Now, toys and fire seem to have no connection, but in that particular situation the father functioned as a master. He gave the children an indication that saved their lives. Although now they are aware he lied, they will not complain about it. He lied out of compassion. He lied because he loved them; he lied because he wanted to save their lives.

Truth cannot be said, so whatever can be said is going to be a beautiful lie – beautiful because it can lead towards truth. So I make a demarcation between lies: beautiful lies and ugly lies. Ugly lies are those which take you away from truth, and beautiful lies are those which take you close towards truth. But as far as their quality is concerned, both are lies. But those beautiful lies work; hence in some way they hold the flavor of truth.

Osho,
A question I have had since I was a kid and started seeing the ways of the world is: Why do people treat each other like they do? Where is the love, the compassion and the respect for each other? I think that everybody is longing to live in love and harmony with himself and all the human beings around. And I don’t think there is any longing for hate, violence, and power over other people – but this is what I see happening.

What is it that makes people live this unnatural and miserable life? Is it all conditioning, or is there something in man that makes him willing to go astray?

It is both. First, there is something in man that leads him astray. And secondly, there are people whose interest it is to lead human beings astray. Both together create a false, fake human being. His heart longs for love, but his conditioned mind prevents him from love.

You will be surprised to know that Adolf Hitler never allowed his girlfriends to sleep in his room for one simple reason: how can you trust? The woman may shoot you in the night, mix poison in your water. What is the guarantee? She may be just pretending that she loves you. It may be just a conspiracy. There is no way to find out whether it is a conspiracy or true love for him. To be on the safe side he never allowed any woman with whom he had been in contact to sleep in his room.

He never allowed anyone to be friendly with him – Goebbels, or any of his other close associates. He always kept them at a distance. It was said that there was not a single person who could put his hand on his shoulder, like a friend. Too much closeness is dangerous – that was his conditioning. The other may do harm to you. He may come to know something about you which he may use against you. It is better to keep him at a distance. And everybody is ambitious, everybody wants to be in his place, so although they are looking very friendly, deep down they are all enemies, competitors; they can kill him. He had no friends. And what kind of love is this, that he cannot trust the woman in his room?