And the last question:

Question 5

RELIGION IS ETERNAL, YOU SAY, BUT THEN WHY DOES IT GO ON CHANGING?

Religion is eternal -- religion as the ultimate law of life and existence, as Tao, is eternal. Not as Christianity; Christianity can't be eternal. One day it was born, one day it will have to die.

Many religions were born and they are gone, have disappeared. Many religions will be born and will disappear. The eternal religion -- what in India we call SANATAN DHARMA, the eternal religion, is transcendental. That eternal religion is translated sometimes by a Buddha -- it becomes Buddhism. It is a translation of the eternal into time. It is bringing something of the beyond to the earth. But the moment it is translated into time it is no more the eternal religion. It has taken a body and a shape and a form. Now no shape is eternal, no form is eternal; it will have to die.

It is like a child is born to you. The soul is eternal, but this child will have to die. This child has two things in it -- the soul, the eternal; and something temporal -- the structure, the mechanism. The body cannot be eternal. It has arisen out of the earth, it will have to go down to earth -- dust unto dust.

Exactly the same is the case with religion: when religion is understood by an enlightened soul, he brings it in your language, the way you can understand. And that's why there are so many differences and so many religions. Moses had to speak the language of his people, what they could understand. Buddha had to speak the language of his people, what they could understand -- and they were different people.

Now Jews are very practical people and Hindus are very impractical people. Moses had to speak a pragmatic language. Religion became ethics, morality -- hence the Ten Commandments. You will not find those Ten Commandments in any Hindu scripture. When for the first time the Upanishads were translated into Western languages, people were puzzled; there was nothing like Ten Commandments. How can a religion exist without Ten Commandments? The Upanishads say nothing about your morality. They don't say: Don't steal. Don't lie. Don't do this. Do that. They don't talk that language, not at all: Hindus have always been philosophical, speculative people. They love abstraction, they love flying into the sky.

Jews have always been practical people. This difference Makes the difference. Moses has to speak to Jews, he has to be very particular -- "Do this, don't do that". If somebody says to Hindus, "Do this, don't do that", it won't have much appeal. Not that there have not been people like that; there was Manu, who was exactly like Moses. But they are not the mainstream of Hindu consciousness.

Mohammed speaks another language, and then time goes on changing -- Krishna, five thousand years before, then Buddha, twenty-five centuries before. Twenty-five centuries passed between Krishna and Buddha. People had changed, people had learned many things, unlearned many things. Body structure, social structure, mind structure, everything is in a flux. Buddha speaks totally differently. Then Kabir speaks again differently.

I am speaking a totally different language. I am speaking to those who are alive today. Again and again religion will have to change, but the essential core remains the same. The shape changes, the form changes, the name changes, but the essential core remains the same, the essential taste remains the same.

And the second thing to be remembered: this is the change that is brought by enlightened people, but there are other changes also which go on parallel to it. Many changes are brought by the priests not because they know what truth is, but they have to adjust to people's needs. When an enlightened person like Jesus or Buddha makes any change, he has to look at two things: he has to look at truth and he has to look at people's minds. He has to create a bridge. But when a priest looks at the people he is only looking at the people -- the politics, the society, the economics. He has no idea of truth. He goes on making compromises, he goes on changing the religion. He has to change because he has to adjust. A thousand and one changes are brought by the priests, but the changes that are brought by the priests destroy religion. And the changes that are brought by seers make religion again and again alive. These are two different processes, so remember it.

If you are around a man like Buddha or Kabir or Nanak, it is totally different. He brings a fresh message from God, from the source. He will speak your language but he will not compromise with you. He will be absolutely uncompromising. That's why those people look very hard.

Somebody has just asked "Sometimes Osho, you are very hard". I have to be. I cannot compromise with you. I speak your language so that you can understand, but I cannot compromise with you. Otherwise there is no need: if I compromise with you, I am no more your Master. But the priest goes on compromising.

A story will be helpful.

It was the day before the Holy Day of Atonement. A young Jewish chap in a small town had something on his conscience. He went to his synagogue to see the rabbi. In privacy, he confessed to the rabbi that he had a sexual adventure that troubled him.

"Well," said the rabbi, "what happened?"

"Ah," answered the young chap, "I'm really ashamed to tell you. I thought you could gain me forgiveness before Yom Kippur. Of course, I'm ready to make a sizeable contribution to the synagogue."

"Well," said the rabbi, "what actually happened?"

"I had sexual intercourse with a gentile female."

"That is pretty bad."

"Worse, I kissed her."

"You kissed her?"

"Yes, I kissed her in a very intimate place."

The rabbi threw up his hands in horror and said, "Sorry! There is nothing I can do for you. The transgression is outrageous. You have shamed yourself beyond repair." And the rabbi angrily dismissed him.

The young man was distraught, and drove to a larger town. He sought out the rabbi of the Conservative congregation and told him his story. But the rabbi reproved him; though in milder tones, and advised that he could not accept a contribution because the sin committed was really beyond sanctioning.

The young man was crestfallen. But still determined to seek absolution; he drove to Detroit. There he sought out the largest Reform congregation, met the rabbi and told his story.

The rabbi listened patiently and then replied, "Well, it is an indiscretion, but not a fatal error. I believe that a proper contribution to the synagogue fund, and your attendance here tomorrow at services, will clear up the matter."

The young sinner turned to the rabbi and declared, "I will be delighted to comply with everything you mentioned. Yet, I can't understand. How is it that Rabbi Finkelstein and Rabbi Tannebaum gave little heed to my plea and turned me out?"

"Well," answered the Reform rabbi, "do you expect such smalltown rabbis to know anything about fancy fucking?"

The priest goes on compromising. He is not interested in the eternal, he is interested in something else. He is ready to compromise with you. These people go on destroying religion.

But in the natural course, every religion has to die. The changes that are brought by the rabbis and priests and the ministers are political changes, social changes. They are not religious. They only look at how they can go on holding their flock together. They are afraid to lose numbers, they go on compromising with the crowd. So if Adolf Hitler is in power, the minister blesses him.

Now this is strange... that a man who believes in Christ and his message blesses Adolf Hitler, or blesses some other country. He has to look for other things which have nothing to do with religion. These people bring many changes; those changes go on killing and poisoning the body of religion.

But real changes also are needed. And whenever a real change happens a new religion is born. Whenever these unreal compromises go on happening the old religion continues, dead, a corpse phenomenon -- but it continues. It goes on stinking, but they go on putting patches on it. It is a dead body but they go on painting it. They go on pretending that everything is alive. Whenever real changes happen, whenever another message comes from the original source, a new religion is born.

Jesus brings a new message; Christianity is born. The Vatican goes on compromising. It is a dead Christianity now. It is good that it should go. If we are finished with dead religions on the earth it will be a great blessing to humanity, because when dead religions are finished, people start looking for new sources.

And I am happy that the new generation, all over the world, is finished with the dead stinking corpses, and is searching for new sources, new, alive sources. This search is one of the greatest phenomena of this century, and this search is becoming stronger every day.

Something great is going to happen. This search simply heralds a great future. Religion is going to happen to humanity again -- as it had happened in Jesus' time or as it had happened in Buddha's time. Again man is getting ready to have a new religious consciousness, a new quantum leap.