Well, if you feel that way about it, why are you happy here? Or are you happy here?

"I am happy anywhere."

Even in a place as oppressive as the United States?

"Yes, even in Oregon."

How about the individual Americans? How do you feel about the ones that you've met, that you've come into contact with? Or the ones that you've read about?

"I know only the Americans who are with me, but they are no longer Americans. I don't come in contact with the Americans, because I never go anywhere."

But many Americans come here to see you, do they not? The parents of your sannyasins, and others?

"I don't meet them. Thousands of Americans are my sannyasins, but the man who becomes a sannyasin drops all hangovers: American, Christian, Hindu, Indian, Mohammedan, communist – he throws all that crap away. That is the essential thing for a sannyasin to do, to be just a human being without any labels. Man is not a commodity that you can label, to label human beings is ugly. So there are people who were once Americans who have become sannyasins – I can tell you about them, they are in contact with me – they are some of the best and most beautiful people in the world."

Osho,
I wonder if I might ask you about your childhood in India? What was it like? How did other children relate to you? How did you relate to them? How did they feel about you? How did you feel about yourself as a child?

"I was a little strange as a child. I never played with any children because deep down I never felt that I was their age. In my childhood I was discussing with adults, old people, but my relationship with my own age group was nil."

You felt yourself a teacher even then, isn't that right?

"Yes, I have always felt that I have something to give, and as I grew up that became more and more clear. I had always related with people who were at least twenty, thirty years older than me, because only with them could I argue and discuss things in which other children were not interested."