It’s not about sex or booze; it’s a way of saying, stay fully soaked in God and let your inner self unite with the divine.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, there are demonstrations against you and posters have been put up—even in Amritsar. The charge against you is that you propagate the left-hand path, that you are a communist, an atheist. Is there any truth in this? In their allegations, to what extent is there something true or not? And if it is wrong, what is your position? We simply want to understand.
On this point I agree with the left-hand path. And I hold that on this matter the left-hand path is right. Those things we think are opposites—for example, forgiveness: the left-hand path says forgiveness is the transformation of anger. The person who cannot be angry cannot forgive. In truth, anger, transformed, becomes forgiveness. Therefore the left-hand path will say: we have no quarrel with anger. We do not say, “Drop anger.” We say, “Transform anger.” This is also my statement. I too say: in life nothing is to be discarded; everything is to be changed. In life nothing is to be negated or cut off; everything is to be transformed and raised higher. The very mud, raised high, becomes the lotus. Whatever is bad in life can become auspicious. So someone may call me left-hand. But I have nothing to do with the left-hand path. I have nothing to do…
Why are people afraid of such names as tantra, vanmarg, aghorpanth, and nathpanth? Is there no possibility that through correct analysis and right practice of these paths, people could understand them in a new perspective and not condemn them and remain opposed to them?
Even your acceptance of Krishna is incomplete. You want to select and cut many things. You are always ready to make revisions of Krishna. People believe in Krishna according to their own understanding. They believe as much as they can believe, rejecting the rest. What is the problem? The problem is, that it is clear to you that Mahavira appears to be moving opposite from you. You can respect him because you know your greed, your lust, your anger, your ardent desire, and he has renounced all of this. He is special, now there is no need for proof, but Krishna? He is standing right in the same world where you are! To recognize Krishna one needs eyes of great depth. To recognize Mahavira is within the powers of even a blind man, there is no problem. A blind man too can recognize, yes, Mahavira has renounced everything. But until…
Osho, why do Shankara and you, before telling us to sing the praises of Govinda, always address us as fools?
Edison said, people say I know a great deal. My condition is like that of a small child on the seashore who has gathered a few shells and conches. That is the extent of my knowledge—just a few shells in my fists—while the vast ocean lies there, unknown to me. Your little knowledge seems very big to you! You have lit a small lamp; its flickering light falls a little around you, a small area gets illuminated—and you call this knowledge! And the infinite lies there filled with darkness; you have no awareness of it! When you understand your foolishness, you will say, “Is this knowledge—the flicker of a tiny lamp!” The infinite lies ahead to journey through, to explore, to search—and I, clutching these shells in my hands, am posing as a wise man! Then you will drop even this “knowledge.” And the day you know that you are…
In this same context, someone has asked: Osho, what is your view regarding lust?
Lust is energy, and whoever fights with the energy of lust will be destroyed. Lust is to be transformed, not fought with. Sex, when transformed, becomes brahmacharya. Sex is not the opposite of brahmacharya. Brahmacharya is the transformed state of sex itself. In this world no energies are destroyed—only transformation happens. In this world nothing is destroyed; only transformation happens. Energies are never annihilated. The very energy of hatred, when transformed, becomes love. The very energy of cruelty, when transformed, becomes kindness and compassion. What you are calling lust—those very urges, when transformed, become forces that move life toward truth. After all, you must have seen: just now, on my way here, I passed a place where flowers were blooming. You must have seen a garbage heap where filth lies piled up. From that filth a stench arises, a bad odor spreads; anyone passing by holds his nose. But if…
Osho, yesterday you said that jealousy is included in respect. I have immense respect for you, but the jealousy inherent in it keeps poisoning it, and I feel guilt and pain. Does reverence transcend this poison-laced respect?
It needs a little explaining—it's a delicate point. Whenever you respect someone, you do so because you see in that person something you do not have. You respect because you glimpse in the other something you would also like to possess. A beggar respects an emperor because he, too, longs to be an emperor. So on the one hand he respects, and inside he also envies. Because he is not yet an emperor but wants to be. You have attained what he wants to attain. He respects you as skillful, successful: “I stand far back in the line; you have gone ahead to where I should have been.” So you are powerful, clever, intelligent, strong—he respects you. But inside a fire of jealousy also burns—if he gets the chance, he would like to be in your place and push you aside. And if the beggar gets that chance, he will…