According to Osho, he called Shri Poonamchand-bhai a fool because Poonamchand took sannyas for the wrong, worldly reasons—hoping for a miracle cure for his eyes—then abandoned it after projecting a 'be free' message onto a photo, freeing himself only from sannyas while clinging to wife, wealth, fears and superstitions. He thus became 'free of freedom' and tried to justify it intellectually.
He chased a miracle, misunderstood ‘freedom,’ dropped the path meant to free him, and kept all his attachments—so Osho called that foolish.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, why did you call Shri Poonamchand-bhai a fool? I’m an Ahmedabadi too, so I’m asking.
These are all the talk of fools. Now the wife is clever. She was already after him; now she devised another trick—the ghost. He got scared of the ghost too. He came running to me: “What am I to do about this ghost! My wife is haunted by her dead sister; she is at it.” I said: Do you see her? He said: I don’t see her. I said: Then why get into this nonsense? Let it be with your wife. If your wife doesn’t want to take sannyas, let her be. Why are you getting upset? But he said: She chews my head twenty-four hours a day that until you drop sannyas her sister won’t leave her alone; she is troubling her. I said: That’s quite a clever ploy! Now he says: “Get me freed from this ghost somehow.” I said: If I start getting into these hocus-pocuses, is…
Question: First question: Osho, in the Srimad Bhagavatam there is this verse: yas ca mūḍhatamo loke yas ca buddheḥ paraṁ gataḥ | tau ubhau sukhamevaite kliśyaty antarito janaḥ || “In this world, the extremely foolish and the one who has gone beyond the intellect—both are at ease. But the one who is in between is afflicted.” Is it really so, Osho? Anand Maitreya! Certainly, it is so. “Fool” means asleep, without awareness—living, but not knowing why. He walks, gets up, sits down—mechanically. How a life passes by, when birth turns into death, when day fades into night—nothing is really noticed. One so unconscious cannot be aware of suffering. Where can the sense of suffering exist in unconsciousness? He endures suffering, but has no awareness of it; therefore he believes, “I am happy.” Almost everyone lives under this illusion that all is well. Ask anyone, “How are you?
Osho, Saint Paltu Das calls the one trapped in the world's false illusion (maya) a bumpkin, and he calls a fool the one who takes a step toward love. Then who is the wise one?
He called a bumpkin the one still entangled in the world; he has no awareness of what he is doing. “Bumpkin” is what the awakened, the ones who have come to their senses, call him—“Wake up!” And then, the one who is becoming absorbed in love of the Divine is called a fool, an idiot, a madman. Who calls him that? Those who are asleep. These are relative words. Both are spoken from two different sides. The first Paltu says from his own side: “Wake up now, you bumpkin! Enough—wake up!” The second he says in irony, in jest, in humor. He says: Look, if you wake up, wake up knowingly, because this is the work of “madmen.” The world will call you mad. The world will laugh. The world will say, “His brain is deranged.” Your position and prestige will go. Your honor and respect will go. The very…
Osho, why do Shankara and you, before telling us to sing the praises of Govinda, always address us as fools?
Edison said, people say I know a great deal. My condition is like that of a small child on the seashore who has gathered a few shells and conches. That is the extent of my knowledge—just a few shells in my fists—while the vast ocean lies there, unknown to me. Your little knowledge seems very big to you! You have lit a small lamp; its flickering light falls a little around you, a small area gets illuminated—and you call this knowledge! And the infinite lies there filled with darkness; you have no awareness of it! When you understand your foolishness, you will say, “Is this knowledge—the flicker of a tiny lamp!” The infinite lies ahead to journey through, to explore, to search—and I, clutching these shells in my hands, am posing as a wise man! Then you will drop even this “knowledge.” And the day you know that you are…
Osho, on seeing and understanding what did you give even someone as foolish as me a place in the ashram? For what?
The question is from Krishna Priya. That’s why. One who becomes aware of their foolishness is no longer a fool. The real fools are those who imagine themselves wise, who think they know. When the remembrance arises, “I am a fool,” a ray begins to enter one’s life; dawn draws near; the night starts breaking. “I don’t know”—this is the first step toward knowing. “I know”—this creates an obstruction. Hence learned scholars never reach the divine. Simple-hearted people, plain, guileless, who make no claims, who have no support from scriptures, no grip on doctrines, who say, “We don’t know anything”—such people arrive quickly. You ask: “On what seeing and understanding did you grant even someone as foolish as me a place in the ashram?” Exactly this—that you are not a scholar. And if there is awareness of foolishness, foolishness will break. There are things that die through awareness. As when,…