According to Osho, saints have not 'portrayed' life as sorrow; they simply saw it as it is: saturated with suffering. Calling this pessimism mistakes diagnosis for depiction. Our polite denials ('I'm fine') are self-deception. Until the divine is realized, 'all is well' is untrue. Honest recognition of suffering is realism and the doorway to genuine transformation.
Saints aren’t gloomy; they’re just telling the truth that life hurts until we find the divine, and pretending otherwise only tricks us.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, why have the saints always portrayed life as sorrow? Is this pessimism justified?
The saints have not portrayed life as sorrow. The saints looked into life and found it to be sorrow. That is not a “portrayal.” They never tried to prove that life is sorrow; they saw it—and it was sorrow. Now, if a thorn pierces your foot and you say, “I feel pain,” will anyone object, “Why are you depicting it like that? This is pessimism”? Someone has a festering ulcer, is in excruciating pain, and says, “I am suffering.” And you say, “Don’t describe it like that; that’s pessimism. One ought to be an optimist—say the ulcer gives you great joy!” What will change by saying so? The saints looked at life and described it as it is. That is not a philosophy of the saints—that life is sorrow; it is their experience that life is of the nature of suffering. Leave the saints aside—what is your experience? Just examine…
Osho, you said that if even a little thirst has arisen and even a little courage, surrender to God. But how can a surrender done out of fear lead to fearlessness?
Resolve is the effort of a miserly mind. Surrender is a wholly different matter. Resolve stands near the ego. And now and then a rare person has reached by resolve. One can arrive by resolve too; but in the last moment he must drop his immense ego—and that is very difficult. Once in a while some Mahavira succeeds; that is why I say it is right to call Mahavira by that name—for hardly anyone ever succeeds on that journey. It is very difficult. Difficult because first you build up the ego, refine it; you take everything into your own hands. And in the final moment, when all has ripened, when the ego has been fashioned in its subtlest form, hard as a diamond—so that it can cut through all things and nothing can cut through it—at that very moment you must surrender. At that moment you have to let go…
Osho, why is there so much secrecy in the ashram?
The ashram is not a marketplace; it is not open to the crowd. Here I am available to those few who genuinely want to be transformed. Sightseers, passersby—there is no purpose in their coming here. The invitation is only for those who have truly come close to transformation, for that small number. Therefore there is privacy in every respect. And the privacy will increase. Because as I see that more of the unnecessary can be sifted out, I will sift them out—since they themselves gain nothing, and by their presence they do not let others gain either. I have remained open to all for a long time and have seen what happens. I found that the crowd of the pointless becomes so thick that the meaningful person gets no chance at all. The merely curious surround so much that the true inquirer is left standing at the back. The mumukshu—the…
Smiling is not acceptable. That is why people look so sad, so weary, carrying such loads. Mountains sit on their chests; centuries of burden press on their heads. They can hardly walk and yet they crawl on. They won’t put the load down, because if they set it down, they themselves start to doubt: “Do I remain?” Because your burden is you. And if you lay it down, others also begin to doubt: “What happened to you? You’re laughing a lot today—have you started taking bhang or ganja? You look very cheerful—haven’t you fallen into some delusion?” And not only do others doubt; you doubt within: “What’s this freshness today? Something’s wrong—things aren’t as they should be.” If one morning you were suddenly to find yourself in samadhi, would you believe it? Here it happens sometimes. Suddenly a flood of samadhi overtakes someone.
Osho, why is life nothing but suffering? What kind of life has God created?
Awaken a little. Search a little. Who told you life is nothing but sorrow? Your so-called renouncers and ascetics keep saying such futile things: “Life is only suffering, only thorns—everything is bad. Renounce it. Run away. Leave it.” But be careful: whoever renounces life, whoever leaves life, insults God. He is an atheist, not a theist. Why do I say this? I say it after deep reflection. If you love the painter, how can you renounce his painting? If you love the sculptor, how can you renounce his sculpture? If you love the musician, you will carry his veena upon your head in reverence. If God created this existence, how can you renounce it? In renunciation there is complaint against God: “What have you made?” In renunciation is the declaration: “We know better than you what the world should be like—given a chance, we would have made a better world.…