.webp)
According to Osho, mistakes are not only inevitable but essential; commit them freely, playfully, without seriousness. If you try never to err, you will become silent and dead, unable to share truth. Truth can only be hinted at through imperfect words, so relax, risk error, and keep relating. Even existence appears 'imperfect'—so use mistakes as doors to aliveness, learning, and humility.
It’s okay to mess up—keep speaking and living playfully, because trying to be perfect stops you from being real and learning.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, how can we live so that there are no mistakes in life?
To walk as Mahavira’s shadow is one thing; to be a Mahavira is another. To repeat what Muhammad said, like parrots, is one thing; but to know as Muhammad knew—passing through all those mistakes, all those thorny paths, all those slippery roads, falling many times, skinning your knees, bleeding, losing your way in dark nights, despairing often, again and again losing the thread of dawn in your hand—until you pass through all that again, you will not have Muhammad’s strength, Mahavira’s capacity, Buddha’s depth. No, Haridas—do not ask how to live so that there are no mistakes. I say: live so that as many mistakes as can happen do happen; only do not repeat a mistake. Live fully! Drop the worry about wandering, about fear. Cowards remain stuck; they never rise. Just think: if little children decided, “We will walk only when there is no danger of falling,” then everyone…
Osho, can you also make mistakes?
Darshan, NOT A FEW BUT MANY...PLENTY! because I don't take anything seriously. So many times my sannyasins write to me, "Osho..." Subhuti wrote just a few days ago; when I said that Napoleon was obsessed with food, he wrote to me, "Is it Napoleon or Nero?" Who cares; Subhuti? Whichever you like! Sometimes I say Nero, sometimes I say Napoleon. I am not a very learned mm, and I am absolutely happy in being utterly unlearned. The other day somebody wrote: "You said that the gospels were written a few centuries after Jesus. This is not correct!" But I have not told you that this is correct! If it is incorrect it makes no difference to me. He has also written -- must be a learned man!...you have fallen in wrong company! -- he has also written: "You said that it was translated into Latin first." To me Latin and…
Osho, I make many mistakes in life—the same mistakes again and again. I want to know why human beings don’t learn from their mistakes.
…I was a guest in Kolkata at the home of a friend, Sohanlal Dugar—one of the most prominent wealthy Jains in India. A courageous man—only then could he host me! Because inviting me home is not free of risk. He said it was fine despite all the Jains’ opposition. I told him at the airport, “You’re putting me up, but you’ll get into trouble.” He said, “You know I’m a gambler. All India knows I’m a bookie; betting is my business. I’ve placed all kinds of bets—this one too! Although I’ve been warned by Jain monks not to host you.” The whole house was air‑conditioned. Not a single fly or mosquito. But no night meal. They don’t even drink water at night. When Mahavira said don’t eat at night, there was no electricity. There weren’t even oil lamps in every home. People ate in the dark, as many villagers still…
Question: Third question: Beloved Osho, have you ever made any mistake in your life? As long as I was, there was nothing but mistake. Since I am not, there is no possibility for mistake. There is only one mistake: the being of the ‘I’. From that ‘I’ a thousand mistakes arise. As long as I was, all was mistake. How could it be right? Even what appeared right was not right; it was only an appearance, a seeming, an assumption, a contrivance. Then it was mistake upon mistake. Since I am no more, the doer is no more. If the doer is not, how can there be a mistake? Since then everything is simply right—because since then it is only God, only the Divine. So long as you are, there is mistake. You disappear, and the mistake goes too.
Osho, do you ever commit mistakes? And if so, then what is your greatest mistake of life?
I don't commit anything else, I ONLY commit mistakes. I live through them, I survive through them. And I don't like small things; I am simply against the small scale. I only love great things. And you ask me, "WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST MISTAKE OF LIFE?" Giving sannyas to you. Now I have 50,000 alive mistakes moving around the world. I will stand with them and fall with them. Krishnamurti is far safer: he stands on his own. He has not committed a single mistake in giving initiation to anybody. I go on initiating people. Each time I give initiation to a person, now it will depend: if he becomes enlightened, then I was not wrong; if he does not become I was wrong. What will the criterion be of whether I committed a mistake in giving initiation to a person or not? -- only one: if he becomes enlightened…