According to Osho, martyrdom is not holiness but disguised suicide: the urge to die exploiting others to complete your self-destruction. Driven by the death instinct and wounded ego, martyrs engineer their own killing while making others responsible. When one is content, both life- and death-drives vanish; then there’s no desire to live, die, or become a martyr.
Martyrdom means secretly wanting to die and getting others to do it for you; real happiness ends both the wish to live forever and the wish to die.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, in the last few days, as I listen to you, it seems you are trying to be a martyr. Are you?
I am not even a Christian -- why should I like to be a martyr? The word looks beautiful, but the reality is that those who would like to be martyrs are suicidal. Jesus was suicidal; he was trying in every way to be crucified. He was not even courageous enough just to shoot himself. Why unnecessarily make other people responsible for your crucifixion? If Jesus had shot himself, the Jews would have lived in peace without any trouble. But he forced the Jews to do it. It is to Sigmund Freud's credit that he discovered a suicidal instinct in man. It was always accepted that man has a deep lust for life; he wants to live and live, and live forever. But in existence nothing exists without its opposite. That was the discovery of Sigmund Freud, and it is absolutely right -- with the life instinct there is a…
Question: OSHO! KILL ME, O LORD, KILL ME! KILL ME, I CRAVE DEATH. KILL THAT DEATH OSHO DIED AND SAW. I AM SUCH A STONE, I CAN NOT COMPLETELY MELT. I AM UPSET. WHAT SHOULD I DO? How does the ego die? The ego dies by accepting what you are. You say, I am fine as I am, where I am is good. I remain just as god made me. Whatever his will is, is my will. If you let go of tension for the future -- this should be, that should be -- the ego is gone. The ego lives on a foundation of past and future. Consider the fact a little. The ego claims that in the past I did this, I did that: it is all past. And ego says I will go on doing it, I will do it and show you. It is all future.
Osho, when embodied lovers like Jesus, Socrates, and Mansoor were crucified, poisoned, and murdered in such hateful ways—doesn’t that prove that existence is utterly indifferent?
And if you truly love, free your mind from calculations of gain and loss. If gain and loss remain, you will never love. Then there is no loss even in death, no gain even in life; no loss in failure, no gain in success. Then whether you die on a bed of flowers or of thorns—no difference. That nondual state is called love. And love is prayer. The world of love is a world of madmen. These Mansoor, these Socrates, these Jesus—they are the greatest madmen of this world, the greatest lovers. To understand them, you must learn a few lessons in love. “Blow full-throated, O Trumpet, for the God-intoxicated lovers— Lest these mad ones keep sitting on in the wilderness.” On the Day of Judgment—Islam says—an angel will descend and sound the trumpet so the dead in their graves will rise. A kind of notification to the dead: Wake…
Osho, will surrender happen only when I am ready to die for you?
By this time the diplomat was alert. He jumped immediately, took hold of the arm of the third man and said, "Are you mad or what? Why are you jumping? Why are you so eager to die? Don't you want to live?" The man looked at him with anger and said, "Do you call this life? Is it life? Is it worth living? Death is far better! Life is so miserable -- death is a relief. Let go of my hand and let me jump!" Since life is so miserable -- and Adolf Hitler had made life miserable -- everybody was ready to die. First make people's lives miserable, don't let them enjoy life, destroy all the roots of enjoyment, teach them all kinds of inhibitions, tell them that sex is sin, love is sin, teach them that to drink, to eat, to be merry -- these are the goals…
Osho, I no longer feel like staying in this body; I feel like taking leave of it. Yet for your sake I am pulled back from leaving. I cannot explain anything. I don’t even know what to write. Osho, what should I say?
Anand Bharti, the body is a temple. One who stands for the deity cannot be against the deity’s house. The Divine has made a dwelling in this body. Honor this body, accept it, and feel gratitude toward the Divine for it. But I know where this repeated impulse to leave the body comes from. For centuries you have been taught enmity toward the body. For centuries the same conditioning has been given: the body is the enemy; it must be destroyed, dropped; one must contrive never to be born in a body again. The body has been so vilified that naturally this conditioning has seeped into the blood, bones, flesh, and marrow. Yet the truth is exactly the opposite: it is the mind that is to be dropped, not the body. The mind is man-made; the body is a gift of God. The body is neither Hindu nor Muslim, neither…