From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 14. SOCIETY CROWDS YOU OUT; RELIGON OUTS YOUR CROWD
He is not yet, he is just going to be. He is a process, and there is no possibility to predict where
he is going to end; what will be the ultimate outcome of his life’s experiences, anguishes, anxieties,
ecstasies; what it is going to amount to in the end, finally. The final sum total of his whole life is not
available in the beginning.
He does not bring a chart with him. All the astrologers have been befooling you, palmists have been
befooling you, and they could befool you because there was a chance to befool you. The parents
are concerned what the child is going to be. And their concern is out of love, hence they can be
exploited by all kinds of con men. Those con men can predict, ”He is going to be this, or that,” but
they don’t do much harm; they simply exploit a little bit. Their predictions never come true.
The greater problem arises from the priest, from the politician, from the pedagogues. The politician
is not interested in what the real potential of the child is. He is interested that the child becomes a
part of his power trip. He has an investment in every child, because every child is a potential friend
or enemy. It iS good to start canvassing as early as possible. So before the child starts on his own,
he is distracted onto a path which is going to fulfill the politician’s desire, but which is going to kill the
seed in the child himself.
The priest is interested – he has an investment. The pope is a bigger pope if he has more Catholics
in the world. If Catholics disappear, what is the value of a pope? – who would care about him? Each
child that is born has some power which can be exploited by politicians, priests....
Soon the child is going to become a fully-fledged citizen of the world – he should be grabbed. He
should become a Catholic if he is born out of Catholic parents or if fortunately, he is an orphan, then
Mother Teresa can look after him and convert him into a Catholic. They are immensely happy: the
more the world has orphans, the more Mother Teresas can get Nobel prizes – and more orphans
means more Catholics. The more poor people in the world... they can be easily converted to
Christianity.
Jesus says man cannot live by bread alone. That is true of an authentic man but not true about the
masses. As far as the masses are concerned, I say to you, man lives by bread and bread alone.
And there are only masses – where is the authentic man?
These politicians, these priests, these pedagogues don’t leave anybody to himself so that he can
become authentic, so he can get his original face, so that he can find himself
Everywhere there are people with vested interests in every child. And the child is simply a tabula
rasa, nothing is written on him; it is a great temptation for everybody to write something on him.
The parents, of course, would like to write their religion, their caste, their philosophy, their politics,
because the child should represent them. The child should carry their inheritance.
If they have been Hindus for centuries, the child should be a Hindu, carrying the heritage of Hinduism
to future generations. They are not interested in the child’s own potential – nobody is interested in it
– they are interested in their own investment, and of course everybody is investing....
The parents are investing so much in the child, giving birth to him, raising him, educating him; and
everything is conditional – whether it is said or not, that is not the point. They will ask one day, ”We
From Ignorance to Innocence 182 Osho