Is sannyas a form of bondage, and are methods and practices also considered bondage?

Osho, you said, “Don’t get into any bondage; become quiet and happy.” Then isn’t sannyas also a bondage? And aren’t methods, techniques, and processes bondages too? Please explain!

A true knower is neither a renunciate nor an enjoyer. He knows only this much: I am just the witness. Then whether the money is in another’s pocket or your own—what difference does it make? He is the witness. If there is wealth, he is a witness; if not, he is a witness. If poor, witness; if rich, witness. Witnessing is not altered by poverty or wealth. Do you think a beggar’s witnessing will be a little less, and a king’s a little more? Does witnessing come in degrees? Whether one is poor or rich, healthy or ill, educated or uneducated, beautiful or ugly, famed or infamous—it makes no difference. Witnessing is a treasure equal in all; there is no more or less in it. We can be witnesses in every situation—of success and failure, of honor and insult. Be a witness—that is all Ashtavakra says. But if you find…

:you said don't fall into any bondage, be at peace and happy. Is not sannyas also bondage? And are not methods, devices and practice also bondage? Please explain.

Sannyas is a needle. The thorn of the world is stuck in you, this is a way to take it out. If you can pull it out without a needle, that's even better. What could be more auspicious than your understanding Ashtavakra? Then there would be no need for sannyas. But make sure you aren't deceiving yourself! If it is deception, then be courageous and jump into sannyas. And that moment will also come, when you will be worthy of dropping sannyas too. But what is there to drop? When you understand, then there is nothing to drop -- everything has fallen away. This is what Janak has said, "O Lord, this body has also dropped." Janak is still in the body, the body hasn't fallen away, but Janak says, "This body has also dropped! This whole world has dropped! Everything has dropped! I am completely unattached, beyond emotions! What…

Beloved Osho, what is sannyas?

Sannyas is rebellion against all slavery; it is living life in absolute freedom. To live life in absolute freedom, without traditions, without conventions, without religions, without philosophies, without ideologies -- political, social, and others -- to live unburdened is sannyas. But it will look crazy to the whole world. Freedom looks crazy because everybody is living an imprisoned life. To prisoners, the person who escapes from the prison looks crazy, because for them prison is comfortable, convenient, secure, safe. A Hungarian secret police colonel was inspecting a strip of the border. "Too many people have been slipping across at this point," he informed the guards. "I have been ordered to test your security precautions." After deploying the guards at strategic points, the colonel began creeping on all fours toward the barbed wire. "Can you see me now?" he called out. When they cried back "Yes," he started again. On the…

According to me Sannyas is a direct relationship between an individual and God. There cannot be any intermediary. Sannyas is a direct surrender by an individual. When God is present on all sides, there is no need for anyone to be an intermediary between them. If a person wants to surrender to God he can do so. An unfit person begins to be fit by surrendering himself to God. Moreover, the beginning of fitness qualifications takes place by the determination, surrender, and prayers of the unfit. A Sannyasi is not a realized person, to be a sannyasi is simply to make a firm determination to start on a journey to become a realized person. A Sannyasi is simply the first point of that holy journey, it is not the end. It is only the blessed beginning, it is the milestone on that road, it is not the destination.

You have asked: "What is the scientific method of sannyas?"

It is not right to call sannyas a method; sannyas is the supreme method. Sannyas is a device for freedom from the ego. Sannyas is not one among many methods. When all methods fail, then there is sannyas. When a person has done all he could—practiced yoga, meditated, done penance, performed worship, devotions, fasts—everything he could do on his own, he has done. And it is not that nothing came of it; much benefit came, but no fulfillment. He did receive; it is not that he received nothing. Whoever probes, searches, walks, finds. But he does not find so much that the search comes to an end. Then one day, after employing all methods, it begins to dawn that there is one obstacle—I am the obstacle—because of which all methods remain incomplete. I do meditate, but I am the one who meditates—and this I becomes the barrier. I do penance,…