According to Osho, a ‘messiah’ is a mistaken, secondhand idea that presupposes a personal God who sends special agents; since no such God exists, no messiah has ever existed or will. Claims to be one reflect egoic megalomania and rely on circular proofs (scripture citing itself). The whole concept is baseless.
A messiah isn’t real—there’s no person-God sending special helpers; people who claim it just want to feel special and point to their own books as proof.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, are you a messiah?
No, Sheela, absolutely no. The whole idea is fundamentally wrong. It is not only that I am not a messiah, there has never been anyone who was and there will never be anybody who will be. You will have to go deep into the concept of it. The idea of a messiah is a secondary idea. First you have to believe in God as a person, then only can you start thinking of God sending special messengers, messiahs. To me there is no personal God at all who can send a messiah. I am reminded of a very beautiful incident of one of the most famous Mohammedans, Caliph Omar. The caliph in Mohammedanism is parallel to the pope in Christianity; he is both the religious head and the temporal head. Omar was a very nice and good man. One day, his soldiers brought a man to his court who was…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, ARE YOU A MESSIAH, A PROPHET, OR A REINCARNATION OF GOD? I have never expected that one of my sannyasins would ask such a bullshit question! I am simply myself. I am not a messiah, because there is no God to send messengers to the world. Moreover, I don't want to be crucified. To prove that you are a messiah of God, crucifixion is absolutely necessary. Not that I am afraid of death, but I would like a comfortable, luxurious death. Not carrying the cross on my own shoulders, not even on your shoulders -- the cross will be carried on a Rolls Royce limousine. I am not a prophet either. I don't know what is going to happen in the next moment. I don't know even what I am going to say in the next moment. The future does not exist for me.
Question: Second question: Osho, are you a messiah? What do you take yourself to be? Melaram Asrani! I am not at all—what messiah, what avatar, what tirthankara, what prophet! And if I am not, what is there to take myself for? Who would understand? And understand whom? I am gone. Long ago I went. This drop was swallowed by the ocean long back. But when a drop dissolves into the ocean, it becomes the ocean. That’s why Kabir said, “Behold the wonder—the river has drunk the ocean.” Kabir’s upside-down sayings—that the river has drunk the ocean—are pointers, very telling pointers. Now I am not. Now only That is. Where is “I,” where is “you”? This I-and-you has vanished. If I say, “I am a messiah,” it would be a mistake. If I say, “I am a tirthankara,” it would be a mistake.
Beloved Osho, what is the difference between the emptiness of the child before the formation of the ego and the awakened childlikeness of a buddha?
Whether you are for it or against it doesn't matter -- your concern shows where your ego is hanging. And I will include the capitalist in it also: his whole concern is how to gather money, hoard money -- because money has power over matter. You can purchase any material thing through money. You cannot purchase anything spiritual, you cannot purchase anything that has any intrinsic value; you can purchase only things. If you want to purchase love, you cannot purchase; but you can purchase sex. Sex is the material part of love. Through money, matter can be purchased, possessed. Now you will be surprised: I include the communist and the capitalist both in the same category, and they are enemies, just as I include Charvaka and Mahatma Gandhi in the same category, and they are enemies. They are enemies, but their concern is the same. The capitalist is trying…