According to Osho, fear and guilt are not the same: fear is natural, the tremble of a tiny drop before the ocean of life (ultimately fear of death). If you accept fear totally, its energy uncurls into freedom and fearlessness; if you deny, repress, or condemn it, that inauthenticity becomes guilt. Acceptance transforms; repression breeds guilt.
Fear is normal—if you accept it, it becomes freedom; if you hide or fight it, it turns into guilt.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Are fear and guilt the same thing? And surely as light shows up darkness, so jesus must have made people aware of their guilt.
But when a Jesus, a sage, appears, darkness is simply destroyed. When the light is there, darkness is not shown. Darkness simply is not, because darkness is nothing but the absence of light. If there is darkness in the room and I give you a lamp and tell you, "Go. And take the lamp with you, because with the lamp it will be easy to see the darkness..." If you go in darkness, how will you be able to see the darkness? -- it looks logical. But absurd! Darkness can be seen only when there is no light. If you take the light with you, you will never be able to see darkness, because once the light is there, darkness is no longer there. Jesus simply destroys darkness, he destroys guilt. He creates hope, he creates confidence and trust. People who have been condemned for long, have lost all hope.…
Question: BELOVED MASTER, CAN YOU SAY SOMETHING ABOUT GUILT AND FEAR? Gas chambers are still not known in hell. In a single gas chamber, ten thousand people, within seconds, can become smoke. And you will be surprised to know that although we are living in the twentieth century, man is still an animal. Thousands of people used to go to see. Glass was fitted, fixed in, one-way. You could see what was happening inside, but the insiders could not see who was looking in from the outside. Thousands of people would stand outside watching through the glass: people disappearing in smoke -- simply disappearing in smoke -- thousands of people dying within seconds. And the people who were enjoying outside, can you call them human beings? But remember, it has nothing to do with Germany, this is so all over the world. Man is exactly the same everywhere.
Why does religion create so much guilt?
Religion does not create guilt -- if it creates guilt it is not religion. Yes, Mohammedanism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, they create guilt. Let that be your definition of religion: if it creates guilt it is not a religion. It is something else pretending, something else garbed as religion, posing as religion -- but it is not religion. Religion creates celebration, not guilt. These are hidden things which don't want to expose themselves. These so-called religions are more political than religious. Their whole idea, desire, ambition, is how to dominate people, how to control people. And naturally, guilt is one of the best mechanisms ever evolved to control people, to dominate people. Make them feel guilty! Once they start feeling guilty they are in your control. All dictators do that, all politicians do that. And your priest is just a politician behind the mask. The popes, the SHANKARACHARYAS, are all politicians;…
Guilt means you are afraid of being caught. Guilt means you wanted to do it, but God, the state, law, society, religion are against it. Guilt means, if you had total freedom and no one to punish or condemn, you would do it and enjoy it. But it is difficult—there is punishment. And if you escape here, there is the fear of the other world. Guilt means you want to do it, but others do not let you. And there is the fear of being caught. Understand this. When I was in school there was a very significant teacher—a Muslim—one of the most important among those close to me. He was always superintendent during exams—the eldest teacher. In my first exam with him as superintendent, I was astonished. He came in and said, Sons, if you must cheat, do; just do not get caught. We are against being caught.
Beloved Osho, I am most aware of a big fear or guilt in me when I sit with you, and I am longing so much to be totally open to you. Recently I could feel the serpent rolled up in the bottom of me, sleeping, and the door, the third chakra still closed. My heart wants to fly with you. Is there anything I can do?
But one day it happened... Rabindranath had gone for a morning walk. In the night it had rained; it was very early morning and the sun was rising. In the ocean it was all gold, and by the side of the streets water had gathered in small pools. In those small pools also the sun was rising with the same glory, with the same color, with the same joy.... And just this experience -- that in existence there is nothing superior and nothing inferior, that all is one whole -- suddenly triggered something in him. For the first time in his life he went to the old man's house, knocked on the door, looked into the eyes of the old man and said, "Now, what do you say?" He said, "Now there is nothing to say. It has happened. I bless you." The experience of your immortality, of your eternity,…