According to Osho, yes—the world has been largely insane, not by birth but by conditioning. Priests, politicians, parents, and schools prune our naturalness, forcing conformity that breeds guilt or hypocrisy and suspects happiness. True sanity is reclaiming one’s natural, joyous individuality. His work invites deconditioning through love, respect, and trust, so we stop serving the sad crowd and live as blissful, responsible individuals.
People aren’t born crazy; pressure and rules make them that way—be your happy, natural self instead.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, is this world insane?
IT SEEMS SO. At least up to now it has been insane. Man is not born insane but is driven towards insanity by the priests, by the politicians, by the parents, by your whole educational system, by your morality, by all that is enforced upon you, by all the conditionings. You are driven insane. Man need not be insane, but it has not been possible yet to accept man in his naturalness. We create a structure around him, we prune him, we go on and on giving a certain form and pattern to him, we don't allow him to be himself And that's my whole effort here: to accept humanity with deep respect, love, trust, so that man can regain his sanity. And the problem is that man is driven insane by your so-called well-wishers. The people who are trying to help you are the people who are poisoning you.…
Beloved Osho, the world seems to be getting more and more crazy from day to day. Nobody knows what is going on and everything is upside down and confused. This is what is told in the newspapers. Is it real? And if so, is there any intrinsic balance in life which is keeping everything stable?
Buddhaprem, the world is the same; it has always been the same -- upside down, crazy, insane. In fact, only one thing new has happened in the world, and that is the awareness that we ARE crazy, that we are upside down, that something is basically wrong with us. And this is a great blessing -- this awareness. Of course it is only a beginning, just the abc of a long process, just a seed, but immensely pregnant. The world was never so aware of its insane ways as it is today. It has always been the same. In three thousand years man has fought five thousand wars. Can you say this humanity is sane? One cannot remember a time in human history when people were not destroying each other either in the name of religion or in the name of God or even in the name of peace, humanity,…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, AM I MOVING RIGHTLY OR AM I JUST A HOPELESS NUTCASE? Buddha said, "That makes me very sad. What will you do? -- because I don't accept what you have brought, just the same way as I did not accept the sweets and the flowers and other things that the people brought to me in the other village, if I don't accept your obscenity, your ugly words, your dirty words, if I don't accept, what can you do? What are you going to do with all this garbage that you have come with? You will have to take it back to your homes and give it to your wives, to your children, to your neighbors. "You will have to distribute it, because I simply refuse to take it. And you cannot make me angry unless I accept your humiliation, your insult.
Beloved Osho, often my fellow sannyasins ask what I think about a particular event that took place near you, or how I feel about the organization around you. Being here with you, I find myself more interested in that emptiness which you speak around, that space from where you come. Osho, will you speak to my friends about the crazy events and actions that always surround your presence?
I have seen people changing so dramatically, so unbelievably -- one could never have thought before that this man can become so peaceful, so loving; that so many flowers can grow in his consciousness, so that he becomes almost fragrant; that his life becomes a song, a dance, a celebration. It is simply a question of resonance. Great musicians know it. A great musician can play on his sitar, and can keep another sitar in an empty room far away in another corner. And there comes a moment when he is really lost in playing his sitar that the other sitar -- which is simply sitting there, nobody is playing it -- starts resonating the same tune, vibrating. In the old days that was one of the most important things before a man was called a master musician -- if he could create resonance, only then was he a master;…
But Osho, as I understand it, there are certain subjects like chemistry, physics, or medicine where positive values are essential. What are your views about that?
Einstein was doing an experiment. He had failed seven hundred times, yet every morning he came into the laboratory laughing, ready to begin again. The young assistant with him was exhausted. “Is this old man mad? Seven hundred failures—and again he starts fresh!” The youth was tired; he said, “We should drop this now. How many times have we been defeated?” Einstein said, “Defeated? You’re crazy—each time we have won.” “Where have we won? Every experiment has failed.” Einstein answered, “In seven hundred directions we have searched, and we now know truth is not there. We have succeeded seven hundred times. Truth is being endlessly eliminated into nearness. Suppose truth will reveal itself on the seven hundred and fifteenth attempt; then fourteen more eliminations are needed. Then only that will remain; it cannot escape. Where will it go? We have searched seven hundred paths and found it absent. That much…