According to Osho, apparent disagreements about destiny and self-effort arise because true knowers don't describe truth itself but prescribe in relation to the seeker. The ultimate cannot be fully spoken, so masters tailor their words to the listener's condition: to shatter ego they stress destiny; to rouse inertia they stress effort. Different patients need different medicines, hence seeming contradictions without any real divergence.
Wise teachers say different things because they give each person the medicine they need—fate talk for the proud, effort talk for the lazy.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, among those who know with certainty, some declare destiny to be supreme, some self-effort, and some say both. Why is this so? Why is there no unanimity even among them?
The emperor said, That is for you to worry about; but whoever is lazy will have the state’s protection. What is their fault? God made them lazy. They are living their life of laziness. They should have comfort and care. Those who act, manage somehow; but who belongs to the non-doer? He too should have someone. So you find out who is true and who is false. The proclamation was made and thousands began to come—whole villages. The ministers arranged a test. They built huts of straw and housed whoever came. And in the middle of the night they set the huts on fire. Everyone ran out. But four men remained sleeping under their blankets. Others tried to drag them out, but they said, Brother, don’t trouble us at midnight. People shouted, The huts are on fire, you fools! They replied, Let them burn—but don’t break our sleep. The ministers…
Osho, is sannyas a human possibility or an ultimate destiny? Please tell us.
Those great knowers said “it will happen, it is going to happen” and emphasized it strongly to wake you from sleep: if it is going to happen anyway, then let it happen now. Why delay? Why postpone it till tomorrow? If it is going to happen tomorrow, let it happen today. Why suffer till tomorrow? Why endure anguish till tomorrow? Let it be today. Accept it today. If it is going to be anyway, why erect obstacles? All your obstacles will break and the event will occur. The wise said: do not create obstacles—that was their purpose when they said sannyas is destiny. And they also said it so that, if you understand destiny, you will be freed from the past. The moment you see that someone abused you yesterday and that it was bound to happen, then the abuser bears no responsibility. It had to be. That abuse was…
Osho, you said... then you will find that the devotee is God. The question arises: if one devotee prefers to be God and another wants to remain only a devotee, then which of the two is superior?
The one who wants to be God will not be able to be. And the one who wants to remain a devotee will become God. The question of superior or inferior does not arise, because only one of the two will happen. The one who does not want to be will be. The one who wants to be will be deprived. That very wanting is of the ego. But the matter is a little delicate. Sometimes humility too belongs to the ego. Beware that your humility may not be of the ego. Perhaps you are saying, “No, I don’t want to be,” because you know that those who refuse are the ones who attain. Then you are clever. Then your humility is adulterous. Your humility is not pure, not sacred, not virginal—it is like a prostitute. The one who wants to be God, whose ego says, “I must become God,”…
Osho, awakened ones, considering place, time, circumstance, and the era-appropriate psychology of people, have expressed the same truth in very different forms. To the point that they appear mutually quite disputatious and even contradictory. Is an absolute expression of the ultimate truths of life and existence not possible? Will the limits of the age and the condition of the people always continue to be imposed upon truth?
Expression will always be limited. Expression will always be relative. The speaker and the listener—both create the boundaries of expression. I will say only what can be said. You will understand only what can be understood. Truth is vast. If I go to see the ocean and you say to me, “On your way back, bring a little of the ocean,” I will not be able to bring the whole ocean. I may bring a little water from it. But in that water much will be missing. There will be no storm of the ocean, no waves. And that was the real ocean: that tumultuous roar and fierce thunder! Waves crashing against cliffs! Those surges rising and spreading for miles! That swell! None of that will be there. I will bring a vessel filled with a little ocean water. Still, there will be something! If you taste it, it will…
One of the sannyasins has asked a question: WHAT IS MISSING IN COMMUNISM?
If you really want celibate people, then they need a brain operation. The center of sex should be removed. But then you will be simply impotent -- not celibate. Karl Marx was right, that such religions should be finished. They are against humanity. They protect poverty and they protect the rich. They are against revolution, they are against any change -- obviously, he was right to call them the opium of the people, the hope of the hopeless. If Christianity and Judaism were the only religions, then the Soviet Union would not have any need, any urge to find the inner world! But just think about it. You cannot have the outside world without having the inside world; they exist together like two sides of the coin. And there are scientific methods available. Zen is the most scientific method to inquire into your consciousness. It takes you beyond mind into…