Osho on Spiritual Dimension in the teaching of Journalism

Question - Beloved Osho, In our Journalism training course, the growth of being, the spiritual dimension, is totally ignored, while other psychosomatic subjects are all very much highlighted. Osho, could you please explain: Why is it significant to include the spiritual dimension in the teaching of journalism?

Osho - Nandita, this country has been under slavery for two thousand years. That has created a psychological slavery in people. Although politically we are free, psychologically we are still slaves. Journalism is a product of the West, and we are imitating whatever is being done there; it is not our creation. The West does not believe in any spirituality, and it is suffering great anguish and great anxiety because of it.

The suicide rate is four times more than it is in the East. And in the East, people commit suicide because of hunger, starvation; you have to be compassionate towards them. In the West people commit suicide because they have everything, and they feel life is meaningless. They have all the money, they have all that money can purchase ... but there are a few things which money cannot purchase. They cannot purchase silence, they cannot purchase joy, they cannot purchase love, they cannot purchase meditation.

Osho on Spiritual Journalism

In the life of Mahavira, there is a beautiful story. One great king of Mahavira's time, Prasenjita, had everything that was possible in those days. But one day he came across a Jaina monk who said to him, "You may be a great emperor, but do you know the blissfulness and the ecstasy of meditation?" And for the first time, Prasenjita was very shocked -- he used to brag, thinking that he had everything. For the first time somebody had pointed out that he didn't have everything. He asked the monk, "From where can I get meditation?" He thought perhaps that too could be purchased. "I am ready to pay any price."
The monk said, "For that you will have to go to my master, who is living just outside the capital. You have to go to Mahavira."

Prasenjita went to Mahavira, and asked him the same question: "I have come here to purchase meditation, whatever the price. You don't be worried about the price -- I am ready to pay right now -- but I want meditation."

Mahavira looked at him, and said, "You certainly want meditation, but I don't want to sell it -- at any price. But I know a very poor man in your own capital, my disciple. Perhaps he may be ready to sell it." Just a joke ... so he gave him the name of the poor man, and he said, "Perhaps he may be in need of money, and he may sell his meditation."

And Prasenjita went in his golden chariot to the quarters of the poorest people, and they could not believe it -- a great crowd gathered, and they found the poor man. Prasenjita asked, "Whatever the price, it will be given to you right now; I am carrying enough money in the chariot. But give me your meditation."

The man said, "My master must have been joking. It is not something that you can purchase. Although I am poor .... But it is not possible to sell meditation, you have to evolve into it."

In the West, four times as many people are committing suicide -- and these people are not poor people, these people are from the highest class, super-rich. What is the problem, what is missing? And those who are not committing suicide are feeling at a loss. They have reached the highest rung of the ladder, and now ... nowhere to go, and inside there is simply darkness and death.

Journalism is coming from the West. You are still copying something that has not grown within your culture, within your atmosphere; which is not part of this earth, it is not a flower here. So you are carrying a plastic flower; it has no roots.

In the West, the news media is not interested in spiritualism because in the West, nobody is interested in spiritualism. That has been their choice for centuries, and they are suffering because of it -- badly suffering. So many people are in psychoanalysis, so many people are inside psychiatric hospitals, so many people are going insane, committing suicide, murdering, doing things just because they find life so meaningless, so useless.

One of the very famous novels of Dostoevsky, THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV, has a statement by one of the brothers: If I meet God, I want to return my ticket. I don't want to be in the world; it is simply useless, there is no meaning.

You are asking me: "In our journalism training course, the growth of being, the spiritual dimension, is totally ignored." It is because you are not growing a journalism that belongs to this earth, that has the fragrance of this earth. You are simply imitating.

And you are doing a tremendous harm to this society, because here spiritualism is the most fundamental thing. But the same is happening in your educational systems. In your universities, in your colleges, in your schools, everywhere there is a mental slavery to the West. Whatever is happening in the West, you have to imitate it; it has become your unconscious habit. Journalism has to learn its own way, has to evolve its own individuality, just as education has to evolve its own individuality.

Nandita, you are asking if it is significant, and why it is significant to include the spiritual dimension in the teaching of journalism. Spiritualism is the very meaning of life. Without a spirit, a man is only a corpse. And without spiritualism, anything -- education, journalism ... they are only corpses, they stink.

Your politics is an imitation from the West. That's why even after forty years of freedom, nothing seems to have changed. The same bureaucracy ... it has even got worse, because imitators cannot be better than the originals.

