When Osho began initiating people into 'neo-sannyas' in 1970, he took an ancient Indian word for renunciation and deliberately reversed its meaning. His sannyasin does not leave family, work, or the marketplace; nothing is taken away and something is added — a quality of meditativeness, a declared commitment to inner search. The ochre robes and the mala were symbols of love and remembrance, not membership in an ascetic order.
The corpus holds over a thousand questions people asked him about sannyas — whether to take it, what it demands, what it means. These four passages carry the heart of his answer, each linked to its full discourse.
“The right time to become a sannyasin is when life reveals itself as a pointless game, and the hunger for meaning awakens within you, urging you to turn inward and embrace the path of awareness.”
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks on sannyas — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, what is the difference between a seeker (sadhak) and a sannyasin? And can someone be a seeker without becoming a sannyasin?
Without becoming a sannyasin, no one can be a seeker. “Seeker” means the beginning of sannyas. In fact, being a seeker means to practice sannyas. Sannyas is sadhana—what else will a seeker do? One has to: - go, in the world, gradually beyond all pleasures and pains and attain bliss; - go beyond the doer (karta) and realize the witness (sakshi); - go beyond the ego and realize the void (shunya); - go beyond matter and realize the Supreme (Paramatman). The collective name for all this is sannyas. “Seeker” means sannyas has begun; “siddha” means sannyas is complete. Between the two lies the journey—the journey of sannyas. It is for sannyas that there is sadhana. So the very meaning of “seeker” is that he has set out in search of sannyas. But keep in mind what I mean by sannyas: my sannyas is of attainment, of gaining—each day the Vast,…Read the full discourse →
Osho, how should we introduce ourselves as sannyasins?
Celebration is our caste; bliss is our lineage! That is our brief introduction. But it is enough. In it are contained all the Upanishads, all the Bhagavad Gitas, the Bible, the Quran, the Dhammapada. In it are contained all the songs of the buddhas. In it are contained all the celebrations of the awakened ones. Celebration is our caste; bliss is our lineage! That is all for today.Read the full discourse →
You have told many times why you call your male sannyasins "swami." can you explain why the women sannyasins are called "ma"?
The path of the masculine is that of awareness, and awareness brings you to a point where you become master of your own being. That is the meaning of SWAMI. The feminine path is that of love, and love brings you to an ultimate point where you can mother the whole existence. And that is the meaning of MA. A woman in her ultimate flowering becomes a mothering energy... she can mother the whole existence. She feels blessed, and she can bless the whole existence. When a man arrives at the ultimate point he does not become a father, he does not become a mother, he simply becomes a master: master of his own being. Love and awareness -- these are two paths. And when I say masculine I don't mean that all males are masculine, and when I say feminine I don't mean that all females are feminine. There…Read the full discourse →
Osho, is sannyas in my destiny or not?
No, sannyas has nothing to do with fate. But it seems you want to hide behind fate. You think, “If it is in my destiny, it will happen by itself; and if it isn’t, it won’t.” You want to avoid the issue. It will happen by your choosing it, not by destiny. Destiny is your excuse, your trick, your cover. Don’t deceive yourself. If you don’t want to take sannyas, don’t take it—but know that it is not a matter of fate; it isn’t written. Sannyas means going beyond fate, beyond predetermination, beyond the readymade. “To complain of destiny is meaningless—you simply do not consent to live. That you could not shape your own fate—no one is that helpless.” This gathering is of the lovers of the heart; here we are all drinkers, we are all cupbearers. To go seeking diversion among mere humans is not the custom of this…Read the full discourse →
Read 8 more passages on sannyas
Osho, you have said that sannyas is the realization of truth. Then are ochre robes and the mala also essential for sannyas? And can a person not walk on your path without initiation? Kindly guide.
The day before yesterday a friend asked—he has taken sannyas, a simple-hearted man—he asked, “What is the scientific reason for this mala?” How can a mala possibly have a scientific reason? Its reason is religious, inward—not scientific. I told him, “If you want something ‘scientific,’ ask Laxmi.” A scientific reason? Does love ever have a scientific reason? A young man fell in love with Mulla Nasruddin’s daughter. He came and said, “I am in love with your daughter; please permit me to marry her.” Mulla said, “First prove it—what is the cause of your love?” The young man replied, “There is no cause, sir! Love has happened. Where there is a cause, can there be love? Where there is a cause, there is business, a bargain. Love is causeless.” Your love has happened with me; mine with you. Now some symbol becomes necessary. Think of this mala as the seven…Read the full discourse →
Questioner: what is the meaning of wearing orange clothes as a sannyasin?
