of the causes of calamity. The family makes you identified with a very small group -- the mother, the father, the brother, the sister -- a very small group becomes your whole world. A man needs to grow more variety.

 

A commune means more variety: not just your father but many uncles, not just your mother but many aunts. A commune means the children will have more people to learn about, more people to love, more people to become accustomed to. They will become richer.

 

Psychologists say that when a child lives with the mother and the father, the small unit of the family, he knows the mother as the representative of all womanhood and the father as the representative of all manhood -- which is wrong, utterly wrong. His father does not represent all the types and his mother does not represent all the types either. And he becomes slowly slowly focused on the mother; the mother becomes womanhood incarnate.

 

Now there will be trouble! His whole life he will be searching for his mother in his wife and he will not find her -- and that creates misery. No wife will be a mother to him, and that will be his deep search, unconscious search, because he knows only one woman. That is his idea of a real woman, how a woman should be. And the girl will always be looking for the father, and no husband will be a father to her.

 

This fixation is creating great psychological tension and anxiety in the world. A commune means you will not be so much fixed. You look at our little Siddhartha! For days he disappears from the mother; he lives with other sannyasins for days together. He has many friends, grown-up friends; women, men. He comes back to the ashram very late in the night -- two o'clock. So busy! Laxmi called him and asked him, "Siddhartha, this is too much -- two o'clock! You have to be in by eleven."

 

He said, "Is this a rule only for me or for all? Is this rule applicable to grown-ups too?"

 

Now, this is maturity! He is becoming grown-up! And he said, "A few days I have to stay with others too -- they invite me!" Now he is living with many families. He will become aware that his mother is not the only woman in the world; there are many other women.

 

He will become acquainted with many facets of womanhood. His idea of woman will be richer, and there is more possibility that he will be contented with a wife than otherwise. He knows many uncles and fathers. His vision of man is not linear, it is multidimensional; it is bound to be multidimensional.

 

I am interested in the idea of the commune because a commune will help people to get rid of many psychological hang-ups which our upbringing has been giving to us. The upbringing is so rotten, so old-fashioned! For five thousand years there has been no change. Everything else has changed -- from the bullock cart we have come to the jet plane -- but as far as human life is concerned the same old rotten family remains. With man we are very orthodox; hence we have better machines but not better human beings. We have better EVERYTHING -- just man is not better; and the reason is that about man we are very orthodox and conventional.

 

A commune will change the idea of the family; it will make the family very flexible. Just a few days ago, Bipin came from America and he said, "Strange! -- after just one year I am coming and all the couples have changed! And I used to think of a few couples that they were permanent couples -- for example, Satya and Chaitanya, Sheela and Chinmaya. Even the permanent ones that I used to think would remain, even they are no longer there! New combinations of people have happened." He was asking, "What is our Beloved Master doing?"

 

I am not doing anything -- this is not MY work! This is bound to happen in a commune. People will become more flexible, more available to each other, more loving, relate more, be less possessive.

 

I am certainly interested in the idea of a commune, but not in communism. Communism is ugly. Communism is a great epidemic. The sooner it disappears from the world, the better. It has destroyed great values -- the greatest value of freedom has been destroyed. And communism is antireligious.

 

If communism continues there is no hope for buddhas to be born; it won't allow it. If Gautam Buddha were born in Soviet Russia he would be forced to live in a mental asylum. This is not a good prospect! Even Jesus Christ will find himself in more difficulty. They will not crucify him, certainly not, but they will put him in a mental asylum. He will be declared neurotic or psychotic because he hears voices; he talks with the Devil and God. This is neurosis, this is absolutely a madman! He will be given electric shocks, remember, not crucified anymore.

 

If Jesus is planning to come back I want him to be aware of the situation. This time they won't kill you, they will keep you alive, but they will inject you with chemicals, they will give you electric shocks, insulin shocks, and if you are still dangerous they will give you tranquilizers, they will make you very very sleepy. They can force you to live almost in a coma, to vegetate, which will be far more ugly than to crucify a man.

 

When you crucify a man you cannot humiliate him. He can keep his pride, he can keep his head high: "Okay, you crucify me, so you crucify me -- but you are not forcing me to change my spirit or my ideas or my vision of life. I am ready to sacrifice."

 

One can die with dignity -- Socrates died with dignity, Jesus died with dignity -- but in Soviet Russia, if Socrates is born, or Jesus, or Buddha, no dignity will be available. In fact nobody will ever hear about them. They will be forced to live in a mental asylum. Doctors will take care of them, and nobody will ever hear what they wanted to say, what their message was.

 

Two Russian workers were walking along side by side. Their heads were bent low and their faces were sad and drawn. They were not talking to each other. Suddenly one of the Russians spat on the ground and the other immediately did the same. "That's enough!" said one to the other. "If we continue, they will think we are discussing politics."

 

I have heard another story:

 

In Russia the communists were conducting a purge. An old gypsy was brought before the commissar. "How long," asked the commissar, "have you been in the party?"

"Many years, commissar."

"And your father?"

"Ah, he was a member too, and my grandfather and my great-grandfather."

"Now listen," said the commissar dubiously, "back in those days there was no party."

"Ah, that didn't make any difference," replied the gypsy. "We were stealing anyway!"

 

Communism is a violent, forced state of affairs. It is transforming the whole country into a concentration camp. It is not allowing people any freedom to be themselves; it is reducing them into numbers. It is destructive of individuality -- and I am all for individuality and the freedom of the individual, because if the freedom of the individual disappears, then there is no possibility of inquiring into the reality of God. And that is the whole purpose of life.

The real destiny of life can only be fulfilled when you know that God is, within and without. He is your consciousness and he is this universe. am against communism, but I am all for communes.

 

- Osho, "The Dhammapada, Vol 4, #4"