According to Osho, God isn’t absolutely dead; he is tired to death in us because humanity keeps saying no to existence. Our childish rebellion—ego asserting itself like Adam—starves the divine. When we mature enough to say a wholehearted yes, like Jesus or Buddha, we align with the whole, revive God in our lives, and enter blissful harmony.
God seems gone when we keep saying no to life; grow up from egoic no to a trusting yes, and you feel God alive again.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Is god really dead?
I love this story. The rabbi asked, "Lord God, what art thou doing here?" God answered him with a small voice, "I am tired, Rabbi. I am tired to death." Yes. God is tired. In fact, God cannot die. God can die in YOUR life. There are millions of people in whose lives God is dead, in whose lives God has disappeared. That is the meaning when I say God is dead. Look into people's eyes and you will not find God alive there. And where else can God be alive? Millions and millions of hearts are completely empty of God. That's what I mean when I say God is dead. God lives in a Jesus, in a Buddha, in a Krishna. Is God living in you? The question is not basically about God, whether God is dead or alive. The question is whether God is alive in YOU! If…
Osho, is god really dead?
Remember, those who were ascetic people, who were ready to deny their nature, were very happy to believe in God. And the people who were more natural, more normal, were happy to believe that there was no God. The reason is the same: the natural person will feel afraid because the natural person will have sex, will have anger, will have jealousy. And God is going to punish him; if God is there then punishment is certain. It is better to say that there is no God; at least for the time being he can feel relieved. And the person who can repress his sex, his jealousies, his anger, would like to declare that God is, because all his investment is in God's existence. God's existence is very necessary for his asceticsm. The pathological people declare that God is and the natural people declare that there is no God. And…
Osho, is god really dead, as friedrich nietzsche says?
Because the Jewish-Christian-Mohammedan idea of God is not of a very nice fellow; he is not a gentleman. The Jewish God who is at the root of both the Christian and the Mohammedan God says himself, "I am a very jealous God. Those who are against me, I will destroy them. Those who are not with me are against me. Those who are with me will have all the pleasures of heaven, and those who are not with me will suffer eternal hellfire.'' Nietzsche says, "Rejoice, God is dead! There is no heaven and no hell. Don't be afraid of hell and don't be greedy for heaven, because there is no God. God is dead, and man is absolutely free." This has been done in the East in a far more subtle, delicate way. Mahavira says there is no God -- for the same reason as Nietzsche. Mahavira says if…
Osho, how do we know that God has died?
By looking at human beings it becomes clear that God has died. You won’t find God’s corpse anywhere by searching. Nor will you find a tombstone saying he was buried here. And even if you scour every corner of the earth, you won’t discover witnesses before whom he died. No; we ourselves are the testimony—each and every person! What is so much suffering in life, so much darkness, so much pain and restlessness a sign of? It tells us that the source of bliss, the source of light in life, has been cut off from us. The connection has broken. One night a blind man was a guest at a house. After midnight, when he was about to leave, the family said, “The road is dark, it’s a moonless night—take a lantern with you.” The blind man laughed, as was natural. He said, “What difference will it make whether I…
Osho, why did friedrich nietzsche declare th4t god is dead?
Man has to be loved, because it is only through the nourishment of love that man can grow. Man has to know that he is alone, and he has to know that he has to depend on his own resources and not on some heavenly father. Once man takes responsibility, total responsibility on his own shoulders, a great revolution is bound to happen, because man has infinite potential to grow. Remaining dependent on some God, he has completely become oblivious to his potential, to his future, to his growth. It is good that God has been discarded. Now man has to take his life in his own hands. And the beauty is, if you become responsible, responsible for yourself, if you declare your freedom -- you have to declare it because God is dead; there is nobody higher than you -- if you accept that now you have to seek…