It is not accidental that a book on sexology like the KAMASUTRA was not written in a country with a cold climate. It is the same with TALES OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS; it is the product of a tropical climate. People living in tropical climates are more sexual because of the sun. Therefore people who were working on sannyas from many directions thought that sexuality could be calmed if the red color were kept away from sannyasins' bodies -- hence ochre was selected. You can ask why ochre was selected and not red. Pure red could well have been selected; it would have been more effective in calming sexuality. But there was a difficulty in choosing red, true out-and-out red; it would have totally prevented red from entering the body. But the body needs some amount of red rays to keep fit, so it would have been bad for the…Read the full discourse →
Osho, I want to take sannyas. Am I worthy, and has the auspicious moment arrived?
And because I don’t tell you to leave your home, there is an added difficulty. Mahavira did not give his people as much trouble as I am giving you. Buddha did not give as much trouble. I am putting you in a very paradoxical arrangement: making you a sannyasin and not separating you from the home. You will sit at your shop in ochre robes—it will be a great awkwardness. In ochre you can sit in the forest—there is no trouble then. At a shop you do not sit in ochre—there is no trouble then. I am creating a contradiction in your life. I am saying: live in water and be like a lotus. The rose has no such difficulty; it doesn’t live in water. The lotus has the difficulty—to be in water and untouched by water. To be in the marketplace and untouched by the market. To be in…Read the full discourse →
Osho, I am getting on seventy-.five, yet I hesitate to take sannyas. Why?
Why should you hesitate? The old sannyas certainly gives hesitation. In fact, no intelligent person would go into the old way, because it.is so against nature, against life; only stupid people can be victims of it. Hesitation is perfectly right if you are thinking to become an old Indian sannyasin. Then hesitation is perfectly right; that simply shows intelligence. But if you are hesitating to become MY sannyasin, that simply shows indecisiveness, not intelligence, because I am not telling you to leave anything. You will be the same, in the same world; everything will be the same. Just deep down, at the center of your being, a new quality will be added. I don't take anything from you, I give something to you. I make you more, not less. A quality of meditativeness will be added to you, a subtle fragrance of prayer will be added to you. You will…Read the full discourse →
Osho, I have heard that initiation into sannyas is not given to the unworthy. Why is that? Are the unworthy not deserving of the satguru’s compassion?
The unworthy is just the opposite. If the divine comes, he thinks, “All right, he came—as was my due. He had to come; if he hadn’t, I would have shown him.” “He has to come; it is my right; it is my entitlement.” If he does not come, the unworthy becomes upset: “This is great injustice. There is injustice in the world—some get it, some don’t; there is partiality, favoritism, nepotism.” The unworthy has his own language. The worthy too has a language. When the divine comes, the worthy says—“Prasad.” “I had no qualifications at all, and yet you came!” This is the language of the worthy—understand it; it is a very paradoxical language. The worthy says, “I was unworthy, and you came! I had no merit to even ask; there was no basis from which to demand—only your compassion, your love, your mercy. You are Rahim, you are Rahman,…Read the full discourse →
Is sannyas taken only by those who have become aware of the futility of life?
And who else would? Sannyas is not a pastime. Sannyas is not a child’s game. Those who have become aware of life’s futility, who have seen that no matter how much you run you arrive nowhere; no matter how much you accumulate, in the end all gaining turns out to be losing. Those who have seen that the drums sound sweet from afar but, when you come close, everything turns hollow; those who have recognized life’s mirage—only they become sannyasins. What does sannyas mean? Awareness of the futility of the world is sannyas. You ask quite an extraordinary question: “Is sannyas taken only by those who have become aware of the futility of life?” Those who still have hope in life—why would they take it! It’s a straightforward matter. A mechanic had been repairing the clock in a clock-tower for a long time. When he had finished, he climbed down…Read the full discourse →
Osho, I want to take sannyas, but can one take sannyas without taking permission from the family?
