In the first part of this article, Osho explains “the fundamental cause of creating so many idiots in the world” and how they “serve a certain purpose.”
He explains why he sees, “this whole history of mankind” as a “long, unjustified crime against every human individual” which “has served the vested interests: the people who are in power….”
In particular, with the US election, Osho presciently warns of the impact of this new, TV-dominated idiocracy. Although, “these have never been qualities of leaders,” today “you have to be a showman… you have to be an actor.”
Now Osho continues to describe what lies behind all this and, most importantly, what needs to happen avoid this “disaster” so we don’t “allow the past to create our future.”
Nations need idiots; otherwise who is going to fight the wars? The world needs idiots; otherwise how are people going to become richer and richer on the labor, on the blood of others? This civilization needs as many unintelligent people as possible; otherwise who is going to be a Catholic, who is going to be a Protestant, who is going to be a Hindu, who is going to be a Mohammedan?
“The whole structure of the society has been managed in such a way that a very few people exploit millions of people.
“And they have given consolations to those who have been exploited: ‘It is because of your past life’s evil acts.’ You don’t know anything about your past life; now this is a good consolation – ‘What can I do?’ Or they say, ‘This is a fire test of your faith in God. Be contented as you are and you will be rewarded a thousand-fold beyond death.’ Either the religions have taken refuge in the past… Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism; they are all past-oriented. Or the other three religions – Christianity, Mohammedanism, Judaism – have taken refuge beyond death.
“There is not much difference. All that is happening is happening in life and they are postponing it. Either before birth or after death, the strategy is the same.
“The whole point is that you should allow people to exploit you, you allow people to drink your blood with the deep contentment that ‘this is how things are.’
I want to say to you very emphatically that all these religions have played into the hands of the vested interests. All your priests are nothing but servants of your politicians.
“The whole history of mankind has been a disaster. And unless we start revolting as individuals, dropping all nationalities, all religions, all races, and declare that this whole globe belongs to us and all the lines of the map are bogus and false.
“Unless individuals start changing the whole educational system… the educational system should teach you the art of living, it should teach you the art of loving, it should teach you the art of meditation, it should teach you finally the art of dying gloriously. Your education system is not educational. It only creates clerks, stationmasters, postmen, soldiers, and you call it education. You have been deceived. But the deception has been going on so long that you have completely forgotten. And you are still going on in the same old rut.
I raise my hand against the whole past of mankind. It has not been civilized, it has not been human. It has not been in any way helpful for people to blossom, it has not been a spring. It has been a calamity, a crime committed on a vast scale….
“But somebody has to stand against it, and somebody has to make the point: we disown our past, and we will start living according to our own inner being and create our own future. We will not allow the past to create our future….
“I would like you to accept only one prayer, and that is laughter, because when you are laughing totally you are in the present. You cannot laugh in the future and you cannot laugh in the past. All those people who have created this retarded humanity have taken away all juice, all laughter, all smiles, and dragged everybody into being inauthentic. And if you are inauthentic, insincere, you can never grow the seed that has been given to you by this great compassionate universe….
“An unshaven, dirty, bedraggled panhandler, with bloodshot eyes and teeth half gone, asks Paddy for a dime. ‘Do you drink, smoke, or gamble?’ asks Paddy.
“’Mister,’ says the bum, ‘I don’t touch a drop, or smoke the filthy weed, or bother with evil gambling.’
“’Okay,’ says Paddy. ‘If you will come home with me I will give you a dollar.’
“As they enter the house, Maureen takes Paddy aside and hisses, ‘How dare you bring that terrible-looking specimen into our home!’
“’Darling,’ says Paddy, ‘I just wanted you to see what a man looks like who does not drink, does not smoke, and does not gamble.’
Life should be not a serious thing. It should be a deep playfulness – fun. And every individual should be allowed absolute freedom to be himself. The only restriction will be that you cannot interfere in another individual’s life sphere – it may be your wife, it may be your husband, it may be your child, it does not matter. A tremendous respect for the individual is to me the essential core of being truly religious. Be yourself and let others be themselves and this life, this planet, can become the lotus paradise here-now.
“But something has to be done and done very soon, because all those idiots are preparing for a global suicide. Unless you revolt against the past, and the whole heritage of the past, you cannot save humanity, these beautiful trees, these birds singing, this small planet – which has just developed to the stage of being conscious. Scientists guess that there may be millions of other planets in the universe, but there is not even a single piece of evidence yet….
“The only evidence of life growing to this stage of consciousness – of love, of silence, of experiencing the cosmos – has happened on this small earth. At any cost, this earth and the people of this earth have to be saved from the calamity that is coming from your whole past.
And absolute discontinuity is needed…. The whole educational system should be centered on playfulness, on love, on freedom, on consciousness, and a tremendous respect for everything that is alive. This is my vision.
Time is very short.
“Those idiots have been working for thousands of years and they have come to a point where they are capable of destroying this earth seven times. So much destructive force is accumulating that unless a few individuals gather courage and revolt against all that is past…. I am not telling you to choose, to choose that which is good and leave that which is bad. They are altogether; you cannot do that. The past has to be simply erased, as if we are for the first time on the earth and there has been no history.
“That is the only possibility of creating a beautiful world full of love, full of fragrance, with a deep respect for everybody.
The past has lived centered on hate. The future can live only if it is centered on love. The past has been unconscious. The future can only be conscious.
“To many, this may seem almost an impossible dream. But remember, whatever you are is not because of the politicians, is not because of the priests. Whatever you are, if some flame is still alive in you, it is because of the poets, the dreamers, the mystics.
“We can either die with the past or we can be reborn with a new future.
“Revolutions have failed; hence I talk about revolt…. Revolt has a beauty because it is individual. And there is nothing to fight with – one has simply to throw the whole past from one’s consciousness….
Don’t be concerned about the whole world. If we can create the idea of revolt in a small minority in the world, that will do. A single seed can make the whole earth green, and a single man in revolt can create a totally new world, a totally new humanity.
“I am not in favor of any organized revolution because all organizations basically destroy the individual. I am in favor of the individual and his dignity. There is nobody above the individual. We have to take this tremendous quantum leap from organized living to individual flowering….
“And if this fire of individuality spreads, it can become a wildfire, because deep down every individual is suffering. He wants to revolt against all that has been repressed, all that has been imposed on him.
You will not find a better moment… the old structure of humanity – it is going to die. But if we can save a few individuals, a new beginning is very close. Rather than being concerned with the old, rejoice for the new.”
This article is published in The Huffington Post India
To continue reading and see all available formats of this talk:
Osho, Om Mani Padme Hum – The Sound of Silence: The Diamond in the Lotus, Talk #10 – Education In the Art of Living