According to Osho, surrender means bidding farewell to the ego—the false sense of doership—and resting in the divine totality. It is the first ray of inner dawn: when you stop carrying the needless burden, you flow with existence’s rhythm. Trusting that “His” hands act through all, you let go of control; then defeat, sorrow, and resistance dissolve, and a transforming peace begins.
Stop trying to control everything like a beggar clutching a bundle in a king’s chariot—put it down, trust life to carry you, and you’ll feel light and free.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Athato Bhakti Jigyasa · Discourse 8
1978-01-18 · Pune · Hindi · English translation
Osho, what does surrender mean?
Resolve means: I. Surrender means: not-I. Resolve means: the sense of doership. Surrender means: the sense of non-doership. Resolve means: only through what I do can anything happen; without my doing, nothing will happen—effort is everything. Surrender means: grace is everything. What will happen through my doing? If the Beloved does, it happens. I am only a hollow reed of bamboo; if He plays, I become a flute. His song is everything. I should give Him passage, not become an obstruction. I should step aside from the path. A tiny bud walked along the riverbank and reached—then stepped down into the stream! The lover, bound for tryst, descended from steps to the waves. On the faces of the stars a shimmer came. So much is joined. When even a tiny bud steps into a ripple, in the eyes of stars at immeasurable distances a sparkle appears. Over the whole current…Read the full discourse →
Guida Spirituale · Discourse 14
1980-09-08 · Buddha Hall · English
Osho, what is surrender? I used to think I knew. Now it is a mystery.
THE FALSE KNOWLEDGE de-mystifies existence; the true knowledge re-mystifies it. Knowing, if authentic, makes life more of a mystery than it has ever been before. Knowledge certainly covers your eyes with dark clouds, creates a wall of thick smoke, and you start feeling you know. In fact, you are going deeper into ignorance. To be knowledgeable is to be more ignorant than even the ignorant ones. The Upanishads have a tremendously significant statement. They say: The ignorant man is lost in darkness, but the knowledgeable is lost in deeper darkness than the ignorant -- because the knowledgeable lives in an "as if" world. He thinks he knows, but he knows not. He only believes; he has not seen. He believes in God, he believes in love, he believes in surrender, but belief is always a cover-up. Your wound is covered, but it is not healed that way. In fact, the…Read the full discourse →
Ecstasy The Forgotten Language · Discourse 2
1976-12-12 · Buddha Hall · English
What is the meaning of surrender? How is surrender?
Coming closer to me, you will be able to imbibe my spirit. That is the meaning of surrender: that you are ready to come close to me, that you are not afraid, that you will not protect yourself against me, that you will not be defensive, that simply you are ready to come closer to me, that you are attracted, that you have heard my call, that something has clicked in your heart and you will try to know who this man really is, what manner of man. You would like to enter into my emptiness and be surrounded by my emptiness. Sannyas is the visible effort of surrender. Many people come to me and they say, "We don't take sannyas. Can't you help us?" I say, "I will try my best, but it won't be of much help because you will continuously protect yourself. You will be defensive." Sannyas…Read the full discourse →
The Diamond Sutra · Discourse 6
1977-12-26 · Buddha Hall · English
What is it to be surrendered to you?
Savita, that which you don't have and you think that you have, has to be surrendered to me. You don't really have the ego, the I, the self. You don't have it really. You are living in a kind of illusion that you are separate from existence. That separation is not there. You cannot live for a single split moment as separate. You cannot live like an island. You are part of the whole. The whole goes on participating in your being, the whole goes on showering you with its energy, but you have the idea that "I am separate." That 'I' has to be surrendered to me. And you don't have it, so you will not be really surrendering something to me, just an illusion. Let me repeat: that which you don't have, I want to take it away from you. And that which you have, I want to…Read the full discourse →
Fingers Pointing To The Moon · Discourse 7
1980-03-13 · Chuang Tzu Auditorium · English
The whole spring bursts forth within you
It is love that makes one noble -- not birth, but love. Nobody is born noble -- the whole idea of aristocracy is sheer nonsense -- but one can become noble. One has to be very alert, sensitive, creative, only then can one be noble. It is easy to paint a picture, to create a painting, it is easy to sculpt a statue. The hardest thing to create is your own self, your own being. Even to sculpt out of granite is not that difficult. The greatest problem arises when you start cutting chunks of your being which had been there for many many lives. You have believed in them as if they are part of you; they have almost become your second nature. One's real being is lost in many unreal things; for example, the ego is one of the greatest problems. It is unreal, but it is covering…Read the full discourse →