Religion is a Luxury
OSHO
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I consider religion to be the last luxury . Only when a society becomes affluent does religion become meaningful. And now, for the first time, a greater part of the world is not poor.To be religious, or to be interested in the ultimate questions of life, one needs to have fulfilled all lower wants and needs.For example, in Buddha's time, India was like America is today . In those days, India was the richest land. The religion that we have in India today is just a leftover from those days. There is a basic difference between a poor man's religion and a rich man's religion.
If a poor man becomes interested in religion, it will be just as a substitute. Even if he prays to God, he will be praying for economic goods; the basic problem of man will not yet have arisen for him. So, Marx is right in a way when he says that religion is the opium of the people. But for a rich man, there is a basic change of dimension. Now he is not asking for economic goods, he is asking for the meaning of life.
Krishna, Mahavira, Buddha, the 24 tirthankaras of the Jainas, and the avatars of the Hindus were all rich: royally born, sons of kings. India has not had one avatar who was a poor man. Your mind's needs arise for the first time when your bodily needs are fulfilled.And religion is a need of the mind, not of the body . That is why animals can live without religion, but man cannot -the mind has come in.
If a poor man becomes interested in religion, it will be just as a substitute. Even if he prays to God, he will be praying for economic goods; the basic problem of man will not yet have arisen for him. So, Marx is right in a way when he says that religion is the opium of the people. But for a rich man, there is a basic change of dimension. Now he is not asking for economic goods, he is asking for the meaning of life.
Krishna, Mahavira, Buddha, the 24 tirthankaras of the Jainas, and the avatars of the Hindus were all rich: royally born, sons of kings. India has not had one avatar who was a poor man. Your mind's needs arise for the first time when your bodily needs are fulfilled.And religion is a need of the mind, not of the body . That is why animals can live without religion, but man cannot -the mind has come in.
