According to Osho, the hippie lifestyle isn’t a real spiritual alternative; it’s a dependent by‑product of affluent society and often exploitative. Use youthful wandering as a brief “university,” then settle into responsible living. The true path is to transform work into play and bring playfulness into commitment—so family, work, and love become creative, conscious practices rather than escapes.
Explore a bit when you’re young, but real spirituality is turning everyday work and family life into joyful, conscious play instead of running away.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, do you feel that the hippie way of life -- a life of nonachieving, all play and no work, living for the moment, wandering about instead of remaining in one place -- is better for a spiritual seeker than the usual life of marriage, family and career?
The first thing: the hippie is not the alternative, he is a by-product. He has always existed in different forms. But remember, he depends on the established society. He is not an alternative, he's just a shadow, a by-product of the society. He can go on moving, wandering, because many are established. If everybody is wandering nobody can be a hippie. A wandering monk, a wandering hippie, needs a society which is established, otherwise where is he going to wander? And he can afford play because others are working. This is new in the West, because the West has become for the first time affluent. It is one of the ancient traditions in India. Right now five million sannyasins exist in India, wandering. They have been always there. They don't stay in one place, they don't work -- they simply exist. They beg, the society supports them. But they can…
A friend has asked: Osho, you said about a wayward son that one should let him pass through his experiences, and he will learn on his own. But even after experiencing, he still prefers the same thing—someone is asking about his wayward son—no matter how much suffering he has to endure, even if death itself should come, still he does the same. After stumbling again and again, he repeats it. What can be done? How to reform him?
You will not be able to reform him. If life cannot reform him, if even death cannot reform him, what will you be able to do? If what you say is true—that again and again, even after suffering, he does the same thing; even if death comes, he will still do the same thing, and he does not change—then take your hands off. You will not be able to reform him. You cannot be stronger than death. And one who does not learn from suffering—what will he learn from you? Do not call him a wayward son. You have found yourself a Jadabharata. Because those whom suffering does not reform, whom even death does not reform—these are great, arrived masters; they are in the ultimate state. Do not even try to reform such a one. And why are you so eager to reform another? It is enough to reform yourself.…
It seems to me that what the hippies term as revolt does represent revolt to a certain extent, but it is more of a reaction than true revolt. And I am against all reaction. A rebellious man is an absolutely different type of person. A rebellious man does not say 'no' to anything because 'no' should be said, it amounts to playing the yes-man's role. It does not make any difference. The rebellious man says 'no' because he feels that it is proper to say so. And if he thinks that to say 'yes' is correct, then he would not be afraid to say 'yes,' even in the face of opposition from ten thousand people, which implies that he would apply his mind. I only wish to emphasize that to be rebellious necessarily means discernment, and reaction is just the manifestation of indiscrimination.
Osho, is there any medium by which one can move toward shunya, toward zero?
Certainly. I call meditation the path toward zero... No, this behavior of the hippies these days... Yes, this will—this will become a medium. In fact, now the world will never again be free of the hippies. No, my question is: those who take drugs and such—by taking them, are they claiming that this is a medium to go in that direction, toward the void? Yes, yes—of course they’re claiming that! They are indeed claiming it... In truth, the human mind has reached very near a certain crisis-point; we don’t quite realize it. The human mind is moving close to a particular crisis. Some are ahead, some behind—that’s another matter. The new children are closer to it; the old are a little farther away. And the more developed a country is, the nearer it is to this point; the less developed, the farther. A hippie cannot be born in India yet.…
Osho, should one marry by the family’s choice or by one’s own?
It cannot be a “selection.” Before marriage what is needed is acquaintance, not choosing—deep acquaintance! If a year, two years, four years of knowing someone brings you to the point where you feel yes, living a lifetime together will be joyful and blissful, then it is neither a matter of “choice” nor of the family’s will. Then marriage is only a formality to be observed because you live in society, among others. If you are living in my commune, even that formality need not be observed. The marriage ceremony is maintained only to ensure the husband doesn’t run away tomorrow. You have to bring in the law—police, magistrates, courts—so that if today everything is fine but tomorrow he runs off, then what? What about the children? If you belong to my commune, Gyan Ranjan, then there is nothing to worry about. The way I see the world and the future,…