According to Osho, enlightenment may not occur even after millions of lives because nature is timeless, unhurried, and indifferent; left to it, evolution moves at a glacial pace. Once conscious, you can no longer leave it to nature—you must catalyze conscious evolution through decisive inner work. Anxiety about delay signals unused potential; with intense awareness, you can compress lifetimes into a single transformative moment.
Nature moves slowly, so you won’t awaken unless you choose to and practice now—your worry is the push to start.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Vigyan Bhairav Tantra Vol 2 · Discourse 18
1973-06-29 · Bombay, India · English
In the natural course, after millions of years and lives, one will be enlightened. But we might have already passed through millions of years and lives and yet are not enlightened. Why?
You cannot ask why. You can ask why only if you are doing something. If nature is dong something you cannot ask why; it is up to nature. And nature is not responsible; it is not going to answer you. It is completely silent. And for nature, millions of lives are nothing; for nature it may be just seconds. To you, millions of lives and years is a long history; for nature it is nothing. Nature is not worried, and nature is not interested in you particularly. Nature goes on working -- someday it will happen, but you cannot ask why, because nature is silent. If you are worried about why it has not happened yet, then you have to do something. If worry has entered you, then you have to do something. Only your doing will help you to come to a point where enlightenment can happen. Nature's ways…Read the full discourse →
Sufis The People Of The Path Vol 1 · Discourse 12
1977-08-22 · Buddha Hall · English
So many people are looking for instant enlightenment these days and there are all these gurus running around saying 'follow me' and yet it is questionable whether the answer is there. What do you attribute this to?
In that fear and anxiety, in that impatience, you can go on searching but you will not find. It is not that you have to find God, it is that you have to allow him to find you. So you have to be in a receptive mood, in a non-desiring, non-demanding mood, utterly at ease, as if it has already happened. There is no need for it to happen, it is as if it has already happened. With this silence, this peace, with this non-tense state, it happens. You ask: SO MANY PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR INSTANT ENLIGHTENMENT THESE DAYS AND THERE ARE ALL THESE GURUS RUNNING AROUND SAYING 'FOLLOW ME' AND YET IT IS QUESTIONABLE WHETHER THE ANSWER IS THERE. The answer is in you, it is nowhere else. So if you want to follow a man, follow the man who throws you back to yourself -- because the…Read the full discourse →
Tao The Pathless Path Vol 1 · Discourse 8
1977-02-18 · Buddha Hall · English
Osho, when am I going to become enlightened?
Please don't be in such a hurry because I will be left without business. This is not fair. If I have so much compassion for you, you should have at least a little compassion towards me too. Go slowly. Let me also enjoy the Masterhood. The psychiatrist leaned heavily on the bar and began to drink long, hard doubles. His face was wreathed in sorrow and he was, at the same time, ominously sad. Another psychiatrist happened by. 'John!' he exclaimed: 'John! My good fellow. You don't seem to be yourself tonight. Care to tell me about it?' 'There isn't much to tell' John replied. 'Remember that rich nut I was treating for years? The one who practically kept me in business from the start?' 'I certainly do. You mean the one who kept dreaming for thirty years that he was still in high school?' John nodded. 'What happened?' 'Last…Read the full discourse →
From The False To The Truth · Discourse 9
1985-07-07 · Rajneeshmandir · English
Beloved Osho, I'm afraid that the world is going to end before I get enlightened. What can I do?
He is still fighting with the ghosts of the Theosophists. All his life he has been fighting and fighting with those ghosts -- who are dead, there is no need to fight with them. One should be simply free of them, but being free means you don't hate them. Hate imprisons you. He has become so afraid of the master and disciple phenomenon.... It is his experience -- I can forgive him, I can understand him. What happened to him through his masters was so ugly that he has been teaching everybody that you don't need any master. This is a contradiction. If they don't need any master, why are you bothering them? Who are you? You have assumed, unknowingly, the role of a master, of a teacher. What have you been doing for ninety years? -- teaching people: Beware of teachers! If the people had really understood you, they…Read the full discourse →
The Dhammapada The Way Of The Buddha Vol 12 · Discourse 2
1980-04-22 · Buddha Hall · English
Beloved master, you say that enlightenment can happen any moment. To me it feels like a very slow process of learning and becoming aware of the unconscious parts of my being. Do you have something to say about this?
Enlightenment is not something like an achievement; one cannot achieve it. One has to disappear for it to happen. It is a happening and it happens only in the absence of the ego. And whenever you are doing something the ego becomes more and more strengthened. The ego is a doer, and enlightenment happens in a state of nondoing. It is simply the realization of who you are; it is not a question of achievement. You are already it! Just an awakening, just a turning in! Seeing the point, Buddha relaxed; he dropped all his methods. That is the only use of methods: you get tired of them, you feel utterly bored with them. One day out of sheer boredom you drop all the methods. That evening he dropped his whole spiritual search. He had dropped all worldly search six years before, but it is the same search whether you…Read the full discourse →