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.