According to Osho, rising misery and tension are the inevitable result of centuries of religious conditioning that installs an omniscient Creator and makes humans shirk responsibility. Belief in a supervising God infantilizes us, stifles our intelligence and creativity, and breeds passivity. Remove the fictitious God, accept full responsibility, and become creators; only then can anguish dissolve into a rich, blissful, transformative life.
We're miserable because we wait for an imaginary boss to fix life instead of taking charge ourselves; when we own it and create, things get better.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, why is the world so sick today? Why are misery and tension increasing?
It is the outcome of all the idiotic ideas that have dominated humanity in the past. It was bound to happen. All the religions are responsible for it. What they have done, whether knowingly or unknowingly, is the cause of the misery, suffering and anguish of the whole of humanity. Let us think of the most fundamental causes one by one. The first: All the religions have been imposing the idea that God has created the world and God is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. He knows all, he is all-powerful, he is everywhere. This idea prevented man from doing anything to life to make it better, beautiful. When somebody all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere present, is looking after the world, then what can you do? How far can you see? What can be your contribution? If God is the creator of the world, you cannot improve upon it. If you do anything you…
Osho, why is the world in so much misery? Why can't we all be just as blissful as you always are?
He did not die, but I had taken a risky decision. My father stopped telling me to do things from that day. I said, "You can suggest, you cannot order. You have to learn to be polite to your own son, because as far as our beings are concerned, who is father and who is son? You don't possess me, I don't possess you; it is just an accidental meeting of two strangers. You had no idea to whom you were going to give birth. I had no idea who was going to be my father, my mother. It is just an accidental meeting on the roads. "Don't try to exploit the situation. Don't take advantage because you are powerful, you have money, and I don't have anything. And don't force me, because this is ugly. You suggest to me. You can always give me a suggestion that 'this is…
Question: OSHO, WHY IS HUMANITY TODAY BECOMING MORE AND MORE MISERABLE? Even the person who commits suicide is not against life. Perhaps he is hoping the next life will be better. He is so tired of all this suffering and anguish that he thinks, "In this life there is no chance, so why not take a chance? This life is not giving you anything and is not going to give you anything -- take the chance. If you survive and enter into another life, perhaps...." That "perhaps", that lingering desire, is still in the man who is committing suicide. He may be committing suicide against anything, but he is not committing suicide against life itself.
Beloved Osho, why don't we drop our miseries, our ignorance and unhappiness? How can a man be happy and blissful?
When you go outside in the sun your eyes become smaller, the window shrinks, because the sun is too much and there is no need to take that much light in. When you come home, slowly the eyes again open to their normal size. But when you see something beautiful, they become wider, wide open. It is not in your hands, it is not that you are doing it. Even a saint will have to do it because it is not a voluntary thing. It is non-voluntary, it happens on its own accord. It is biologically set up. You have this word in English, `respect'. People have destroyed its meaning. It does not mean `honor' -- or it means honor in a very different way than you understand. `Respect' means the desire to see again, re-spect -- spect means seeing. If it is honor, it is honor for beauty --…
Beloved Osho, why do I always feel so miserable? Have I ever really let you in? The moment I sit in front of you, all is gone. What is happening? Can't you take it all away?
Marpa heard about a master. He was searching and he went to the master, he surrendered to the master, he trusted totally. And he asked the master, "What am I supposed to do now?" The master said, "Once you have surrendered to me, you are not supposed to do anything. Just believe in me. My name is the only secret mantra for you. Whenever you are in difficulty, just remember my name and everything will be all right." Marpa touched his feet. And he tried it immediately -- he was such a simple man. He walked on the river. Other disciples who had been with the master for years could not believe it -- he was walking on the water! They reported to the master that, "That man, you have not understood him. He is no ordinary man, he is walking on water!" The master said, "What?" They all ran…