Human Behavior

Osho, the whole world seems to be racing to acquire more and more material comforts. Yet people remain unsettled and restless—even after obtaining them. What is your view on this?

My view is quite strange. If you understand it, a new vision can open. When a person is seeking wealth, we usually think he is seeking something opposite to God. I don’t think so. I think he is seeking God. When a person seeks status, people think he is searching against God. I don’t think so. I think he is searching for God. And I see it this way… Let us take a person—let me take you. If I ask you, “With how much money will you be satisfied?” your mind will immediately set a figure—and move beyond it, saying, “That won’t do.” Whatever number I suggest, your mind will say, “That won’t do.” What does this mean? It means: unless one gets infinite wealth, it will not do. If I offer you the highest possible position and say, “Take this position; after this, ask for nothing more—make this your…

Osho, you said there are three successive steps of evolution—body, mind, and soul. Western civilization has evolved a great deal on the planes of body and mind, yet the outcome has been melancholy, meaninglessness, and despair. Please explain why, as a natural sequence, the Western intellect has not evolved toward the third stage?

Have you ever thought what you would ask if God appeared to you? Think honestly: if tomorrow morning God stood before you, what would you ask? On a piece of paper, write three things. You will be shocked at your own desires—“a beautiful wife, a film actress; a big house; a big car; victory in my lawsuit.” Whatever you ask will reveal where you are. Your asking will expose you. Will you start begging when you see God—or will the seeing itself so fulfill you that you say, “Nothing to ask”? In the very impulse to ask is hidden the fact that you did not seek God—you sought something else and were going to use God to get it. God was not the goal; what you want to ask for is the goal. If God appears and you ask for an Impala car, then the car was the real deity;…

I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty.

YOU DON'T GRASP THE FACT THAT WHAT IS MOST ALIVE OF ALL IS INSIDE YOUR OWN HOUSE; AND SO YOU WALK FROM ONE HOLY CITY TO THE NEXT WITH A CONFUSED LOOK! KABIR WILL TELL YOU THE TRUTH: GO WHEREVER YOU LIKE, TO CALCUTTA OR TIBET; IF YOU CAN'T FIND WHERE YOUR SOUL IS HIDDEN, FOR YOU THE WORLD WILL NEVER BE REAL! I DON'T KNOW WHAT SORT OF A GOD WE HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT. THE CALLER CALLS IN A LOUD VOICE TO THE HOLY ONE AT DUSK. WHY? SURELY THE HOLY ONE IS NOT DEAF. HE HEARS THE DELICATE ANKLETS THAT RING ON THE FEET OF AN INSECT AS IT WALKS. GO OVER AND OVER YOUR BEADS, PAINT WEIRD DESIGNS ON YOUR FOREHEAD, WEAR YOUR HAIR MATTED, LONG, AND OSTENTATIOUS, BUT WHEN DEEP INSIDE YOU THERE IS A LOADED GUN, HOW CAN YOU HAVE GOD? And Rabbi Kotzker's…

Osho, the famous psychologist A. H. Maslow has placed self-actualization at the last rung in the hierarchy of human needs. In your view, is enlightenment an essential need of human life, and have terms like religion and spirituality been unnecessarily attached to enlightenment? Please explain.

Hunger is a man’s first need, but van Gogh must have been receiving something that no one could see—some stream of savor must have been flowing. Otherwise why? What purpose? No prestige, no name, no money—hunger, pain, poverty—yet he goes on painting. When he began to paint, hunger vanished, the body vanished—he became bodiless. When all the paintings he had to create were done, he committed suicide. In the letter he left he wrote: “Now there is no meaning left in living.” This is most intriguing. He wrote: “What I had to paint, I have painted; what I had to hum, I have hummed; what I had to pour into colors, I have poured; what I had to say, I have said; what was hidden within me has been expressed; now there is no meaning in staying.” Those “meaningless” paintings were his very meaning. When that work was finished, he…