We have learned that you believe all religions are deception. How can you say that? All people have the full right to choose what to believe in and which specific religion to belong to. Everything can be both good and bad. So how can you say that all religions are deception?

I don't believe in anything. I am not a believer at all. I don't need to believe; I know. All religions are deception. This is not my belief, it is simply my experience. I see it – they are deception. The entire history of humanity proves this.

And the moment you say "all religions," you have already gone astray, because there is only one kind of religiosity. There cannot be many religions. Just as science is one, the scientific approach is one, so too is religion one, the religious approach is one.

Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Zarathustra, Lao Tzu – they all belong to one kind of religiosity. Of course, they speak different languages – but that is another matter. They necessarily must speak different languages. Lao Tzu will speak Chinese, Christ will speak Aramaic, Buddha will speak Pali, and of course, they will use the peculiarities of the language of their time. But this is a difference in expression, and forms of expression should not confuse you, words should not confuse you, because religion has nothing to do with words. In fact, we do not see this precisely because of the veil of words. It clouds our eyes, it hinders our understanding. Religion is an experience, inexpressible in words. Therefore, Christianity, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Islam – they are all lies.

Jesus is right, Buddha is right, Krishna is right. But Christianity is not right; it cannot be right. In reality, to be a Christian means to agree to a substitution. You can be Christ – so why be a Christian? To be a Christian means simply to be a shadow. You can drink from the very source of Existence – so why just keep talking about it, thinking about it?

A Christian is one who talks about truth and knows nothing about it. Christ is one who knows about it. He has his own experience. A Christian has no experience of his own; he simply repeats the words of Christ. And repeating others' words is a foolish occupation. This repetition is called faith. Remember: religion has nothing to do with faith. The foundation of religion is vision, not faith. Remember: only the blind believe in light. Those who have eyes do not believe in light, they know! The moment you know something, the need for faith disappears.

But the world is full of believers. This means the world is full of the blind. And how did you come to a particular faith? It is just a coincidence – that you were born into a certain family and your relatives began to impose their beliefs on you. You are a Hindu. You did not choose to be a Hindu; you were forced to be a Hindu by your parents, your society. Or you are a Jew, or you are a Muslim… but you did not choose this, and religion is not such a cheap thing that someone else can impose it on you. It must be an individual's choice.

Religion must be chosen freely. It is not conditioning. Faith is conditioning. Faith means you have been frightened that if you do not believe, you will be punished; hence hell. Hell is for those who do not believe. And for those who believe? For them, all the joys of heaven.

And the exact same psychology permeates schools, colleges, universities, courts. They all think that if you want people to behave in a certain way, the only possibility is to instill fear in you and instill greed. And how can you be religious if you are full of fear and greed – fear of hell and greedy desire to get into heaven? This very trick has been played on you. You have been deceived, you have been used, and you have been given only words – words that mean nothing to you.

When Buddha says something, it is filled with meaning. When Buddhists repeat it, they repeat it like parrots. A parrot can repeat a mantra; it is not difficult; a parrot can be taught this. You only need to apply the same methods that are applied to you: if it learns the mantra, it gets tasty food; if it does not learn the mantra, it is punished, it has to starve, it is not given food. It is forced to learn. This is what psychologists call conditioning.

And there are people like B. F. Skinner who claim that a person can be programmed for any behavior: just provide him with sufficient punishment and sufficient reward – and you can control him, you can change anyone's behavior.

Why do you behave well? Not because you actually want to be good – there is a huge fear that if you are not good, you will have to be punished for it later. All of humanity lives in fear and greed – and you call this religion?

There cannot be religions, only religiosity is possible.

You are too burdened by words.

You say: "We have learned that you believe all religions are deception." You have not even listened to me, you have not even communicated with me. You "have learned…" You heard it from others, and they probably heard it from someone else. This is what you believe. If you had stayed here for a few days, you would have learned that I do not believe in anything.

I know. I have eyes, I can see! What need is there for faith? Faith is for those who lack the courage to open their eyes. Faith is for those whose religiosity is formal, who have not felt life, nor beauty, nor joy, nor love, for whom God is a word, life is a word. They live in words.

– Hey, Paolo! How come I haven't seen you in a long time?

– I have a new business now, but things aren't going well.

– What's your business?

– I'm an underwater worker.

– What the hell kind of underwater worker?

– I have eight girls working for me, and every time they go out and have fun with guys, I make money.

– Idiot! Then you're not an underwater worker – you're a pimp!

– In that case, no wonder business is bad. In the "Yellow Pages," I'm listed under "Underwater Work."

Beware of words. You are listed among the Hindus, among the Muslims, or the Christians. You are none of the above.

