Skip to content
quotesby

I have withdrawn the red dress, the mala, because thousands of people wanted to be sannyasins but just because of the clothes and the mala they felt difficulties in the world - their job, their family, their wife, their parents, their friends - and it was too much of a trouble. I have withdrawn everything. Now whatsoever remains is something inner which neither the wife can detect nor the father nor the job nor the friends.

Osho#24

FaithSocietyChangePragmatismSymbolismSymbols

About this quote

What does it mean?
External symbols of spiritual status were removed to reduce social friction for followers.
In plain terms
I stopped using religious clothes so life is easier for followers.
What can you take from it?
Internal commitment matters more than external symbols.

Where it applies

  • religious groups
  • family dynamics
  • career conflicts

Putting it to work

  • remove external markers
  • prioritize inner growth
  • reduce social friction

Questions to consider

  • Do symbols help or hinder faith?
  • What is your inner commitment?

Another view

Symbols can still serve important community functions.

More from Osho

  1. You must have heard about the beautiful Sufi legend of Majnu and Laila. It is not an ordinary love story. The word majnu means mad, mad for God. And laila is t…

    Permalink to quote #23
  2. Nature has come to a point where now, unless you take individual responsibility, you cannot grow. More than this nature cannot do. It has done enough. It has g…

    Permalink to quote #25
  3. When I am gone I hope there may still be courageous people in the world to criticize me, so that I don't become a hindrance on anybody's path. And those who wi…

    Permalink to quote #22

Related quotes

  1. I believe in God. When everything collapses, we grip the last hold, we look from the secure haven how the godless society of the old, holy Europe falls apart. …

    Joseph GoebbelsJoseph Goebbels quote #18
  2. I have seen the future, and it looks a lot like the present.

    Dan QuisenberryDan Quisenberry quote #1
  3. 'Management is the gate through which social and economic and political change, indeed change in every direction, is diffused though society.'

    Robert McNamaraRobert McNamara quote #1