C O M P A R I S O N 

“Comparison is a disease, one of the greatest diseases. And we are taught from the very beginning to compare. Your mother starts comparing you with other children, your father starts comparing you with other children. The teacher compares you: ”Look at Johnny, how well he is doing, and you are no good at all! Look at others…” From the very beginning you are being told to compare yourself with others. This is the greatest disease; it is like a cancer that goes on destroying your very soul — because each individual is unique, and comparison is not possible. I am just myself and you are just yourself. There is nobody else in the world you can be compared with.

Do you compare a marigold with a roseflower? You don’t compare. Do you compare a mango with an apple? You don’t compare. You know they are different! Comparison is not possible.

And man is not a species because each man is unique. There has never been any individual like you before and there will never be again. You are utterly unique. This is your privilege, your prerogative, God’s blessing, that He has made you unique. Don’t compare. Comparison will bring trouble. […]

If you fall victim to this disease of comparison, naturally you will either become very egoistic or you will become very bitter; it depends on whom you compare yourself with. If you compare yourself with those who seem to be bigger than you, higher than you, greater than you, you will become bitter. You will become a complaint against God, an anger: ”Why am I not greater than I am? Why am I not like that person? Why am I not physically so beautiful, so strong? Why am I not intelligent? Why am I not this, not that?” And there are millions of things in the world….

If you compare yourself with the people who are greater in some way than you, you will become bitter, very bitter. Your life will become poisoned by the comparison. You will remain always in a state of depression, as if God has deceived you, betrayed you, as if you have been let down.

Or if you compare yourself with people who are smaller than you, in some way lesser than you, then you will become very egoistic. This is one of the reasons why politicians are always surrounded by people smaller than themselves. They collect them; that is their joy. They collect smaller people around themselves so that they can look bigger than they are by comparison. It is stupid, but one cannot expect anything more from a politician.

Rich people are always surrounded by those who are smaller. They feel good, very good, great in comparison to those people.

But ordinarily people always look at others’ houses, their successes, their achievements, and feel very bitter against God. In the world, religion cannot prosper because people cannot pray to a god who has betrayed them from the very beginning, who has made them so small, so ugly. How can they be thankful towards him? Impossible. And without thankfulness there is no prayer, and without prayer there is no religion.

But a man who understands the uniqueness of everybody can be religious, can only be religious, because he feels immense gratitude for whatsoever God has given to him. If you don’ t compare, then you are neither bigger nor smaller, neither ugly nor beautiful, neither intelligent nor stupid. If you don’t compare, you are simply yourself And in that state of simply being yourself, spring comes, flowers come, because a deep acceptance of life and a deep gratitude towards God helps to bring
the spring.”

— OSHO, Guida Spirituale Chapter #5



“Man creates comparison because ego is possible only if continuously nourished by comparison. But then you will have two outcomes: sometimes you will feel superior, and sometimes you will feel inferior. And the possibility of feeling inferior is greater than the possibility of feeling superior, because there are millions of people — somebody is more beautiful than you, somebody is taller than you, somebody is stronger than you, somebody seems to be more intelligent than you, somebody is more learned than you, somebody is more successful, somebody is more famous, somebody is this, somebody is that. If you just go on comparing millions of people, you will gather a great inferiority complex. It doesn’t exist, it is your creation.”

— OSHO, The Book of Wisdom Chapter #19



“Don’t compare, there is no need. Comparison is one of the greatest calamities that has fallen on humanity. You are perfect as you are. Love yourself, respect yourself. If you are not going to respect yourself, who is going to respect you/ If you are not going to love yourself, who is going to love you? People don’t respect themselves, and expect everybody else to respect them. They don’t love themselves, and want the whole world to fall in love with them. Now you are asking impossibles — these things cannot happen. Love yourself, respect yourself — and a person who respects himself never compares. Comparison is a disrespect.”

— OSHO, The Divine Melody Chapter #10



This is our whole life’s struggle: Who is the greatest? And we waste our life in this struggle. This is politics, this is not religion. Wherever ego is, there is politics. Once the ego goes, then there is no politics, then you don’t compare yourself with anybody, because each individual is incomparable. Each individual is unique, so unique that comparison is not possible. You don’t put yourself higher and you don’t put yourself lower: you are simply different. There is no question of putting yourself higher or lower. You are you and somebody else is somebody else; there is no question of comparison. Remember, when ego disappears, comparison disappears. And when comparison disappears, competitiveness disappears, and there arises great peace. […]

What is your anxiety? What is it that creates anguish, competition, comparison, conflict in you? — the effort to be the greatest, to be the first. And everybody is trying to be the first, hence the war-like quality that surrounds society.

— OSHO, I Say Unto You, Vol. 2 Chapter #3



“Naturally, you have this body, this being, you are rooted in it – enjoy it, cherish it, celebrate it! And there is no question of pride or ego because you are not comparing yourself with anybody. Ego comes only with comparison. Self-love knows no comparison — you are you, that’s all. You are not saying that somebody else is inferior to you; you are not comparing at all. Whenever comparison comes, know well it is not love; it is a trick somewhere, a subtle strategy of the ego. […]

Love knows no comparison, love simply loves without comparing.”

— OSHO, The Secret Chapter #18



“Everyone is born unique. No comparison is possible. You are you, and I am me. A Buddha is a Buddha, and a Christ is a Christ. And no comparison is possible. If you compare, you create superiority, inferiority — the ways of the ego. And then, of course, great desire arises to compete, great desire arises to defeat others. And you remain in fear of whether you are going to make it or not, because it is a very violent struggle: everybody is trying the same — to become the first!

In this world, it is very difficult to find a happy man — because nobody is fulfilling the condition of being happy. The first condition is: drop all comparison. Drop all stupid ideas of being superior and inferior. You are neither superior nor inferior. You are simply yourself! There exists no one like you with whom you can be compared. Then suddenly you are at home.”

— OSHO, The Perfect Master, Vol. 2 Chapter #8