According to Osho, good and bad in humans don’t need an external yardstick. Like health is known by the absence of disease, goodness is the fragrance when suffering, violence, and inner pathology end. ‘Bad’ announces itself through war, sorrow, meaninglessness, and suicide; ‘good’ is the natural, unforced state of love, joy, and wholeness once those diseases disappear.
You can tell something is bad because it hurts and harms; when that stops, what remains—love and peace—is good.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, then what is good and what is bad—should a person judge it for himself?
There is no other way. And judging is not very difficult. First, look at what you cannot come to rest upon. You are often more childish than a child. The body has an age; spiritual age is another matter entirely—and often it hasn’t grown at all. Then people go on doing childish things. An old man hoarding money—take him for a child, because the act is childish. What is he doing? Death stands before him, and the man is putting more locks on his safe. Pure child’s play. Little children play with dolls; a grown man carries a whole wedding procession of Lord Ram—with all the dolls arranged—parading and making a racket. He is still a child. He has made different kinds of dolls, given them big, respectable names. But his mental age has not grown. Within us there are many ages, many layers of age. My quest, my appeal,…
Osho, you said... then you will find that the devotee is God. The question arises: if one devotee prefers to be God and another wants to remain only a devotee, then which of the two is superior?
The one who wants to be God will not be able to be. And the one who wants to remain a devotee will become God. The question of superior or inferior does not arise, because only one of the two will happen. The one who does not want to be will be. The one who wants to be will be deprived. That very wanting is of the ego. But the matter is a little delicate. Sometimes humility too belongs to the ego. Beware that your humility may not be of the ego. Perhaps you are saying, “No, I don’t want to be,” because you know that those who refuse are the ones who attain. Then you are clever. Then your humility is adulterous. Your humility is not pure, not sacred, not virginal—it is like a prostitute. The one who wants to be God, whose ego says, “I must become God,”…
A friend has asked: Osho, how will the development of material civilization harmonize with a life aligned to Tao’s spontaneous nature? Won’t human society have to return to a primitive state?
What is there to fear? Even if we had to return, what is there to fear? What harm would there be? What have we attained anyway? We have only lost; we have not gained anything. So first, there is no need to be afraid of the so‑called primitive. Because what we call civilization today—what is it except a great disease? Still, I do not believe that we will have to go back. In existence, there is no going back. But even if we did—no harm. Because you have nothing that could be lost. You have nothing. Your situation is like a naked man taking a bath and wondering, “Where will I wring my clothes? Where will I dry them?” What is there to wring, what is there to dry? What could be lost? What have you gained? There is noise, uproar all around—so it looks as if something is being…
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…
But what is good, what is bad? What is good, what is bad—will a person judge for himself?
Because that is not the real question. The question is not “how many?” It is that many compulsions force you to stay and suffer. I am saying: wherever the mind says, “Run, run—further, further,” and wherever you reach it gives you pain—that is bad. And wherever the mind says, “Here, not there; even if it takes time, here—here is bliss—where I am,” that is good. Where you are not, deception is possible; where you are, there is no deception. There, when you arrive, you will know. If this begins to get clear—even though the distinction is subtle—if you keep experimenting a little, keeping a small inner checking going twenty-four hours a day: “This act I just did—did it give me joy or pain? In the place I arrived at—did I want to stay or to leave?”—keep such a small test running. In two to four months it will become so…