Goodness and Evil

Osho, you just said that the world is divided into two parts: goodness and evil. You left India in search of goodness. On your last journey, how much goodness and how much evil did you encounter?

Which fool told you that I went out in search of goodness—or is that your own invention?

Osho, yesterday it was said that there is a balance of good and evil in the world. The two are always equal in measure. When one evil is erased, some good also diminishes. If this balance is never going to change, then what is the purpose of sadhana?

Arjuna too is afflicted with this same duality. What is his question, his concern, his entanglement? It is this very entanglement. He sees that this war is evil: people will die, there will only be killing, blood will flow. Who knows how many women will be widowed, how many children orphaned. Sorrow and wailing will spread from house to house. This is bad. So he says to Krishna: let me drop this evil. This does not seem like something to do. Better I go to the forest, take sannyas, become detached, renounce everything—drop the bad and hold to the good. And what is Krishna explaining to him? That is why Krishna’s message, while simple, is exceedingly difficult. Krishna is explaining: as long as you think, “This is bad, I should drop it; this is good, I should do it,” you will remain in confusion. Drop the very notion of karma.…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, YOU ARE GOOD WHEN YOU ARE FULLY AWAKE IN YOUR SPEECH. YET YOU ARE NOT EVIL WHEN YOU SLEEP WHILE YOUR TONGUE STAGGERS WITHOUT PURPOSE. AND EVEN STUMBLING SPEECH MAY STRENGTHEN A WEAK TONGUE. YOU ARE GOOD WHEN YOU WALK TO YOUR GOAL FIRMLY AND WITH BOLD STEPS. YET YOU ARE NOT EVIL WHEN YOU GO THITHER LIMPING. EVEN THOSE WHO LIMP GO NOT BACKWARD. BUT YOU WHO ARE STRONG AND SWIFT, SEE THAT YOU DO NOT LIMP BEFORE THE LAME, DEEMING IT KINDNESS. YOU ARE GOOD IN COUNTLESS WAYS, AND YOU ARE NOT EVIL WHEN YOU ARE NOT GOOD, YOU ARE ONLY LOITERING AND SLUGGARD. PITY THAT THE STAGS CANNOT TEACH SWIFTNESS TO THE TURTLES. IN YOUR LONGING FOR YOUR GIANT SELF LIES YOUR GOODNESS: AND THAT LONGING IS IN ALL OF YOU.

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,”…