According to Osho, failure is inevitable in the world because 'world' means our unconscious, dream-like state; whatever we gain here is illusory and actions done in stupor go wrong. Intoxications—of power, wealth, ego—keep us asleep, so apparent successes cannot fulfill. Only awakening—through watchfulness and meditation—ends this cycle by dissolving the dream and revealing reality.
We fail because we act like sleepwalkers chasing dream-things; wake up and be aware to stop stumbling.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: Fourth question: Osho, why is failure inevitable in the world? The nature of the world. The nature of dream. A dream is not real; therefore there can be no success in a dream. You are asking a question like someone who mistakes the word “food” written on paper for actual food; he tears pages from a cookbook, chews them, and says, “The cookbook contains every kind of dish—then why doesn’t chewing its pages satisfy me?” “Food” written on paper is not food. Money found in a dream is not money. Whatever is obtained in the world is not truly obtained—only seems so. Because you are asleep—and your being asleep is what is called the world. What does “world” mean? These trees, this moon, these stars, this sun, these people—is this the world? Then you have misunderstood.
Osho, this “total surrender” you speak of—the worldly people are never going to accept it. Otherwise a man seems like a sadhu, even a madman, not civilized... If he works with discernment, with a little intelligence, it’s fine; otherwise he’ll be a failure everywhere.
Our trouble is this: we are proceeding on the assumption that success will happen—therefore we fear failure. What I am saying is that we are taking it for granted that success must be. And we never ask how success could exist without failure. Success and failure are the two legs of the same mind. The person who succeeds will also fail—daily. Today he’ll win an election; tomorrow he’ll lose. Today people will praise; tomorrow they’ll condemn. Today he’ll be up; tomorrow down. Lao Tzu used to say: never climb to a place from which you will have to fall. But our desire is to climb precisely to the place from which all have fallen and we alone will not; to climb where no one has ever managed to climb. Our desire is to reach the very place where whoever climbed fell—and there I should not fall: that is what we…
Osho, is it only disappointment that one finds in the world? Is it utterly futile to keep hope?
A little boy asks his old granny, “Granny, can you croak?” She says, “Yes, son, why not?” The boy says, “Then croak, please! Because mom was saying: ‘When that old woman croaks we’ll get lots of money.’” But the child can be forgiven; he understood as much as he could. He thinks it’s only a matter of saying “croak”—say it and we’ll get money. He doesn’t know what lies behind death. But even grown-ups behave the same way. Neither do you understand what is said to you, nor do you understand what you see. As long as mind is there, you deform everything. Only free of mind does truth begin to appear. Then this world is wondrous. Then it is not maya. Your mind has made it appear as maya. Your mind has cast the net of illusion upon it. Bhartrihari left palace and home for the forest to meditate.…
Beloved Osho, why do I feel that I have failed? Is it because I still hanker to be perfect, superhuman, special? Osho, please don't spare me anything!
Surabhi, the answer that I gave to Suraj Prakash is also the answer for you. Only people who want to be somewhere, somebody, have to suffer the sadness of failure. But a person who never wants to be anybody, never wants to be anywhere else, cannot suffer the sadness of failure -- he is always successful, just like me. From my very childhood, my parents, my well-wishers, my neighbors, my teachers, everybody was saying that, "You are going to be utterly worthless, a good-for-nothing." I said, "If that is my destiny, I am perfectly happy. Why should I try to be somebody else? Utterly useless? -- perfectly good! Good for nothing? I don't see anything wrong in it." And they would say, "Can't you ever talk reasonably?" I said, "It is just a question of reason. Whatever is going to happen, I am going to be successful.... Because I have…
Osho, I never want what I get; I reject it. I always want what is not given to me; this I try to get. I never feel satisfied with what I have, I always want something else. And I never say what I really want. L suffer much from this but, it seems, not enough as I still cling to it. Can you please say something about this?
THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD IS MADE. The world is a great device of God. Just as Masters create small devices for the disciples, God creates the ultimate device for all beings. The world is a device. It was Christmas time and a professor, a professor of philosophy and logic, went to a toyshop with his wife to purchase something beautiful, a new toy, for their only child as a Christmas gift. They tried many toys but they were all old, a little bit modified here and there. The shopkeeper, seeing that they were not satisfied, went inside the store and brought out an absolutely new toy they had never seen before. It was a jigsaw puzzle. He said, "This is the latest and the best -- you MUST like it." They tried to fit the jigsaw puzzle together. First the wife tried -- ladies first. She failed, she…