According to Osho, self-realization is not an indispensable necessity; it is never compulsory. What is compulsory are worldly drives—lust, wealth, power, politics. Awakening is an unprecedented, rare miracle: bringing the infinite into the finite, the divine into the body. Because it is extraordinary, not inevitable, the awakened are honored; their happening is a grace, an 'un-happening' that occurs only once in a while.
No, you don’t have to awaken; it’s a rare gift, not a requirement—unlike chasing money and status.