According to Osho, if your marriage has been almost entirely misery for years, leave it—sooner is better. Marriage is a mix of joy and pain; if it’s roughly fifty–fifty, stay, but a hundred-percent misery is neurotic. Don’t hide behind God or ideals: God isn’t a sadist. If joy never happened, the 'divorce' merely acknowledges no real marriage existed.
If your marriage is only making you suffer, it’s okay to leave—don’t stay from religious guilt; choose some real joy in life.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
I want to divorce my husband. We have lived in misery for seven years now, but I am a catholic and I am afraid that god is not going to be happy about it. What should I do?
THAT IS GOD'S PROBLEM. Why should you be worried about it? If he does not feel good he can live in misery -- but why should YOU live in misery? Seven years is really too long to have lived in it. Never live in any state of misery for too long, because then it becomes habitual. Then you start, deep down, liking it; then deep down you start clinging to it. Then you become afraid -- if it is lost what will you do? You will not have anything to do. Your misery was giving you such great occupation, you were continuously busy with it. If suddenly misery disappears what are you going to do? You will feel very empty. Always remember, the moment you become aware that something simply creates misery, get out of it -- the sooner the better. If your love relationship, your marriage, gives you both…
Osho, what do you say about divorce?
Mahesh, SOME GREAT PHILOSOPHER said about divorce -- I forget the philosopher's name, in fact I forget what he said -- but I say divorce is useless. You get married for lack of judgment, get divorced for lack of patience, then you remarry for lack of memory. In fact marriage is wrong. Once marriage disappears from the world, divorce will disappear of its own accord! I am against divorce -- I want divorce to disappear from the world absolutely; but the only way to do it is to destroy marriage completely. The last question
Question: BELOVED OSHO, CAN I EVER BE HAPPY WITH MY WIFE? Husbands and wives are protecting each other, guarding, detecting. They are not friends but enemies, trying to prove in every possible way who the master is. How can you be happy with your wife, Girdharilal Jain? If you are a husband you cannot be happy. The very word "husband" is ugly; it comes from husbandry. The wife is thought to be like a field and you are the farmer; you have to sow the seeds -- the wife is just like a field. You are the owner, the sower of the seeds, the reaper of the crops, and she is just the earth. We should change our language. Very ugly words still go on being used. "Husband" is an ugly word; it should be dropped from all languages. The wife and the husband should come to a better understanding.
Osho! Should I get married or not? And should I marry by my own choice, or according to my family's wishes?
Closing the window, the gatekeeper said, "Go to hell. There is no place here for madmen." One mistake can be forgiven, because how else will a man know it is a mistake unless he makes it? So, Rakesh, make the mistake once—the gate of heaven will not close because of that. But don't go on piling mistake upon mistake, because heaven does not open for madmen. One mistake is natural. Make new mistakes—the only way to learn. But don't repeat the same mistakes again and again. Nasruddin has been married for thirty years. One morning his wife said, "Mulla, remember—today it has been thirty years. It's our wedding anniversary. How shall we celebrate it? What's your idea? Wouldn't it be nice if we slaughter the rooster we've been raising for six months?" Nasruddin said, "How fair is it to punish a rooster for an accident that happened thirty years ago?…
If it is not there, you are believing in a gun which has no bullets and any moment you are going to be in trouble. The gun is empty, so the sooner you realise that, the sooner you can make some other arrangements. Otherwise it will be too late. Come to a point where you can be absolutely clear and certain about whether you love or not. If you don't love there is no point in being together: separate. Other considerations should not be brought in; they are all cowardly arguments. You are not here to suffer for your whole life and she is not here to suffer. So why create suffering for each other? It is pointless. Separate -- and separate in a friendly way. What is the point of continuously fighting? Since you have been here there has been continuous fighting.