The world needs sheep

Essence is that which you bring into the world. The personality is that which the world imposes upon the essence. The world is very afraid of the essence because the essence is always rebellious, the essence is always individualistic. And the world does not need any individuals, it needs sheep. It does not need rebelli
ous people, it does not need people like Buddha, Krishna, Lao Tzu, no; these people are dangerous. It wants people who are obedient – obedient to the status quo, obedient to the vested interests, obedient to the organized church, obedient to the state and the stupid politicians.

Society requires obedience, and society requires efficiency. The more mechanical you are, the more efficient you are. When you are more alive, you cannot be so efficient. A machine is more efficient than man. The society’s effort is to reduce every man into a machine. And how to reduce a man into a machine? Make him more and more unconscious, make him more and more robot-like. Let his essence completely disappear from his consciousness. Let him become perfectly pseudo. Let him be a husband, let her be a wife; a servant, a boss, this and that, but never let him be his essential self. Don’t allow that because that essential self is not obedient to anybody except to God. It has no other commitment. Its sole commitment is to the source. It knows no other masters.

That type of being will be very inconvenient to this so-called society, because this society is not created to fulfil the needs of human beings, it is created to exploit human beings. It is not according to you and for your growth; it has no intention to help you to grow. And it has every intention not to allow you to grow because the more you grow, the more independent you become. The less you grow, the more dependent you remain. And a dependent person is reliable because a dependent person is always afraid. A dependent person always needs somebody to lean on, ALWAYS needs somebody to lean on. He is childish. He leans on the parents, he leans on the priests, he leans on the politicians. He cannot stand on his own feet. The society goes on covering you with many many clothes – not only physical but psychological too.

The society is very much afraid of physical nakedness, because physical nakedness is the beginning of psychological nakedness. The society goes into a panic seeing a naked man because this is the beginning. If he is naked physically, he has taken the first step. Now who is going to prevent him from becoming psychologically naked?

And the voice that called forth from the burning bush to Moses said, ’Put off your shoes.’ It is a very symbolic thing. ’Put off all your clothes,’ it says. ’Put off your shoes.’ Shoes cover your feet. Shoes cover you. ’Be naked on the ground. Be without shoes.’ The shoe represents personality, and nakedness represents essence. ’You are on holy ground, put off your shoes.’

The moment you encounter your essence, the burning bush within you, you will have to put off your shoes, you will have to put off all your clothes. You will have to put off ALL that is hiding your essence. That is revolution, METANOIA. That is the turning point in a life: the society disappears and you become an individual. And only individuals can relate with God.

But a great consciousness will be needed.

- Osho