According to Osho, miracles have no spiritual significance; they neither occur nor prove a teacher’s authenticity. What passes as a “miracle” is exploitation of ignorance and stagecraft to impress the gullible. A true guide aligns with the law of life (dharma) and awakens insight, not wonder. Choose a teacher by inner transformation, clarity, and presence—not spectacles.
Don’t trust magic tricks; choose a teacher who helps you grow wiser and kinder inside.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, last year Sai Baba came, and our Governor and Chief Minister also went there. And I’ve heard that the Prime Minister’s wife was given an amulet. I want to ask you: is there any connection between spirituality and miracles?
There is a connection between spirituality and miracles—the connection is one of opposition. A spiritual person will not consent to miracles; that is the connection. And one who consents to miracles should be called a conjurer, not a spiritual person. But conjuring impresses many people. It is very difficult to be touched by spirituality. Conjuring makes an impact very quickly. And we should not live under the illusion that our governors, our judges, our ministers and chief ministers are free from the influence of conjurers. In fact, the truth is they are even more under such influence. Anyone with great ambition will fall under a conjurer’s sway very quickly, because the conjurer’s claim is that through him anyone’s ambition can be fulfilled. If someone is sick, the illness can be cured; if someone lacks a position, he can be raised to it; if someone already has a position, there is…
Question: OSHO, DO MIRACLES REALLY NOT EXIST? Devadatta brought a mad elephant who was known to have killed many people and so was kept always in chains. He brought him and left him without chains close to where Buddha was sitting. And the elephant came rushing, because after many days he had got the chance to kill somebody. He was murderous. But just coming close to Buddha, a sudden break: no, this is not the man to kill. He lowered himself, went on his knees and touched Buddha's feet. Now if elephants, mad elephants, rocks and trees are so careful about Buddha -- and I would like them to be so careful, there is no harm in it. I would like them to be so careful about everybody, why only about Buddha? But when he eats the poisonous food his own body does not bother; the poison takes no care.
Beloved Osho, you have spoken to us of the raising of lazarus, and the miracle of jesus walking on the water. But what of the miracle that is yourself? You have turned tigers into lambs, gorillas into buddhas, worriers and thinkers into mindlessness, and created an oasis out of a desert. Please Osho, speak to us of the miracle of miracles that is yourself!
And people said, "We can give as many mustard seeds as you want. We can bring the whole village's mustard seeds, if your son's life can come back. But our mustard seeds will not be of any help, because so many people have died in our family, and you cannot find a family where nobody has died." The number of dead people in every family is more than the number of the living. Your fathers died, your forefathers died, and so on, and so forth -- since Adam and Eve people have been doing nothing but dying. The queue is so long behind each person -- of dead people. But she went from house to house and slowly, slowly, by the evening she became aware. Her tears dried up; she came back to Gautam Buddha, touched his feet, and said, "Forget about the boy, in this world everybody has to…
Osho, until you show some miracle, how can I accept you as Bhagwan?
These crude absurdities impress only fools. Miracles have never happened. The followers of Mahavira say that when he walked on the path, if thorns lay upright, the moment Mahavira approached, they turned themselves upside down. Thorns! Flowers aren’t that intelligent—what to say of thorns! People aren’t that intelligent—what to say of thorns! And if that is true, then what happened to the miracle when someone hammered nails into Mahavira’s ears? The nails should have leapt out and lodged themselves into the ears of the torturer! If thorns had that much intelligence, wouldn’t the nails? The followers of Buddha say that from a mountain a massive boulder was rolled down—with full calculation—so it would crush him as he meditated on the hillside. But a miracle occurred. The boulder came right up to Buddha, paused, spared him, and went on, altering its path slightly to leave him to one side, then resumed…
Beloved Osho, you really are too much! The other night you said that you don't do miracles, but this morning, in front of my own eyes, I saw old maitreya levitating when you danced with him. Isn't that a miracle?
Anando, I still say the same: I do not do miracles. But that does not mean that miracles don't happen. I was not doing anything, and Maitreya was levitating. I had to move quickly because if he levitates too much -- he is old and may get hit with the ceiling. A group of men gave a testimonial dinner to Goldberg, and after they had praised him for an hour, Goldberg finally got up to speak. "Gentlemen," he said, "when I came to this town forty-one years ago, I walked down a dirt road with one suit of clothes, one pair of shoes, carrying a dirty old suitcase. And to show you what hard work can do, along with the great opportunities this country can offer, today I own three banks, five apartment houses and ten oil wells!" Everybody applauded, and right after the dinner one salesman walked up to…