According to Osho, yes: Mahavira realized that liberation never comes from repression but from awakening. Freud only supplied modern terminology for an ageless truth; the phenomenon was always so. If Mahavira attained, he did not repress—repression and liberation are opposites. A repressed person shows tension, whereas Mahavira’s peace, bliss and radiance evidence non-repressive release.
Mahavira became free by waking up inside, not by pushing feelings down; Freud just gave new words to this old truth.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, the conclusion Freud and modern psychologists have reached—that repression doesn’t work—was that known to Mahavira as well?
Absolutely. There is no other way. Whenever a person has become free, it has never been through repression. Whenever freedom has happened, it has happened through awakening. It’s another matter that in those days the language was not clear, the expression not so refined. Expression keeps becoming clearer over time. Consider Newton. He told us that things fall because the earth has gravity. Now someone may ask: before Newton, did things that kept falling also fall because of gravity? Newton, only three hundred years ago, said that things fall from above to below because the earth pulls—because of gravity. Someone could ask: before Newton, did things not fall? And if they did, did they fall due to gravity? We would say: they too fell because of gravity. Whenever anything has fallen, it has fallen due to gravity; Newton merely brought the news to light. He only formulated it. Things have…
Wanting nothing with all your heart stop the stream.
WHEN THE WORLD DISSOLVES EVERYTHING BECOMES CLEAR. GO BEYOND THIS WAY OR THAT WAY, TO THE FARTHER SHORE WHERE THE WORLD DISSOLVES AND EVERYTHING BECOMES CLEAR. BEYOND THIS SHORE AND THE FARTHER SHORE, BEYOND THE BEYOND, WHERE THERE IS NO BEGINNING, NO END. WITHOUT FEAR, GO. MEDITATE. LIVE PURELY. BE QUIET. DO YOUR WORK, WITH MASTERY. BY DAY THE SUN SHINES, AND THE WARRIOR IN HIS ARMOR SHINES. BY NIGHT THE MOON SHINES, AND THE MASTER SHINES IN MEDITATION. BUT DAY AND NIGHT THE MAN WHO IS AWAKE SHINES IN THE RADIANCE OF THE SPIRIT. "Look, Captain Columbus, land! We've discovered land!" "Wonderful! Cable Queen Isabella immediately!" "But, Captain, the cable hasn't been invented yet!" "Mamma mia! Do I have-a to do everything myself-a!" The other animals were extremely irate. "What on earth did you do that for?" they demanded. "We were enjoying that." "Eh?" said the crocodile, cupping its…
Osho, the psychologist Sigmund Freud spoke of the death-drive, Thanatos. Yesterday you spoke of jiveshana, Eros. Do you call Freud’s notion a spiritual aberration of the modern age? Kindly explain.
The third discovery is India’s. It is this: we are neither life nor death; these two are our legs. Duality appears such only when we fail to see the third. If the third becomes visible… synthesis. Understand it so: the notion of Eros, the life-drive, is the thesis. Then Thanatos, the death-drive, is the antithesis. If only the two remain, there will only be conflict; resolution becomes difficult. Had Freud lived a little longer—he did not—or in some next birth searched further, the synthesis, the dialogue, might have happened too: the final harmony, when he would have grasped the witness. He was on the right path; the destination was still incomplete, but the way was not wrong. The goal had not yet arrived; the journey was unfinished, but the direction was right. From life he had reached death; now only one move remained: to transcend both life and death. Astavakra…
You repressed it before the boss—it will fall on the servant. You repressed it before the strong—it will fall on the weak. But this is not Buddha’s daman. Buddha says: understand, awaken. When anger arises, hold awareness. Do not repress anger; do not bring a false smile—but hold awareness. As awareness is held, anger dissolves. There is nothing to repress. There is nothing left to push down. One who sees with awareness finds this: it is as if I send you into a dark house with a lamp and say, “Go, search out the darkness—where it is.” If you obey me, you will return empty-handed. For if you go with a lamp to see the darkness, you will not find it. Darkness is found only if you go in darkness. If you go with a lamp—where is darkness?
If you understand this, Krishna of the Gita and Mahavira stand at one point. Their processes are utterly different, their means utterly different — but the goal is one. Krishna says to Arjuna: Surrender all to the Supreme. Do not remain the doer. Do not even hold the feeling that I kill, or I do not kill — leave it to God. Then whatever happens — let it happen. If within you there remains no feeling that I am killing — there is no violence. Mahavira says: Wake up. Because in Mahavira’s vision there is no place for God. What is God in the Gita — for Mahavira, that place is held by dhyana. Do not meditate on God, says Mahavira — meditation itself is God. Wake up. Then, awake, whatever happens is inevitable.