According to Osho, the ego cannot be removed by effort—the remover is the ego itself. Ego is a misunderstanding, like mistaking a rope for a snake. Don’t fight it; illuminate it. Turn inward through meditation and clear seeing; understand life’s impermanence and stop propping up identity. In the light of awareness, ego vanishes by itself, revealing your true nature—the Divine—and sannyas flowers naturally.
You don’t kill the ego; you turn on the inner light with meditation and understanding, and the fake “someone” fades away by itself.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Athato Bhakti Jigyasa · Discourse 24
1978-03-14 · Pune · Hindi · English translation
Osho, ego is the greatest obstacle to taking sannyas. How can it be removed? The ego-sense does not go.
Ego has no reality. Then how to define it? Understand ego in this way: when you look outward, there is ego; when you look inward, ego departs. Enter meditation; drop the very worry of fighting with ego. Fighting the ego is like someone fighting darkness—pushing at it, trying to throw it out. No, I say, light a lamp. Enter meditation, enter prayer; light the lamp—turn within. Close your eyes and begin to look inside—what is there? You will discover one thing: you will never find the ego. And where there is no ego, there is the Divine. The Divine is your true nature; ego is your delusion. As someone sees a rope and takes it for a snake—or sees a snake in a rope—so is ego: a mis-seeing. To see what is, as it is—that is God-experience. And certainly, ego is the greatest obstacle to taking sannyas. But sannyas is…Read the full discourse →
Athato Bhakti Jigyasa · Discourse 10
1978-01-20 · Pune · Hindi · English translation
You have asked: "What is the scientific method of sannyas?"
It is not right to call sannyas a method; sannyas is the supreme method. Sannyas is a device for freedom from the ego. Sannyas is not one among many methods. When all methods fail, then there is sannyas. When a person has done all he could—practiced yoga, meditated, done penance, performed worship, devotions, fasts—everything he could do on his own, he has done. And it is not that nothing came of it; much benefit came, but no fulfillment. He did receive; it is not that he received nothing. Whoever probes, searches, walks, finds. But he does not find so much that the search comes to an end. Then one day, after employing all methods, it begins to dawn that there is one obstacle—I am the obstacle—because of which all methods remain incomplete. I do meditate, but I am the one who meditates—and this I becomes the barrier. I do penance,…Read the full discourse →
Dance Til The Stars Come Down From The Rafters · Discourse 23
1980-01-23 · Chuang Tzu Auditorium · English
Before it comes into existence one lives moment to moment. Who cares to remember the past? So the child up to the third or fourth year remains spontaneous, wild, natural, outside society, on the fringe. It is a cultivated phenomenon, hence it can be dropped. If it were natural there would be no way to drop it. Because it is put together by society it can be easily dismantled. And that's what sannyas is all about, dismantling the ego. The process is painful because you have to become too attached to it. But once you understand that the ego is the root cause of all your misery, you are ready to go through the surgery. It is better to be finished with it in one stroke rather than to go on being miserable for your whole life.Read the full discourse →
Eighty Four Thousand Poems · Discourse 27
1980-04-29 · Chuang Tzu Auditorium · English
So put all your energies into one efforts How to be more aware. And if one puts one's total energies into awareness It is bound to happen -- it is our birthright. But one should not be half-hearted. It can't happen half-heartedly It happens only when You are one hundred per cent in it, into it When nothing is being held back, When you have put all your cards on the table The trump card included. When you are not hiding anything When you put yourself in totally It immediately happens. And that happening is a great revolution. It transforms you from the lowest to the highest From the gross to the subtle From the visible to the invisible, It takes you from the mind to the no-mind. And to live in the no-mind is to be wise. To function out of no-mind Is to function out of wisdom.Read the full discourse →
If You Choose To Be With Me You Must Risk Finding Yourself · Discourse 2
1980-02-02 · Chuang Tzu Auditorium · English
It is glorious, it has great splendour. It is tremendously beautiful. It will make you ecstatic. It will also make others ecstatic; whomsoever comes in contact with you will have a little taste of it, will feel it, will be overwhelmed by it. But you have to disappear for it. Sannyas means committing a metaphysical suicide, allowing the ego to evaporate. Then all glory is God's and all power is God's. One can fight for oneself or one can fight for God. To fight for oneself is foolish, to fight for God is wise, because to fight for oneself is bound to be a failure. One cannot win against the whole. One cannot win as a separate entity. Victory is with God -- it is not possible without him. Without him there is only defeat, failure, frustration. Life is with God because God is life.Read the full discourse →