Osho on Russian Politician Joseph Stalin Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) was the leader of the Soviet Union for many years. He was born in a small town in Georgia. As a young man, he joined the Communist movement and supported the idea of creating a society where the government controlled all resources. After the 1917 Russian Revolution, he became an important member of the new Soviet government. When the first leader, Vladimir Lenin, died in 1924, Stalin slowly took control. By the late 1920s, he became the most powerful person in the USSR. Stalin wanted the country to develop quickly. He introduced collectivization, where farmers had to work on large, government-owned farms instead of their own land. This change caused a lot of problems, including food shortages and famine. He also pushed rapid industrialization, building factories and increasing production. Stalin ruled with strict control. He did not allow anyone to challenge him. During the Great Purge in the 1930s, many people were arrested, sent to prison camps, or executed because he believed they were threats. During World War II, Stalin led the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany. The Soviet army fought in many major battles and played a big role in defeating Hitler. After the war, the USSR became a powerful country, but millions of people had suffered under Stalin’s harsh rule. He died in 1953, and his legacy remains very mixed—some remember him for strengthening the country, while many remember him for the great suffering he caused. Osho says, “It happened in Soviet Russia.... When the revolution came and the communists changed the whole social structure, the czar was killed, and a strange phenomenon came into existence. The people who had killed the czar turned out to be greater czars than the czars themselves. Josef Stalin proved to be far more terrible than Ivan the Terrible. Ivan is nothing compared to Josef Stalin. And it is a natural phenomenon. I am not blaming Josef Stalin at all, I can understand what really happened. If you fight with the czar you have to learn his ways, and by the time you are the winner you have learned the ways so skillfully, so efficiently, they have become your ways. You start practicing the same on your enemies. That's why every revolution has failed. Persons change but the structures remain the same, because the idea of freedom from is basically wrong.”<div class="raw-html-embed"><div style="width:100%;height:1px;background:#00000036;margin:10px 0;"></div></div>Buddha says: MISCHIEF IS YOURS. The first thing to note: Buddha does not call it sin, he calls it mischief -- mistake, error, but not sin. In fact, in Buddha's vision there is nothing like sin. To call something a sin is to condemn it, and not only is it condemning the act, it is condemning the person too. The word 'sin' is very loaded. Buddha uses the word 'mischief' -- the change is great. If you call it a sin, then you have to be punished for it. Then you are a sinner, then you will have to suffer sometime in the future. The future was created by the priests, for a certain reason. In life we see many sinners flourishing: they are famous, they are powerful, they are rich. In fact, to be a president or to be a prime minister of a country, you have to be very immoral. You have to commit all kinds of immoral things, only then can you reach the highest post. It is not easy to reach there: you have to compete, by wrong means or right means. In politics there is nothing wrong or right: everything is right which gives you results. Use all kinds of ladders to reach the highest post, and once you have reached, nobody is going to remember what you have done on the way. Once you are in power, people simply forget all about what you have done to them. Not only that -- you can rewrite the whole history! That's what Joseph Stalin did, Adolf Hitler did. Joseph Stalin wrote the whole history of the Russian Revolution again: all the names that he was against were dropped. Trotsky, who was a far more prominent figure in the revolution than Stalin, was totally dropped; he was even removed from pictures. Stalin was in power for a long period: he changed the whole history, he made a new history -- invented! Once he died, the same was done to him by Khrushchev -- he changed the history again. Even Stalin's body which was preserved like Lenin's was removed from its place, because his body was lying next to Lenin's. HE had only changed pictures and words! Khrushchev removed Stalin's body. People spat on his dead body. It was removed to a far corner, a place where nobody would ever go. I have heard that somebody had suggested, "Why don't you send it to Israel?" Khrushchev said, "I am afraid, because it is said that once a man was resurrected there after three days. I can send his body anywhere, but not to Israel. Who knows -- if he comes back...? Just the idea!" ... Because for thirty years Khrushchev was just wagging his tail before Stalin. For thirty years he was just like a dog, not more than that! After Stalin's death, when he became powerful, he took revenge. Somebody asked him at a conference, "If you are so much against Stalin, why didn't you assert it when he was alive? For thirty years you were with him -- there is not even a single case on record that you argued with him or said anything against him or even discussed anything. You were always a yes-Sayer. How do you explain it, your thirty years' association with Stalin? If he was wrong, then you were wrong!" Somebody shouted this from the back of the conference hall. Khrushchev stood silent for a single moment, then he said, "Just please stand up and say who you are!" Nobody stood up, and he said, "Now do you see? This is my answer! You cannot stand and say your name before me; that was the same situation with me in those days. I can kill you -- he could have killed me!" And the same was done to Khrushchev. That's how it