The first question:

Osho,
What is the place of surrender in your religion?

I do not teach the ego, hence I cannot teach surrender, because surrender is nothing but the subtlest form of the ego.

Surrender is not against the ego, it is in fact an act of the ego. Who surrenders? And by surrendering, who becomes humble? Who becomes meek? It is the ego standing upside down. It makes no difference whether the ego is standing on its legs or on its head. In fact it is more dangerous when it is on its head because then you will not be able to recognize it.

Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek,” but what is meekness? “Blessed are the humble,” but what is humbleness? Can a man who has no ego be humble? How can he be humble? Who will be humble? A man who has no ego has no way to be meek or to be humble. He cannot be an egoist on the one hand; he cannot be a humble person on the other hand.

To teach surrender is to give you a strategy to hide your ego, to sublimate your ego. Yes, that’s the right word, sublimation. A Freudian word, very significant. You can sublimate anything, so much so that recognition becomes impossible. You may even start thinking that this is the very opposite of the original thing. Meeting a humble man you will feel how egoless he is – he also feels how egoless he is. The ego has come from the back door and now it is no longer condemned, but appreciated.

And why is a meek person, a humble person appreciated? That too is a strange story. He is appreciated because he fulfills everybody else’s ego. Just see the whole game of it. Why do you appreciate a humble person? – because being humble to you, he buttresses your ego. And because your ego is buttressed, you in response buttress his humbleness.

Now a vicious circle is created. He will become more and more humble because everybody loves his humbleness. He gains respectability, and everybody enjoys his humbleness because everybody is being satisfied by his humbleness – it is a deep satisfaction for the ego.

Yes, blessed are the humble and the meek because without them how are the egoists going to be contented? And when you say, “They shall inherit the kingdom of God,” then naturally one is ready to do anything.

I want you to understand it clearly: ego and surrender are two sides of the same coin. I don’t teach the ego, so how can there be any place for surrender in my religion? I don’t teach you to be meek, I don’t teach you to be humble.