If you chase being important and powerful, you just turn into a silly, smelly ego; being simple and present is the real greatness.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, it is said that there are basically only three desires—sex, property, and power—and all the rest are their offspring. Of these, Freud calls sex fundamental; Marx, property; and Adler, power. Though all three seem right in their own way, the confusion does not clear. Osho, in this dispute of Freud, Marx, and Adler—the disputants are gone, but the dispute continues—I choose you as the arbiter. Will you hold court? If yes, what will your verdict be?
In Buddha’s time, Amrapali was famed as supremely beautiful. Emperors lined up at her door—an audience with her was rare even for kings; her price was hard to pay. Yet one day Amrapali donned the yellow robe and came to Buddha’s feet: “Initiate me.” Buddha said, “You are so beautiful; emperors are mad for you—what do you lack?” She said, “Let them be mad. I have seen it all. There is no substance in it—children’s toys.” Has anyone ever been fulfilled by sex? Or by wealth? Or by power? No. Yes—delusions, hopes, dreams—plenty. But no dream is ever complete; hopes turn into disappointments; sooner or later the illusion shatters. All three miss the mark. If any one of the three were right, religion would have no place. If all three were wholly right, religion would have no place. Religion has a place precisely because there is a fundamental mistake in…
Osho, you speak of trust, love, and joy, but why don’t you explain power? These days an unbearable power is arising in me. What is it, and in this situation what stance should I take?
A friend of mine, an eminent Hindi litterateur, long-time president of the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan and the oldest member of the Indian Parliament—an MP for fifty years—was close to Jugal Kishore Birla. He was interested in my work and said, “If Birla becomes interested, great help is possible.” He arranged a meeting. Birla spoke with me, became interested, and said, “I will give you as much as you need, whenever you need it. Only one thing I must know for sure: what use will it be put to?” I said, “Then let’s end the matter here. This won’t do; such a deal is not possible. If you must ask what I will do with what you give, keep it. That isn’t giving. If you can give unconditionally so that, in front of you, I could squander it on the street and you would not be able to ask, ‘What are…
Beloved master, all my life I have been intrigued by power and the recognition I can take from it. Now, that seems very confined and petty. Yet, I sense also that there is a more authentic type of power, not dependent on other people or their reactions -- more within myself. Can you please talk about my attraction towards this?
It needs a deep insight to understand that whether you torture others or you torture yourself, there is no difference at all -- except that the other can defend himself. At least there is that possibility. If you start torturing yourself, there is nobody to defend you. You can do anything with your own body. This is simply masochism. It is not, in my understanding, finding the source of your inner being. Hence I would not like to call it power, because that word is contaminated. I would like to call it peace, love, compassion... you can choose the word. But power has been in the hands of violent people; whether they were violent with others or with themselves does not matter. I think the people who were violent with others were more natural and the people who were violent with themselves were absolutely psychotic. But the people who have…
Osho, what is ambition? To live without ambition seems frightening, like starting a new life up from the beginning.
Competitiveness believes that whatsoever succeeds is right and whatsoever fails is wrong. That is the only criterion for an ambitious mind: the end makes the means right. For a non-competitive mind there is no question of thinking of others; you simply go on growing on your own. Your roots go deeper into Tao, into nature. Not that other trees have reached deeper so you have to reach -- you reach deeper for your own nourishment, you reach deeper for your own enrichment, you reach deeper because your branches can go higher. Only the deeper the roots go, higher the branches reach -- but it has nothing to do with others; others are accepted as they are. Nobody takes any note of others. Latifa, it is certainly starting a new life up from the very beginning. That's why Christ says: Unless you are born again you shall not enter into my…
Beloved master, what am I looking for?
The power of a politician is the power of violence. Now he controls the whole mechanism of violence: he controls the police, the government, the military, he controls everything. He can impose his will on you. That's why politicians tend to become violent sooner or later. Politicians hanker deep down for wars, because it is only in war that a politician becomes a GREAT politician. If you go through history you will see the point. Winston Churchill would not have been such a great leader if there had been no second world war. Neither would Adolf Hitler have been such a power if there had been no second world war, not would Mussolini. The war created the context: they were able to be as violent as possible. They were able to butcher people, to murder people, in millions. People immediately pay attention when you are violent. If you live a…