What purpose do ego, jealousy, and hatred serve in human life?

Osho, it is surprising that among animals there is hardly any hypocrisy or deceit, and among indigenous people it is also very little, whereas in the so-called educated and civilized society it is at its peak. Has humanity’s long and arduous journey from barbarism to civilization then gone in vain? And in that case, is the tribal order preferable?

Animals are without falseness, without hypocrisy—not because they have achieved something, but because they are incapable. They cannot be hypocrites; there is no way for them to be. They have no facility for being bad, no possibility of falling. But precisely because an animal cannot fall, it also cannot ascend to divinity. One who cannot fall cannot rise. And where there is no possibility of sin, there is no possibility of the divine either. The animal is in a kind of stupor; it does as nature makes it do. Its journey is mechanical. It has no free will. Therefore an animal cannot do evil, but it cannot do good either. It simply does what nature impels. It has no individuality of its own. Hence an animal can be neither wicked nor virtuous, neither a great sinner nor a great saint. An animal remains an animal. The animal is born complete.…

Osho, you say that in life nothing is without cause or in vain, everything has its use. We can see the use of desire and fear. Would you kindly tell us what, in the same way, is the use of jealousy, malice, and hatred?

A Buddha passes along your path and you feel no jealousy—it should arise; and then jealousy will become auspicious. Your very life-breath should fill with jealousy—it should. Someone became a Buddha? People came, sat, even rose and left; you only kept hunting for a seat? Spring came and went, and you kept thinking—where to build a nest, where not? Seeing Buddhas, does no jealousy arise? It should. Then jealousy too becomes auspicious, meaningful. Then a flare will ignite in your life. Your whole life will be infused with a new movement. Your gloom will break, your lethargy will shatter—someone has shaken you. A storm came and passed. What you could have become, someone has become; why have you not? But your jealousy takes wrong paths. Someone passes in a car and jealousy grabs you: I too should have such a car. Even if you get it, not much will happen.…

Osho, how can I take sannyas? I cannot get jealousy, ego, anger—anything at all—out of my mind. And you keep appearing before me day and night in dreams! What should I do?

Why does jealousy arise? Because someone seems to be getting ahead of you. Someone has bought a better sari, more beautiful jewelry, built a new house, gathered more money in a safe. Jealousy is born because your ego is bruised. A fire flares up inside, smoke begins to rise. You climb onto your own funeral pyre. Anxiety is born inside you. Anger means someone blocks your ego. You set out on a journey of conquest and someone stands in your way, a stone falls in your path because of someone, someone shoves you aside—someone becomes an obstacle. Anger erupts. Anger and jealousy are not very different—two sides of the same coin. Anger is a bit crude; jealousy a bit more civilized. I have heard a Rajasthani tale. A proud Rajput, full of swagger, would twirl his moustache all day long. His arrogance was such that he never allowed anyone else…

If jealousy makes you blissful (laughter) then follow it totally! Then that is the divine law! But I have never heard of anybody becoming blissful through jealousy, or through anger, or through violence, or through possessiveness, or through greed. These things have been making people live in hell -- but they cling to them. And by their clinging they make the hell bigger. The moment you feel misery entering in you, be alert! you have taken the wrong step, you have fallen out of life's law, you are no more in tune with it. Ritam also means rhythm. You have fallen out of rhythm, you have fallen out of harmony. This is how I define heaven and hell; hell is totally out of harmony with existence and heaven is totally in harmony with existence. And everybody has enough intelligence to know whether he is miserable or blissful.

Osho, does the ego have some elixir of life? Even on the verge of dying it seems to revive—who knows from where, how, and why?

Haven’t you seen that the harder it is to obtain the woman you fall in love with, the more your love seems to grow? Had Majnu got his Laila, you would never even have heard his name. The whole crux of the Majnu-Laila story is that he never got her. Quite possibly, had he got her, they would have ended in divorce. Stories proceed in strange ways. Because he did not get her, he kept weeping, aching, wandering deserts and mountains, calling “Laila, Laila!” Have you ever seen any husband doing that? Ask a husband and perhaps he hasn’t even properly looked at his wife’s face in twenty years. You too are a husband or a wife—try this: close your eyes and try to recall your spouse’s face. You will find it difficult. The faces of film actresses will come, but your wife’s face will not come clearly. And if…