According to Osho, the world as a whole may never be ready; only the courageous few are. Most people cling to the known past and the crowd, fearing the unknown. Readiness means recognizing your inner thirst, daring to stand alone, and walking without a map—creating your path step by step. Such risk awakens clarity, integration, independence, and an inner warmth not borrowed from others.
Most people won’t be ready, but you can be if you stop clinging to the past, face the unknown, and walk your own path even if you’re alone.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, these questions are from the dutch rajneesh times. The first question is: now you are making a world tour, for the first time the well is going to the thirsty. Is the world ready to receive the well?
The positive person who loves me, who is sympathetic, who dreams one day to be with me, remains silent because love is something which one wants to keep in the secretmost part of one's heart. Love is something that one does not want to shout about. In shouting it will die. In making a fuss about it, he will kill it. It has to be protected; it is a very delicate phenomenon. It has to be kept silently within, so that nobody knows about it. So there are millions of people who love me but have never said it to anybody. It is just their own private secret. And love grows in this way; the deeper you hide it, the faster it grows. Lovers know it -- not very clearly because their love is not of a conscious state, but they have a certain glimpse of it. When you really…
Question: YOU HAVE SAID ONCE BEFORE THAT IF PEOPLE LIKE KRISHNA, CHRIST, BUDDHA, MAHAVIRA DO NOT APPEAR ON THE EARTH IN THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS, THE WHOLE OF HUMANITY MAY PERISH. YOU ALSO STATED, AS DID VIVEKANANDA, "I AM IN SEARCH OF A HUNDRED INDIVIDUALS WHO CAN SHOW COURAGE IN ATTAINING THE ULTIMATE HEIGHTS OF SPIRIT. IF THAT COMES TRUE, THEN IT WILL BE POSSIBLE TO SAVE NOT ONLY THIS COUNTRY, BUT THE ENTIRE HUMANITY. THIS IS THE REASON WHY IN VILLAGE AFTER VILLAGE I KEEP LOOKING IN THE EYES OF THOSE WHO CAN BE USEFUL. FROM MY SIDE I AM READY TOTALLY TO TAKE YOU INWARD. LET'S SEE IF AT THE TIME OF MY DEATH I WILL HAVE TO SAY AS WELL THAT, 'I WAS LOOKING FOR A HUNDRED INDIVIDUALS, BUT COULDN'T FIND THEM.' IF YOU ARE READY, THEN COME ALONG!
Question: Osho, you once said that within fifty years, if there are not people like Krishna, Christ, Buddha, and Mahavira on the earth, the whole of humanity could be destroyed. And, like Vivekananda, you said that you are searching for a hundred individuals who can courageously experiment and rise to the highest peaks of the soul; then it will be possible to save this land and all humanity. For this you go from village to village, looking for eyes that can become a flame. You said, I am ready to make the total effort. On my side, the preparation is complete to take one inward. Let me not, at the time of dying, have to say that I was looking for a hundred people and I did not find them. If your readiness is there, come. Please clarify the meaning of “my preparation” and “your preparation.” What preparations are needed?
"these things can only be transmitted in the close personal relationship between disciple and master." well, what have we here? I have that relationship with you, and these things are not transmitted.
Another question of the same type: OSHO, IN ONE OF YOUR PREVIOUS LECTURES YOU HAVE ACCEPTED THAT YOU ARE FULLY READY ON YOUR SIDE TO PUSH sadhakas TOWARDS THE UNKNOWN PEAK OF THE SOUL. YOU HAVE FURTHER SAID, "I AM WAITING FOR PERSONS OF SUCH TYPES WHO ARE READY TO DO ANY KIND OF EXPERIMENTS FOR ASCENDING TO THE UNKNOWN PEAK OF THE SOUL." THE TIME FROM WHEN I HAVE HEARD THIS STATEMENT I HAVE BEEN PREPARING MYSELF TO FACE THIS CHALLENGE OF YOURS. IN MY PERSONAL INTERVIEWS WITH YOU WHEN I ACCEPTED THAT I AM FULLY READY ON MY SIDE, YOU ADMITTED THAT YOU WERE NOT READY AT THAT TIME. WHY THIS DUALITY IN YOUR STATEMENTS? PLEASE CLEAR MY DOUBTS. There is no duality -- just etiquette. You are not ready, but I didn't want to hurt you, so I said I am not ready. The very tenseness and…
Osho, what according to you is the most significant thing that is happening today in the world?
The new man will have no use for sham, facade or pretense, he will be true, because only through truth is there liberation. All lies create bondages. Tell a single lie and you will have to tell a thousand and one to defend it -- you will have to tell lies AD NAT(SEAM. Then there is no end to it. A single lie sooner or later will spread all over your being. It is like cancer. Be truthful and you need not hide, you can be open. Be truthful and you need not protect yourself against existence, you can be vulnerable. In that vulnerability existence penetrates you, God reaches your heart. Tell a lie and you are afraid. You will be afraid of God too, you will be afraid of facing him. You will be afraid of facing yourself. You will be continuously escaping from yourself, from others, from God.…