1. OSHO on MARRIAGE:
I am not against marriage -- I am for the REAL marriage. I am against the false, the pseudo,
that exists. But it is an arrangement. It gives you a certain security, safety, occupation. It keeps
you engaged. Otherwise, it gives you no enrichment, it gives you no nourishment.
Marriage is a trap: you will be trapped by the woman and the woman will be trapped by you.
It is a mutual trap. And then legally you are allowed to torture each other forever.
Marriage is the ugliest institution invented by man. It is not natural; it has been invented so
that you can monopolize a woman. Marriage is against nature.
To tell the truth, there is no difference between wives and prostitutes. The difference is just
like the difference between having your own car or going in a taxi.
I would like marriage to disappear completely from the world, and with marriage, divorce
will disappear. With marriage, prostitution will disappear. With marriage, most of the work of the
priest will disappear. With marriage, almost ninety-nine percent of the psychoanalysts, therapists,
psychiatrists will disappear.
Marriage has created the family: the unit of the society, the unit of the nation and Private
property. Unless the family disappears, nations cannot disappear. And without the disappearance
of nations, wars will continue, man will continue to butcher man. To me, marriage is one of the
things that need to be immediately abolished. With marriage abolished, prostitution, nations,
private properties & many ugly things will disappear.
I am neither for marriage nor for divorce. In my vision there should be only a kind of
friendship between people, a responsibility, a caring.
In an ideal society, there will be only friends -- no husbands, no wives. Of course, if there is
only friendship, passion will never turn into hate. The moment you feel passion disappearing, you
will say good-bye, and it will be understood. Even if it hurts, nothing can be done about it -- it is
the way of life.
I would like a different kind of relationship in the world. I call it relating just to make it
different from your old kind of relationship. I would like a different kind of marriage in the
world. I will not call it marriage because that word has become poisoned. I would like to call it
just a friendship; no legal bondage, just a loving togetherness; no promise for tomorrow — this
moment is enough. And if you love each other this moment and if you enjoy each other this
moment, if you can share with each other this moment, the next moment will be born out of it; it

2. will become more and more enriched. As time passes by, your love will become deeper, it will
start having new dimensions, but it will not create any bondage.
Hence MY vision of a new humanity does not have any place for the old kind of marriage or
old kind of family because we have suffered enough. I know perfectly well that man and woman
will need to be together, but not out of need, but out of overflowing joy; not out of poverty but
out of richness — because you have so much that you have to give. Just like when a flower opens,
its fragrance is released to the winds because it is so full of fragrance it HAS to release it. Or
when a cloud comes in the sky it showers; it has to shower — it is so full of rain water it has to
share.
Up to now we have not helped man to know what love is; on the contrary we have been
forcing him to get married. Marriage has to be the first thing and then love will come on its own
accord. That whole idea has proved totally wrong. Man has lived in hell for centuries. He has
become accustomed, that is true, in fact so much accustomed that the very idea of a world without
marriage shocks him.
We have to change the whole structure of humanity from the very roots. Marriage has to go
the way it has existed up to now and a totally new concept has to be introduced. Only then a new
man can be born on the earth.
- OSHO