According to Osho, rasa is not a waystation but the very destination—Raso vai sah. The real waystations are para-rasa (pleasure from the other), which ends in boredom; virasa (revulsion/dispassion), a negative reaction; and sva-rasa (relishing one’s own being), freer yet incomplete. When even the sense of I dissolves, self and other vanish; only nondual Rasa remains—utter freedom (swacchanda), nirvana.
Rasa is the final oneness; tasting others, getting bored and dispassionate, and even enjoying your own self are just steps—keep going until even the I disappears.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, on the journey of awakening, are rasa, virasa, and sva-rasa merely waystations? Kindly explain.
Such a moment comes now and then in your life—at moments of love, or of prayer, or of meditation. If you have a deep love with someone, sometimes such an exalted peak arises within that neither the lover remains nor the beloved remains. Then Rasa ripens. Then Rasa showers. That Rasa is the Rasa of the Divine. Hence in love the first ray of the experience of God descends; or in some deep absorption of meditation, where the distinction of self and other dissolves and the sky of nonduality opens—there too, God showers. The questioner has asked rightly, but about rasa… He asks: Are rasa, virasa, and sva-rasa merely stages? Rasa is not a stage. Rasa is the source—and the final destination as well. For the ultimate destination can only be that which has also been the source. In the end we return to the source. The circle of life…
Osho, “Raso vai sah.” The Ultimate is of the nature of rasa. This statement is right on Krishna’s path. But how far is it applicable on Ashtavakra’s path?
This statement is not related to any path. It is a declaration of the supreme truth. This statement has nothing to do with Kabir, Krishna, Muhammad or Mahavira, Ashtavakra or Zarathustra. It is not concerned with means; it is a description of the goal—raso vai sah: He is of the nature of rasa. And remember, raso vai sah does not mean “Paramatman is rasa”; it means “He is rasa.” Because “Paramatman” is a sectarian word. The Jains will not agree, the Buddhists will not agree. Then there will be different forms and colors of “God.” The Christian God has one style, the Muslim God another, and the Hindus have a thousand styles. With “God” the quarrels begin. The original phrase is raso vai sah—He is rasa. That word is right; it is uncolored. “That”—tat. Then it has nothing to do with any path. It is simply a pointer—to the supreme…
Osho, with reference to “Raso Vai Sah,” can taste too be made a means to the experience of the Divine?
Brahman means “the expanding one”—that which keeps spreading, which is ever extending. That which does not stand still anywhere, which never makes any boundary into a boundary, which always flows beyond. If you would know the Divine, then—even on a small scale—do not make boundaries. Expand, keep expanding! If you have fragrance, share it with the winds! If you have light, give it to the paths! If you have awareness, give it to others! Whatever you have! And who is there who has nothing? There is no such human being. The Divine is within everyone; therefore something or other will surely be there. Search. You cannot be without purpose. Through you he wishes to sing some song. Through you he wishes to dance some dance. Through you he wishes to bloom some flower. You cannot be in vain. You have a destiny. There is a secret hidden within you. Open…
Osho, the other day you said, “Raso vai sah” — that He is of the nature of rasa. This definition of the Divine is the one I love the most. The full verse from the Taittirīya Upaniṣad is as follows: Raso vai saḥ. Rasaṁ hyevāyaṁ labdhvānandī bhavati. Ko hyevān yāt kaḥ prāṇyāt, yadeṣa ākāśa ānando na syāt. Eṣa hyevānandayāti. “God is rasa itself. By attaining that rasa alone every creature experiences bliss. If that all-pervading element of bliss were not, like the sky, then who would live and who would strive for breath? In truth, that very element is the primal source of everyone’s joy.” Osho,
Just ask your mahatmas whether giving up wealth has brought them meditation. I have asked. And one of your mahatmas couldn’t answer. I tried on the mahatmas all the tricks they use on you—and I was amazed. I don’t know why you haven’t tried those tricks on them till now! They ask you, “Has food given you eternal bliss?” You ask them, “Has fasting given you eternal bliss?” At least with food you are healthy! At least the body has strength! At least you can get up and sit down! In the West there is an abundance of food, so people live longer. Today in Russia there are thousands of people a hundred and fifty years old—thousands, not just a few. If someone reaches a hundred and fifty in Russia, it doesn’t even make the newspaper. A report appeared only when a man reached two hundred. There are many at…
The Upanishads say: the Paramatma is rasa. So we too are made of rasa. Rasa is our nature. Once we begin to know ourselves, there is only joy, only joy. Religion is the recognition of oneself. The world is the search for happiness in another. Religion is the search for happiness in oneself. In the world, no one ever found happiness. Whoever did find, found by going within—some Buddha, some Kabir, some Krishna, some Christ. Whenever anyone has known bliss on this earth, unfailingly it has been because he went within. The methods differ: one went dancing; one through music; one through mantra; one through tantra; one through devotion; one through meditation—but whatever the device, it is only a device. You have come here by many conveyances: someone by train, someone by airplane, someone by car, someone walking, someone on horseback, someone by bullock cart.