According to Osho, nonattachment (vairagya) is all: the method, the middle, and the goal. Means and ends are one; the end is the flowering of the means, like a tree hidden in the seed. Begin with conscious, effortful desirelessness that ripens into effortless being. Treat each step as the destination—enjoy the path now—so bliss in the present naturally unfolds as bliss in the future.
It’s both how you walk and where you arrive—start letting go now, enjoy each step, and it grows into your natural way.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, is vairagya, nonattachment, a method, a means, an intermediate stage, or an end in itself?
It is all -- because means and ends are not two things. The way and the goal are not two things. The way is just the beginning of the goal, and the goal is just the ending of the way. So please, don't divide, and don't think in terms of the means being different from the end. Means are the end. Once you can conceive of this, the quality of your effort will change immediately. Ordinarily mind is always concerned with the end; means are used, exploited, to reach the end. If you could avoid the means you would like to avoid them; if you could achieve the end directly without any means, if you could reach the goal without the way, without the path, you would like to do so. You would like to reach the goal immediately. The mind divides ends and means; end is meaningful, means are…
When no desire arises for objects worthy of being enjoyed, know this as the limit of nonattachment. When no I-ness arises, know this as the limit of knowing.
WHEN THE DISSOLVED DESIRES DO NOT ARISE BACK AGAIN, THIS IS THE LIMIT OF RELAXEDNESS, AND SUCH A STHITPRAGYA, A SEEKER, STABLE IN WISDOM, EVER REMAINS IN BLISS. HE WHOSE SELF IS ABSORBED ONLY IN BRAHMA, THE ULTIMATE REALITY, REMAINS DESIRELESS AND ACTIONLESS. WHEN PURIFIED BY ITS ONENESS WITH BRAHMA AND DROWNED IN THIS ONE SINGLE RAPTURE, THE ACTIVITIES OF MIND ARE CHOICELESS AND REMAIN ONLY AS THE CONSCIOUSNESS, THEN IT IS CALLED PRAGYA, THE WISDOM. HE WHO ALWAYS HAS SUCH A PRAGYA IS CALLED JIVANAMUKTA, THE ONE LIBERATED WHILE LIVING. ONE WHO HAS NO I-NESS FOR HIS BODY AND THE SENSES, AND NO MY-NESS FOR THE OTHER THINGS, IS A JIVANAMUKTA, THE ONE LIBERATED WHILE LIVING. WHEN NO DESIRE ARISES FOR OBJECTS WORTHY OF BEING ENJOYED, THEN KNOW THIS AS THE LIMIT OF NONATTACHMENT. WHEN NO I-NESS ARISES, KNOW THIS AS THE LIMIT OF KNOWING. People come to me…
Osho, Shri Krishna says that through desirelessness and nonattachment, bondages are destroyed and the supreme state is attained. Please clarify its meaning and explain by what kind of practice or worship this attainment is made possible. For ordinary people, becoming directly desireless and nonattached does not seem possible.
First of all, one must understand the meaning of nonattachment. Nonattachment is among those few unfortunate words whose meaning has not been understood. People take nonattachment to mean dispassion or aversion (virakti). Nonattachment is not virakti. Virakti too is a kind of attachment—it is the name of attachment to the opposite. One person is attached to lust, to desire; another is attached to brahmacharya, the opposite of lust. One person is attached to wealth; another is attached to renouncing wealth. One person is attached to adorning the body; another is attached to making the body ugly. But the one who makes his body ugly will appear to be a renunciate, the one who renounces wealth will appear to be a renunciate, because their attachments are negative. Attachment has two forms: being attached in favor of something, or being attached in opposition to something. The one who is attached in opposition…
Osho, is action without attachment a practice of sadhana, or is it the effortless flowering of attainment? Please clarify.
All the words man has are such that they say something, explain something—and also create some misunderstanding and confusion. Take, for example, a road that leads to the destination. The moment a man steps onto the road, in one sense he is connected with the destination, because the road is connected to it. If he has walked one step on the road, he has also, in a sense, come one step closer to the goal. But in another sense, where has he reached the destination? He is still only on the road; much remains to be walked. If the destination is a hundred steps away, even after walking ninety-nine steps he is still on the road, not yet at the goal. So sadhana and siddhi are like the road and the destination—and non-attachment (anasakti) is both. When you begin, it is sadhana; when it is complete, it is siddhi. At…
Patanjali has stressed the importance of non-attachment, that is, cessation of desires, for being rooted in oneself. But is non-attachment really at the beginning of the journey, or at the very end?
You have to grow. Only then can you create love in others. It cannot be demanded. If you demand it, it can become an attachment, but not love. So the child will love the mother because she is his mother. The mother or the father, they become the goals. These are relationships, not love. Then he becomes attached to the family, and family is a destructive force because the family of the neighbor is separate. It is not lovable because you don't belong to it. Then your community, your nation... but the neighboring nation is the enemy. You cannot love the whole humanity. Your family is the root cause. And the family has not been bringing you to be a lovable person, and a loving person. It is forcing some relationships. Attachment is a relationship, and love -- love is a state of mind. Your father will not say to…