Question: “It seems that politicians talk like priests, and priests act like politicians. Is there any separation between church and state?
They are not different people. They are the same type of people, with the same desire, the same lust for power. But they have chosen different areas.
The politician has chosen the mundane world. It has been an unspoken contract that they will not interfere in the religious realm, and they hope that religion will not interfere in their world. The contract has been good, and they are both trying to dominate humanity. … The priest has been blessing the politicians, the politicians have been praising the priests…
Who bothers about God?
In fact, the priests are the most atheistic people in the world. They know perfectly well that there is no God. They know better than anybody, because that is their business. But they have to pretend that there is a God. Without God they lose authority. It is in the name of God that they are archbishops, popes and shankaracharyas. If there is no God, then who are they? – just ordinary people, suddenly reduced to nothing. So the lie has to be kept alive…
And this has been the same all along. Political ideologies have changed – kings and queens have disappeared, presidents, prime ministers have appeared – but the basic contract is still carried.
…The poor people don’t have any idea what kind of contract has been going on down the ages. And the contract was possible because both priest and politician are desirous of power. .. For five thousand years the politician and the priest have been in the same business….
The politicians and priests are ambitious for power. There is another ambition – the ambition for money, because that is also a power. So there are three power lines.
One is that of the priest – that he has a direct relationship with God; that he knows and you don’t know; that he is wise and you are ignorant; that he is virtuous, and that is why he is born a brahmin – and you have committed sins in the past, that’s why you are not in the first class. Everybody according to his actions.
The second line of power is the political power, which in the past in India – and everywhere else, too – was the power of the sword.
And third is the power of money.
These are the only three powers. And these three kinds of people, rather than fighting with each other, have divided their areas, which is simply intelligent.
They have divided their areas and they don’t interfere in each other’s area. The great mass which is exploited by all the three in different ways remains enslaved: goes on working for others, lives poor, dies poor, never knows anything of beauty, of music, of poetry. These things are not for the poor masses.
My effort is to make it absolutely clear to the intelligent people of the world that these three are criminals.
Anybody who has a will to power is a criminal. That is my definition of a criminal: will to power. And why do I say the will to power is criminal? Because will to power simply means power over others. The others have to be enslaved and exploited."
- Osho (excerpted from The Last Testament)
They are not different people. They are the same type of people, with the same desire, the same lust for power. But they have chosen different areas.
The politician has chosen the mundane world. It has been an unspoken contract that they will not interfere in the religious realm, and they hope that religion will not interfere in their world. The contract has been good, and they are both trying to dominate humanity. … The priest has been blessing the politicians, the politicians have been praising the priests…
Who bothers about God?
In fact, the priests are the most atheistic people in the world. They know perfectly well that there is no God. They know better than anybody, because that is their business. But they have to pretend that there is a God. Without God they lose authority. It is in the name of God that they are archbishops, popes and shankaracharyas. If there is no God, then who are they? – just ordinary people, suddenly reduced to nothing. So the lie has to be kept alive…
And this has been the same all along. Political ideologies have changed – kings and queens have disappeared, presidents, prime ministers have appeared – but the basic contract is still carried.
…The poor people don’t have any idea what kind of contract has been going on down the ages. And the contract was possible because both priest and politician are desirous of power. .. For five thousand years the politician and the priest have been in the same business….
The politicians and priests are ambitious for power. There is another ambition – the ambition for money, because that is also a power. So there are three power lines.
One is that of the priest – that he has a direct relationship with God; that he knows and you don’t know; that he is wise and you are ignorant; that he is virtuous, and that is why he is born a brahmin – and you have committed sins in the past, that’s why you are not in the first class. Everybody according to his actions.
The second line of power is the political power, which in the past in India – and everywhere else, too – was the power of the sword.
And third is the power of money.
These are the only three powers. And these three kinds of people, rather than fighting with each other, have divided their areas, which is simply intelligent.
They have divided their areas and they don’t interfere in each other’s area. The great mass which is exploited by all the three in different ways remains enslaved: goes on working for others, lives poor, dies poor, never knows anything of beauty, of music, of poetry. These things are not for the poor masses.
My effort is to make it absolutely clear to the intelligent people of the world that these three are criminals.
Anybody who has a will to power is a criminal. That is my definition of a criminal: will to power. And why do I say the will to power is criminal? Because will to power simply means power over others. The others have to be enslaved and exploited."
- Osho (excerpted from The Last Testament)
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