Osho on Youth

IN HOLLAND THE SUICIDE RATE AMONG TEENAGERS IS GOING UP. YOU ONCE SAID THAT THE YOUTH IS OUR HOPE FOR THE FUTURE. THEY THEMSELVES DON’T SEEM TO HAVE ANY HOPE. CAN YOU PLEASE SAY SOMETHING TO THEM?

I still say that the youth is the hope for the future. But your past generations have killed the very phenomenon of being young; they have destroyed the youth. They have lost the love and the trust of the youth, because they have deceived them so many times that it has become impossible for them to believe the older generations.

What the older generations have done to young people, they have been doing for centuries. Now it has come to a climax. They have repressed the youth as far as their love is concerned. They have not allowed them to choose their partners; they have been trying to arrange marriages for them — and every marriage is a failure. I have not come across a marriage which is not a failure. It may look a success from the outside, but you will have to know the inside story. It is ugly, nauseating. The younger person sees all this: what has happened to the father, what has happened to the mother, what is happening in the family, what is happening in the nation.

The youth are bound to have the clearest eyes — young eyes without any dust. They can see the phoniness of the politicians; they can see that their religious leaders don’t know even the ABC of religion. And after the second world war they are in utter frustration, because after the second only the third world war can happen.

Once Albert Einstein was asked, “Can you say something about the third world war?”

He said, “No. I cannot say anything about the third world war, but I can say something about the fourth.”

The questioner was surprised. He said, “This is strange: you cannot say anything about the third, and you are so confidently saying that you can say something about the fourth.”

He said, “Yes, I can say with absolute confidence about the fourth that it is not going to happen, because the third will be the last; it will finish all life on the earth.”

Whose life are you going to finish? The old generations are finished already; they are robots. They have never lived in freedom, in love; they have never known the search for truth. The third world war, if it happens, is going to be the death of the youth who have not even known a few springs of life, who have not known anything about this beautiful earth. It is natural that they will be utterly frustrated with the whole world. Out of that frustration, if the youth commit suicide they are slapping your faces, they are saying, “Before you commit the suicide of the whole world, at least we want to be individuals. We could not be individuals because of you — your religion, your politics, your vested interests in life. But at least give us freedom so that we can commit suicide and at least have one moment of individuality — our own decision. We are not going to die according to the decisions of Ronald Reagan.” Their suicides are significant; they are not ordinary suicides which people have committed down the ages. They are question marks on your society, your family, your religion, and the way you are running the world.

I have something to say to the youth: Don’t be so pessimistic. Committing suicide is very easy; it is not a difficult task. And by committing suicide you are not going to prevent the global suicide that is coming on. When you are ready to commit suicide, risk your life, then why not risk your life in a rebellion against all old values? Destroy the church, destroy nations, destroy any discrimination between colors. Destroy the inequality between man and woman. Destroy poverty from the earth. You have nothing to lose. You were going to commit suicide, but before committing suicide at least do a few necessary things. Perhaps the transformation that you bring about may prevent the world from being destroyed, and you may not need to commit suicide. You may live to love and celebrate the great gift of life that existence has given to you. Don’t throw it away because others are behaving idiotically. For their fault, don’t punish yourself. And when you have decided to commit suicide, then there is no problem, you can risk everything. I need people who are ready to commit suicide because these are the only people who can become sannyasins. Sannyas is also a suicide — but not your suicide. It is the declaration that the society is dead and we don’t want to live in a graveyard; we would like to create our own society and we would like to create our own life.

Don’t be in a hurry. Life is so precious; don’t throw it away like that. There is no need. You can see my people who are in the same situation — but rather than committing suicide they have decided to transform their lives in spite of the ugly society in which they are living. They have ignored the society. They have accepted the death of the society and the civilization and the religion. They are dead. Do you think any religion is alive? The religion that blossomed with Gautam Buddha died with Gautam Buddha. The song that arose with Lao Tzu disappeared with the death of Lao Tzu. The dance of Meera died with Meera. This is the natural course of things. All religions are organized around corpses. Don’t worry about them; they don’t have any power, they don’t have any life. The politicians have died with the second world war. The second world war was a milestone in the history of man.

Now, either man chooses a global death or he chooses to give birth to a new man who will not need any politicians, any priests, who will not need any leaders — who will be sufficient unto himself.

Source:

This is an excerpt from the transcript of a public discourse by Osho in Buddha Hall, Shree Rajneesh Ashram, Pune. 

Discourse Series: Socrates Poisoned Again After 25 Centuries

Chapter #18

Chapter title: Logic is a prostitute

28 February 1986 am in

References:

Osho has spoken on ‘Youth, rebellion, Sannyas, transformation, love, celebration, new man’ in many of His discourses. More on the subject can be referred to in the following books/discourses:

1. Vigyan Bhairav Tantra
2. The Book of Wisdom
3. The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha
4. The Golden Future
5. From the False to the Truth
6. Zarathustra: A God That Can Dance
7. The Messiah
8. The New Dawn
9. The Rebel
10. The Path of the Mystic
11. Philosophia Perennis
12. Satyam Shivam Sundram
13. The Secret
14. The Secret of Secrets
15. Tao: The Pathless Path
16. Zen: The Path of Paradox