According to Osho, the samayik sutras were not given by Mahavira but later imposed by followers who, out of love and a managerial urge to help ordinary people, systematized the inexpressible. Such arrangements make practice graspable yet sever it from living truth; anything living dies in a system. Better to leave understanding unstructured than enforce prescriptions.
These rules were made later by followers to organize things for ordinary people, not by Mahavira, and such organizing kills the living spirit.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
A friend has asked: Osho, Gandhi has urged the practice of vows such as ahimsa (nonviolence), satya (truth), asteya (non-stealing), brahmacharya (celibacy), and asangraha/aparigraha (non-possessiveness), and Patanjali too has emphasized them. So is it necessary to cultivate these before samadhi? Or can one reach samadhi without them?
Gandhi used to say continually, “I have no doctrine, no ideology. There is no such thing as Gandhism.” It sounded very humble. In Karachi there was a conference where Gandhi was speaking. Communists waved black flags and shouted, “Down with Gandhism!” Gandhi was at the microphone. Always, whenever anyone spoke of Gandhism, he would say, “There is no such thing.” But that day, when the slogan “Down with Gandhism!” was raised and the black flags waved, it suddenly burst out of his mouth, “Gandhi may die, but Gandhism is immortal!” What was hidden in the unconscious surfaced. It had been pushed down in some inner corner; hard to detect. We are not even aware of the corners of our own minds—what lurks where. It can slip out in an unguarded moment. It is necessary to understand Gandhi’s life very correctly. Gandhi’s life is a great failed experiment—a great experiment, and…
Verse (Sanskrit): धम्म-सूत्र: संयम-2 धम्मो मंगलमुक्किट्ठं, अहिंसा संजमो तवो। देवा वि तं नमंसन्ति, जस्स धम्मे सया मणो।। Transliteration: dhamma-sūtra: saṃyama-2 dhammo maṃgalamukkiṭṭhaṃ, ahiṃsā saṃjamo tavo| devā vi taṃ namaṃsanti, jassa dhamme sayā maṇo|| Translation: Dharma-sutra: Restraint-2 Dharma is the supreme auspiciousness, nonviolence, self-restraint, and austerity. Even the gods bow to him, whose mind is centered in Dharma. At sunset, as a flower closes its petals—samyam is not that. Rather, at sunrise, as a bud opens its petals—samyam is that. Samyam is not the sickly state of a mind shriveled by the fear of death. Samyam is the condition of consciousness blossoming, dancing in the rain of nectar. Samyam is not a shrinking done out of fear. Samyam is not a habit imposed by some temptation. Samyam is the expansion and spread of the mind in fearlessness.
And that by which you are suffering, that by which you are going in the wrong direction, you are giving it your full cooperation. Look a little rightly toward yourself and you will realize that wherever you are going wrongly, there your energy is cooperating; whatever in life is wrong, to that you are a collaborator and companion. And whatever in life is noble—where the direction of the journey could change, where the entire style of life could change—in that direction you give no cooperation. Even if you hear it, it never becomes the mainstream of your life. Your main current remains wrong. And then within this wrong main current whatever right you do hear, the interpretation you give it also turns into an aid to the wrong. For it is you who will interpret. That is why I said: do not think, do not analyze.
Useless excuses, all delaying is vain— The time to leave has come—leave you must. Cry, scream if you will— I must strike my tent today. Yesterday I played in the lanes of buds and bees— Today let me revel in the cremation ground. Yesterday I smiled upon someone's eyelids— Today let me smile seated upon the pyre. In a life where death is hiding; where the stakes cannot be firmly fixed—one side barely hammered when the other side begins to loosen. The marketplace not yet full and evening descends. Where is union possible? The journey of separation begins even before meeting happens. Useless excuses, all delaying is vain— The time to leave has come—leave you must. Cry, scream if you will— I must strike my tent today. Not a single moment of abiding here! Build, unbuild; set, uproot; open, close.
Osho, the principles Mahavira spoke of—such as nonviolence, truth, celibacy, non-possession, anekant—what can be their practical form?
A great mistake has been made here too. First, understand this: truth, nonviolence, celibacy, non-possession, non-stealing—these are not principles. Therefore, to ask for their direct practice is itself a mistake. They cannot be practiced directly. It is like someone wanting to gather straw: he must sow wheat in the field, not straw. And if some madman were to sow straw in order to produce straw, even the straw he had would rot in the soil and nothing would grow. Because straw is a by-product; it comes with wheat. When wheat grows, straw comes with it; if wheat does not grow, there is no way to grow only straw. Yes, when wheat grows, straw inevitably appears; it needs no separate attention. Nonviolence, non-possession, non-stealing—these are not principles; they are by-products, secondary offshoots. Wherever samadhi happens, these all arise on their own like straw. Anyone who sets out to produce them directly…