Hope is the bondage of man

Sadhana

The fake ‘babas’ and mediums who claim to speak to the dead, or promise ever-lasting love, good fortune and such hope-related things have to prove their claims. If not, get ready to get behind the bars. It will now be possible to take the tricksters to court. At least in UK. This utterly eerie business will be shaken with the new consumer protection rule coming into force
Why do people fall prey to such quacks? Because of hope. People don’t live in the present and go on hoping for the future. Osho warns us against hoping as it is a veil between you and reality.
“ Hope is not the friend, remember; it is the foe. It is because of hope that you go on postponing. But you will remain the same tomorrow also, and tomorrow also you will hope for some future. And this way it can go on for eternity, and you can go on missing. Stop postponing. And who knows what the future is going to reveal to you? There is no way to know about it. It is an opening; all alternatives are open. What is really going to happen, nobody can predict. People have tried.
“That's why people go to astrologers, to I CHING, and to other sorts of things. I CHING goes on fascinating people, astrologers go on influencing people. Astrology still seems to be a great force. Why? -- because people are missing and they are hoping for the future. They want some clue to know what is going to happen so they can arrange it that way.
“These things will persist, even if scientifically it is proved that it is all nonsense. They will persist because it is not a question of science, it is a question of human hope. Unless hope is dropped, I CHING cannot be dropped. Unless hope is dropped, astrology cannot be dropped. It will have great power over man's mind because hope is gripping you. You would like to know little clues about the future so you can move more confidently, you can project more confidently, and you can postpone many more things.
“If you know something about tomorrow, I think you will not live today. You will say, "What is the need? Tomorrow we will live." Even without knowing anything about tomorrow you are doing that. And tomorrow never comes... and when it comes, it is always today. And you don't know how to live today.
“So you are in a great trap. Drop that whole structure. Hope is the bondage of man, hope is SAMSAR, hope is the world.
“Organized religion is one of the ugliest things that has happened in history. And the state should remain separate from organized religion, because organized religion is nothing but all kinds of superstitions -- beliefs -- beliefs without any evidence, doctrines, creeds, which go against every scientific discovery and invention. The state should not support any pseudo-religion, any organized religion. That is supporting charlatans, cheats, deceivers, exploiters, parasites.”
Excerpted from From Darkness to Light