What is the significance of moksha and liberation?

Osho, Ashtavakra says that even the desire to know is like other desires, whereas many other sages greatly extol mumuksha, the yearning for liberation. Kindly shed light on this.

There is a sweet incident in Mahavira’s life. His chief disciple was Gautam Gandhar. For years he stayed with Mahavira, yet he did not become liberated. He was the most brilliant of Mahavira’s disciples. His restlessness was great. He intensely longed to be free; he had left nothing undone, had poured his whole life into the offering—yet why was liberation not happening? He could not see that this very insistence was the hindrance; this anxiety, this tension. The desire for moksha too is born of the ego—this is the ego’s last play, now in the name of moksha. When Mahavira died, that day Gautam was away, preaching in a nearby village. Returning, some travelers told him, “Don’t you know? Mahavira has left the body.” He began to weep right there. Weeping, he asked them, “Did he leave any last message for me?” For he was the closest disciple and had…

Osho, the Ashtavakra Gita speaks many times about the jivan-mukta. Kindly shed some light on the jivan-mukta.

To the jivan-mukta the world is perfect; it is exactly as it should be. It could not be better. He has no complaint. And if such a union is accomplished, death will no longer be able to destroy you. For you will have found something beyond death, which death cannot erase. Then the flames of death will not be able to burn you. If within you the blind and the lame have met; if within you body and soul have met, the world and liberation have met; if within you the ordinary and the extraordinary have met; if within you the inner and the outer have met—no division remains between outer and inner, the outer has become inner and the inner outer, all has become conjoined—if such a union has happened within you, then however fiercely the flames may burn, however the pyre may blaze, they will not be able…

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…

Question: First question: Osho, Searching for you I have wandered who knows where. Neither heaven says a word, nor does hell open its gate. I look into every eye, feeling for your picture, and I have wandered who knows where. Are these just the gaps between breaths, or only distances upon distances? You too say nothing—your lips never open. How long must I keep walking, groping about in everyone’s heart? Where are you and where am I? Searching for you I have wandered who knows where. I could not meet you on the earth, nor could I fix your address in the sky. I searched everywhere for you and yet did not find you. Now, in searching, I set out after myself—who knows where I strayed. Ah, what is this? Your address is found: your image in my eyes, like musk that dwells within the deer.

Osho, you will remember, at the Dwarka camp you said: “Life is not given again and again. I will give you moksha. Do as I say.” Lord! Far from liberation, till now I am still circling between Bombay and Poona. And today you spoke of heaven and hell—those too are unknown to me. But this ceaseless remembrance that goes on day and night is not in my control. The two of us are better off in Poona anyway. Where is life more than a joke and laughter!

There is an ancient dictum: Do as the guru says; do not do as the guru does. It sounds odd, because we are usually told to imitate the guru’s conduct. But the ancient dictum says: Do as he says, not as he does—because the guru’s action issues from his state of consciousness, while whatever he says, he says keeping your state in view. Do not imitate the doctor’s habits; follow his prescription. The doctor may be happily eating sweets while telling you to stop, because you have diabetes. If you say, “We shall do as you do,” there will be trouble. The guru lives out of his awareness, and he speaks with the disciple’s condition in mind. That is why there is always apparent contradiction in a guru’s words: he will tell one disciple one thing, another disciple something different. It must be so—the illnesses differ; the diagnosis differs; therefore…