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Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi was one of the most cunning politicians the world has ever seen. By adopting nonviolence he was managing many things. All the Jainas became his followers. They found a certain man who was in tune with them; although he was not a Jaina, he was at least nine percent Jaina. I have the percentages about Gandhi: he was born a Hindu, but he was only one percent Hindu. He was born in Gujarat, an area very dominated by Jaina philosophy; nine percent he was a Jaina. And ninety percent he was a Christian. Thrice in his life he was just on the verge of being converted to Christianity.

I said to them that by nonviolence he managed the Jainas; he also managed the upper-class Hindus who are nonviolent people; he also managed to influence Christian missionaries, Christians, because Jesus Christ's message is of love, and nonviolence is another name of love. And these were not all the benefits of accepting nonviolence. The most important thing is, India has been for two thousand years a slave country. It has forgotten what it means to be independent. It is not yet independent, its mind has become that of a slave.

Indians are very much afraid of fighting. They have never fought. A small group could manage to keep this vast continent in slavery. The ownership changed from one group to another, but India remained in slavery.
Secondly, Gandhi was intelligent enough to see that on the one hand Indians are not people who will fight, and on the other hand, they don't have any weapons to fight with.

Thirdly, the British empire of that day was the greatest power in the world. It was impossible to fight violently with the British empire: you don't have weapons, you don't have trained people to fight, you don't know anything about fighting.

Nonviolence was a political policy. It served many purposes, and served well. So I said that Gandhi's nonviolence was not a spiritual philosophy, but a political policy. And it is proved by the facts. He had promised before independence that the moment India became free, all armies would be dissolved, all arms would be thrown into the ocean. When asked, "If you do this and somebody attacks, what are you going to do?" he said, "We will receive them as our guest and we will say to them, `We stay here; you also can stay.'"

After independence everything was forgotten. Neither the armies were dissolved, nor the arms were thrown into the ocean; on the contrary, Gandhi himself blessed the first attack on Pakistan. Three Indian Air Force planes came to receive his blessings and he came out of his house and blessed the planes. All nonviolence and all that bullshit talk that he was doing his whole life was forgotten.

― Osho

Mother Teresa

The really religious person is rebellious; the society condemns him. Jesus is condemned as a criminal and Mother Teresa is respected as a saint. There is something to be pondered over.

It happened that one American couple went to Mother Teresa’s place in Calcutta. They wanted to adopt a child. They had no children of their own. The clerk, the receptionist said, “We have seven hundred children. You can choose. You just sit down and fill in the form.” They filled in the form. The clerk looked at the form and he said, “You wait here. I will come back soon.” He went inside; he never came back. Somebody else came back and said, “Forgive us. Right now we don’t have any children.” The couple were puzzled. Just a few minutes before there were seven hundred children, and now they don’t have any children. He said, “What happened?” The man said, “I don’t know anything. I know only one thing, that I have been sent to tell you that right now we don’t have any children to give to you.” The reason was that in the form he had just filled in he said he was a Protestant Christian. If he had been a Catholic, then there were seven hundred children!

And these people go on teaching in a poor country like India against birth control methods, against the pill, against abortion, for the simple reason because if there is abortion, if there is birth control, if the pill is available freely to poor people, from where Mother Teresa is going to have more orphans? The supply of orphans is needed urgently for more Catholics. That's why I have called the people like Mother Teresa 'deceivers'. They are not deceivers knowingly, certainly, not intentionally, but that does not matter; the outcome, the end result is very clear. Their purpose is to function in this society like a lubricant so that the wheels of the society, the wheels of exploitation, oppression can go on moving smoothly. These people are lubricants! They are deceiving others and they are deceiving themselves.

― Osho

[1] Osho meets Mahatma Gandhi
[2] Gandhians and Politicians
[3] Osho discourse on Mahatma Gandhi
[4] Mother Teresa: The Crumbling of a Myth
[5] Osho exposes Mother Teresa