According to Osho, 'bhog' means the direct experiencing or consumption of life—enjoyment of the senses and the undergoing of karma’s fruits. But the label itself makes no difference; what transforms bhog is awareness. Lived unconsciously it binds; lived with witnessing, the same experience becomes meditation, ripening into freedom.
Bhog is having experiences and pleasures; if you stay aware while enjoying them, they help you grow instead of trapping you.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, is there an inner harmony between “God,” “devotion,” and “bhog” (divine enjoyment)?
How could you even be without being joined to the Divine? Not for a moment, not for a single instant. If He breathes in you, breath goes on. If He shines as the sun, your body is warmed. If He moves as the winds, you receive life. If He comes as rain, your thirst is quenched. If He appears as food, you gain strength. Only when He comes in a thousand forms do you live at all. Severed from Him for even a moment, life ends. The very name of being joined to Him is “life.” Therefore the devotee says: there has been no breaking—talk of joining is mistaken. We are joined; now simply enjoy. The devotee says: you are joined and yet you do not enjoy—how insane! What are you waiting for? The celebration is already prepared. Everything is all-ready—how can you sit there sad? For whom are you…
Is it about moving forward? Yes, it is about moving forward. My emphasis is not on abandoning the previous step. The emphasis is on taking the next step; this is what I am calling bhog. Earlier the emphasis was on leaving the step you are standing on. That emphasis was on renunciation.
Very few people can be persuaded to leave the previous step. “Should we abandon even the step we’re standing on?” Yes—those who are in extreme misery on that step might agree to leave it. They say, “Nothing could be worse than this. Let’s drop it—whatever happens, happens.” A sick mind understands the language of renunciation; a healthy mind cannot. An old mind understands the language of renunciation; a young mind cannot. That is why I say that in the past five thousand years, whatever shape religion took ended up attracting the sick, the neurotic, the unbalanced, the old, the ill—people of that sort. This was the result of emphasizing the word “renunciation.” The healthy, the vibrant, the ones eager to live, did not go that way. They said, “When our thirst for life fades, we’ll see; right now we want to live.” I am saying: attract this living current. And…
Osho, yesterday you said that the journey of indulgence ultimately arrives at yoga. Please explain: does the journey of yoga, because of life’s circular motion, lead back again to indulgence? Is there no transcendence beyond bhoga and yoga? Please explain to us with reference to Ashtavakra.
The journey of indulgence leads to yoga if you don’t stop anywhere. It’s not guaranteed that you will arrive. If you get stuck at a copper mine, you’ll remain stuck with copper. I don’t say it surely leads you there—I say it can. Keep searching, don’t get stuck, don’t stop—go on, keep moving—and then the journey of indulgence can lead you to yoga. But if you get stuck in yoga—then the questioner has asked rightly—if you get stuck in yoga, you will fall back into indulgence. That’s why the yogi reaches heaven. Heaven means enjoyment. Having earned merit, you reach heaven and begin to spend it. This is why Jaina-Buddhist stories are so important. They say that when your merit is exhausted in heaven, you are thrown back again into the world. No one is liberated from heaven; liberation happens only from the human state. These points are very significant.…
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…
Osho, what is the definition of God?
Words are very small. If you say God is light, then what of darkness? The scriptures have said that God is light. Suppose we accept this as a definition—then what about darkness? Where will darkness go? Darkness is too; in fact it is far more than light. Light sometimes is and sometimes is not; darkness is always, eternal. Where will you place darkness? If you say God is light, darkness is left out. If you say God is darkness, then light is left out. If you say God is both darkness and light, a contradiction arises: they cannot be together. Try to have both darkness and light in the same room. If you bring in light, darkness disappears; if you preserve darkness, you cannot have light. Then how can both be together? That becomes an impossibility. So you cannot say “both” either. Then the fourth device is to say: it…