According to Osho, asceticism isn’t a path but a pathology: a masochistic, death-oriented impulse (thanatos) that glorifies self-torture, manufactures only a pious facade, and leaves the being untransformed. True religion is life-affirmative (eros); when original masters’ insights are distorted by organized religions, joy becomes renunciation. Choose aliveness, love, and awareness—not body-hatred and discomfort—if you seek God, because only life-energy can flower into truth.
Hurting yourself and hating life won’t bring you to God; loving life with awareness will.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Why are you so much against asceticism? Isn't asceticism a valid path to god?
Path? It is a pathology. To be an ascetic simply shows that you are masochistic, that you are suicidal, that you enjoy torturing yourself. And by torturing yourself you can create a certain character, but the character will be only on the surface. It will not transform you, it will only be a pretension. It will be only a face, a facade, a camouflage. Ascetics have existed in the world because there are suicidal people. And there is a death instinct in man -- Sigmund Freud has called it "thanatos." Sigmund Freud's contribution to human growth is immense. In his early life he discovered the life-instinct -- sex, eros. And then in his later life, when he was getting old, he discovered another thing -- thanatos, against eros. There are two basic instincts in man: one is to live, another is to die. Both are there. If the instinct to…
Why are you against ascetic practices? Are they not religious? Is not asceticism a path to god?
But down the ages we have praised these insane people, we have worshipped them. Because of this worship humanity has remained immature and humanity has remained abnormal. The normal people are not normal. they are only called normal. They exist in great numbers but they are not the norm -- and they are not healthy either. They somehow manage to live their lives. The man who is destructive to his being is insane, and the people who worship him as a saint are also insane. I am utterly against ascetic practices because those practices are against life. I am all for life. I am all for God. God is a celebration. Look around... the whole existence is continuously in a celebration, in a kind of 'alleluia'. It continues singing and dancing, and loving, and enjoying. If you watch existence you will understand what it is to be religious: to be…
Yes, There comes a moment of transcendence, but that comes through living it, experiencing it, going through it. That transcendence comes of its own accord, not through any effort. when you force something you become ugly. that's why your old so-called saints are ugly. they don't have the grace, the beauty, the joy, the splendour of the divine. they are like parrots: repeating, reciting scriptures, torturing themselves. In the name of religion they are really practising masochists, and teaching others also to torture themselves. The whole of religion up to now has remained pathological, sado-masochistic: torture yourself and teach others to torture themselves. The more you torture yourself, the greater a saint you are, the more holy you are; the less you torture yourself of course, the smaller a saint you are.
A friend has asked: Osho, is austerity needed in spiritual practice or not?
What I am telling you—purification of body, purification of thought, purification of feeling; emptiness of body, emptiness of thought, emptiness of feeling—this is austerity. What do people think austerity is? A man standing in the blazing sun—“he is doing austerity!” Someone lying on thorns—“he is doing austerity!” Someone sitting hungry—“he is doing austerity!” Our concept of austerity is extremely materialistic, very physical. For us, austerity means tormenting the body. If someone inflicts pain on the body, we say he is practicing austerity. But austerity has nothing to do with bodily torture. Austerity is something wondrous; it is something altogether different. A man is fasting. We think he is practicing austerity. He is merely starving. And I would even say he is not fasting at all; he is simply without food. Being without food, not eating, is one thing; being in upavasa is quite another. Upavasa means dwelling near the divine.…
First inquire into your own state. You have to reach the Divine. Do not choose anything that you feel is forced upon you. Too often people choose such things. Because with force they feel, “Ah, I’m doing austerity.” You are doing foolishness, not austerity. Some stand on their heads only because it hurts; because the notion is fixed that through pain one gains God. You are mad. No pain is needed to attain God. If you are in pain, the only reason is you are going against your nature. And to attain the Divine, you must move in accord with your nature. As you draw near to the Divine, pleasure increases, pain decreases; slowly a halo of peace descends, a state of bliss, a drunkenness. But people have chosen painful things. One benefit comes—ego gratification. Someone fasts and the ego is pleased—“Look!