Osho was born into a Jaina family, and Mahavira is the figure he wrestled with longest — reverently in the Mahaveer Vani and Jin Sutra series, ruthlessly wherever Jainism had turned its tirthankara into rules and diet. His Mahavira is not the moralist of the tradition but an absolutist of aloneness: a man who refused every helper, every scripture, even clothes, and whose ahimsa was not a discipline of restraint but the natural fragrance of one established in the Self.
The passages below give the pillars of that portrait, each linked to the full discourse it comes from.
“Mahavira understood that the Supreme Truth lies within, and no master can unveil it; true awakening demands a solitary journey into the depths of one's own consciousness.”
“An awakened one remains untouched by the dualities of praise and insult, wealth and stones; inside, only reflections arise and pass, while the essence remains unchanged.”
Understanding Osho's Reading of Mahavira
The threads that run through his discourses on mahavira.
The Self Is Ahimsa
Asked what nonviolence is, Mahavira gave the answer Osho considered the deepest ever offered — and Osho unpacks why dropping violence and attaining ahimsa are entirely different things.
Someone asked Mahavira: What is ahimsa? Mahavira said: The Self is ahimsa. He gave a most wondrous answer. No deeper answer has ever been given on this earth. Strange, it may even seem discordant. We ask: What is ahimsa? Mahavira says: The Self is ahimsa! What does it mean? It means: the person established in his Atman—that person attains ahimsa. And the person who is not established in his Atman can only restrain violence; he cannot attain ahimsa. To drop violence is one thing; to attain ahimsa is entirely another. Ahimsa is deeply positive, deeply creative. And because it is creative, I said—it is love.Mahaveer Ya Mahavinash, Chapter 5 →
Nonviolence as Total Acceptance
In the Mahaveer Vani discourses Osho links Mahavira's ahimsa to Buddha's tathata: violence is born of wanting things otherwise, so contentment with what is uproots it at the source.
Ahimsa means the deepest absence. That is why I said: Buddha’s spirit of tathata is the spirit of Mahavira’s Ahimsa. Tathata means: whatsoever is, is acceptable. Ahimsa also means this: we shall not make even the slightest effort to transform. Whatever happens is right; whatever will happen is right. If life remains—good; if death comes—good. From what does our violence arise? From this: that what is happening is not what we want; we want what we want—then violence arises. What is violence? Therefore the more the craving for change increases in an age, the more violent the age becomes. The more man wants ‘such to happen’, the more violence will increase. If we open the depth of Mahavira’s Ahimsa, it means: we are content with what is.Mahaveer Vani, Chapter 4 →
Why Mahavira Was Naked
Osho reads Mahavira's nudity not as ascetic display but as knowledge — and dismisses its imitators in a single sentence.
Mahavira’s nakedness is very meaningful; it is part of his knowing, not of his character. Therefore, those who take it to be a matter of character and stand naked are simply insane; they have no idea that it has nothing to do with that.Mahaveer Meri Drishti Mein, Chapter 8 →
Kaivalya: Total Aloneness
Commenting on tantra sutras, Osho reaches for Mahavira's own word for liberation — kaivalya — the aloneness in which nothing is excluded because everything has been absorbed.
This aloneness Mahavir has called KAIVALYA, total aloneness. Why alone? -- because everything is involved, absorbed, has become you.Vigyan Bhairav Tantra Vol 2, Chapter 17 →
“Mahavira sought truth as his own living realization, refusing secondhand knowledge and surrendering only to the Whole, allowing authentic wisdom to blossom from his own being.”
Questions Osho Answered on Mahavira
14 questions in the library — the most sought-after:
He was searching for the deepest truth inside himself that only he could find, so he didn’t go to any teacher or middleman.
He spoke in the everyday language so everyone could understand him without needing priests to explain.
Mahavira’s mind is like a clean mirror—things show up and go away, but the mirror stays clear and doesn’t keep anything.
Don’t worry if people approve; if your analysis is truly factual and wise, it may be rejected now but truth is accepted in the end.
He wanted to discover truth by himself, learning from all of life instead of copying a teacher or a book.
Don’t copy Mahavira’s actions; wake up inside and your own right actions for today will follow naturally.
Yes—great awakened people still come; if old groups won’t accept them, they begin a new path.
Yes—you can connect with Mahavira yourself now, but not by relying on official Jain channels; it’s a personal, direct link.
“Mahavira chose Prakrit to speak the language of the people, for truth must be accessible, not confined to the elite's sterile scripts.”
Frequently Asked
Osho stripped the moralism away. Where the tradition reads Mahavira as a code — vegetarianism, austerity, rules of conduct — Osho read him as pure inwardness: ahimsa as the fragrance of self-realization, nakedness as knowing rather than penance. He often said the Jainas preserved Mahavira's body of rules and lost his soul.
He drew a hard line: Mahavira's ahimsa was a spiritual state overflowing from one established in the Self, while Gandhi's nonviolence was a political instrument — principled, useful, but of an entirely different order. For Osho, ahimsa cannot be adopted as policy; it can only bloom from meditation.
The major ones are in Hindi: Mahaveer Vani (his longest commentary on Mahavira's words), Jin Sutra, Mahaveer Meri Drishti Mein ('Mahavira in My Vision'), and Mahaveer Ya Mahavinash. Mahavira also appears throughout his talks as one third of his recurring trinity with Buddha and Krishna.