According to Osho, going crazy—if it brings more joy, intelligence, silence, peace, and understanding—means stepping out of society’s insanity into real sanity. Such craziness dissolves jealousy, anger, and violence, becoming a light unto yourself. Others may call you mad; don’t be offended—seeing your own madness is sanity. Better join the 'crazy' company of buddhas than the so-called normal crowd.
Good craziness means you leave the noisy crowd, feel happier and clearer inside, and that’s real sanity even if others think you’re odd.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, a few years ago I asked you a question, with great fear and trembling: "Osho, is it inevitable that I will go crazy?" and now, beloved Osho, at last it has finally happened: I have gone crazy. Thank you, Osho, thank you.
There are all types of people here at different stages of craziness. But don't be satisfied. Rejoice! -- but remember that there are still crazier states. A moment comes when you start talking with the trees, playing with the stones, arguing with the ocean... because your very idea of being separate has disappeared. Now this whole existence is one organic unity. And it is not that when you talk to a tree it does not respond to you; if you are crazy enough, there is a dialogue. Perhaps one time you have to speak from your side; another time you have to speak from the tree's side -- because the tree cannot speak, but you can understand what it wants to say. Just remember the basic criteria -- that your happiness, your blissfulness should go on growing; your intelligence, your clarity should go on growing; your love should go on…
Deep inside, the volcano, and on the surface is peace. So when you start meditating, that volcano comes closer to the surface. That's the whole effort: to bring the unconscious closer to the conscious so you become more aware of your craziness. Not that you become more crazy -- you simply become more aware of things that have always been there but at which you were never looking. You were never courageous enough to look at them. They were there but you were always putting them behind you, escaping from them, avoiding them. Now you have become a little more courageous -- you allowed it. You want to be acquainted with yourself. Anybody who wants to move towards self-knowledge has to go through this period when he starts feeling that he is becoming more crazy. Not that he is, he is becoming more aware.
Question: OOOH OSHO! THE WHOLE LIFE WATERFALLING ON ME! HEAVEN AND EARTH, WORK AND PLAY, EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER BEEN AND DONE, ALL THINGS I HAVE EVER WANTED TO WILL BE, PAST AND FUTURE SWELLING SWELLING IN BALLOON DANCING NOW! THIS ENLIGHTENMENT IS SOME CRAZY BUSINESS! Crazy baby, crazy... absolutely crazy! But don't be afraid. Go into it, and soon you will see the sanity of insanity, soon you will see that it is not crazy. You have been crazy all along before it. It looks crazy compared to your life that has happened up to now. People are living in madness, so when they come closer and closer to some inner light, compared to their life it looks crazy. Once it settles, the whole of life looks crazy, and only this light, this awareness, looks sane.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT IS MADNESS? There are two possibilities: Madness literally means going out of the mind; hence the two possibilities. You can go out of the mind either below the mind or above the mind. Ordinarily, people go below the mind because it needs no effort, you don't have to do anything. Any shock can shatter the stability of your mind: somebody you loved died, your business has gone bankrupt -- the shock is so much that you cannot keep your normality. You fall below the mind, your behavior becomes irrational. But you go beyond the misery -- if you had remained in the normal mind the shock would have created immense misery. It is a natural way to avoid the shock. It simply pulls you down; now you don't know what has happened.
I hoo my guts out in the dynamic, I laugh with you in the lecture, I dance for you in nataraj, I cry and scream after nadabrahma, I watch my tensions in kundalini, and listen to the birds which come together specially for the meditations with music -- they enjoy tremendously. I provide dinner for the mosquitoes in gourishankar. In and between the meditations it seems I am doing all the groups at once. I feel very very crazy. I know you love it -- how can I love it too?
What is wrong? A man wants to live naked under the sky, with the wind, with the sun; a man wants to be open to nature -- what is wrong in it? Why should a man be forced to wear clothes? If he likes to -- perfectly good. There is no need to force him to remain naked, because then you do the same again. But if somebody likes to be naked, what is wrong in it? Just think of yourself sitting naked in your drawing-room, and a guest comes, and you welcome him -- he will escape! He will not come again. He will go directly to the police station. And you were not doing anything to anybody: just sitting in your drawing-room, naked, enjoying, listening to music. You don't allow even small children to be naked. Such a repressive and violent society! The by-product is craziness, madness. I…