According to Osho, the core anguish is failing to become what we are born to be—the seed that never flowers. When our innate divinity and unique potential remain unexpressed and we settle for imposed roles, life turns into repetition and melancholy. We ourselves are the prison and the key; fulfillment arises by expanding into our true nature and letting it blossom.
We suffer because we don’t grow into our real self—like a seed that never becomes a flower—and only we can unlock that growth from inside.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, what is the fundamental anguish of human life?
There is only one anguish: that a human being cannot become what he was born to be. There is only one anguish: that the seed remains a seed and does not bloom like a flower; that it cannot scatter its fragrance to the infinite winds; cannot converse with the moon and stars; cannot offer its colors to the sky; cannot be expressed. If the poem within the poet cannot be revealed—anguish. If the painter cannot paint—anguish. If the dancer cannot dance—if chains lie on his feet—anguish. Anguish means only this: that what we are meant to be—our innate nature and destiny—does not come to fruition, and we are forced to be something else. Then anguish is born. Then melancholy gathers over life. And all those countless people you see burdened with sorrow, living in a kind of hell—the reason is only this: each has come carrying the seed of becoming…
Ordinarily we go on searching for a freedom that is for the self: 'I want to be free' -- this is the worldly search. Hence people desire money because that will make them more free. Prestige, power -- they will make you more free, you will be less limited, you will have a little longer rope. The prison can become bigger but it doesn't disappear. The prison can be so big that you cannot even see the walls that surround you, but still it is a prison. The real search starts the day one understands this -- that if one is, then one is going to remain a prisoner. Only if 'I' is not found will there be unlimited freedom. Then the whole existence is one's existence, because one is not. One is no more a part but the whole.
When life itself is so fulfilling, overflowing, so blissful, then what is that which makes a man miserable?
So an egoist remains miserable, because to be happy one has to be happy with that which one has. You cannot be happy with that which you don't have; you can only be unhappy with that. You can be happy only with that which you have. How can you be happy with that which you don't have? And ego is always interested only in that which you don't have. You have ten thousand rupees -- ego is no more interested in it. It is interested in twenty thousand. By the time you have twenty thousand, it is no more interested in it. It is interested only in thirty thousand. And so on, so forth... it goes on. The ego only gives you goals, but whenever those goals arrive, it does not allow you to celebrate. One becomes more and more miserable! As life passes, we go on gathering misery, we…
Question: OSHO, WHAT IS ANGUISH? IS IT JUST ANOTHER NAME FOR ANXIETY? I said to him, "Those two months have given you a taste of anguish. Don't forget those moments. Now you are out, use that anguish for your meditation -- try to find out.... Because you may become mad again and before you become mad at least have something figured out: who you are." But it was too much to expect of that poor man, because within a month he was mad again. But what to say about the whole of humanity? You are aware of anxiety. But you are not aware of anguish yet. In the first place, when you do feel anguish, you will feel in a tremendous turmoil, in a very deep depression... a fathomless abyss just opening in front of you, and you are falling into it.
Osho, why is there so much secrecy in the ashram?
The ashram is not a marketplace; it is not open to the crowd. Here I am available to those few who genuinely want to be transformed. Sightseers, passersby—there is no purpose in their coming here. The invitation is only for those who have truly come close to transformation, for that small number. Therefore there is privacy in every respect. And the privacy will increase. Because as I see that more of the unnecessary can be sifted out, I will sift them out—since they themselves gain nothing, and by their presence they do not let others gain either. I have remained open to all for a long time and have seen what happens. I found that the crowd of the pointless becomes so thick that the meaningful person gets no chance at all. The merely curious surround so much that the true inquirer is left standing at the back. The mumukshu—the…