Sankhya and Yoga

Osho, a very small question: you just said that a person is partly introvert and partly extrovert. Does this mean that one will have to practice both Sankhya and Yoga together?

But no one properly understood this truth: the Gita is a consideration of all the paths. And when Krishna speaks of one path, he becomes so absorbed and one with it that he says, “This is the ultimate; this alone is the ultimate.” When that proves useless for Arjuna, he speaks of the next path; then again he says to Arjuna, “This alone is the ultimate; this is the absolute; this is the complete truth.” Because Krishna wants Arjuna to choose it. And since Arjuna is already indecisive, if Krishna were to speak in the language of syadvada—“perhaps this is right, perhaps that is right”—then choice would become impossible for Arjuna. If Krishna were to say, “That is also right, this is also right; for some that is right, for others this; sometimes that, sometimes this,” then for Arjuna—caught as he is in indecision, in anxiety, with no path in…

Is it possible to find a synthesis between yoga and tantra? Does one lead to another?

Yoga says don't waste energy: bypass sex completely. No need to go into it: you can simply bypass. Conserve energy, and don't be befooled by nature. Fight nature, become a willpower; become a controlled being not floating anywhere. The whole yoga methods are how to make you capable so that there is no need to let go into the nature, no need to allow nature to have its own way. You become a master and you move on your own against nature, fighting nature. It is a way of the warrior -- the impeccable warrior who continuously fights, and through fighting transcends. These are totally different. Both lead to the same goal: choose one; don't try to synthesize. How can you synthesize? If you go through sex, yoga is dropped. How can you synthesize? If you leave sex, tantra is dropped. How can you synthesize? But remember, both lead to…

Osho, of the two paths -- that is, bhakti and yoga -- yoga is arduous; it requires a great penance. For a worldly man, it is a difficult task. Those who attained the brahman or moksha through yoga had renounced the world. There are, on the other hand, instances like that of narsi mehta or meerabai which show that through bhakti even a common man can attain gyana -- supreme knowledge. Will it not, therefore, be correct for the common man to choose only the path of bhakti?

Meera has never chosen. It has happened! Nor has Mahavir chosen. It has happened! If you know yourself, if you feel yourself and you meditate, by and by, you will move in the direction which is for you. You will move toward your destiny. If you choose, you will disturb things -- because your choice is, after all, your choice. How can you choose your destiny? You can only allow it to happen; you cannot choose it. If you choose, then you fall into a deep fallacy. You are bound to choose wrongly. You are wrong, so you are bound to choose wrongly! Then much endeavour will be wasted, and you will go on rationalizing, "Why am I doing so much, and such and such is not happening? If it is not happening, then there must be some reasons! My past karmas are creating a barrier. Or, I have to…

Osho, you have titled this series of talks “Sahaj Yoga.” Do “sahaj” and “yoga” not seem mutually opposed?

Anand Maitreya! They don’t just seem opposed, they are opposed. But no ultimate truth of life can manifest without contradiction. Life is made of opposites—darkness and light, day and night, woman and man, negative electricity and positive electricity, birth and death. The very structure of life is woven of opposites. Hence the opposites are not only opposed; they are complementary to each other. If you have labored hard all day, you will be able to sleep deeply. Labor and rest are opposites, yet only the one who has worked can rest deeply—and the one who has not worked cannot. So the opposites are not only opposed, they complete each other. And only the one who has rested deeply at night can rise in the morning and engage in work again. One who has not rested through the night will not be able to work in the morning. Look closely at…