According to Osho, the longing to reach another’s heights is rooted in inferiority and comparison; it breeds imitation, which destroys your authenticity and deepens the very inferiority that drives it. Reverence is fine, but do not become a carbon copy. True fulfillment comes from loving, respecting, and unfolding your own unique seed—learning from others without abandoning your path.
Wanting to be like someone else means you feel small; instead, love yourself and grow into who only you can be.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, when I see you, a longing arises in me that I too may one day touch heights like yours. Is this also comparison? Is it the outcome of an inferiority complex?
It happened: there was a Muslim fakir, Junoon. He lived in Egypt. He used to say that God has made everything perfect, for from the Perfect only the perfect can be born. As the Isha Upanishad says: from that Perfect, the perfect comes forth, and yet the Perfect remains. Junoon also used to say that God made everything complete. In the village there was a logician—a pundit as well. One day he came to hear Junoon. Junoon said that God has made everything complete. The logician said, “Wait!” He had brought a man with him—a hunchback. He was completely bent; he could hardly stand upright; his hands and feet were crooked; his back utterly hunched. The logician said, “Look at this man! Is he also perfect? And did God make him too?” Junoon laughed and said, “We have never seen a more perfect hunchback than this. I have seen many…
There is a great difference between longing and desire. Desire is of the mind, longing is of the heart. Desire is greed, longing is not greed. Desire is never fulfilled, it cannot be fulfilled; it always goes on asking for more. But longing can be fulfilled. Everything else that you want in life is a desire. Only when you start longing do you start moving towards god. Only god can be longed for, everything else is a desire. God cannot be desired because he can never be made an object of your thoughts, imagination, ego. When all these have disappeared, when you are no more functioning as a head, when you are overflowing with love, then suddenly, as if a lotus has opened in your heart, a longing opens up. That longing is fragrant, that longing in itself is a tremendous joy.
Beloved Osho, when I look at the moments when I feel separate from you, from my love and the rest of existence, it is usually the shadows of comparison and jealousy; and when I go deeper I usually get in touch with a deep insecurity and the feeling of being inferior. Would you please guide me on how I can lift these shadows and how to feel free of them?
It was not enough to complete the book -- he is the only man whose every book is incomplete. He will just go up to a certain length, then suddenly he will come upon a greater idea... he will drop the old project, start on the new project. But even his incomplete books are proofs of tremendous genius. Philosophers have been wondering what would have been the result if he had completed them, because he was moving in such new dimensions, never touched; where no mariner has ever reached -- virgin lands, which no philosopher had ever bothered about. And his insight is so deep, that to understand him, you need a very high quality intelligence; otherwise you cannot understand what he is saying. Even Martin Heidegger became a follower of Adolf Hitler, because of that German inferiority. And Adolf Hitler gave the promise, and he managed the promise --…
Osho, you feel, sir, that the education we are giving in schools and universities, which is based on comparison, is harmful. If it is harmful, what measures should we take so that we can bring about a humanity without fear?
Certainly, education based on comparison is extremely harmful—poisonous, toxic. The moment we teach a person to think in terms of comparison, the moment we compare one person with another, we create inferiority, fear, ambition. He becomes afraid. For when we compare, we tell A, “B is superior to you; you must rise above B.” Instantly, we sow fear in A. He becomes frightened of life: how to get ahead of B? And even if he goes beyond B, what is the difference? C is standing ahead. There are thousands in the line ahead. He must be at the very front. The person becomes terrified, anxious. And when we compare a person with someone else, it means we do not accept that person. He is rejected in that very moment. As he is, he is not acceptable; only if he becomes something else will we accept him. We have insulted his…
I always either feel superior or inferior to people. I feel ashamed of feeling that way and try to hide it. I wish I could genuinely -- not pretend to -- feel equal to and love everyone. Why is it so difficult?
WHETHER YOU FEEL SUPERIOR OR INFERIOR or equal, the mind remains the same. You still go on thinking in comparison and the misery will continue. You can think yourself superior -- the moment you think yourself superior you are creating possibilities to feel inferior, because somebody somewhere is going to be ahead of you in some way or other. If you think yourself inferior, you are creating the possibilities to feel superior -- in some way, somebody is going to be behind you. We are standing in a queue, and the queue is not linear: it is a circle. Somebody is always ahead of you and somebody is always behind you. Then naturally the idea arises -- because superiority and inferiority bring ego and misery -- why not feel equal? And you think you are asking for a radical change? No, not at all. To feel equal is the same…