Osho says: The ego can exist only if you take yourself and everything seriously. Nothing kills the ego like playfulness or laughter. When you start taking life for fun, the ego has to die; it cannot exist anymore. Ego is an illness; it needs an atmosphere of sadness to exist. Seriousness creates sadness in you. Sadness is a necessary soil for the ego. Hence, your saints are so serious, for the simple reason that they are the most egoistic people on earth. They may be trying to be humble, but they are very proud of their humbleness. They take their humbleness very seriously.
The real saint cannot be serious. The really religious person has to be celebrant. Just look around… Look at the trees—are they serious? Look at the birds, listen to them—are they serious? Look at the stars, the moon, and the sun—are they serious? Existence is utterly non-serious; it goes on dancing. It is an eternal celebration; it is a festivity.
Only man is serious, because only man has been trying to create a separation between himself and existence. He doesn’t want to be part of the whole, because then he disappears. He wants his own identity, his own name, his own form, and his own definition. Even if it creates misery, it is okay; even if he has to live in hell, he is ready for it.
Ego wants to be the first; ego wants to put everybody below itself; hence, it takes itself seriously. Hence it is perfectionist: it demands perfection, which is impossible. Nobody is perfect; nobody can exist for a single moment if he is perfect. Imperfection is the way of life, because it is possible to grow only if you are imperfect. If you are perfect, there is no more growth or evolution. If you are perfect, you are stuck. Perfection means death; imperfection means flow, growth, movement, and dynamism.
The ego demands perfection in oneself and in others too. It asks for the impossible, and because the impossible cannot be achieved, it can go on living. It is not happy with the ordinary; it wants the extraordinary, and life consists only of the ordinary. But the ordinary is beautiful; the ordinary is exquisite. There is no need for anything extraordinary. The ordinary life is sacred, but the ego condemns it as mundane. It demands an extraordinary life.
