Possessed by the devil? Blame the Christian god, says Osho

The New York Times reports that the American bishops held a conference recently to prepare more priests and bishops to respond to the demand of exorcism. They say, "They are overwhelmed with requests from people who fear they are possessed by the Devil."
It's hard to believe that in the twenty first century people from an advanced country like America feel that they are possessed by the devil. Who is this devil, by the way? And why does he possess people? Isn't it another of those trappings being pulled out of the past? Just to prove that they are special, they deal with the supernatural.

Here is Osho's take on this.

" The devil is nothing but the other side of god. The religions have been praising god and condemning the devil, and the devil is the other side of god. The word 'devil' is beautiful; it comes from a Sanskrit root which means divine. 'Divine' and 'devil' both come from the same root, dev. The devil and the divine, both are the same -- but if you repress one part of god, one aspect of his being, sooner or later it is going to assert itself.

For centuries they have been repressing god's aspects. You cannot repress anything forever; sooner or later it will assert itself.

The Christian concept of god as creator makes it a very limited one. Then whose responsibility is it to destroy things? -- because there is destruction too, and no creation is possible without destruction. god gives life -- and who gives death? Somebody has to be responsible for death too, but god cannot be responsible for death.

Christians are so afraid; their god is partial

The devil aspect of god has been completely denied. Now after twenty centuries of repression it has become very strong, it has gathered too much energy -- it is exploding all over the place. It is certainly becoming more and more attractive. God seems to be poor compared to the devil.

Christians, particularly the priests, have been talking so much about god that they have made the word almost sickening, nauseating. They have talked so much about god and their god is so sweet, their god has no salt; it is pure white sugar, which is another name for poison. So the Christian god has created a kind of diabetes all over the world. It is false because it is partial, and the other part will take revenge.

God has to be accepted in its totality. This whole existence is divine: don't reject anything. Salt is needed as much as sweetness. Even bitterness has its own place, its own joy, its own taste. The thorn on the rosebush has its own function; it is a bodyguard to the rose, it protects the rose. Don't deny it, don't prune all the thorns, otherwise the roses will die.

The West will have to change its idea of god. And the Western idea is no longer Western -- it has spread all over the world. Christian missionaries have done such mischief; they have drowned all other kinds of religion; almost half the earth they have changed into Christianity. They have destroyed all variety. They have given a very singular, one-dimensional idea of god to humanity. And their idea of god is very juvenile, it is not even mature. And their idea of god is anthropocentric, it is made in the image of man. And they have been trying hard to make god a great saint. Their whole effort has created this situation: the denied part is ready now to explode. Denial is always dangerous; repression is dangerous. We have to pay tremendously for it.

Accept both the polarities. The negative and the positive are both needed for the electricity to happen; the good and bad are both needed for the world to go on; they are like the two wheels of a bullock cart. The sinner and the saint are both needed. That's my approach .



Excerpted from Be Still And Know, # 6, Q 6