According to Osho, you are not a puppet by default; yet choosing to become one—in the hands of God/Existence—surrendering the ego and letting the divine will move you—is the highest freedom. To be a 'puppet' means being an instrument, dropping personal will, and trusting existence completely. This total surrender, learned with the Master, dissolves conflict and fulfills love and prayer.
You’re not forced, but if you freely let God/existence lead and drop your ego, life becomes lighter, peaceful, and full of love.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Ma Yoga Laxmi has said that Osho has made some dolls, puppets, for play. So are we merely puppets in Osho’s hand?
You are not; but if you become so, it will be your great good fortune! To be a puppet is not an easy thing. To be a puppet is the most difficult thing in this world. That is the whole of Krishna’s teaching to Arjuna: become a puppet. If the Gita had to be summed up in a single word, it would be this—be a puppet. Become merely a conduit, a mere instrument. Let the One who is doing, do. Let Him pull the strings; you dance. As He wills, let Him make you dance! If the courtyard is crooked, fine. If it is straight, fine; if it is not straight, fine. As is His will. Do not put your obstruction in between. What else is surrender? What else is submission? Surrender simply means: now I drop my will. Laxmi has said it rightly. But becoming this is not easy.…
Beloved Osho, I am deeply under the impression that unknown forces control my every thought and action. I feel like a puppet being manipulated by unseen strings. It is as if I am being tested from moment to moment. Still, I am unaware of this and do not know whether I am making things up. Even this question seems arranged by another force beyond my doing and control. Please explain what this means.
This is so clear, there is no need for any explanation. This is not a question -- just a statement of fact. And this is good! If you really feel you are a puppet, you do not need to do anything else. If you really feel you are in the hands of some greater force, you are no more. And this is what is needed -- to be no more. But I think when you say you feel like a puppet there is a little condemnation. You do not feel good about feeling like a puppet! But still you are. Who is feeling like a puppet? If you are REALLY feeling like a puppet, then who is it that is feeling like a puppet? Who can feel, who is there to feel? You will be a puppet and there ends everything. So do one thing: drop this idea that you…
Osho, what is the difference between surrender and blind imitation?
So be careful: the freedom you allow yourself, allow the other too. You have no right to judge another as blindly credulous or as a surrendered being. Drop that concern. You cannot judge anyway—how will you enter another’s heart? How will you know? Think only about yourself. See within whether, up to now, you have lived by blind belief or by surrender. Decide only there; leave worrying about others. Otherwise, all your judgments will be wrong. Jesus said: Judge not; do not set yourself up as a judge in relation to another. To the friend who has asked: if you are asking for yourself, good. Drop worrying about others. Look within and see: whatever I have been clinging to till now—have I ever staked my life to hold it? Have I meditated for it? Have I loved for it? Or am I just clutching what culture, society, civilization handed me?…
Osho, how can one know in what form God wants to use me, so that I may leave myself in his hands in just that form?
Why worry about this too! And if you are the one worrying even about this—“First let me make sure how he wants to use me; only then will I let go”—then you are not letting go at all. Surrender means: in whatever way he wants to use you, he will use you; and if he does not want to use you, he will not. If he wants to throw you onto the rubbish heap, he will throw you. If he wants to install you somewhere, he will install you. Surrender means dropping your own cleverness. But if you ask, “What use will he make of me? Let that be made certain first, then I will consider surrendering. How will he use me?”—you are not surrendering at all. Then you will surrender only to those uses that suit your mind. You will not have surrendered to God; rather, it will be…
Osho, please talk about surrender and obedience.
And because from the very beginning your father, your mother, your parents, your teachers, your priests are all teaching you, "Do this, don't do that," they all create a certain obedience in you. You become addicted to obedience; it is a drug. So when you come to me you would like.... People go on asking me -- I never answer their questions -- they go on asking me, "Give us detailed instructions what we should do and what we should not. We want clear instructions from you." I give you clarity not clear instructions, because my instructions may be right today and tomorrow they may not be right. My instructions may be a hindrance to your growth tomorrow because nobody knows about tomorrow -- it is unpredictable. So I give you clarity so that you can find your own way of life today and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.…