According to Osho, there is no such thing as sin—only human mistakes. 'Sin' is a device of pseudo‑religions to manufacture guilt, break courage, and enslave minds to doctrines, saviors, and heavens/hells. A true religion needs no sin; it invites awareness, responsibility, and learning. Errors are corrigible, not condemnable; drop guilt, see clearly, and grow as an independent individual.
There's no 'sin' stamp—just mistakes, like a wrong math answer; notice them, correct them, and move on without guilt.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, IN YOUR RELIGION IS THERE SUCH A THING AS SIN? Sin is a technique of the pseudo-religions. A true religion has no need of the concept at all. The pseudo-religion cannot live without the concept of sin, because sin is the technique of creating guilt in people. You will have to understand the whole strategy of sin and guilt. Unless you make a person feel guilty, you cannot enslave him psychologically. It is impossible to imprison him in a certain ideology, a certain belief system. But once you have created guilt in his mind, you have taken all that is courageous in him. You have destroyed all that is adventurous in him. You have repressed all possibility of his ever being an individual in his own right. With the idea of guilt, you have almost murdered the human potential in him. He can never be independent.
In the same context I ask, Osho, what is sin and what is virtue?
If the inner lamp of awareness is lit, then whatever actions happen are virtue. If the inner lamp is extinguished, then whatever actions happen are sin. Understand this! No act in itself is sin or virtue. Sin and virtue depend on the doer. No act is intrinsically sin or virtue. Generally we believe that acts are good or bad—this act is bad, that act is good. That is not the case. A person whose inner lamp is out cannot truly do a good act—it is impossible. It may look as if he is doing good. He can imitate the actions of those whose lamps are lit. But even in imitation his motive will be contrary. If he builds a temple, it won’t be for the Divine; it will be for his own name or his father’s—he will get the name inscribed. If he gives charity, he will be anxious whether…
Question: Second question: Osho, is love a sin? Yogendra, if love is a sin then there can be nothing meritorious in the world. If love is sin, virtue is impossible—because the very essence of virtue is nothing other than love. But I understand your question. Your so‑called sadhus and mahatmas have been saying precisely this—that love is a sin. And they have kept saying such futile things for so long, for such a length of time, that its futility and its inner contradiction no longer strike you. They call love a sin and prayer a virtue. And you never looked closely to see that if love is sin, then prayer too becomes a sin, because prayer is nothing but the purified form of love. Granted, there are impurities in love—but it is not sin. Even if gold is impure, it doesn’t become iron. Impure gold is still gold.
A friend has asked: Osho, what is the difference between sin and virtue? And as long as the mind is filled with sin, how can there be faith, devotion, feeling? How will prayer happen while the mind is full of sin? So first let the mind be filled with virtue; then prayer will happen!
It sounds right. It seems reasonable. Yet it is not right—and it is full of unawareness. It sounds right to say, “As long as the mind is full of sin, how can there be prayer!” But that is like a physician saying, “As long as you are sick, how can I give you medicine! First get well and healthy, and then take the medicine.” But once you are well, why would you need medicine? If you decide to pray only after you’ve dropped all sin, you will never get the chance to pray. As long as there is sin, you won’t pray. And when there is no sin left, why pray? What would be the meaning of prayer then? Prayer is the medicine. Therefore, one has to pray while still a sinner. And another thing: how will sin go? It cannot go without prayer. Those who try to remove sin…
Osho, what do you want man to do? What is right and wrong according to you? Is there something like sin and its punishment too?
Perhaps I am the only person here, on this whole earth, who is objecting that this is befooling people. This is creating a camouflage, a bogus spiritual jargon. If God has any sense, any intelligence at all, He should find some better way to bring the best out in people. This does not seem to be very intelligent. If this is what God is doing then where is the devil? And what will the devil do? God has taken his job too; the devil is unemployed. And people applauded her; she is a great saint. And what present has she brought to them? -- a small statue of Mother Mary. A great help: "Pray to Mother Mary, and don't take it as a tragedy and don't complain that it is the fault or carelessness of certain officers concerned; no, that is not good." Of course if those people were not…