(Source : http://www.sannyas.org/index.php?title=Rajneeshism)
Meanwhile, Sheela announces the religion of Rajneeshism and publishes the book 'Rajneeshism', a compilation from Osho's earlier discourses. An Academy of Rajneeshism established as an ecclesiastical organization.
Notes
"The book of RAJNEESHISM is not my writing, nor my discourses; it was Sheela and her group's creation, so it should not be printed again. There is no thing like Rajneeshism." (Osho, 26 Sep 1985, From Bondage to Freedom) The book contains 10 chapters : 3 chapters by Osho and the other 7 chapters are either by Sheela or Osho quotes edited by Sheela.
Question: What is your vision for the future of rajneeshism?
Rajneeshism is not a religion like Christianity, Hinduism, Mohammedanism, Buddhism, etc. The name should not be misunderstood. It simply shows a poverty of language -- to be exactly true, Rajneeshism is a religionless religion.
In other words it is a kind of religiousness, not a dogma, cult or creed but only a quality of love, silence, meditation and prayerfulness. Hence it can never end.
It is not beginning with me. It has always existed and it will always exist. It is the very essence of human evolution, of culture consciousness.
Buddha, Jesus or Krishna are nothing but expressions of this spirit, but it was not possible in those days for religion to be manifested as well as it can be now. Because Jesus did not know about Buddha, Buddha did not know about Lao Tzu, and Krishna was also unaware of Lao Tzu, etc.
I have traveled all the paths and have looked at the truth from all the windows. What I am saying is going to last forever because nothing more could be added to it.
Buddha was not so sure of his religion. He said that his religion would last for 5,000 years, and that too only if he didn't allow women to join his commune. And when women entered his commune he said, "Now the religion will only last 500 years".
All of these people have talked about some aspect fo truth and their disciples have understood it as the whole truth. I am talking about the whole truth so the future of my religion is infinite. All other religions will disappear into it as all the rivers disappear into the ocean.
-Osho, “Silent Period, #3”
Question: Why have you chosen at this point to end this belief, this religion, of rajneeshism?
Because it has never been there. Just I has been in three and half years silence and isolation. I was completely cut off from my people.
Question: You chose to cut yourself off.
I have chosen it. For thirty years I have been speaking. I needed a period of rest, not to speak at all.
So for three and half years I was completely silent, not reading any newspaper, not listening to the radio, not seeing the television. And I have given my whole authority to my secretary, Ma Anand Sheela.
I have always respected women more than men, because I feel that they function more through the heart than through the head, because I can see that they can be more loving and caring about people than men can be.
Sheela was perfectly right -- very pragmatic, very practical -- to take care of five thousand people in this desert, to make houses for them, roads for them, create enough food for them: vegetables, fruits, milk products. She made the commune perfectly self-sufficient. This was the good part.
But on the other hand she started feeling -- which is very human, a unconscious desire in everybody -- lust for power. She has been just a waitress in a hotel and suddenly millions of dollars were in her hands. We have put two hundred million dollars in this desert, to create an oasis.
And she was my representative. She had all my authority. And my people love me, so in my name they were ready to do anything.
She started unconsciously taking advantage of the situation. She became addicted with power. Five thousand people following everything that she says because she is always saying it with my name, in my name.
And then she created the whole idea that this is a religion. She collected few of my sentences from here and there -- I have four hundred books -- and she managed to compile a small book: Rajneeshism.
It is not my book. She has made it. I have not even read it.
Question: But it's excerpts of speeches or teachings that you have made, is that accurate?
I don't know because even the name is against me. I have been always against isms, ideologies, religions. I want every individual to find his own truth. Nobody can deliver it to him. It is not a commodity.
No savior can save you, and there are no saviors. All are pretenders. There is no God and there are no messengers of God. This existence is complete in itself and man's intelligence is existence's greatest point of evolution. To destroy it by repressing through some faith, through some belief, is against humanity, against truth, and certainly against me.
Question: But you have said that christianity failed but that rajneeshism was the first religion. and now it seems that it, too, has failed.
What I had said simply means that language is always a problem. It... you have to use the language that is available. When I was talking to the INS, I insisted that I would like to call my philosophy a religiousness, but they said, "That is difficult because we don't have any category for religiousness. You can apply only under the category religion. We don't have any category for religiousness."
I explained to them that there is a difference. A religion is a fixed dogma, a fixed belief system. A religiousness is just a quality like love. It is not an organized thing. It has no priests, no priestesses. It is rebellion against all that destroys human reason.
But they said, "We cannot accept the application unless You use the word religion."
It was just because of them. I said, "Okay. I will use the word religion just to fulfill to your stupid categories."
That's why I used that word: that all religions have failed; Rajneeshism is the first and the last religion. And I meant really the new kind of religiousness. All old kinds have failed.
But in these three and half years silence, Sheela managed to create it in a more organized, fascist fashion: a religion, a hierarchy.
Question: She corrupted your ideas?
She corrupted my ideas, certainly. And she became the high priestess.
As I started speaking again, she became very much afraid and very much sad because I declared that this is not any organized religion and this is not going to be just like Christianity, having popes representing Jesus and Jesus representing God. All that nonsense is not going to be repeated here.
Before I leave my body, I will destroy every possibility that can give an opportunity to another Sheela to make a religiousness, a freedom, into an imprisonment.
That's why I have chosen this moment. She has fled from here out of fear, and whatsoever she has done in three and half years, I have to undo it.
Question: And removing the religion will undo it?
Yes. Yes.
Question: Will there be substantial changes here as a result of it? or is this merely a semantics game too? as you said, language is a problem.
No, everything. And now I am going to fight against INS also. They will have to create a new category. Man is not for law, law is for man. And if we are creating a new kind of religiousness, then they have to create a new category. Otherwise we will fight up to the Supreme Court.
-Osho, “The Last Testament, Vol 3, #8"
The book of RAJNEESHISM is not my writing, nor my discourses; it was Sheela and her group's creation, so it should not be printed again. There is no thing like Rajneeshism -- because then it becomes again another Christianity, another communism, another Hinduism. I have been fighting my whole life against all "isms," and these people made an "ism" out of me!
They created the word "Rajneeshee." You have to drop that word; otherwise, what is the difference between a Christian, a Jew and a Rajneeshee? I want you to be yourself, not a Rajneeshee.
You love me -- that does not mean that you have to become a Rajneeshee. You can love me without becoming a Rajneeshee. And what these Rajneeshees have done, this gang of twenty Rajneeshees, is enough to condemn the word.
So now, there are no longer any Rajneeshees. You are individuals, totally free individuals. Out of your freedom and love you are here. There is no bondage, there is no contract. There is no surrender, there is no faith.
And today I would like to declare something immensely important, because I feel perhaps this helped Sheela and her people to exploit you. I don't know whether tomorrow I will be here or not, so it is better to do it while I am here and make you free from any other possibility of such a fascist regime.
That is, from today, you are free to use any color of clothes. If you feel like using red clothes, that is up to you. And this message has to be sent all over the world to all the communes. It will be more beautiful to have all the colors. I had always dreamed of seeing you in all the colors of the rainbow.
Today we claim the rainbow to be our colors.
The second thing: you return your malas -- unless you wish otherwise. That is your choice, but it is not a necessity anymore. You return your malas to President Hasya. But if you want to keep it, it is up to you.
The third thing: from now onwards, anybody who wants initiation into sannyas will not be given a mala and will not be told to change to red clothes -- so we can take over the world more easily!
-Osho, “From Bondage to Freedom, #12, Q5”