According to Osho, the most astonishing law is reciprocity: whatever you give returns to you a thousandfold. The pits you dig for others become your own traps; the thorns you sow pierce your feet; blessings or curses echo back. Give life, love, and light, and life answers in kind; take or harm, and loss returns. Align with this law to walk toward heaven.
Life is like an echo: what you do to others comes back to you—be kind and you’ll meet kindness; cause harm and you’ll meet harm.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, what is the most astonishing law in this world?
A Sufi story. A thief, at night, began to climb into a house through a window. The window frame gave way, he fell, and broke his leg. The next day he went to court and blamed the householder for his broken leg. The owner was summoned and said in his defense: The one responsible is the carpenter who made the window. The carpenter was called; he said the contractor who built the wall hadn’t made the windowed section strong enough. In his defense the contractor said: My mistake happened because of a woman who was passing by—she drew my attention away. When the woman was presented in court, she said: At that time I was wearing a very fine dress. Normally no one even looks at me. So the fault lies with the dress, which was so exquisitely sewn. The judge said: Then summon the tailor who sewed it; he…
Osho, you say that within every aspiration its opposite is hidden. In the longing for honor, humiliation lies concealed; in the very longing to live there is a fear of death. Why is there such a cruel law?
I said, “That is exactly why he still hasn’t forgiven you. Get someone a job and he will never forgive you. He will take revenge someday. For on that day you were so high that you granted him a job. Pain arose in his mind then—he had to fold his hands to you, had to wag his tail before you. He will take revenge sooner or later.” People say, “We do good, and people do bad to us.” It is sheer mathematics. The one to whom you did “good”—what else will he do but “bad”? He must settle the score. Because whenever you did your ‘good deed,’ you must have looked at him with such arrogance: “See, you little worm! You live by my grace.” I said, “Remember the day this man came wagging his tail before you and you got him the job. Today he is showing you the…
Beloved Osho, someone once told me the saying: "all that you put into the lives of others comes back into your own. "it has been with me ever since, and I feel it to be true. Can you please talk about this? It keeps coming up a lot for me.
But Zeno said, "I am not going to argue with anybody. Even if somebody says in the day that it is night, I will say, `Yes, it is night.' I am not going to argue, because if I win in any argument, then I have to pay half the fee to you. That I am not going to do." Almost a year passed and he did not argue with anyone. The master even sent many people to provoke him to argumentation, but he would always be willing to accept whatever you said. You say, "God exists" and he says, "Yes, God exists." You say, "God does not exist." He will say, "God does not exist, I am in absolute agreement with you. The question of argument does not arise." Finally the master, who himself was a great arguer, thought of a strategy: he should bring him to the court, sue…
Beloved Osho, modern science has discovered a number of laws such as the law of gravity, which describe the behavior of the material world. Does the science of the inner soul also have laws which apply to consciousness and being?
It is one of the most fundamental differences between the outer and the inner. The outer is ruled by laws: The inner is just freedom. Consciousness knows no laws. It is matter that needs laws. Without laws, the material existence is impossible. And in the same way, with laws, the world of consciousness is impossible. Consciousness can exist only in absolute freedom, with no limits, with no conditions, with no laws. Matter will immediately fall apart without laws, for the simple reason that it has no individuality. It has no center of being which can hold it together if there are no laws. Matter is without a center, or in other words, without a self. Just because there is no center in it, it cannot remain together unless it is surrounded by all kinds of laws, conditions, rules. Science goes on discovering laws because it deals only with dead matter.…
Question: OSHO, WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE LAW OF KARMA? I have very little to say about it -- but it will still take two and a half hours! The law of karma, in the first place, is not a law. That word gives it an aroma as if it is something scientific, like the law of gravitation. It is merely a hope, not a law at all. It has been hoped for centuries that if you do good you will attain to good results. It is a human hope in existence which is absolutely neutral. If you look at nature, there are laws -- the whole of science is nothing but discovery of those laws -- but science has not come even close to detecting anything like the law of karma.