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

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…

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,…

Beloved Osho, what is sannyas?

Moses, sannyas is a crazy way of living life. The ordinary way is very sane, mathematical, calculated, cautious. The way of sannyas is non-calculative, beyond mathematics, beyond cunningness, cleverness. It is not cautious at all; it is knowingly moving into danger. Friedrich Nietzsche says, "Live dangerously." He had it written on his table in golden letters: "Live dangerously" -- but he never lived dangerously! In fact, a person who is not living dangerously needs to be reminded of the fact again and again every day. On his table, when he comes to work -- "Live dangerously." If you are living it, there is no need to be reminded. Friedrich Nietzsche lived in a very cowardly way. He had great ideas -- just as all philosophers have -- but they were mere ideas. The life and the ideas of philosophers are polar opposites: they say one thing; they do exactly 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.