According to Osho, solitude (aloneness, kaivalya) is the very ground of liberation: freedom and aloneness are two sides of one coin. Society can only lease you conditional freedom; only in inner solitariness—'as if nobody else exists'—do bonds, clashes, and boundaries dissolve. Hence genuine religion guides you from social adjustment to inner aloneness, where moksha—the limitless 'kingdom' within—is realized.
To be truly free, you must find a quiet, self-sufficient space inside where you don’t depend on others to feel okay.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Abide in some place endlessly spacious, clear of trees, hills, habitations. Thence comes the end of mind pressures.
CONSIDER THE PLENUM TO BE YOUR OWN BODY OF BLISS. Man is born alone and dies alone, but between these two points he lives in society, he lives with others. Aloneness is his basic reality; society is just accidental. And unless man can live alone, can know his aloneness in its total depth, he cannot be acquainted with himself. All that happens in society is just outer: it is not you, it is just your relations with others. You remain unknown. From the outside you cannot be revealed. But we live with others. Because of this, self-knowledge is completely forgotten. You know something about yourself, but indirectly -- it is said to you by others. It is strange, absurd, that others should tell you about yourself. Whatsoever identity you carry is given to you by others; it is not real, it is just a labelling. A name is given to…
[NOTE: This is an unedited tape transcript of an unpublished darshan diary, which has been scanned and cleaned up. It is for reference purposes only.] Blissfulness is like a bud opening as a flower. In misery one closes up; in misery one starts dying, one starts withdrawing from life, one starts shrinking. In bliss one expands, one relates; one dances, sings, celebrates. And that is the only way to find truth, god, love and all the great values. One has to drop all the stupid formality of civilization, one has to become more spontaneous, like primitive man; like a child. The child represents the primitive man, the child has yet to be civilized. Psychologists are aware of the fact that we cannot remember anything before the age of four.
Osho, when I first met you I knew nothing at all. I don’t know from where to where you have carried me! Solitude now feels sweet. Now there is nowhere to go and nowhere to come. Nothing to become and nothing to know. I have received so much, more than I was worthy of. So now, farewell and pranam. Who knows where today my boat has set sail—sailing, sailing, my boat sails. Some say it goes here, some say it goes there; I say, it goes to the Beloved’s village.
This is exactly what we all have done with God. We do not give thanks for what has been given. In those ten years he never once said thank you. But when fifty dollars were cut, he was angry, complaining, blazing. His fifty dollars are being cut? If you ask—first, you will not receive. And it is good that you do not—because whatever you ask is wrong. You cannot ask rightly. You are wrong; from the wrong only wrong asking can arise. In a neem tree only neem’s bitter fruit can grow; there is no possibility of the mango’s sweet fruit. What is not in your roots cannot appear in your fruits. If you are wrong, whatever you ask will be wrong. So first: you will not receive. And it is auspicious that you do not. It is God’s great compassion that what you ask is not granted. Sit sometime…
Osho, meditation is the solitary one’s flight—from the alone to the Alone. Devotion is the solitary one’s flight—to the Divine. Does devotion, like meditation, also begin with loneliness?
Extravert means: his God will be seen with open eyes. Introvert means: his God will be seen with closed eyes, within himself. There too is light. There too are no fewer moons and stars. Kabir has said: thousands upon thousands of suns—inside as well! As many moons and stars as outside. As much greenery as outside. The same vastness is present within as without. Outside and inside are balanced, in equal proportion. Do not mistakenly think: “How can such vastness fit into this small body? The vast is so big—out there it is vast; inside it must be small!” Do not think so. You have not yet gone within. Inside is just as vast—within, and within, and within! It too has no end. Just as you can go on and on outward and never meet a boundary to the universe—so too you can keep diving, and diving, and diving within,…
Confrontation of oneself in aloneness is very fearful, very painful. What to do?
If just for three months you can be in total solitude, in total silence, not fighting with anything, allowing everything to be, whatsoever it is, within three months the old will be gone and the new will be there. But the secret is allowing it to be, howsoever fearful, painful, howsoever apparently dangerous, deathlike. Many moments will come when you will feel as if you will go mad if you don't do something and involuntarily you will start to do something. You may know that nothing can be done, but you will not be in control and you will start to do something. It is just as if you are moving through a dark street in the night, midnight, and you feel fear because there is no one around and the night is dark and the street is unknown -- so you start whistling. What can whistling do? You know…