Will-to-power: The Cancer of the Soul

BELOVED OSHO, why you are against the politicians?

I am not against anybody. I have no grudge, no competition, no jealousy. Why should I be against the politicians? I am not a politician. But my statements can be misunderstood.
I am against the disease called wilI-to-power. This is the greatest disease, as far as man's consciousness and its growth is concerned. It is just like cancer; it is the cancer of the soul. Will-to-power can express itself in many ways. The easiest is politics, because it does not need much intelligence. All that it needs is the capacity to create false hopes in the masses, hopes which have never been fulfilled, which were never meant to be fulfilled; their purpose was something else. And the masses are in suffering. They are poor, they are ignorant. They also need all the comforts of life, they also want to live like human beings, with dignity. The politician gives them the hope, and exploits the hope for his own purpose, because once he gets the power, once he becomes somebody -- a prime minister, a president -- then something in him feels at ease. It was his psychological need.
These people are basically, deep down, impotent -- hence the urge to power. They feel their weakness and powerlessness; they know they are nobodies. But if they can convince the mediocre mob that they will be fulfilling their needs, then it is a mutual understanding, a bargain. Then the masses give them power. Once they have got the power, they forget all their promises; in fact, they never meant them, and once they have the power, then you see their real face.
Lord Acton was absolutely right when he said, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." But he was not aware of why power corrupts, how power can corrupt. The man must be carrying the seeds of corruption already but was incapable of doing anything; he needed power. Once he has the power, then slowly his mask starts falling away and you will see within him the egoist in its utter nudity. The politician is nothing but an egoist. Inside he feels empty -- and afraid of that emptiness. He wants to be somebody so that he can forget his own emptiness. Power gives him the chance. He can see that millions of people are under his thumb. He can convince himself that he is not a nobody, he is somebody special. And he starts behaving that way. He starts misusing the power. Once he is in power, then he never wants to be out of it. Then he always wants to remain in power, because now he knows perfectly well that out of power he will be more aware than ever of his emptiness and his impotence.
What I am against is the game of the ego. Who plays it, in what subtle ways one plays it, is a totally different matter. The politician is the most apparent player of the game. The religious messiah, avatara, tirthankara, paigambara -- Jesus, Mohammed, Krishna, Buddha -- they are on the same trip, it is the same number; but it will need tremendous intelligence to see their power game. The politician is nothing compared to them. The politician is playing a very trivial game.
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So I am not against the politicians, I am against the will-to-power, because the will-to-power is nothing but ego projection, and that is the greatest barrier between you and existence. The bigger ego you have, the farther away you are from existence. If it is not there... the meeting, the merger.
But I will not tell you to drop the ego. I am fully aware how cunning the ego is. It can even play the game of dropping itself, and you can say, "Look, I am the humblest person in the world, the most egoless." It has come in from the back door again; now you are the humblest, the most egoless -- but you have to be somebody special and extraordinary.
I only say to you: if you try to drop it, it will come in from the back door. Just try to understand its games, that's enough. Just try to see how many games it can play, in how many ways it can deceive you. Just be alert. And if you are aware of all the possible ways of the ego, it disappears just like darkness disappears when you bring a lighted candle in. And you start looking with the candle where the darkness is. And you go on looking... and wherever you go it is not... wherever you go it is not.
When the light is there, the darkness disappears. It is not that darkness escapes; darkness does not exist at all. It is only an absence of light.
Ego is just like darkness; it has no existence of its own. It is only the absence of awareness. So I don't say drop the ego, I say watch it. Be watchful, observe it -- and you will find it in so many layers that you will be surprised. The politician is a gross egoist. The saint may be a very subtle egoist. He is in more danger than the politician, because the gross can be caught very easily. I know both. I know the grossest politician and I know the subtlest saint, and I know all the categories in between. I have met all these people.
My whole life's work is to find out the basic problem of humanity. And once we know the basic problem of humanity, it is not difficult at all to dissolve it. In fact, in the very finding it dissolves, because your awareness becomes a light unto itself.
I cannot say I am a messiah, I cannot say I am the avatara, because I know those are subtle ego games. All that I can say is: I am just as ordinary as anybody, or as extraordinary as everybody.
In existence, the smallest blade of grass has the same significance and the same beauty as the greatest star. There is no hierarchy. There is nobody higher, nobody lower.
I am not against anybody. But my basic work is to expose before you all the diseases, the bondages, so that you are not caught in them, so you can remain free, so you can have a merger with existence, without any barrier. And ego is the only barrier. It can come in so many ways that unless you are really alert it will deceive you. It can become so subtle -- almost like a shadow -- that it will follow you, and you will not be aware of it.
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Awareness is my teaching. Never fight with greed, ego, anger, jealousy, hatred -- all those enemies that the religions have been telling you, "Fight with them, crush them, kill them. You cannot kill them, you cannot crush them, you cannot fight with them; all that you can do is just be aware of them.
And the moment you are aware, they are gone. In the light, the darkness simply disappears.

Osho, From Unconsciousness to Consciousness