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Question 1
OSHO, I HAVE READ YOUR LITERATURE; I HAVE HEARD YOU. YOUR LANGUAGE HAS HYPNOTIC CHARM AND IS VERY CLEAR. SOMETIMES YOU SPEAK ON MAHAVIRA, SOMETIMES ON KRISHNA OR BUDDHA AND SOMETIMES YOU TELL ABOUT JESUS AND MOHAMMED AS WELL. YOU DIVULGE THE SECRETS OF THE GITA IN A MOST INSPIRING MANNER, YOU GIVE DISCOURSES ON THE UPANISHADS AND THE VEDAS, AND YOU WOULD NOT HESITATE TO GO TO TEMPLES OR CHURCHES TO GIVE DISCOURSES. ALL THE SAME, YOU MAINTAIN THAT YOU ARE NOT INFLUENCED BY ANY OF THE PERSONAGES MENTIONED ABOVE. YOU SAY THAT YOU HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM AND YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THEM. CONTINUOUSLY, YOU CRITICIZE AND SHATTER TO PIECES THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND SCRIPTURES. WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE? DO YOU WANT TO ESTABLISH YOUR OWN RELIGION? DO YOU WANT TO SHOW THAT YOU HAVE LIMITLESS KNOWLEDGE? OR DO YOU WANT TO CONFUSE EVERYONE? YOU SPEAK AND EXPLAIN IN WORDS, BUT AT THE SAME TIME YOU SAY THAT "YOU WILL NOT REACH ANYWHERE BY CLINGING TO WORDS." YOU SAY, "NEITHER BELIEVE ME NOR CLING TO ME; OTHERWISE YOU WILL COMMIT THE SAME MISTAKE." YOU ALSO SAY THAT THIS NEGATION ITSELF IS AN INVITATION. KINDLY EXPLAIN WHO AND WHAT YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU WANT TO DO AND SAY. WHAT IS YOUR INTENTION?
Firstly, I am not influenced by Mahavira, Buddha, Christ or Mohammed. It is the beauty of religion that in one sense it is always old. It is in this sense that religious experiences are known to many persons. No religious experience is such that one can say that "It is mine only."
There are two reasons for this. Firstly, on having a religious experience, the sense of "my-ness" dies. That is why, in this world, a claim of "my-ness" can be made for everything, but not for religious experience. This is the only experience which falls beyond the orbit of "my-ness", because this experience can be had only on the death of "my-ness". That is why the claim of "my-ness" could be there for everything, but not for a religious experience. Nor can anyone say that such an experience is new, because truth is neither new nor old.
It is in this sense that I speak of Mahavira, Jesus, Krishna, Christ and others: they had religious experiences. When I say that
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