Why do I feel the need for approval and recognition in my work?

Beloved Osho, why is it that I feel I need to have approval and be recognized, in my work especially? It puts me in a trap -- I cannot do without it. I know I am in this trap but I am caught in it and I cannot seem to get out of it. Can you help me be able to find the door?

While I was teaching in the university, the same thing came about from a different angle. Now I was asking the students questions to bring to their attention that all the knowledge that they have gathered is borrowed, and they know nothing. I told them that I don't care about their degrees, I care about their authentic experience -- and they don't have any. They are simply repeating books which are out of date; long ago they have been proved wrong. Now the authorities of the university were threatening me, "If you continue in this way, harassing students, you will be thrown out of the university." I said, "This is strange -- I was a student and I could not ask questions to the professors; now I am a professor and I cannot ask questions to the students! So what function is this university fulfilling? It should be a place…

Beloved Osho, I am aware of my need for approval and acceptance from others. I don't want to be driven by this need. How does it resolve?

Drop all this nonsense! You are already approved of, otherwise you could not have been here. God has accepted you, given birth to you. If van Gogh paints, whatsoever painting he creates is already approved of -- otherwise he would not have created it in the first place. If Picasso paints something, in the very painting, the painting is approved of. The painter has put his heart into it. Just go deeper into your own being -- God has put all the treasures that you need there. He has approved of you, accepted you. He is happy that you are! But you don't look there. You are asking from others like a beggar: Approve of me! -- and they are also beggars just like you. Beggars asking beggars. Even if they approve of you a little, they will wait for you to approve of them. It is going to be…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHY IS IT THAT WE WANT APPROVAL? It is simple. from the very beginning a child is told what is right, what is wrong. He is never given freedom to choose on his own. He is taught principles; he is not allowed to enquire and to find out himself. And of course, whenever he does anything on his own, he is disapproved of by the family, by the society, by the school, by everybody. He becomes shaky. Just to do anything on your own is not accepted by the society. You need approval for everything. When I was a small child, as far back as I can remember, I could not understand it. I said, "It is my life, I am going to live it. You have lived your life. Why should you impose things upon me?

Osho, you say that it is enough for us to just be, that we don't need to do anything to be in god. I have this gut-feeling that I need to do to be worthy, to contribute, to give something. And you say that god is within me. I realize I am looking inside for some concept I got from the outside. It is like looking down into a well in the night. I see reflections and I think it is the bottom, but it is only the surface. Even when I know need only let and wait rather than look for anything, I am still waiting for my own concepts of what should happen. Please comment.

And this has been so with all the geniuses: in their own time they are condemned -- condemned by the masses, condemned by the crowd, condemned by the priests, condemned by the politicians. They are appreciated by only very few people -- sensitive, receptive, intelligent -- only by very few people who have the capacity to see something that is new, unknown, that has never happened before; only by very few people who can put their minds aside and look. I would like you to be creative, but don't be bothered about appreciation, don't be bothered that you will be gaining fame, name through it. Whenever the motive is to gain something out of creativity, you are no more interested in it. You become a technician; you are no more an artist. You may do the painting, and you may do it perfectly, technically perfectly, but it will not have…

Always feel that whatsoever you feel good, is good. If you feel good in being after approval, nothing is wrong. Let it be! If you feel good, then what is wrong in performing? I think you are against happiness or something. What is wrong in performance? Do it well, that's all. Be a good actor. Always remember that ultimately what counts is your happiness. If you feel good, then why not? If you don't feel good, then drop it; there is no point. The problem arises because something makes you feel good and you condemn it for some other reason -- for example, that it is a performance. But everything is a performance. The whole existence is a performance... God performing and enjoying it. Otherwise why should He do it? He should have stopped long before; it seems He cannot stop. No -- He is enjoying tremendously.