According to Osho, repentance has value only when it is not brooding over the unchangeable past, but a clear seeing that distills learning and renews commitment. Futile lament clouds the present; intelligent repentance extracts a 'ray of wisdom' and turns mistakes into vigilance, deeper prayer, and right action now. True contrition transforms energy into awareness and resolves, moving life forward; otherwise, it is just smoke.
Don’t cry over spilled milk; learn from it and use that lesson to be more awake and do better now.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, what is the most astonishing law in this world?
A Sufi story. A thief, at night, began to climb into a house through a window. The window frame gave way, he fell, and broke his leg. The next day he went to court and blamed the householder for his broken leg. The owner was summoned and said in his defense: The one responsible is the carpenter who made the window. The carpenter was called; he said the contractor who built the wall hadn’t made the windowed section strong enough. In his defense the contractor said: My mistake happened because of a woman who was passing by—she drew my attention away. When the woman was presented in court, she said: At that time I was wearing a very fine dress. Normally no one even looks at me. So the fault lies with the dress, which was so exquisitely sewn. The judge said: Then summon the tailor who sewed it; he…
Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS TRUE REPENTANCE? Ramakrishna said, "That is the trouble: when you take the dip in the Ganges your sins jump out and sit on the trees, and they wait for you. How long can you remain in the water? The Ganges is really great and it does purify, but how long...? Finally, you will have to come out, and the moment you come out -- those sins are sitting on the trees, they jump on you. And sometimes it happens that somebody else's sins also jump on you -- just for a change they enjoy it. Those trees are full of sins. So you can go, but beware of the trees." The man said, "This is very difficult. How long can I remain in the water? Finally I have to come out, and I have to pass under those trees.
Now he asks: “What should I do now? How do I get rid of this remorse?”
Amrit Chaitanya, what is gone is gone. The one who loses his way in the morning but returns home by evening is not called lost. Don’t waste time in remorse now. One better than the other! First you wasted it in politics, now you’ll waste it in repentance. At least don’t waste it in repentance. Why repent? Perhaps it was necessary—otherwise you would have heard me then. Some taste, some attachment, some inner race must still have been alive in you. Perhaps it was necessary for you to go into politics. So what I told you then is understood now. Good. If you understand it now, that is what matters. If it wasn’t understood then, no problem. Perhaps I said it before its time. Perhaps the time wasn’t ripe then. You heard me, but how could you understand? Without passing through the turmoil of politics, my words would not have…
Osho, in almost all the so‑called religions, especially Christianity, atonement is regarded as a great religious virtue. But yesterday you said that atonement is simply anger standing on its head. Please say more in this context!
She said, “Tell them what! It’s been three hours. Do you think I remember what started it? Was I sitting with a notebook? One thing led to another, and now we’re God‑knows‑where. So what of it!” This “remorse” is simply reinstalling the ego’s statue. The ego fell—once again you did what you had resolved not to do. How to enthrone the statue again? Atonement is the art of reinstalling the idol: “All right—let’s repent, let’s atone. We are very, very sorry.” But even in that sorrow there is a web of ego. All religions have invented such devices. In Hinduism: go bathe in the Ganga. It’s convenient. Why repent every day? Every few years, or when the Kumbha Mela comes in twelve years, take one dip—twelve years wiped clean! Now write freely again on the slate—abuse and all, whatever you fancy. Begin again with Sri Ganeshaya Namah. And why worry?…
Question: First question: Osho, isn’t prayer nothing but repentance? Prayer is spontaneous. From within you a quiver of joy rises and spreads across worlds and horizons. From within you a feeling of bliss arises and you start dancing. A sense of supreme blessedness—that in this vast mystery, this existence, I too am! I—whose being was never necessary. I—without whom the world would run perfectly well—perhaps even better. I—who have no worthiness. And yet I am! In this incomparable existence, there is a place for me too! I am blessed. I am grateful. One who bows down in such gratitude, as branches laden with fruit bend down—one who is laden with the fruits of gratitude and whose branches have bent, bowed by the weight of blossoms—not because of any set, well-worn prayer, but from his own direct experience—in that bowing a stream of nectar will flow.