They worship money

They have a special day in the year when they worship notes and rupees – that day is coming closer – Diwali. No country in the world has ever worshipped rupees and money, yet they worship. And this is not just symbolic, this is very indicative. They cling to money like anything. It is very difficult for them to be non-greedy, to leave a single paise is impossible. And that’s why if somebody renounces a little bit of money, he is thought to be a great man. That too is materialism.

Why? If somebody has renounced money, what is the point in it? Why should he be praised? But he is praised like anything, the whole country will talk about him! He will be thought to be a great man – he has renounced money! Then money must be the greatest value. One becomes great if one renounces money. If people were really spiritual, renouncing money would be that somebody has renounced his mistake, that’s all. There is nothing great in it. Somebody has found that money is valueless, so he has renounced it. But there is nothing to be praised in it; he has corrected his error. He was thinking that two and two are five, now he has come to understand that two and two are four. You don’t go declaring that he has become a Buddha because now he knows two and two are four. Before, he was stupid; now he is normal.

But in India, it is worshipped if you renounce money, because the people know how much they are clinging to money. And you call India the heart of spiritualism?

This is what Indians have been teaching the whole world. Don’t be deceived – this is just advertising. They go on claiming all over the world that they are the heart, that they have the greatest secrets of spirituality. And they go on exploiting in the name of spirituality. And they can deceive people, and they can deceive only because, particularly in the West, people are no more materialistic.

Let me explain it. In the West there is material affluence. People have much more money, better houses, bigger cars, better bank balances, that is true – but people are not materialistic. They have much material wealth, but that does not mean that they are materialistic. In the East, people are poor, but that does not mean that they are spiritual. Poverty has nothing to do with spirituality. In fact, you can become aware that material wealth has nothing in it only when you have it, not before it.

Osho, I Say Unto You, Vol 2, Ch 2, Q 2