Your education is just an imitation. I have been a teacher in the university, and I had to fight with the university continuously. They were not ready to include yoga or meditation in the university courses, but they go on bragging that this is the land of Gautam Buddha and Mahavira and Bodhidharma and Patanjali and Kabir and Nanak -- they go on bragging, but they don't see what they are doing. Their journalism, their education, their politics, has no trace of Kabir, or Nanak, or Patanjali, or Buddha.

They are under the impact of Western masters. Although politically you are free, psychologically you are not free. Journalism has to attain freedom from the West and it has to give an authentic, original shape to itself. And you will be surprised that if you can manage to introduce a spiritual dimension to journalism, the West is going to imitate you sooner or later -- because there is a great hunger, a great thirst. Rather than being imitators, why can you not be the originals, and let others be the imitators? That will be for the first time that something out of freedom happens in this country.

And spiritualism does not mean any kind of fanaticism. Spiritualism does not mean that you have to preach Hinduism, that you have to preach Jainism, or you have to preach Mohammedanism. Spiritualism simply means you have to spread the basic fundamentals of all religions, which are the same.

Can love be Hindu or Mohammedan? Can a peaceful mind be Hindu or Buddhist? Does a man of compassion have to be a Christian or a Jew? An authentic spirituality will be without any adjective. It will teach only the essentials of all religions. And journalism should give it the first preference: on your laundry list, it should be your first item and politics should be the last. Unfortunately, politics is the first and spiritualism is not even the last.

I cannot understand how you can go on and on being slaves. Is not the time ripe that we should be spiritually free from the West? That we should have our own education, that we should have our own journalism? That we should have our own fragrance, and our own nuance?

The time is ripe, and journalism can become the beginning of a new era. Push politics as far back as possible, to the last pages of your newspapers. Politics is not our soul, it is the dirtiest game that you are propagating in people's minds. It is absolutely necessary that the politician be made clearly aware that he is not the man of wisdom, that he is not to guide the destiny of the nation; that he is only the servant of the people, his role is that of a functionary.

You don't make much fuss about who is the postmaster general; his role is that of a functionary. You don't make much fuss about who is the head of all the railways; what is the need? He is doing his work, he is getting his salary, that's enough. Why do you go on bothering about politicians? More than fifty percent of your energy is wasted on those whose life span is only four years. Tomorrow they will be forgotten.

They are exactly like your newspapers. Yesterday's newspaper is just as useless as your politician of yesterday. But why give so much importance to momentary things? Spirituality means giving importance to something which is a permanent value, which gives life, light and guidance forever, which is sanatan, which is eternal. Eternal values constitute spirituality; momentary values constitute politics. Politics and religion are just polar opposites.

And politics is trying to make every effort to suppress religion in every part of the country. The only danger for politicians is from the religions, because only from the religions can people come out with more wisdom.

For example, I cannot see any problem so big that the country should remain struggling and not be able to solve it. Within ten years, every problem of this country can be solved. But the politicians don't want to solve the problems, they want to create them. In fact their very life depends on problems.

Adolf Hitler, in his autobiography, has a very significant statement: a politician, if he wants to be a great politician, a great leader of people, should never allow peace in his land. He should always create turmoil, keep people afraid, insecure, worried, concerned. He should keep people in such a situation that they need him. Always create enemies in the neighbors -- real or phony, but always keep enemies on the side -- and the moment you feel that your leadership is going, create a war, because only in war are great leaders born. And he is right. But what is the conclusion from it?

The conclusion is that the politician is not interested in solving problems, he is interested in making them as complex as possible. So he becomes absolutely essential; you need him always. He wants to keep you always afraid of the enemies -- from China, from Pakistan -- they are gathering atomic weapons, nuclear weapons, so you need your leaders, whether they are of any worth or not. In times of war, whoever is in power should be given total support, because it is a question of crisis. The cunning politician keeps every country always in crisis.

There is a saying that the first statement which can be called political was asserted by Adam to Eve. When they were driven out by God from the Garden of Eden, passing through the gate, Adam said to Eve, "We are passing through a great crisis." Since then, every politician has been saying the same thing: "We are passing through a great crisis." And the crisis is so great that only he can tackle it, you cannot manage it.

One of the greatest revolutions in journalism will be, Nandita, if we can create in this country a different kind of journalism -- which is not dominated by politicians, but is inspired by its wise people. And you can remain absolutely certain that the wise people of any country are not going to fight in the elections; they are not going to beg for votes from the masses. So the wise people by their very nature remain out of power. It should be one of the basic functions of journalism to bring the wise people and their wisdom before the masses, into the light.

Politicians should not be paid too much attention; it is dangerous. They should be ignored as much as possible. They should be paid attention only when they do something which is authentically good.

Source - Osho Book "The New Dawn"

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