has been going on. In power politics you don't think of right or wrong means. In politics there is nothing right, nothing wrong: whatsoever succeeds is right and whatsoever fails is wrong. And the situation is the same in the marketplace. If you succeed in accumulating money, you are right. The priests became aware of the problem. The problem was: sinners succeed in life -- then how to explain it? If sinners are to be punished, what kind of punishment is this? In fact, the saints seem to be punished and the sinners seem to be rewarded. How to explain this? The future life was the only way to escape the problem. The priests invented this idea that hell and heaven are after life. In this life the sinner can succeed, but in the next he will have to suffer, after death he will have to suffer. And the saint may suffer in this life, but after death he will be rewarded: he will be taken to paradise. Now, nobody knows anything about the next life, whether it is or is not. Nobody has ever come back from there; nobody has ever reported what it is like, what is happening there. But it was a good device; it helped priests to console people. Buddha never uses the word 'sin', because it is condemnatory. He has such a deep respect for humanity! No other master has ever shown such respect for humanity as Buddha. And it is difficult to show respect for humanity, really difficult, because humanity behaves in such stupid ways. Only an enlightened master can still show respect for humanity, in spite of all that humanity goes on doing. Buddha uses the word 'mischief'; it does not condemn you. It simply says that you have chosen a wrong way. And he says: MISCHIEF IS YOURS. It is not predetermined by God, by fate, or by anybody else -- it is YOURS. And the sorrow that follows mischief -- or, more accurately, the sorrow that simultaneously happens with mischief, is also yours. There is no god who punishes you, there is no need, because if there is a god -- again an invention of the priests -- if there is a god as a judge... judges can be bribed. And the priests have been telling people, "Pray to God, praise the Lord, and you will be forgiven." What is praise? It is a kind of bribery! Hence, in a country like India where people have been praising God for centuries, bribery is very simple. Nobody thinks it is wrong -- it is something religious! If even God can be bribed, what about the poor policeman! If even God can be bribed and persuaded to do things in your favor, what about the poor magistrate? And if God is not wrong, why should the magistrate be thought wrong? In the East, bribery is not thought wrong; it is a Western concept that bribery is wrong. In the East it is just a simple thing, it has always been done. The priests are nothing but agents between you and God: they take bribes from you, and on your behalf they plead with God. Of course, in things like bribery, agents were needed because to give a bribe directly you will feel afraid. The person may not feel right; he may be offended, his sense of dignity may be offended. He may feel hurt, thinking, "What do you think of me? That you can purchase me?" Or, even if he wants to take it, he may say no, he may deny it. He may say, "I never take any bribes." His sense of pious ego may take possession of his being. An agent is needed, a go-between who knows both the parties so you need not encounter the person directly. Everywhere agents are needed. Priests have been agents between man and God. "You commit sin? Don't be worried," priests say. "Just give the right amount of bribes and you will be forgiven. And God is very compassionate." If you don't bribe, then of course you have to suffer. Buddha removed God completely. He removed God because he wanted to remove the priest. Unless God is removed the priest cannot be removed; he is just a shadow of God, a by-product. God is his invention! Hence the whole priesthood of India was against Buddha, because he was destroying their very trade, he was revealing their very trade secret, he was cutting their very roots. And India has the longest, the oldest priesthood in the world: the brahmins. For ten thousand years they have been exploiting people. They have lived on exploitation, they have not done anything else. They have not toiled, they have not worked. Their whole function has been just to act as a go-between. Buddha was really cutting the very roots of the priesthood, the whole establishment that goes with it, and the exploitation in the name of religion.&nbsp; He says: MISCHIEF IS YOURS. SORROW IS YOURS. There is no God to give you punishment, each act of mischief intrinsically brings sorrow to you. If you put your hand in the fire you will be burned. Not that a judge is needed to declare that now you have to be punished by the decree of God or the decree of the judge; you have to be punished because you have put your hand in the fire. There is no need for anybody to declare any judgment. The moment you put your hand in the fire you are burned -- immediately, instantly! In Buddha's vision, the action brings its own result; no judge is needed. "How did this accident happen?" asked the doctor. "Well," explained the patient, "I was making love to my girl on the living-room rug when, all of a sudden, the chandelier came crashing down on us." "Fortunately you have only sustained some minor lacerations on your buttocks," the doctor said. "I think you are a very lucky man." "You said it, Doc," explained the man. "A minute sooner and it could have fractured my skull!" It all depends on you! MISCHIEF IS YOURS. SORROW IS YOURS. BUT VIRTUE ALSO IS YOURS. AND PURITY. So don't be sad. In fact, feel joyous. Buddha is giving you total freedom... you can choose. If you are in love with sorrow, that's your choice. Then don't complain. You have chosen it yourself; enjoy it if you want to enjoy it. It is all up to you. The bride returned from her honeymoon and was relating her experience to