And that’s exactly what has happened: in China, in Japan, in Korea, in Burma, in the whole of Asia, Buddhists eat meat. So many animals don’t die every day on their own accord! All the five-star hotels in the whole of Asia, from where they get the meat? And if this meat comes from natural death of the animals, then why so many butchers exist in Buddhist countries and so many butcheries? – for what reason? Every hotel in Buddhist country keeps a signboard that, “Here only that meat is served which comes from a naturally dead animal – one who has died a natural death.”

Man is so tricky that he will find a way; if you give him just a little loophole he will find a way out. No loophole should be given, that was Mahavira’s emphasis.

Gandhi could not convince anybody, but here you are seeing a synthesis happening on its own accord. And I am not interested in synthesizing anything. I never talk about synthesizing religions – but it is happening. Here you will find all religions, people belonging to different religions. Nobody bothers who is a Jew, who is a Mohammedan, who is a Hindu, who is a Jaina, who is a Buddhist, who is a Parsi; nobody takes any note of it.

A synthesis is happening. It is not being manufactured; it is happening through meditation not through mentation. This is true synthesis. It is happening through transcendence. When you meditate you go beyond the mind. When you go beyond the mind you are no more a Christian, no more a Hindu, no more a Jaina, no more a Jew. You are simply a consciousness, a pure consciousness, a mirror-like clarity. That clarity is true synthesis.

You ask: “Is Tao a synthesis of the paths of love and awareness?”

In a sense, no; in a sense, yes.

The fourth question:

Osho,
I am deeply interested in your works, but still I am afraid of taking sannyas – why?

Bavasimhan, Sir, you have never been here – the question has come by post – what do you know about my works? You have never participated in what is going on here; you don’t have any direct experience. And what is happening here is not an abstract philosophy, it is a very concrete experience. Hence you must be interested in my words, not in my works. You must be reading my words – and my words don’t contain me, or my work. They only contain invitation to come here, to be here. They are just invitations, nothing else. They cannot carry my truth to you. You have to be here to be with me, to live with me. And you have not come here yet.