Did the severe austerities practiced by Buddha serve a purpose before his enlightenment?

Osho, the severe austerities that Bhagwan Buddha practiced for six years before enlightenment—did all of that go to waste? Or did some part of it also serve a purpose? Kindly explain.

And then “six years” … don’t think that the number six has any special relation either. Don’t decide, “All right, we too will run for six years.” It depends on how intensely you run, how totally you run. If you have Buddha’s urgency, it happens in six years; otherwise not even in sixty. If you run slowly, limping along, checking the clock to see when the six years will be over—“Come on, let’s trudge a little more”—dragging yourself somehow, then in six years the work will not be done; even six lifetimes may pass. It depends on how total your running is. Buddha staked everything—that is his glory. He staked wealth, position, prestige—everything. Body and mind, everything was dedicated to that search. He held nothing back, no miserliness. The running was not half-and-half, not lukewarm. Only at a hundred degrees does water turn to steam. After six years of running…

How helpful is austerity in practicing meditation?

In my view there is only one austerity: create awareness. Break the stupor. Dissolve the mind’s whirl and alternatives. Bring about unmodified, thought-free samadhi. And as a consequence, the changes that come will be visible to others as “austerity.” Take Mahavira, for example. People beat him, struck him, tormented him. We think, “How much he endured! What an ascetic!” We imagine because we put ourselves in his place: if people beat us and we had to refrain from striking back, how hard it would be—what austerity! As for Mahavira, he would only be astonished: “What pain must these poor souls be in that they have become bent on beating?” There was a monk in Uttar Pradesh whom many people revered; great kings would serve him. A certain king gifted him many golden vessels—an entire sackful. The hut had not even a latch. At night a thief came to carry it…

Mahavira made very deep experiments to increase extrasensory possibilities. If we begin to understand all of Mahavira’s sadhana from this, much will be revealed. If Mahavira lives for years without food—what is the reason? The reason is: he began to find a food within. If Mahavira sleeps on stone and needs no mattress—he has begun a new world of inner touch. If Mahavira can accept any kind of food—in reality he has birthed an inner taste. Now outer things are not so important. The inner over-imposes itself on outer things—overlays them, surrounds them. Therefore Mahavira does not appear shriveled—he appears expanded. There is no constriction in his personality. There is blossoming. He is joyous—not miserable like the so-called ascetics. This could not happen with Buddha. Consider this carefully; it is precious and easy to understand. The type was different. The same could not happen with Buddha.

Osho, Lord Buddha did not flee from suffering—he fled from pleasure. He didn’t skip a meal; he left after his last meal. But why did it still take him years to discover meditation?

Buddha certainly fled from pleasure; that’s why the work was finished in years, not lifetimes. You think it took years? Does it feel like a very long time? Six years—what kind of time is that? Where you have had thousands of births, is six years any time at all? You feel, six years! Why do those six years seem so long? A child goes to school—do you ever say, “So, in seven years he’ll only matriculate? And then six more years to get a degree—only a graduate? Then three, two more years for a doctorate!” Half a life is spent collecting certificates, yet no one says, “So much time?” But if Buddhahood is attained in six years, we still feel, it took too long! Why? In truth, our ambition is tied to the university. From it we expect money, position, prestige. So however much time it takes, it feels little.…

A friend has asked: Osho, is austerity needed in spiritual practice or not?

What I am telling you—purification of body, purification of thought, purification of feeling; emptiness of body, emptiness of thought, emptiness of feeling—this is austerity. What do people think austerity is? A man standing in the blazing sun—“he is doing austerity!” Someone lying on thorns—“he is doing austerity!” Someone sitting hungry—“he is doing austerity!” Our concept of austerity is extremely materialistic, very physical. For us, austerity means tormenting the body. If someone inflicts pain on the body, we say he is practicing austerity. But austerity has nothing to do with bodily torture. Austerity is something wondrous; it is something altogether different. A man is fasting. We think he is practicing austerity. He is merely starving. And I would even say he is not fasting at all; he is simply without food. Being without food, not eating, is one thing; being in upavasa is quite another. Upavasa means dwelling near the divine.…