Friedrich Nietzsche is right when he says that the first and last Christian died on the cross twenty centuries ago – neither before him nor after him were there any other Christians. Only Christ is a Christian in the true sense of the word. He lived and experienced everything through his own experience, and everything he said came from his very core; it was not something borrowed. Everything borrowed is ugly. Beliefs are borrowed, therefore they are ugly. And when you live according to borrowed beliefs, you create chaos in the world. You remain unconscious and keep talking about the Bible, the Vedas, the Gita. And you repeat all this in your sleep. You do not understand a single word.

One Sunday morning, a drunk found himself near a large building. Not knowing it was a church, he entered. The morning mass was going on: the organ was playing, the choir was singing, and there were many people. The priest stood before the congregation, swinging a censer filled with smoking incense.

Suddenly, a cry came from the back rows of the church:

– Lady! Hey, lady! Your purse is on fire!

You are not in your right mind, you have no awareness, you are sleepwalkers. Almost all of humanity suffers from somnambulism, sleepwalking, and while you sleep, the priests catch you. It is a simple accident – whoever happened to be nearby caught you.

If a child born into a Hindu family is given to a Christian family from the very beginning, he will never know that he is a Hindu. Or do you think he will ever find out that he is a Hindu? He will be a Christian.

So what is your religion? Just something forcefully imposed on you by others. Religion at its core is freedom, but your so-called religions are slavery, deception, and humanity has suffered greatly because of this nonsense.

I would like more buddhas to appear, but no more Buddhists – enough already.

In the center of a provincial Australian town stands an old convent. The town around it is growing rapidly. Nuns stand at the windows, watching a new multi-story building being erected across the street.

Around noon, a siren sounds announcing the lunch break, and workers with bronze, sweaty bodies descend the scaffolding to the first floor to have a snack.

The nuns watch as the guys sit in a big circle, take out their lunch boxes and thermoses, and start eating.

– Sister, sister, did you notice that the gentlemen did not thank the Lord for the food? – one nun asks another.

– Yes, yes! – she replies enthusiastically. – We should probably tell the Mother Superior about this.

They run upstairs to tell the Reverend Mother everything. After a moment of silence, the Mother Superior says:

– Bring me a lunch box tomorrow – just like the ones those gentlemen have!

The next day, when the siren sounds, the Mother Superior takes a lunch box, goes downstairs, and crosses the street. She calmly sits down next to the men noisily devouring their lunches, then suddenly raises her hands to the sky and says:

– Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Have you heard about Jesus Christ?

One of the guys stops eating, pushes his hat back, scratches his head, and says:

– Hmm… Christ… Jesus Christ… Hey, Danny, have you heard anything about where this Jesus Christ works? Tell him his mom came and brought him lunch!

Jesus Christ… Twenty centuries have passed. Who cares? Who gives a damn? You must live your life. You must be authentic to yourself. You must discover your individuality. And all these religions are deception because they hinder the search, hinder exploration. They prevent you from knowing the truth. They hinder it in every possible way.

They keep stuffing your head with knowledge, but this knowledge only leads to stupidity. Pandits are the stupidest people in the world because they are parrots. And there are many simple people who even try to live according to the teachings received from others, who try to live… They turn their lives into chaos. Then there is much unnecessary repression in life, because you are not Mahavira, not Buddha, not Krishna.

Just try being Krishna. Stand on the street playing a flute, and the police will take you away immediately! You cannot repeat Krishna. You must only be yourself. No one can repeat anyone else, nor is there any need. This creates repression. You repress your individuality and start acting like someone else, but you are not that other person, and therefore your life becomes hypocritical. That is why I call all these religions deception.

Chandulal got a construction job in another city and asked his guru, Swami Dharmadas Brahmachari, to look after his wife so she wouldn't get involved with anyone.

He must have thought that since his guru Swami Dharmadas Brahmachari had taken a vow of celibacy, his wife would be in safe hands, nothing to fear.

If he had asked me, I would have said: "Entrust the supervision of your wife to someone else. Anyone else would be much better than this so-called brahmachari."

Six months later he returned and found his wife and his guru in bed, doing exactly what he had tried to prevent. He called his wife every name he knew and promised to divorce her.

– And you, you dirty dog! – Chandulal shouted at his guru. – Can you at least stop while I'm talking to you?

Sooner or later, repression bursts out. You are sitting on a volcano.

You say: "We have learned that you believe all religions are deception." Yes, deception. "How can you say that?" Because I know it.

You say: "All people have the full right to choose what to believe in and which specific religion to belong to." There is no specific religion. There is only religiosity. And no one has the right to believe! Everyone has the right to know.

"Everything can be both good and bad." No. If you know, then good is good, and bad is bad. And then white is white, and black is black. If you don't know, then, of course, you are in confusion.

You ask: "So how can you say that all religions are deception?" What can I do? If they are deception, then they are deception. I am simply stating a fact. For me, it is a truth that must be spoken. And the time for this has come.
Osho