According to Osho, you cannot push the river of life; striving to control it only breeds frustration, defeat, and inner poverty. Drop the poisonous belief in struggle. Trust existence, surrender, and flow with it—seeing even 'enemies' as teachers. Paradoxically, real victory comes through non‑striving: when you stop imposing, life carries you, and growth happens naturally.
Don’t fight or force life; relax, float with the current, and let it take you where you need to go.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, have I to push the river?
Please, flow with the river. You are a part, you cannot impose yourself on the whole; the whole is infinite. It is as foolish as a small wave trying to direct the whole ocean, trying to dominate the whole ocean, trying to pull the ocean in a certain direction, to certain goals. It is not possible. How can a small wave be in control of the vast ocean? And we are not even waves, we are just ripples. For one moment we are there, another moment we are gone. With this momentary life the only thing that you can learn is to surrender, to be in a let-go, not to push. Pushing, you will be moving in a wrong direction, the direction of the ego. Surrender Fight, all fight, is out of the ego. Don't even swim, just float with the river wherever it takes you. Finally it takes you…
Beloved Osho, how can one get out of the trap the mind creates of never being quite blissful in the moment, and being patient, letting the grass grow by itself. I'm always wanting to move faster, to push the river, and missing the beauty of it taking me in its own time. Would you please comment?
So each individual will have different things happening out of the same understanding. If pushing is your nature, then there is nothing wrong in it. Enjoy it, push as much as you can -- but with a song and with a dance, and without being worried that you are pushing. This is you. This is your grass, and it grows this way. There are grasses and grasses. Just one thing has to be remembered, that anything that you are doing is joyfully done, rejoicingly done -- that's enough. Different people will be doing different things, and the world needs that different people should do different things. It is the richness of the world, that all are not alike, and should not be alike. But on one point they should meet; and that is the cosmic center of being relaxed. In Japan they have developed strange things for meditative purposes... Japan…
The theory that we have to push, force and kick ourselves -- is.this true? I hate fighting myself.
Look at the question. I go on saying to you that truth is not somewhere else, it is here. You have not to struggle your way towards it. It is through the struggle that you are missing it. You are not to push the river. By pushing the river you will never reach anywhere. You will simply get tired and exhausted. By pushing the river you are only creating the possibility of your utter failure. You cannot fight with the river. The river is huge -- life's river, the river of existence, is so huge -- and you are so tiny. You are just a ripple in the ocean -- a ripple trying to fight with the ocean, trying to direct the ocean, trying to achieve a private goal. It is simply ridiculous. And all struggle makes you ridiculous; all struggle makes you tired, exhausted, dull, sad, miserable. But one…
Osho, is life merely struggle—struggle and struggle? Or is there something more?
Jesus has said: Whoever seeks to save will lose; whoever gives away will be saved. Jesus has said: Those who are first in this world will be last in my Father’s kingdom; those who are last here will be first there. The arithmetic there is different. Give away money and you will become a beggar; give away meditation and you will become a sovereign. Give away money and today or tomorrow you will be knocking door to door; give away love and the sealed springs within will open. Fresh streams of love will surge in you every day; ever-new fountains of fresh loving energy will arise. A well that is sealed up becomes stagnant. Its springs die. Its water turns poisonous. A well lives by being filled and poured out—keep drawing and keep refilling. Hence the wise say: throw it out with both hands! One hand is not enough—use both!…
What is the difference between waiting for godot and waiting for god?
It is as if the sun has risen in the morning and you are sitting in your room with closed doors and windows, in darkness. Open the doors, you become available to the sun. The sun was already available -- just the meeting happens. You cannot wait for God. All waiting is for Godot. Godot means the one who never comes, who CANNOT come, whose arrival is impossible. And the only impossible thing is that which has already happened -- how can it happen again? You are alive, and you are waiting for life, Now, this is ridiculous. The real man of religion does not think in terms of God. He thinks in terms of life or, even better, of living -- because life can again become an abstract idea. Living, moment-to-moment living. In that very living, one knows what God is, because one knows who one is. Your idea…