According to Osho, the very premise is mistaken: he never set out to seek 'goodness,' so tales of encountering goodness or evil are irrelevant. His journey is not about collecting moral experiences but seeing through such dualities. When one lives in awareness, good and evil are seen as mind-made labels, and authentic goodness flowers unforced.
He didn’t go looking for ‘good’ or ‘bad’; he looked beyond those labels.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, you just said that the world is divided into two parts: goodness and evil. You left India in search of goodness. On your last journey, how much goodness and how much evil did you encounter?
Which fool told you that I went out in search of goodness—or is that your own invention?
Question: BELOVED OSHO, YOU ARE GOOD WHEN YOU ARE FULLY AWAKE IN YOUR SPEECH. YET YOU ARE NOT EVIL WHEN YOU SLEEP WHILE YOUR TONGUE STAGGERS WITHOUT PURPOSE. AND EVEN STUMBLING SPEECH MAY STRENGTHEN A WEAK TONGUE. YOU ARE GOOD WHEN YOU WALK TO YOUR GOAL FIRMLY AND WITH BOLD STEPS. YET YOU ARE NOT EVIL WHEN YOU GO THITHER LIMPING. EVEN THOSE WHO LIMP GO NOT BACKWARD. BUT YOU WHO ARE STRONG AND SWIFT, SEE THAT YOU DO NOT LIMP BEFORE THE LAME, DEEMING IT KINDNESS. YOU ARE GOOD IN COUNTLESS WAYS, AND YOU ARE NOT EVIL WHEN YOU ARE NOT GOOD, YOU ARE ONLY LOITERING AND SLUGGARD. PITY THAT THE STAGS CANNOT TEACH SWIFTNESS TO THE TURTLES. IN YOUR LONGING FOR YOUR GIANT SELF LIES YOUR GOODNESS: AND THAT LONGING IS IN ALL OF YOU.
Osho, yesterday it was said that there is a balance of good and evil in the world. The two are always equal in measure. When one evil is erased, some good also diminishes. If this balance is never going to change, then what is the purpose of sadhana?
Arjuna too is afflicted with this same duality. What is his question, his concern, his entanglement? It is this very entanglement. He sees that this war is evil: people will die, there will only be killing, blood will flow. Who knows how many women will be widowed, how many children orphaned. Sorrow and wailing will spread from house to house. This is bad. So he says to Krishna: let me drop this evil. This does not seem like something to do. Better I go to the forest, take sannyas, become detached, renounce everything—drop the bad and hold to the good. And what is Krishna explaining to him? That is why Krishna’s message, while simple, is exceedingly difficult. Krishna is explaining: as long as you think, “This is bad, I should drop it; this is good, I should do it,” you will remain in confusion. Drop the very notion of karma.…
Osho, you said... then you will find that the devotee is God. The question arises: if one devotee prefers to be God and another wants to remain only a devotee, then which of the two is superior?
The one who wants to be God will not be able to be. And the one who wants to remain a devotee will become God. The question of superior or inferior does not arise, because only one of the two will happen. The one who does not want to be will be. The one who wants to be will be deprived. That very wanting is of the ego. But the matter is a little delicate. Sometimes humility too belongs to the ego. Beware that your humility may not be of the ego. Perhaps you are saying, “No, I don’t want to be,” because you know that those who refuse are the ones who attain. Then you are clever. Then your humility is adulterous. Your humility is not pure, not sacred, not virginal—it is like a prostitute. The one who wants to be God, whose ego says, “I must become God,”…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, AND ONE OF THE ELDERS OF THE CITY SAID, SPEAK TO US OF GOOD AND EVIL. AND HE ANSWERED: OF THE GOOD IN YOU I CAN SPEAK, BUT NOT OF THE EVIL. FOR WHAT IS EVIL BUT GOOD TORTURED BY ITS OWN HUNGER AND THIRST? VERILY WHEN GOOD IS HUNGRY IT SEEKS FOOD EVEN IN DARK CAVES, AND WHEN IT THIRSTS IT DRINKS EVEN OF DEAD WATERS. YOU ARE GOOD WHEN YOU ARE ONE WITH YOURSELF. YET WHEN YOU ARE NOT ONE WITH YOURSELF YOU ARE NOT EVIL. FOR A DIVIDED HOUSE IS NOT A DEN OF THIEVES; IT IS ONLY A DIVIDED HOUSE. AND A SHIP WITHOUT RUDDER MAY WANDER AIMLESSLY AMONG PERILOUS ISLES YET SINK NOT TO THE BOTTOM. YOU ARE GOOD WHEN YOU STRIVE TO GIVE OF YOURSELF. YET YOU ARE NOT EVIL WHEN YOU SEEK GAIN FOR YOURSELF.