According to Osho, the significance of drinking is not to take it too seriously. A timely drink is fine when held lightly—neither glorified nor condemned. The key is playfulness and proportion, not prohibition or guilt. If it becomes an escape or dulls consciousness, drop it; if it simply relaxes you without bondage, it’s okay.
Don’t make a big deal—have a drink if it helps you relax, but stay aware and don’t get hooked.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, have you been drinking?
Absolutely—I'm sitting here drunk twenty-four hours a day. But I’ve discovered a very fine kind of wine; you don’t have to buy it in the market! (The audio recording of the question is not clear.) Please listen to me, please listen to me; if you don’t want to drink, then don’t. (The audio recording of the question is not clear.) Please hear me out completely. It seems a couple of drunkards have turned up here, and they’re getting upset. Let them understand a little. (The audio recording of the question is not clear.) Write down whatever you want to say and send it in. Do not behave unethically with so many people. Write it down and send it. Do not misbehave with so many people. (The audio recording of the question is not clear.) Let me finish what I am saying, then you can speak. I was saying to you:…
Question: The final question: Osho, do you also drink alcohol? And there is nothing else truly worth drinking. For years I haven’t drunk water—that much I can assure you; for ten years at least I haven’t touched it. I drink soda and wine. Soda on the outside, wine on the inside. I believe in balance—a little of the outer, a little of the inner. There is a wine that has never been distilled; toward it no one has ever been able to gaze. There is an elixir like that. I drink this undistilled wine. I live on this unseen elixir! And I want to make you drunkards too. Bhakti means wine. Shandilya means a drunkard. The devotee’s temple is a tavern—intoxication, sweetness, mellowness. Drink the Divine; then no other wine will remain worth drinking.
Osho, I had heard that wine is bitter and burns the chest; but the taste of your wine is something else.
The “flaw” that was in Hafiz and Khayyam, in Umar Khayyam… Umar Khayyam has been misunderstood. Great injustice has been done to him. One day in Bombay I passed a hotel: on its sign was written “Umar Khayyam.” Great injustice has been done to Umar Khayyam. When Fitzgerald translated Khayyam into English, a great error occurred. Fitzgerald could not understand Khayyam—he could not have, because to understand Khayyam you need the sufi’s ecstasy, the sufi’s samadhi. Umar Khayyam is a sufi saint—one of the rare realized ones, of the stature of Buddha, Ashtavakra, Krishna, Zarathustra! The wine he speaks of is God’s wine. The beauty he sings is God’s beauty. But Fitzgerald did not understand. A Western rationalist—he thought: wine means wine. He translated it so. Fitzgerald’s translation became very famous. The verse is beautiful; Fitzgerald is undoubtedly a great poet. But he did not understand. The sufi fragrance was…
I had heard that wine is bitter and burns the breast, but the taste of your wine is something else.
I say unto you, enjoy life with the witnessing consciousness. But you want to drop the witness. You catch only 'enjoy'. Enjoy life but if you enjoy it without remaining the witness, you didn't enjoy it. Real enjoyment is only when you remain a witness. Drink wine but if consciousness is lost you didn't drink it. You have drunk real wine only if consciousness grows as you drink. There is no other wine than samadhi. As I see it, the attraction for alcohol will continue in man until the attraction for samadhi grows. People will go on drinking fake wine until real wine is available to them. False coins will pass until the real coin is available. Governments throughout the world try to stop the consumption of wine, but it doesn't happen. They have always been trying to do it. Religious people have been advising governments to enact prohibition. They…
Osho, “Sway on, sway on, O reveler; the clouds are dark, the air is ecstatic; lift the goblet and kiss, kiss, kiss—sway on, sway on, O reveler!” Is this your message?
Across a thousand cycles, flagons and goblets came again and again. Taverns opened time after time; wine was placed before you, cups were filled, the ewers overturned—and yet some misunderstanding persists: Those who were thirsty from the very beginning remained thirsty, Though the flagon and the goblet came a thousand times. Either you did not understand, or you misunderstood. Either you did not hear, or you heard something else. The likelihood of error is complete. This is the message I am giving: It is we who could not renew our longing—otherwise A thousand times the beloved’s messages arrived. I am sending the message, daily I send it—but you yourselves do not extend your cup. You do not muster the courage. Who knows in what weaknesses the mind is entangled, in what old beliefs it is stuck. When the dust clears from the eyes, the roof of Sinai appears; Drink the…