According to Osho, persistent thoughts of suicide arise not from stupidity but from intelligence that sees life’s monotonous rut and questions its purpose. Modernity intensifies this: the loss of collective scripts, rise of individuality, and the burden of self-authorship create identity crisis and uncertainty. Humans alone reflect this deeply; when meaning isn’t given, the mind considers ending the game.
You keep thinking of suicide when you’re smart enough to see life feels like a boring loop, and without ready-made roles you must invent your own meaning, which feels heavy and confusing.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Why do I continuously think of committing suicide?
In the old days, the authority was there to tell you what was right and what was wrong. You were not left on your own to decide. Things were clear-cut: "This is right and that is wrong." People followed the authorities. Now authorities have disappeared, the world is living in a kind of freedom. The more a society is free, the more people will think of suicide. the more a society is free, the more people will COMMIT suicide. In the East, particularly in India, the so-called religious saints feel very very enhanced by the idea that the suicide rate in India is very low compared to America. And they think America is committing suicide because it is materialist. They are utter fools -- America is committing suicide more because America has more freedom. America is more tense, in anxiety, because America is creating individuality. India is not yet that…
Especially sexually. Especially sexually. And in a way it is a happy society. There is no misery or destitution. Yet the suicide rate there is very high. More and more people are dying, committing suicide. They are dying by their own hand; no one is killing them. So they have raised this question: what is going on? And India’s sannyasins also raise it; they too say, “We are more peaceful and blissful. Look, we have fewer suicides. They are more unhappy and afflicted; they have more suicides.” This is completely wrong.
In truth, the very question of suicide can arise only for a happy person; never for an unhappy one. Understand this a little. As far as suicide is concerned, a miserable person cannot even think of dying; he continuously thinks only of living. The unhappy person keeps thinking: How can I live, how can I live, how can I live? If there is no house—how do I get one? No clothes—how do I get them? No wife—how do I find one? The unhappy person feels, “I’m in so much pain, and if I get these things—wife, house, car, money—then I’ll be able to live.” His whole mind is engaged in removing his suffering. Do you get my meaning? And to remove suffering, one has to live; otherwise, how will you remove it? Suffering cannot end today; you will have to make arrangements, make efforts—earn money, fall in love, build a…
Beloved master, why is humanity so willing to walk the path towards global suicide?
The problem is not coming from the East; the problem is coming from the West. The problem is the Western intelligentsia is fed up with life, so there is no real resistance from the intelligentsia against nuclear weapons, against a third world war. In fact, it seems deep down the Western mind is somehow hoping that it happens soon, because life is meaningless. Rather than taking the risk of committing suicide yourself, if politicians can manage to destroy the whole world, that will be far easier. You will not be in the dilemma of to be or not to be. You will not have to think whether to destroy yourself or not, to wonder if perhaps tomorrow things may be different. It is an individual responsibility to commit suicide, but a global war, a nuclear war -- all your personal responsibility disappears. It is not your doing, it is just…
Osho, I always think of committing suicide, and wonder what you would say about my death?
Transform your life, Prashant, into a quest. Question the values that you have accepted. Question all that you have been brought up to believe in. Question the way you have lived up to now. Question your mechanicalness, question your robotlike existence. Yes, something drastic has to be done, but it is not suicide. It won't help, it won't change you; you will be back again in another womb somewhere. Millions of stupid couples are making love every moment. Beware! You will be caught in some net somewhere. And you will get only what you deserve, remember; you can't get more than you deserve. You get the womb that is right for you. And dying in suicide is dying in such anguish, because it is one of the most unnatural things to do, most abnormal things to do. No animal commits suicide, no tree ever commits suicide -- only man. Only…
Question: OSHO, WHAT IS BOREDOM? ARE YOU NEVER BORED WITH LIFE? I would say, "I have no objection, but before you commit suicide you will have to tell me: Why are you committing suicide? What are you going to gain out of it? That question you will have to answer. So suicide is not going to help, the question will remain the same: Why are you living? Why are you dying? And if you can't answer such a simple question such as why you are living, then what else is there? "You try to teach me history, about Alexander the Great, and you don't know anything about yourself even about your life? You want to teach me about religion, about Krishna and Rama -- and you don't know anything about the living principle in you, from where you got it.