Success

Osho, what does a successful life mean? First of all, if there is life, it is successful. If there is no life, it is a failure. And there is no life. We are alive, but there is no life. To be merely alive is one thing—breath goes on, we eat, we sleep, we get up—so we are alive, not dead. But mere aliveness is not enough for life. Life means: all the energies of being alive are dedicated to a direction from where music arises, from where love arises, from where bliss arises, from where peace arises.

When he would not agree, they said, “Ask for something that benefits others.” He said, “I won’t ask even that, because the idea that others are benefitted by me can bring ego. I will not ask that. But if you insist, do something such that, even if something happens through me, I never come to know that it has happened through me.” They asked, “What should we do?” He said, “Arrange it so that wherever I pass, my shadow that falls behind me—if it can benefit someone, let it do so. If my shadow falls on a sick person, let him be healed; if it falls on a withered plant, let it turn green. But let me never know that it happened through me. Because I want nothing through me; I want everything through God.” So the story says Augustine’s shadow received the boon. Wherever Augustine’s shadow fell, flowers blossomed.…

I have always dreamt of becoming a world-famous man, rich and successful. Osho, can you help me in the fulfilment of my desire?

No, sir, not at all, never, because your desire is suicidal. I cannot help you to commit suicide. I can help you to grow and be, but I cannot help you to commit suicide, I cannot help you to destroy yourself for nothing. Ambition is poison. If you want to be a better musician, I can help you, but don't think in terms of becoming world-famous. If you want to be a better poet, I can help you, but don't think in terms of Nobel prizes. If you want to be a good painter, I can help you -- I help creativity. But creativity has nothing to do with name and fame, success and money. And I am not saying that if they come then you have to renounce them, if they come it is okay, enjoy them. But don't let them become your motivation, because when a person is…

It seems that whenever success is announced, new diseases like heart failure, cancer and aids appear. Why is this so?

The people who are working, researching new medicines go on declaring new successes in their fields. But their successes in their scientific research work has nothing to do with what humanity is continuously doing; they are unrelated. For example, homosexuality has created AIDS. Scientists are not responsible for it. The medical profession is not responsible for it, but in some way it has supported the basic cause that creates homosexuality. For example, no medical person, no Nobel prize winning medical man has the guts to say that celibacy is unnatural, and sooner or later it is going to create troubles. The problem is that the scientist is also an ordinary human being; he is a Catholic, he is a Hindu, he is a Mohammedan. In his lab while he is doing his work he is not a Catholic, he is not a Mohammedan. But outside his research work he is…

Osho, what is the secret of success?

Dharmendra, YOU ARE ASKING ME -- a man who is an utter failure? The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made. The tenth question