According to Osho, the universe exists precisely so consciousness can transcend it. Existence is dialectical: joy is known through misery, freedom through bondage, light through darkness. Even God cannot grant freedom without its opposite; only contrast makes knowing possible. The physical realm provides the 'hunger' that makes bliss, awareness, and liberation tangible; through transcending opposites, we taste real benediction.
Life gives us ‘hunger’ (problems) so we can truly taste the ‘food’ (bliss) by growing beyond them.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, what is the point of the physical universe if man's destiny is ultimately to transcend it?
That is the point: otherwise, how will you transcend? The universe is needed to transcend. The misery is needed to transcend, the darkness is needed to transcend, the ego is needed to transcend -- because only when you transcend there is joy, benediction. I understand your question. It is a very ancient question, asked again and again and again -- because it puzzles the mind. If God has created the world, then why has he created misery in it? He could have given you bliss as a gift. Then why has he created ignorance? Is he not potent enough to create enlightened beings from the very beginning? He is, and that's what he is doing. But even God is not potent enough to make impossibles happen. Only the possible is possible. You can only know what health is when you are capable of being ill; otherwise you cannot know it.…
Osho, The Ultimate Reality has been called supreme consciousness and supreme wisdom. But when we see within it this circle of creation, then destruction, then creation again, and then destruction again, it feels very strange. Can you explain whether there is any cause, any meaning, any significance, any purpose behind this cycle?
But even as he says it, he does not see that he is contradicting himself. On the one hand he says, “Remove this terrible form and be pleased.” Pleasantness is also a mode of activity. And on the other hand he says he wants nothing to do with activity, he wants to know the essence. Pleasantness is not essence. Pleasantness too is a doing. Just as fierceness is a doing, pleasantness is a doing. Just as death is a doing, so too is life. Yet we keep choosing. He says, “Be cheerful, be joyful.” He probably believes joy is essence. It is not. Essence is emptiness—shunya. And to see shunya is very difficult. We only perceive activity. Where do we see emptiness? Only when emptiness takes on the form of activity does it come within our grasp. Otherwise, how can it be grasped? If I simply sit here in silence,…
Osho, who am I, where have I come from, and what is my destiny?
He went with Farid. They undressed and entered the river. As soon as the man ducked under, Farid climbed atop him and held him down, pressing his neck so he couldn’t come up. The man began to thrash, like a fish flung onto burning sand—hands and feet flailing. But Farid was strong; still, when it’s life and death, hidden strength surges. The man, though thin and scholarly as inquirers often are, gathered all his might and with one wrench threw Farid aside and burst to the surface. Farid asked, “Did you understand something?” The man said, “Understand? You were about to kill me! Is this how one realizes God? Are you a man or a murderer? I had heard you were an accomplished fakir—but you seem mad. You were choking me!” Farid said, “We’ll talk about that later. First, before you forget—human memory is very weak—tell me: while I held…
He is brahma, he is shiva, he is indra. He is indestructible, the supreme, the self-luminous. He alone is vishnu, he is prana. He is sun, fire; he is the moon. He alone is all that was and all that will be, the eternal.
KNOWING HIM ONE GOES BEYOND THE STING OF DEATH; THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO REACH COMPLETE FREEDOM. EXPERIENCING ONE'S OWN SELF IN ALL BEINGS AND ALL BEINGS IN THE SELF, ONE ATTAINS THE HIGHEST BRAHMAN, AND NOT BY ANY OTHER MEANS. The whole universe exists as a continuity; it is an intermittent phenomenon. We are here because the universe was such that we could be here. The whole past was such that this meeting becomes possible. Something missing, and the whole thing will change. This feeling of eternal continuity in the past, of eternal continuity in the future, will dissolve the ego completely. You are not; you are just a part -- a part which cannot exist alone. Then the destiny of the whole universe becomes your destiny, then you have no separate individual destiny. That is what is meant by saying one goes beyond life and death. If…
Question: AUM THAT IS THE WHOLE. THIS IS THE WHOLE. FROM WHOLENESS EMERGES WHOLENESS. WHOLENESS COMING FROM WHOLENESS, WHOLENESS STILL REMAINS. AT THE HEART OF THIS PHENOMENAL WORLD, WITHIN ALL ITS CHANGING FORMS, DWELLS THE UNCHANGING LORD. SO, GO BEYOND THE CHANGING, AND, ENJOYING THE INNER, CEASE TO TAKE FOR YOURSELF WHAT TO OTHERS ARE RICHES. CONTINUING TO ACT IN THE WORLD, ONE MAY ASPIRE TO BE ONE HUNDRED. THUS, AND ONLY THUS, CAN A MAN BE FREE FROM THE BINDING INFLUENCE OF ACTION. UNILLUMINED INDEED ARE THOSE WORLDS CLOUDED BY THE BLINDING DARKNESS OF IGNORANCE. INTO THIS DEATH SINK ALL THOSE WHO SLAY THE SELF. AUM PURNAMADAH PURNAMIDAM PURNAT PURNAMUDACHYATE PURNASYA PURNAMADAYA PURNAMEVA VASHISHYATE. The religions have divided humanity into materialists and spiritualists. Now Soviet Russia, China and other communist countries think they are materialist.