According to Osho, what we call injustice is simply the predictable reflex of centuries‑conditioned minds—tradition, prejudice, and fear defending themselves. The crowd, guided by pundits’ wordplay, attacks living truth and those who point inward. Expecting fairness from unconsciousness is naive; persecution of buddhas is natural. Don’t fight shadows—turn within, see clearly, and move with compassion, not resentment.
When people are stuck in old habits and fear, they hit what they don’t understand—so look inside, stay clear, and don’t hate them.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, what kind of justice is it that you are distributing nectar, yet people want to poison you! You want to give humankind a new life, and people are trying to snatch away your life! Does history keep repeating its mistakes?
You see this all around. The crowd has no insight of its own. No one in a crowd has their own seeing. That is precisely why they gather in a crowd. They think others will have the insight; the others think they will. No one has it. Kabir says: “The blind push the blind; both fall into the well.” The blind are shoving the blind. The blind have become leaders of the blind—and then all fall into the well. And you can see that every person has fallen into a well. In whose eyes is there a ray of joy? In whose being are the songs of love? Upon whose lips is the taste of nectar? Who has recognized God? Who has had a glimpse of the eternal life? Whose feet are ankleted with the eternal—whose life is a dance, a song, a celebration? All are sad—utterly sad. Everyone’s life…
Osho, you are offering nectar, and the blind are determined to make you drink poison. What kind of injustice is this?
We lived in mirages; you lived in mirages too. Why did we? Let us at least think—thinking is good, even so. People have lived in mirages and are living in mirages; they have even forgotten how to think. I am saying only this to them: think once again, reconsider. I am reawakening the problems. People are angry because they believed the problem had been solved. They thought, We have the solution—what is there to do now? Now spread your sheet and sleep. We found the solution in the Upanishads, in the Vedas, in the Gita, in the Dhammapada. We already have the solution—what remains to be done? But the solution in religion is not a solution like the solutions in science. Understand this distinction well. In science, if something is discovered once, everyone need not discover it again, because science is outer and its knowledge can be imparted from the…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, OF JUSTICE WHEN YOU HAVE AN ENEMY, DO NOT REQUITE HIM GOOD FOR EVIL: FOR THAT WOULD MAKE HIM ASHAMED. BUT PROVE THAT HE HAS DONE SOMETHING GOOD TO YOU. BETTER TO BE ANGRY THAN MAKE ASHAMED! AND WHEN YOU ARE CURSED, I DO NOT LIKE IT THAT YOU THEN WANT TO BLESS. RATHER CURSE BACK A LITTLE! AND SHOULD A GREAT INJUSTICE BE DONE YOU, THEN QUICKLY DO FIVE LITTLE INJUSTICES BESIDES. HE WHO BEARS INJUSTICE ALONE IS TERRIBLE TO BEHOLD. DID YOU KNOW THIS ALREADY? SHARED INJUSTICE IS HALF JUSTICE. AND HE WHO CAN BEAR IT SHOULD TAKE THE INJUSTICE UPON HIMSELF. A LITTLE REVENGE IS MORE HUMAN THAN NO REVENGE AT ALL. AND IF THE PUNISHMENT BE NOT ALSO A RIGHT AND AN HONOUR FOR THE TRANSGRESSOR, THEN I DO NOT LIKE YOUR PUNISHMENT.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, OFTENTIMES HAVE I HEARD YOU SPEAK OF ONE WHO COMMITS A WRONG AS THOUGH HE WERE NOT ONE OF YOU BUT A STRANGER UNTO YOU AND AN INTRUDER UPON YOUR WORLD. BUT I SAY THAT EVEN AS THE HOLY AND THE RIGHTEOUS CANNOT RISE BEYOND THE HIGHEST WHICH IS IN EACH ONE OF YOU, SO THE WICKED AND THE WEAK CANNOT FALL LOWER THAN THE LOWEST WHICH IS IN YOU ALSO. AND AS A SINGLE LEAF TURNS NOT YELLOW BUT WITH THE SILENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE WHOLE TREE, SO THE WRONGDOER CANNOT DO WRONG WITHOUT THE HIDDEN WILL OF YOU ALL. LIKE A PROCESSION YOU WALK TOGETHER TOWARDS YOUR GOD-SELF. YOU ARE THE WAY AND THE WAYFARERS. AND WHEN ONE OF YOU FALLS DOWN HE FALLS FOR THOSE BEHIND HIM, A CAUTION AGAINST THE STUMBLING STONE.
Osho, yesterday you spoke about justice and compassion and said that only a man of wisdom can bring compassion along with justice. Is a synthesis of justice and compassion possible?
On the basis of logic—no. On the plane of logic—no. A synthesis of justice and compassion is not possible according to logic, because they belong to two different planes. Understand. Justice means: let what is proper happen. Compassion is not included in justice. Justice only means that the appropriate rule be applied. In compassion there is the heart; in justice there is only the intellect. Compassion is the greater thing. Compassion means: let what ought to be happen. It is not about rules; it is something bigger than rules. Consider: you go to court; you have stolen. The judge looks into his books, flips the pages, searches the law. You stole fifty rupees; he looks up the penalty; the penalty is written in the book; accordingly he sentences you. He keeps his distance; he does not enter into any human relationship with you. He does not think that within you,…