According to Osho, hell is not a distant, metaphysical pit; it is the human-made misery we create through ignorance, poverty, and the glorification of suffering. Stop worrying about after-death realms; ask what happens before death. No devil is responsible—our attitudes are. With awareness, responsibility, and right action, we can transform this self-created hell—even if one existed elsewhere, the right people would change it.
Hell is the mess we make by being foolish and clinging to misery; wake up and improve life now.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Does hell really exist?
Praying to Christ -- and for seven days he had not slept, thinking the whole night, thinking the whole day -- he fell asleep before the statue of Christ and he had a dream. In the dream he saw a train ready to leave for heaven. He jumped in. He said, "This is perfectly right. Why shouldn't I go there and see with my own eyes? If I see Adolf Hitler, Genghis Khan, Tamburlaine, in heaven, then the question is solved. Or if I see Socrates, who did not believe in God but was one of the most virtuous of men, if I see Gautama the Buddha, who did not believe in God but was one of the most godly persons who ever walked on the earth, then the question is solved." He rushed into the train and the train left. He reached heaven. He was a little surprised, puzzled,…
Is there really a hell?
YOU ARE LIVING IN IT. Hell is a certain psychology; hell is a certain way of looking at things. If you are in misery, that means you are living in hell. Hell is not a geographical place; it is not somewhere underneath the earth: it is in your way of looking at things. It is living in an unconscious way that one creates hell around oneself. And so is heaven: that too is again a psychology, not something geographical. It is not somewhere above the clouds -- it is not anywhere except in you. These are the two alternatives to live in: to live in hell or to live in heaven. And it is up to you what you choose. If you live consciously, if you try to bring consciousness to every act that you go through, you will be living in a silent, blissful state, in serenity, in joy,…
Osho, what is hell? Is there really such a place?
If you have intelligence, awareness, even in hell you can manage to air-condition it. That's what I am doing. Can't you see the hell all around? But somehow I have got a few people banded together and we are trying to create a small heaven of our own. What to do? People have decided to live in hell, they are not ready to listen, then the only wise choice is: we can create our own heaven. And if we can create our own heaven, that will become an example, a model, that this way also one can live. When people come for the first time to our commune they are surprised. Just the other day a young priest wrote a letter to me, a Catholic priest, who now has become interested in me, and wants to get married, and wants to get rid of the Catholic church. He has written…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, IS IT TRUE THAT ONE HAS TO GO THROUGH HELL? You need not go through hell because you are already there. Where else will you find hell? This is your ordinary state -- hell. Don't think that hell is somewhere deep down below the earth. Hell is you. You, unaware, is what hell is. You, functioning unintelligently: that's what hell is. And because so many people are functioning unintelligently the world is always in anguish -- so many neurotic people on the earth. And unless you are enlightened you remain neurotic, more or less. So many destructive people -- because creativity is possible only when your intelligence is awakened. Creativity is a function of intelligence. Stupid people can only be destructive. And that's what goes on: people go on preparing for more and more destruction. That's what your scientists do, that's what your politicians do.
Be quick to do good. If you are slow, the mind, delighting in mischief, will catch you.
TURN AWAY FROM MISCHIEF. AGAIN AND AGAIN, TURN AWAY, BEFORE SORROW BEFALLS YOU. SET YOUR HEART ON DOING GOOD. DO IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN, AND YOU WILL BE FILLED WITH JOY. A FOOL IS HAPPY UNTIL HIS MISCHIEF TURNS AGAINST HIM. AND A GOOD MAN MAY SUFFER UNTIL HIS GOODNESS FLOWERS. DO NOT MAKE LIGHT OF YOUR FAILINGS, SAYING, "WHAT ARE THEY TO ME?" A JUG FILLS DROP BY DROP. SO THE FOOL BECOMES BRIMFUL OF FOLLY. DO NOT BELITTLE YOUR VIRTUES, SAYING, "THEY ARE NOTHING." A JUG FILLS DROP BY DROP. SO THE WISE MAN BECOMES BRIMFUL OF VIRTUE. This is half of the story. If you can postpone the bad for tomorrow you will be able to do the good immediately. And you will never repent -- because if you do bad immediately, you will repent tomorrow; if you do good today you will never repent, there…