Osho : I am the only Jew in India!……In fact, there have been only two source religions in the world: Hinduism and Judaism. Both are dead. Jainism and Buddhism are offshoots of Hinduism but because the root is dead the branches are dead too. And Christianity and Islam are branches of Judaism, and because the root is dead the branches are dead too. These are dead phenomena. I am not much concerned with the past.
Yes, something beautiful has happened in Judaism, too, and that is Hassidism–and I have talked about it a lot. Just as I love Zen people in the tradition of the Buddha, I love Hassids in the tradition of Moses and I love Sufis in the tradition of Mohammed. These three are still alive in some small way because these three have never become established religions; they have always been anti-establishment, they have always been alternatives to the established religion, they have always been rebellious.
Hassidism is worth talking about, not Judaism–and I have talked about Hassidism. I have been approaching Hassidism with my own experience. I have been bringing Hassidism up to date, trying to make it part of the twentieth century. Hassidism is the essence of Judaism, the very fragrance of it.
And I have something of the Hassids in me, that’s why I sometimes call myself a Jew. The Hassids love life, they are life-affirmative. They don’t believe in renunciation, they believe in rejoicing. They believe in dancing, singing, celebrating–and that’s exactly my approach too.
My religion is something of a meeting of Zen, Sufism and Hassidism–and something more thrown in.