Question 5 BELOVED OSHO, HOW FAR CAN ONE RELY ON ONE’S ’INNER VOICE’?
The first thing: the inner voice is not a voice, it is silence. It says nothing. It shows something, but it says nothing. It gestures towards something, but it says nothing. The inner voice is not a voice. If you are still hearing some voice, it is not inner. ‘Inner voice’ is a misnomer, it is not the right word. Only silence is inner. All voices are from the outside.
For example: you are going to steal something and you say the ‘inner voice’ says: Don’t steal! — this is sin! This is not the inner voice — just your conditioning: you have just been taught not to steal. This is society speaking through you. It appears to be from within, but it is not. If you had been brought up in some other way and you were not taught that stealing was bad, or you were taught that stealing was good, then this inner voice would not have been there — and you know it.
If you have been brought up in a family which is vegetarian, then the moment you see non-veg food, some inner voice says: Don’t eat it — it is sin! But if you have been brought up in a non-vegetarian family, then there is no problem. You simply cannot believe how inner voices say to other people: Don’t eat it! It depends on what you have been taught.
This is not an inner voice, this is just your social conscience. Society has to create an inner arrangement in you because the outer arrangement is not enough. The police are there but it is not enough — the police can be deceived.