According to Osho, utopia is an absolute necessity: it embodies our sacred discontent with the imposed status quo and ignites the will to create better education, relationships, and social structures. Utopian vision breaks the hypnosis of priests and politicians, resists fatalism, and fuels continual improvement. Because existence is never perfect, living utopically keeps humanity moving beyond exploitation toward ever-freer, more humane ways of living.
Wanting a better world (utopia) stops us from settling for unfair lives and motivates us to build kinder rules, schools, and relationships.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, what do you think about the sentence: "without utopias, nothing is going to get better." is it bullshit?
Once humanity gets free from all fetters and imprisonments, once we have made utopia a reality, then perhaps utopia may not be necessary. But I don't think so, because we can never make anything perfect. Perfection is not part of existence; everything remains imperfect. It goes on becoming better and better, it goes on coming closer and closer to perfection, but it never becomes perfect. And there is a reason, a very significant reason, why it is so: the moment anything becomes perfect, it dies. Perfection is death. The vice versa is not true. I am not saying that death is perfection; otherwise everybody who dies will become perfect. Death is not perfection, but perfection is certainly death, because once you bring anything to perfection, then growth stops. Then there is nothing more, nowhere to go, nothing else to do. Human energy needs a constant flow to remain alive. It…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT DO YOU SAY TO THE PEOPLE WHO CALL YOU A UTOPIAN? They are right -- just their idea of utopia is not right. They think that utopia is something which cannot be achieved; that's exactly the meaning of the word utopia. Sir Thomas More wrote a book called UTOPIA, in which he hopes for everything that man has always aspired to but has never been able to achieve. There have been revolutions, there have been attempts to make alternative societies; all have failed. But that does not mean that we have made every possible effort. I am reminded of Thomas Alva Edison. He was working on the electric bulb for three years continuously.
Beloved Osho, the longing for a better life, for a utopia, has been constantly in man's mind since he became aware of his consciousness. On the other hand he became more and more afraid of all his irrational powers. Can you please comment?
That's why marriage was created; otherwise it was easier for man not to have any marriage, because marriage was simply a responsibility -- of children, of a wife. When the woman is pregnant, then you have to feed her.... And there was no need to take all that responsibility. The woman was taking the whole responsibility. But the man wanted some immortality, and that his property should be possessed by his own blood. And the woman wanted some protection -- she was vulnerable. While she was pregnant, she could not work, she could not go hunting; she had to depend on somebody. So it was in the interest of both to have a contract that they would remain together, would not betray in any sense, because the whole thing was to keep the blood pure. So Marx's idea was that when communism comes, and property becomes collective, marriage becomes meaningless…
Beloved master, sir thomas moore's perfect society, "utopia," originates from the unexplained presence and insight of a man named utopias. Why do such visions for a harmonious society among men derive from such mysterious individuals? And why has the idea of a perfect society always fired man's imagination yet averted his grasp?
The question is not at all concerned with America, it is a question of forgiveness -- and I am going to be persecuted from one land to another land. If you cannot forgive the people who will be persecuting me, then your whole emptiness will become just wounds and wounds and wounds. So it is not a question of being kind to America. All the religions have told you, "Forgive the enemy." Jesus on the cross asked God, "Father forgive these people, because they know not what they are doing." I am not saying that. My concern is not those people, because I know perfectly well that they know exactly what they are doing. But forgiveness has something to do with your inner health. I am concerned with you! If you cannot forgive you will carry a wound. Forgive. Remove the wound. Be healed. Don't sow wrong seeds. Man can…
Osho, what chance is there for your ideal society in the face of the politicians and the priests and the vested interests of capital?
But people have been thinking how to improve society, how to make an ideal society. And these people have proved calamities. They have been a great mischief. Because of their ideal society they have destroyed people's respect for themselves, and they have created guilt in everybody. Everybody is guilty, nobody seems to be happy the way he is. And you can create guilt for anything -- and once guilt is created, you become powerful. The person who creates guilt in you becomes powerful over you -- remember this strategy -- because then only he can redeem you of guilt. Then you have to go to him. The priest first creates guilt, then you have to go to the church. Then you have to go and confess, "I have committed this sin," and he forgives you in the name of God. First in the name of God he created guilt, then…