OSHO : Replacing Family With Individuals

The family is the most outdated thing. It has done its work, it is no more needed. In fact, now it is the most hindering phenomenon for human progress. The family is the unit of nations, of the state, the church -- of all that is ugly.

That's why I say the family has to disappear. Otherwise, all these ugly monsters will continue. The family is the root cause of all our neurosis. We have to understand the psychological structure of the family; what it does to human consciousness. 

The first thing is: it conditions the child to a certain religious ideology, political dogma, some philosophy, theology. And the child is so innocent and so accepting, so vulnerable that he can be exploited. He cannot yet say ‘no’; he has no idea of saying ‘no’, and even if he could say ‘no’ he would not say it because he is utterly dependent on the family.

The family does not help the child to inquire; it gives beliefs and beliefs are poisons. Once the child becomes burdened with beliefs his inquiry is crippled, paralysed, his wings are cut. By the time he is able to inquire he will be so conditioned that he will move into every investigation with a certain prejudice -- and with prejudice your inquiry is not authentic.  

Each child comes with a tremendous intelligence but the family makes him mediocre, because to live with an intelligent child is troublesome. He doubts, he is skeptical, he inquires, he is disobedient, he is rebellious -- and the family wants somebody who is obedient, ready to follow, imitate. Hence from the very beginning the seed of intelligence has to be destroyed, almost completely burnt, so there is no possibility of any sprouts coming out of it.  

You know, 99.9 percent of people can become Buddhas -- just the family has to disappear. Otherwise there will be Christians and Muslims and Hindus and Jainas and Buddhists, but not Buddhas, not Mahaviras, not Mohammeds; that will not be possible. Mohammed rebelled against his background, so did Buddha and Jesus. These are all rebels -- and the family is absolutely against the rebellious spirit. 

If we want to save the future of humanity then all these religions have to go, only then can man create a universal brotherhood. Those who call themselves as religious have been the cause of more violence on the earth than anybody else. 

I am not in favour of teaching Hindus to be brothers to the Muslims or vice versa, because unless a Hindu gets out of his conditioning and the Muslim gets out of his conditioning there is no possibility of brotherhood. I am not in favour of synthesising all these religions. That will be synthesising all kinds of diseases -- cancer and tuberculosis.... That will not help, that will be far more dangerous. That gives a beautiful cover to all the cruelty, to all the destructiveness that they are carrying within themselves.

Humanity is passing through a very critical phase. It has to be decided whether we want to live according to the past or we want to live a new style of life. We have tried the past and its patterns and they have all failed. It is time to get out of the grip of the past and to create a new style of life on  earth. And that's what is needed to make humanity more wholesome, more healthy, more loving, more blissful.

Courtesy Osho International Foundation, www.osho.com