What is the role of the mind in human bondage and liberation?

Osho, “man eva manuṣyāṇāṁ kāraṇaṁ bandha-mokṣayoḥ. Bandhāya viṣayāsaktaṁ, muktyai nirviṣayaṁ smṛtam.” That is, the mind alone is the cause of human bondage and liberation. The mind that is attached to objects becomes the cause of bondage, and the one that turns away from objects is said to be the cause of liberation. This aphorism from the Shatyāyanīya Upanishad is quite well known; it also appears in many other scriptures. Osho, would you kindly explain this sutra for us?

Chidananda, the sutra is indeed precious—but when it falls into ignorant hands, even the most precious thing is made worthless. The Kohinoor becomes just a pebble. These immortal Upanishadic utterances, once grasped by certain hands, were turned to poison. The whole message was inverted; what was meant became its opposite. The entire country is rotting in that pain. The Upanishads are voices arising from the very life-breath of awakened beings. When the unstruck veena sounds, such incomparable music is born. But when pundits begin to “comment,” they drag the lotus back into the mud. True, the lotus arises from mud—but the lotus is not mud; it is a transcendence of mud, an expression of that within the mud which is not mud. To smear it with mud again is to turn the beautiful into the ugly, truth into untruth. Commentary has not honed truth; it has layered it with dust…

Osho, you have said that liberation is not possible without going beyond the mind. In this context, kindly tell us whether the mind has any constructive use for a seeker or devotee, or not!

The very moment the mind is rightly recognized, meditation is born. The mind is the step before meditation. And do not stop at meditation either. For the one who stops at meditation will not reach samadhi. One has to reach samadhi. Samadhi means: the solution has happened; now no questions remain, no curiosity remains, no urge to experience remains, no lust for life remains—everything is quieted. Samadhi means: all the waves in the lake have become still; no ripple arises; the lake is perfect silence. Only in this state of samadhi is there union with Truth, with the Divine, with the Beloved. From the mind one has to move to meditation; from meditation, to samadhi. These are the three states. You are, for now, standing at the mind. If you clutch the mind and think this is all—you will weep, be miserable, suffer hell. That is why all the wise…

Osho, I have only one longing: how can I be freed from this head? I have come to your refuge. Chinmaya has asked:

Nagarjuna stood at the doorway and began to laugh. The young man felt very embarrassed and said, “But it doesn’t suit you to laugh. I got trapped by following the very method you gave me. Now get me out. The horns are big; I cannot get through the door. And I am hungry. Sleep is tormenting me too.” Nagarjuna went up to him and shook him hard. Shaken, he awoke a little from his trance. When he awoke he saw: the horns had vanished; the buffalo was nowhere. He too began to laugh. Nagarjuna said, “This is the very formula of liberation. The world is your own creation—imagined.” The world is not to be renounced; it is to be seen by waking up. Those who told you to renounce the world entangled you in liberation. That is why I am not telling you to renounce the world. The very talk…

Osho, Adi Shankaracharya has a catechism that goes like this— Kasyāsti nāśe manaso hi mokṣaḥ? Kva sarvathā nāsti bhayaṁ vimuktau? Śalyaṁ paraṁ kim? Nijamūrkhataiva. Ke ke hyupāsyā gurudevavṛddhāḥ. In whose destruction is liberation? In the destruction of the mind alone. Where is there absolutely no fear? In liberation. What is the supreme thorn? One’s own foolishness. Who are worthy of reverence? The Guru, the Devas, and the elders. Osho, what do you say about these questions?

That is why, if you look closely at your sadhus, saints and holy men, you will find no revolution has happened in their lives. Yes, the objects of desire have changed, but desire itself remains as before. No difference, not by a hair. They stand exactly where they stood. They wanted wealth; now they want religion. They wanted position; now they want God. They wanted the world; now they want kaivalya, aloneness. They have shrunk all desires into one desire. Beware: when desires are many, the mind is weaker because it is divided—wealth, power, prestige, this, that—a thousand things, the mind is fragmented, and its strength is dissipated. But one who gathers all desires into a single point—“moksha!”—who harnesses the desire for position, wealth, prestige to that one target, whose every arrow flies in one direction—his mind becomes far stronger. That is my experience: worldly people have weak minds, and…

The modifications of the mind are five. They can be either a source of anguish or of non-anguish. They are right knowledge, wrong knowledge, imagination, sleep and memory.

This is the functioning of the right center. So Ramakrishna or Jesus look absurd. They are claiming certain things without giving any proof. They are not claiming; they are not claiming anything. Certain things are revealed to them because they have a new center functioning which you don't have. And because you don't have it you have to prove. Remember, proving proves that you don't have an inner feeling of anything -- everything has to be proved even love has to be proved. And people go on. I know many couples. The husband goes on proving that he loves, and he has not convinced the wife, and the wife goes on proving that she loves, and she has not convinced the husband. They remain unconvinced and that remains the conflict. And they go on feeling that the other has not proved. Lovers go on searching. They create situations in which…