If you try to look holy by going naked or hurting yourself (like pulling your hair), you’re just showing off; real spirituality is being naturally simple and happy without trying.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
So this too was indulgence then? Was nakedness and the plucking of hair also a form of indulgence?
Yes, it was very much indulgence. For them it is indulgence—nothing but indulgence. And for them there is complete enjoyment in nakedness; for them it is entirely a part of their indulgence. It is not that they have left clothes; rather, nakedness has come. That is to say, the emphasis is not on having discarded clothes but on nakedness arising. A simplicity has come, and life has become so simple that, like the life of a child, of an animal or a bird—simple and innocent—they stand like that. But such a person will be utterly simple in the other parts of life too—simple in every way, guileless, innocent. In the other areas of his life there will be no signs of madness. Whereas the person who is an exhibitionist, who is naked only so that others will see him naked—this is his illness. Such a person will not be simple…
A friend has asked: Osho, is austerity needed in spiritual practice or not?
What I am telling you—purification of body, purification of thought, purification of feeling; emptiness of body, emptiness of thought, emptiness of feeling—this is austerity. What do people think austerity is? A man standing in the blazing sun—“he is doing austerity!” Someone lying on thorns—“he is doing austerity!” Someone sitting hungry—“he is doing austerity!” Our concept of austerity is extremely materialistic, very physical. For us, austerity means tormenting the body. If someone inflicts pain on the body, we say he is practicing austerity. But austerity has nothing to do with bodily torture. Austerity is something wondrous; it is something altogether different. A man is fasting. We think he is practicing austerity. He is merely starving. And I would even say he is not fasting at all; he is simply without food. Being without food, not eating, is one thing; being in upavasa is quite another. Upavasa means dwelling near the divine.…
A friend has asked, Osho, why should we be religious when neither the beginning nor the end is known, and there is no trace of God or soul? The enlightened ones speak of truth—if that truth is real, why can’t they make everyone experience it?
No one is telling you to be religious—at least Lao Tzu would not. The so-called religious people have created so much disturbance that it is better you do not become one of them. Lao Tzu does not say, “Be religious.” He simply says: be what you are. You may ask, why should I be what I am? Because that is the only thing you can be. There is no way to be anything else. Yes, you can try to be something else—and in that trying your life can be wasted. You may then say, why not waste life? No one can stop you. And precisely for this reason even the enlightened ones are defeated and cannot give you the knowledge of truth—because you say, why should we know the truth? What can the enlightened do? They can speak. They can try to awaken in you the thirst for the joy…
Osho! At the Simhastha fair in Ujjain, there used to be a big crowd at the spot where Naga sadhus put on sexual displays—like pulling a jeep tied to the penis, etc. Why are people so curious to perform naked displays and to watch nudity, and why do they praise them? And when nothing of the sort happens in your ashram, why are people still angry with you and your ashram?
That’s why those who fast long fall into the illusion that their sexuality has ended. Nothing has ended; it has only dried up. Feed them again and it is back. Nothing has changed. Jain monks fall into the illusion that they have conquered sex. But they eat so little that even the minimal needs of the body are not met. Sex arises when enough food goes in that it creates energy beyond your needs—then sex arises. Think of sex as the flowering of your life. A tree that gets no energy—what flowers will it produce? It won’t even grow leaves, forget flowers. It will remain a dry stalk. For centuries man has been branded a sinner. The result is that deep down each person has become highly curious and avid for the very things that are forbidden. Prohibition has a quality: deny something—taste arises. In what you forbid, the relish…
He who goes naked, with matted hair, mud-bespattered, who fasts and sleeps on the ground and smears his body with ashes and sits in endless meditation -- so long as he is not free from doubts, he will not find freedom.
BUT HE WHO LIVES PURELY AND SELF-ASSURED IN QUIETNESS AND VIRTUE, WHO IS WITHOUT HARM OR HURT OR BLAME, EVEN IF HE WEARS FINE CLOTHES, SO LONG AS HE ALSO HAS FAITH HE IS A TRUE SEEKER. A NOBLE HORSE RARELY FEELS THE TOUCH OF THE WHIP. WHO IS THERE IN THIS WORLD AS BLAMELESS? THEN LIKE A NOBLE HORSE SMART UNDER THE WHIP, BURN AND BE SWIFT. BELIEVE, MEDITATE, SEE. BE HARMLESS, BE BLAMELESS. AWAKE TO THE LAW. AND FROM ALL SORROW FREE YOURSELF. THE FARMER CHANNELS WATER TO HIS LAND. THE FLETCHER WHITTLES HIS ARROWS. THE CARPENTER TURNS HIS WOOD. AND THE WISE MAN MASTERS HIMSELF. He says: HE WHO GOES NAKED, WITH MATTED HAIR, MUD-BESPATTERED, WHO FASTS AND SLEEPS ON THE GROUND AND SMEARS HIS BODY WITH ASHES AND SITS IN ENDLESS MEDITATION -- SO LONG AS HE IS NOT FREE FROM DOUBTS, HE WILL NOT FIND…