her best friend. "And how was the first night?" her friend asked in anticipation. "Oh, it was horrible!" said the bride. "All night -- up and down, in and out, up and down, in and out. Never get a room next to the elevator!" Your whole life is your choice: you can be in hell, you can be in heaven. And heaven and hell are not far away from each other. In fact, there is not even a fence between the two, there is no division; they merge and melt into each other. You can easily move from one space to the other. And people have tried all kinds of things, but nothing succeeds. People have tried alcohol and drugs and people have tried prayers, religious rituals -- nothing works. Maybe for a moment, or for a few hours, mescaline or LSD can take you away from your present misery, but in fact they don't take you away -- they simply make you unaware of it. Only one thing has been successful and that is becoming more conscious, accepting that it is your responsibility; if you are in misery, then looking at it and finding out how you have chosen it and why you have chosen it. And seeing that it is your choice is enough: if you still want the advantages that come with it.... Yes, there are a few advantages; that's why people choose misery. Nobody wants misery, but there are a few advantages that come with misery. Everybody wants bliss, but there are a few disadvantages -- at least they look like disadvantages from your standpoint. That's why people want bliss but don't choose it, people don't want misery but choose it. Misery gives you a sense of the ego. Misery separates you from existence, defines you. Bliss is a merger, a melting. Your definitions disappear, your ego is found no more. So those who want to feel "I am," they have to choose misery, there is no other way. The 'I' feeds on misery; you may not like misery but you like the ego, and that is the subtle motive for choosing misery. You like bliss, but you don't want to melt. It happens many times: people come to me and they say.... And the same was happening with Buddha: many times he was asked the same question -- and maybe it is the same people who asked him and now they are asking me! He was asked many times, "You say bliss will be there when we have disappeared. But if we are not there, what is the point of attaining bliss? If I am not there to enjoy it, what is the point?" The same people come to me and ask, "If I disappear, then I don't see the point. Even if there is bliss, if I am not, who is going to experience it?" And logically it appears that their argument is valid -- but only logically, not existentially. Bliss is not an experience. It is not that there is bliss and you are experiencing it. When you disappear YOU are bliss; there is no need for anybody to experience it -- you become it. You vacate... and bliss starts arising in you. You are blocking it, you are the only barrier. You have to look deeply into it; only then will Buddha's sutra be clear to you. MISCHIEF IS YOURS. SORROW IS YOURS. BUT VIRTUE ALSO IS YOURS. AND PURITY.&nbsp; And what does he mean by purity? Is not virtue purity? No; hence he has to mention it separately. Purity means a state which is beyond both good and bad, misery and bliss -- beyond both. There is a transcendent state; it is peace. Buddha calls it nirvana: cessation of all states, good and bad both, day and night both. One simply IS: that is purity. No experience, nothing is happening, no content, a pure subjectivity, an eternal silence: that is purity.&nbsp; MISCHIEF IS YOURS. SORROW IS YOURS. Virtue is yours, bliss is yours, and beyond all is purity, buddhahood, awakening, transcendence. That is also yours. YOU ARE THE SOURCE OF ALL PURITY AND ALL IMPURITY. This is his continuous insistence, that: YOU ARE THE SOURCE.... He wants you to be reminded again and again that: YOU ARE THE SOURCE.... You come into the world as a pure potential, a multidimensional potential. You can become anything. You can be a sinner, you can be a saint. You can be Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, or you can be a Buddha or a Jesus. You bring all kinds of potential with you; you can choose whatsoever you want to be. You are not born ready-made; you come only as an infinite possibility, opportunity. An occasion to grow, that's what life is -- a space to grow. But you can grow in many ways, diametrically opposite ways. Adolf Hitler can become Gautama the Buddha; Gautam Siddhartha could have become Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler is not born as Adolf Hitler. We are born tabula rasa, a clean slate; nothing is written on it. It is later on that we start writing. Then one becomes the Bhagavadgita, the Bible, the Talmud, the Upanishads, and another becomes a book of pornography. And it is the same clean paper on which pornography is printed and on which the Bhagavadgita is printed, and it is the same ink that is used for both and it is the same press too. But vast differences! How vast is the difference between Adolf Hitler and Gautam Buddha! And both came with the same opportunity, but the choice was different. Remind yourself again and again that: YOU ARE THE SOURCE OF ALL PURITY AND ALL IMPURITY. Once this is accepted, a great authenticity arises in you. Source: Listen to complete discourse at mentioned below link. Discourse Series: <a href="/dhammapada-way-of-buddha-vol-5-07">The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 5, Chapter #7</a> Chapter title: You are the source 17 October 1979 am in Buddha Hall References: Osho has spoken on ‘bliss, life, freedom, consciusness’ in many of His discourses. More on the subject can be referred to in the following books/discourses: 1. The Book of Wisdom 2. The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha 3. Beyond Psychology 4. From Bondage to Freedom 5. The Golden Future 6. The Path of the Mystic 7. Sat Chit Anand 8. That Art Thou 9. Sermons in Stones 10. Vigyan Bhairav Tantra &nbsp;