From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 18. ONE GOD, ONE MESSENGER, ONE BOOK – ONE BIG LIE
So anybody who comes here with a certain prejudice, a certain mind, a certain idea, is going to miss
me.
If he comes here open, vulnerable, then he will taste something of religion, he may smell something
of religion.
And that is the only way to know religion:
To be in close proximity to a religious man. It is infectious.
But you cannot get it even if you hug pope the polack. There is nothing... a polack is just a polack.
He may also hug you and may crush your bones, because a polack hug is a little difficult on the ribs.
But you will not find anything.
I have met thousands of people who are known as great religious masters and teachers. India is so
full of sages and saints you can meet them anywhere. There is no need to seek and search. They
are seeking and searching for you, and fighting: ”You belong to me, not to yourself” – whosoever
catches hold of you first. But they are all parts of a certain cult, repeating parrot-like – exactly parrotlike
or you can say computer-like – scriptures, great words. But words only mean that which the
person has.
When Jesus says ”truth” or Buddha says ”truth”, the word has meaning in it. When the Buddhist
monk says ”truth”, there is no meaning in it; it is an empty word, there is no content in it.
You ask why they can’t accept you as a religion. It is obvious: they are in the marketplace; everybody
is shopping and peddling his own goods. Now you come as a competitor, and you start selling new
things which are more attractive because they are alive.
They become afraid that their young people, their young boys, their young daughters, may get
attracted to you – and they are getting attracted, they are not wrong. And that’s what makes them
freak out: these people should be going to church or to the synagogue – what are they doing here,
in Rajneeshpuram? They should listen to the rabbi, to the minister – what are they doing here?
And certainly when they see you, they cannot figure it out. They have a certain idea: you should fit
with that idea, then you are religious. And certainly I am trying my best so that you cannot fit in with
anybody’s idea – including mine! – so that you can be just yourself.
My whole religious approach is to give you back to you.
You have been stolen.
You have been covered, conditioned in every possible way. They have closed all the doors of
approach to yourself.
My whole work is just to make doors and windows in you.
And if I can withdraw all the walls and leave you just an open sky, you will know what religion is.
From Ignorance to Innocence 257 Osho