Somebody was always pointing out that you are doing wrong, you are behaving wrongly, that this is not the right etiquette. Some Confucius, some Manu, some Moses, some Mohammed was telling you how to behave. Somebody was deciding for you what is right and what is wrong.
This is the only place, for the first time in the whole of history, where nobody is deciding for you what is right and what is wrong. My effort is to bring your consciousness to the highest peak, so that it can decide on its own what is right and what is wrong.
It may not be in agreement with Manu, five thousand years old, it may not be in agreement with Moses, it may not be in agreement with Mohammed. It will be only in agreement with existence and with you.
To me, religion is an individual love affair with existence. It has nothing to do with scriptures, nothing to do with knowledge, learning -- that is all nonsense.
But because you have become accustomed to being told that you are unworthy, undeserving and you have accepted it, when you come here to a total freedom, with no inhibitions, with no repressions, with nobody to tell you what to do and what not to do, you feel at a loss. It is just like a small child in a fair who loses his mother's hand and feels at a loss where to go.
You remain retarded because of these people who go on telling you what is right and what is wrong. They keep you in dependence, in slavery. And I have told you, the greatest slavery is spiritual slavery, and the whole of humanity is living under spiritual slavery.
I teach you rebellion!
Come out of the masses. Stand alone like a lion and live your life according to your own light. Find the light and it will show you the path. The path that is shown by your own light is the only path that is right. What others have been telling may be right for them; it cannot be right for you.
That's why I am not a moralist, I am not an immoralist. I am absolutely amoral. I don't consider morality or immorality at all. I am not a puritan who creates guilt in you.
Just the other day I was telling you about the German scholar who has compared me with Jesus. He has a point. He seems to be a man of very keen intelligence. He says that I am far superior to Jesus, but I will not be able to found a religion.
He is right! Why does he say that? He says, "Because you go on teaching freedom, how can you found a religion?"
A religion is founded by slaves, and to create slavery there is a psychological device.
First, create guilt. Once a person starts feeling guilty that he is doing something wrong, that he is undeserving, unworthy, then he has a wound inside which will not heal, which will go on growing. He has a spiritual cancer in the name of guilt. But all the religions have been creating that spiritual cancer.
Their purpose is that when you feel guilty, undeserving, you lose your confidence and you have to go to the priest to find confidence. You have to confess to the priest that you have been doing something wrong, that you have been having a love affair with somebody else's wife. Now you feel guilty. You cannot say it to your wife, you cannot say it to the husband of the woman you are in love with. Where to go? It becomes a constant tension in you. You are hiding like a thief from everybody.
The priest is available. You can go and confess to the priest that this is happening. He is perfectly happy. He says, "You are forgiven. I will pray for you to God. Now put ten dollars into the donation box, say five Hail Marys, and you are free of sin."
Great! First they create the guilt, then they make the arrangement for removing the guilt. And it is worth ten dollars. Now you have found a way: you can have as many love affairs with anybody's wife, and no worry. Just ten dollars.
This is a very subtle exploitation of man. [....] All the religions, all the societies, are corrupting people. So when you come here and find no corruption, no morality, no puritanism, and find absolute acceptance as you are, nobody interfering in your lifestyle, you feel good, but a little confused. You are coming from a world which has been guiding you on every step.
Do you know, Gautam Buddha's scriptures have thirty-three thousand principles for the Buddhist monk. Even to remember them is impossible. Thirty-three thousand principles, for every detail of life! The smallest detail of life is determined. You have to follow it, otherwise you are guilty.
-Osho, "Yakusan: Straight to the Point of Enlightenment, #4"