Osho,
These days the papers are filled with reports of communal riots erupting all over India. No real reasons for this violence and destruction of property are being given, just vague references to “anti-social elements,” whatever that phrase means. Can you throw any light on what is happening in this country, on why there is this obvious and angry unrest?

The first thing is: India is a religious country, and all the religions down the ages have depended upon fear. They have exploited the fear instinct of man, they have made man afraid. Hence the word God-fearing – it exists in almost all the languages of the world, and they say it means “religious.” It is pure nonsense. A religious person is not God-fearing but God-loving. A God-fearing man is pseudo religious: a person who has not sought religion on his own but has been forced to be religious by others.

And there are only two ways to force things on people – not in fact two, but two aspects of the same coin – fear and reward, punishment and reward, fear and greed. Hence hell and heaven. Heaven is greed, reward, hell is fear, punishment.

India is a religious country, full of God-fearing people. And with the existence of fear many problems arise. The first problem is: love disappears.

Remember, hate is not the real opposite of love; the real opposite of love is fear. You can still love the person you hate. In fact, the latest research says that you always hate the person you love. Hate and love are two poles of the same energy: they are complementary, they are not opposites.

Hence you see the conflict between lovers, continuous conflict. They are always fighting, as if it is a necessary part of love affairs – and it is. A love affair is not possible without conflict; a love affair becomes possible through conflict. You fight with the person you love, you hate the person you love from your very guts, and because of this hate and this fight and this conflict you go on creating a distance between you.

There is a certain moment when the distance is so big that a desire to meet the other arises. It arises only at a certain distance. If your woman or your man has been away for a few days and then comes home, then there is great love. Those few days have created a certain appetite. Of course, if you go on eating the whole day you won’t have any appetite. Appetite depends on the fast between two meals. Everybody fasts between two meals; hence the English word breakfast: you have fasted the whole night in your sleep. Of course, when you are awake it is difficult to fast but when you are asleep what can you do?

A few people certainly manage to get up in their sleep and go to the kitchen or go to the fridge; they are sleepwalkers. But some strange thing: sleepwalkers always go to the fridge! They open the fridge – and they are asleep! – and they eat something and they close the fridge, and they come back in the darkness, and they go to sleep. And they go on gaining weight and they go on dieting in the day. And they are always puzzled: “What is the matter? Why does my weight go on increasing?” Otherwise, normal people have an eight hour fast. After that eight hour fast, appetite arises.