Osho's perspective on Addiction
When Osho Spoke About Addiction
Passages from the discourses where this theme comes alive.
Beloved Osho, for more than ten years I have been following you from place to place. I can't believe that I am back in india. Am I brainwashed, addicted, or what?
You are certainly brainwashed. I use a dry cleaning machine, I am not old-fashioned. And naturally you are addicted. Who will not be? Addiction is not always bad. If you are addicted to beauty, to poetry, to drama, to sculpture, to painting, nobody tells you to drop the addiction. Addiction has to be dropped only when it makes you unconscious. Alcoholics are told to drop the addiction, but here my teaching is of consciousness -- be addicted to it more and more. And what is wrong in being brainwashed? -- wash it every day, keep it clean. Do you like cockroaches? When I brainwash people, I find cockroaches. Cockroaches are very special animals. It has been found scientifically that wherever you find man you find cockroaches, and wherever you find cockroaches you find man. They are always together, they are the oldest companions. What have you got in your brain?…
Osho, I cannot drop the habit of chain-smoking. I have tried hard but I have failed always. Is it a sin to smoke?
Gurucharan, DON'T MAKE A MOUNTAIN OUT OF A MOLEHILL! Religious people are very skillful in doing that. Now, what are you really doing when you are smoking? Just taking some smoke inside your lungs and letting it out. It is a kind of PRANAYAMA -- filthy, dirty, but still a PRANAYAMA! You are doing yoga, in a stupid way. It is not sin. It may be foolish but it is not a sin, certainly. There is only one sin and that is unawareness, and only one virtue and that is awareness. Do whatsoever you are doing, but remain a witness to it, and immediately the quality of your doing is transformed. I will not tell you not to smoke; that you have tried. You must have been told by many so-called saints not to smoke: "Because if you smoke you will fall into hell." God is not so stupid as…
Osho, my husband is otherwise almost a deity—only one bad habit: he drinks. How can I make him give up alcohol?
Rama Devi! Understand my definition of a religious person: a religious person makes a total effort to transform himself, but he has no ambition to transform someone else. The desire to change the other is politics. There is a kick in it—what kick? Ego! I am superior and the other is inferior, therefore I have the right to change them. And as if women have taken a contract to change their husbands! Always on their backs—do this, don’t do that; don’t eat this, don’t drink that. They make life miserable. Often that is precisely why the poor fellows start drinking. If you make their life hell—and they, too, have a right to live—what else is left for them but to drink to forget you for a while? Now, Rama Devi, you say: “In every other way my husband is a veritable god.” Of course he is. He is your husband.…
तीसरा प्रश्न: ओशो, मेरे पतिदेव ऐसे तो बस देवता ही हैं, बस एक ही खराब लत है कि शराब पीते हैं। उनसे शराब कैसे छुड़वाऊं?
रमा देवी! धार्मिक व्यक्ति की मेरी परिभाषा समझो: धार्मिक व्यक्ति अपने में परिवर्तन करने की समग्र चेष्टा करता है, लेकिन किसी दूसरे में परिवर्तन करने की आकांक्षा नहीं करता। दूसरे को परिवर्तित करने की आकांक्षा में राजनीति है। दूसरे को मैं बदल डालूं, इसमें एक मजा है। क्या मजा है? अहंकार! मैं श्रेष्ठ और दूसरा निकृष्ट, तो मुझे हक है बदलने का। और स्त्रियों ने तो जैसे ठेका ही ले रखा है पतियों को बदलने का! पीछे ही पड़ी हैं उनके--ऐसा करो, वैसा करो; यह मत खाओ, वह मत पीओ। उनका जीना हराम कर दिया है। और अक्सर इसी कारण वे शराब पीने लगते हैं। उनका जीना ही हराम कर दो--आखिर उन्हें भी जीने का हक है--तो तुम्हें भुलाने के लिए और कोई उपाय ही नहीं बचता उनके पास, सिवाय इसके कि वे शराब पीएं।
Osho, I know that some Italians are coming to you to get rid of their drug habits. Is there any hope for them? Can you cure them?
Certainly—because I give them an even bigger intoxication. What intoxication can they manage in Italy! Marijuana, hashish, ganja, opium, LSD... I am giving them meditation. Once the intoxication of meditation takes hold, all other intoxications drop. And the beauty of the intoxication of meditation is this: it is, and it is not. Meditation is a profoundly paradoxical high. It awakens you and it drowns you. It intoxicates too. It fills you with ecstasy and it also ignites supreme awareness. It sharpens your inner consciousness, breaks your stupor, puts dance in your feet and humming in your throat. It gives you song—such songs, such colors, that rainbows spread through your very life-breath, that lotuses bloom within you! One who has tasted this intoxication—every other intoxication falls away. In my view, those who take drugs are actually searching for meditation. They have not yet found meditation; so they grope in the dark…
ओशो, मैं जानती हूं कि कुछ इटलीवासी अपनी नशीली आदतों से छुटकारा पाने के लिए आपके पास आ रहे हैं। क्या उनके लिए कोई उम्मीद है? क्या आप उनका इलाज कर सकते हैं?
निश्चय ही, क्योंकि मैं उन्हें और बड़ा नशा पिलाता हूं। वे क्या खाक नशा करेंगे इटली में! कोई मारिजुआना, कोई हशिश, कोई गांजा, कोई अफीम, कोई एल.एस.डी.। मैं उन्हें ध्यान दे रहा हूं। जिसको ध्यान का नशा लग गया, फिर सब नशे छूट जाते हैं। और ध्यान के नशे की एक खूबी है: यह नशा है भी और नशा नहीं भी है। ध्यान बड़ा विरोधाभासी नशा है। यह जगाता भी है और डुबाता भी है। यह मदमाता भी है। यह मस्ती से भी भर देता है, और यह परम बोध को भी जगा देता है। यह तुम्हारे भीतर चैतन्य को भी प्रखर करता है, तुम्हारी मूर्च्छा को भी तोड़ता है, और तुम्हारे पैरों में नृत्य भी दे देता है, और तुम्हारे गले में गुनगुन भी भर देता है। यह तुम्हें गीत भी देता है--ऐसे गीत, ऐसे रंग कि तुम्हारे प्राणों में इंद्रधनुष फैल जाएं, कि तुम्हारे प्राणों में कमल खिल जाएं! जिसने इस नशे को किया, उसके सब नशे छूट जाते हैं।
Profound Quotes on Addiction
Explore our structured collection of meaning-mapped quotes regarding Addiction.