According to Osho, to “disturb” people is an act of compassion: to shake you from spiritual sleep, unsettle your borrowed beliefs, and provoke fresh awareness. He invites your permission to be disturbed because only a jolt can break mechanical living. Disturbance dismantles comfort zones so your own intelligence, freedom, and authenticity can awaken.
It means giving you a helpful shake so you stop sleepwalking and wake up to what’s real.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
There was a rich and generous man of bokhara. Because he had a high rank in the invisible hierarchy, he was known as the president of the world.
EVERY DAY HE GAVE GOLD TO ONE CATEGORY OF PEOPLE -- THE SICK, WIDOWS, AND SO ON. BUT NOTHING WAS GIVEN TO ANYONE WHO OPENED HIS MOUTH. NOT ALL COULD KEEP SILENT. ONE DAY IT WAS THE TURN OF THE LAWYERS TO RECEIVE THEIR SHARE OF THE BOUNTY. ONE OF THEM COULD NOT RESTRAIN HIMSELF AND HE MADE THE MOST COMPLETE APPEAL POSSIBLE. NOTHING WAS GIVEN TO HIM. THIS, HOWEVER, WAS NOT THE END OF HIS EFFORTS. THE FOLLOWING DAY INVALIDS WERE BEING HELPED, SO HE PRETENDED THAT HIS LIMBS HAD BEEN BROKEN. BUT THE PRESIDENT KNEW HIM, AND HE OBTAINED NOTHING. AGAIN AND AGAIN HE TRIED, EVEN DISGUISING HIMSELF AS A WOMAN, BUT WITHOUT RESULT. FINALLY THE LAWYER FOUND AN UNDERTAKER AND TOLD HIM TO WRAP HIM IN A SHROUD. `WHEN THE PRESIDENT PASSES BY,' SAID THE LAWYER, `HE WILL PERHAPS ASSUME THAT THIS A CORPSE, AND HE MAY…
What is it inside people that makes them react to what you say and what you are with such antagonism? Why can't people who disagree with you just live their own lives the way they feel, and leave you to yourself?
The responsibility is not with the people, the responsibility is with me. They are not doing anything. They can leave me to myself, it is me who is not leaving them to themselves. They are simply reacting, and their reaction is natural. It has been always so, and it will be always so. I am a rebel. Whatsoever I say goes absolutely against their conditioning. They have been conditioned to look at life in a certain way, to think in a certain way, to live in a certain way. What I say disturbs them. And I do it knowingly, I have to disturb them, otherwise there can be no transformation in their lives. And whenever you say something which unsettles the old mind, the old mind becomes defensive. Nothing is wrong in it -- it is natural, because the old mind is accustomed to a certain pattern of living which…
[NOTE: This discourse is published in the book: The Last Testament, Volume 1, as Chapter 7.] Ma Yoga Pratima RAJNEESHPURAM, OREGON QUESTION: BELOVED BHAGWAN, YOU HAVE SAID THAT SOMETIMES YOU SAY THINGS TO SHOCK AND DISTURB PEOPLE'S SLEEP, AND THAT THERE ARE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD WHO NEED JUST A LITTLE BIT OF SHAKING AND THEY WILL AWAKE. ARE THESE PEOPLE WHO ARE BEING SHOCKED BY YOU NOW ALSO LISTENING TO YOU? ARE THEY STARTING TO BECOME CONTEMPORARIES? ARE THEY STARTING TO WAKE UP? ANSWER: They certainly are tossing and turning in their sleep! But there is great hope. They are trying hard to remain asleep. I shock them, they take a turn, pull the blanket over, but I am not to be defeated by their stupidity. I am determined to wake them up by each and every means possible.
And if you understand him rightly, he is not saying to leave your illusions or anything like that -- no! No master of that quality ever interferes in anybody's life. He is simply saying his truth. If you can understand, good. If you cannot understand, there is no need to be worried about it. Continue! Some day you will realise that yes, he is right, and then you will repent. But it takes time -- and everybody is not ripe at that moment to understand it. There is a difference: when the fruit is ripe it falls down easily. And if he starts talking about falling down... and fruit which is not ripe and which still wants to cling to the tree and live his dreams out certainly feels angry.
Next morning the man was brought before the emperor. The king asked, "Why did you shout abuse at me? Why did you swear at me yesterday? What was the reason?" The man said, "Me? Swearing at you? No, your majesty, I must not have been myself; that's why I must have said such things. I was drunk, I was unconscious, I wasn't there. I have no idea what I said." We too exist as if we are not. We walk and talk and love and hate, wage war -- all in sleep. If anyone from a distant planet were to watch us, he would think the entire human race is behaving as one behaves in sleep, in a state of unconsciousness. In the last three thousand years man has fought fifteen thousand wars. This shows the human race is not awake.