According to Osho, your causeless guilt is conditioning from “good” parents and priests who condemned joy and glorified misery; their voices now echo inside you, so happiness triggers shame. Guilt is pathology, not conscience. Drop it—disidentify from parental/priestly voices, unlearn no-centered conditioning, and reclaim celebration as virtue. A truly religious life is cheerful, not solemn; let joy guide you, not inherited prohibitions.
You feel guilty for no reason because you were taught that being happy is wrong—ignore those old voices and allow yourself to enjoy life.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
I always feel guilty even though there is no apparent cause. Why?
And she has created guilt. The child will go but now she will be creating guilt in the child. See, the child will go, and I'm all for the child, he should go, such mothers should not be listened to -- but now a problem will be created. The child will go outside as a thief, feeling guilty, heart palpitating, perspiring, always afraid that somebody might see. And he is not doing any sin, he is just playing in the sun. By and by this guilt will settle. Whenever he asked to go out he was told no and whenever he went out it was a crime against the mother. Now the guilt settles. Now suddenly, when you are forty years old, one day sitting outside on the lawn you feel guilty for no reason at all -- for no apparent reason. The sun is there and the butterflies are…
Why does religion create so much guilt?
Religion does not create guilt -- if it creates guilt it is not religion. Yes, Mohammedanism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, they create guilt. Let that be your definition of religion: if it creates guilt it is not a religion. It is something else pretending, something else garbed as religion, posing as religion -- but it is not religion. Religion creates celebration, not guilt. These are hidden things which don't want to expose themselves. These so-called religions are more political than religious. Their whole idea, desire, ambition, is how to dominate people, how to control people. And naturally, guilt is one of the best mechanisms ever evolved to control people, to dominate people. Make them feel guilty! Once they start feeling guilty they are in your control. All dictators do that, all politicians do that. And your priest is just a politician behind the mask. The popes, the SHANKARACHARYAS, are all politicians;…
Beloved Osho, I feel so guilty when wanting to express myself and when I finally take courage to do so, it feels more like a no to others than a yes to myself. Then the guilt returns because of this. Postponement or defiance are the only ways I know but they seem part of a circle anyway. Beloved master, is there a way to transform guilt?
I said, "Just sit down. How, by cutting your hair, can your religion be destroyed?" He said, "I don't want to listen to anything. It is written in the scriptures, and I don't want to listen to anything against my scriptures. So please, give me my kachchha and I am going." Because while I was cutting his hair, I thought it would be good to take his kachchha also. So I pulled his kachchha out and he was so deeply asleep.... I said, "Kachchha? Who has taken your kachchha? You never take a bath -- I can say that my chauffeur is within a one mile radius, your kachchha sends such disgusting radiations. If somebody has taken it, be finished with it!" He said, "No, it is my religion! And first I want to know who the person is." And he had his sword in his hand. I said, "Calm…
Why is it that 'going with the flow' makes me feel guilty? Please talk about guilt . It is the guilt factor that makes floating so unattractive.
The child wants to enjoy everything, and the parents are guilt-ridden. The child wants to shout and he enjoys shouting; that is his expression, that is his creativity. That shout, if helped and not destroyed, will become his song -- that is the beginning of the song. But we stop him. We say, "Don't shout! This is ugly, this is bad, this is unmannerly. This is not done in the society. You belong to a famous family, you belong to a great, respectable family -- you should not do this. This is okay for the urchins, but not for you. You represent us: look how serious we are. We never shout -- and you are shouting?" And the child was enjoying the shouting so much. In fact, when you stop him shouting you have condemned his joy -- that's what he will understand deep down, existentially. What will happen to…
I am always feeling guilty as if I have committed great crimes. How can I drop this guilt? It is destroying me and all the possibilities to live my life joyously.
My approach is Dionysian, I am a disciple of Dionysius: Live and love life. Enjoy this occasion as deeply as possible, as totally as possible, and out of this living experience you will grow. A maturity will come to you; you will ripen and you will carry the fragrance with you. That fragrance is heaven. Nobody goes to heaven -- those who go to heaven, they have to carry their heaven in their heart. Nobody goes to hell -- those who go to hell, they have to carry their hell in their heart. I have heard: A man died -- a very rich man, a very politically powerful man, very cruel, very ambitious. The whole town went to give him the final send-off. People were feeling really happy that the calamity was gone, that this plague was gone -- the procession was big. And when the procession was moving slowly…