According to Osho, no—on Mahavira’s path, what follows darshan is jnana (knowledge), which then flowers into right conduct; there is no place for bhajan. Bhajan belongs to the devotional stream: a feeling-based, self-forgetting celebration—song, dance, divine intoxication. The two currents are valid but opposite; don’t splice them. Choose one path consistently rather than straddling both.
No—after darshan comes knowledge on Mahavira’s way; bhajan is a separate, feeling-filled celebration on the devotional path.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, is the happening that occurs immediately after darshan what is called bhajan? Please explain.
Greed will whisper, “Pick a little from Narada’s aphorisms—so lovely! Pick a little from Mahavira—so profound!” But the chooser will be “you,” and you will pick what suits you. You will drop what doesn’t suit you. Yet what you drop may be exactly what could transform you. What you assemble will be artificial. Remember the word “organic.” A living form is organic—like a tree, like your body. Cut off a hand—it cannot live by itself; its life was in the organic unity. Pluck out the eye—it won’t see. One of Mulla Nasruddin’s eyes was glass. He used to oversee laborers, standing there; if he was present, they worked; if he left, they idled. One day he had to go and performed a “miracle.” He popped out his glass eye, put it on the table, and said, “This eye will keep watching—don’t try to fool me.” The workers were stunned; they…
If another can hear it, it is not bhajan. What kind of bhajan is that which others can hear? Then you are doing it to be heard by others. Either your innermost knows, or the Divine knows; it is between the two. A third cannot hear—cannot. It is so subtle—it is a state of feeling. Bhajan is a feeling—anubhava—not an arrangement of words and sounds. Bhajan is grace. You are so brimming that even your walking has a dance in it, a fragrance, a glow. Full, you walk. Have you seen someone walking who has fallen in love? Yesterday he walked the same road to the same office with the same legs—but now something has changed. There is some new energy in the feet, some dance has entered. No ankle-bells tied, yet they tinkle within. He walks—he seems to fly; the pull of the earth does not touch him.
Osho, the bhakta saints have sung greatly of bhajan’s glory. What is bhajan?
He asked again, Look, I will forget; tell me once more. Then, as Moses, having taught him the second time, was leaving, the man ran after him and said, Just once—once more. Because I will forget; these are difficult words. And if I make a mistake—then great harm will be done. Till now I was ignorant; whatever I did, I did. But now, now mistakes will not be tolerated. Now I shall be in trouble. Where will I find you? That prayer was mine—there was no hindrance in it. Every day I would make it up afresh; I would do whatever needed to be done. But now I must proceed by a rule. When Moses, very pleased at having taught him the third time, went on his way, he heard from the sky a great, solemn thunder. God was very angry. And God said, Listen! I sent you into the…
Osho, Sri Shankaracharya teaches the wisdom of the ultimate (tattva-jnana) and also sings Govinda’s bhajans. Is there an interrelationship between knowledge and bhajan, between knowledge and devotion?
Knowledge is negating; devotion is affirmative. Knowledge is like preparing the soil—removing weeds, adding manure; devotion is like sowing the seed. Knowledge by itself is incomplete. It clears the field, but it does not implant the seeds. It is necessary, not sufficient. For knowledge belongs to the intellect; devotion belongs to the heart. On the path to the divine, all the obstacles can be cut away by knowledge; but the steps are climbed by devotion. So knowledge is negating; it is very effective in breaking the futile, not in giving birth to the meaningful. Shankara speaks of knowledge so that the layers upon layers of ignorance within you are cut away. And once the ground of the mind is clear—no useless rubbish, no trash—then the seeds of devotion can be sown; then “bhaj Govindam” becomes possible. There is no opposition between the two; devotion is the culmination of knowledge, and…
Osho, what is the fundamental anguish of human life?
There is only one anguish: that a human being cannot become what he was born to be. There is only one anguish: that the seed remains a seed and does not bloom like a flower; that it cannot scatter its fragrance to the infinite winds; cannot converse with the moon and stars; cannot offer its colors to the sky; cannot be expressed. If the poem within the poet cannot be revealed—anguish. If the painter cannot paint—anguish. If the dancer cannot dance—if chains lie on his feet—anguish. Anguish means only this: that what we are meant to be—our innate nature and destiny—does not come to fruition, and we are forced to be something else. Then anguish is born. Then melancholy gathers over life. And all those countless people you see burdened with sorrow, living in a kind of hell—the reason is only this: each has come carrying the seed of becoming…