Sannyas—whose permission will you take? Are those from whom you’ll ask permission themselves sannyasins? If they could bless your sannyas with such joy, they would have become sannyasins already. Would they have waited until now? How will you ask their leave? And how will it be granted? Even for sannyas you will seek permission from the household? Then will you ever do anything that is truly yours? Or will you go on forever obeying others’ orders? Let there be at least something in life that is yours—utterly yours. Do not reduce sannyas to someone else’s command. Let it remain a movement of your own heart. If the wave has arisen, dive in. And don’t be afraid. Families come around. Even if you die, they reconcile. Then what is sannyas in comparison? Do you think if you die, they will weep for you forever? And my sannyas does not snatch you…Read the full discourse →
Osho, is sannyas a human possibility or an ultimate destiny? Please tell us.
Those great knowers said “it will happen, it is going to happen” and emphasized it strongly to wake you from sleep: if it is going to happen anyway, then let it happen now. Why delay? Why postpone it till tomorrow? If it is going to happen tomorrow, let it happen today. Why suffer till tomorrow? Why endure anguish till tomorrow? Let it be today. Accept it today. If it is going to be anyway, why erect obstacles? All your obstacles will break and the event will occur. The wise said: do not create obstacles—that was their purpose when they said sannyas is destiny. And they also said it so that, if you understand destiny, you will be freed from the past. The moment you see that someone abused you yesterday and that it was bound to happen, then the abuser bears no responsibility. It had to be. That abuse was…Read the full discourse →
“To become a sannyasin, simply say yes—like falling in love; and if you wish to leave, do so freely, for both arrivals and departures are to be celebrated.”
Understanding Osho's Vision of Sannyas
The threads that run through his discourses on sannyas.
Nothing Is Taken Away
To a seventy-five-year-old hesitating at the threshold, Osho distinguished his sannyas from the old renunciation in a single stroke: it subtracts nothing and adds a fragrance.
I am not telling you to leave anything. You will be the same, in the same world; everything will be the same. Just deep down, at the center of your being, a new quality will be added. I don't take anything from you, I give something to you. I make you more, not less. A quality of meditativeness will be added to you, a subtle fragrance of prayer will be added to you.The Guest, Chapter 12 →
A Lotus in the Marketplace
Osho admitted openly that his sannyas is harder than Mahavira's or Buddha's — because he refuses to let the seeker escape the world that tests him.
I am putting you in a very paradoxical arrangement: making you a sannyasin and not separating you from the home. You will sit at your shop in ochre robes—it will be a great awkwardness. In ochre you can sit in the forest—there is no trouble then. At a shop you do not sit in ochre—there is no trouble then. I am creating a contradiction in your life. I am saying: live in water and be like a lotus. The rose has no such difficulty; it doesn’t live in water. The lotus has the difficulty—to be in water and untouched by water. To be in the marketplace and untouched by the market.Athato Bhakti Jigyasa, Chapter 18 →
Celebration Is Our Caste
Asked how sannyasins should introduce themselves, Osho compressed the whole spirit of neo-sannyas into two lines.
Celebration is our caste; bliss is our lineage! That is our brief introduction. But it is enough. In it are contained all the Upanishads, all the Bhagavad Gitas, the Bible, the Quran, the Dhammapada. In it are contained all the songs of the buddhas. In it are contained all the celebrations of the awakened ones.Utsav Amar Jati Anand Amar Gotar, Chapter 1 →
The Journey Itself
What is the difference between a seeker and a sannyasin? None, Osho answered — sannyas is the name of the whole journey from the first step to its completion.
Without becoming a sannyasin, no one can be a seeker. “Seeker” means the beginning of sannyas. In fact, being a seeker means to practice sannyas. Sannyas is sadhana—what else will a seeker do? One has to: - go, in the world, gradually beyond all pleasures and pains and attain bliss; - go beyond the doer (karta) and realize the witness (sakshi); - go beyond the ego and realize the void (shunya); - go beyond matter and realize the Supreme (Paramatman). The collective name for all this is sannyas. “Seeker” means sannyas has begun; “siddha” means sannyas is complete. Between the two lies the journey—the journey of sannyas.Krishna Smriti, Chapter 22 →
“Sannyas is not about renouncing the world, but about engaging with it while remaining inwardly unattached; be in the world, but let not the world be in you.”
Questions Osho Answered on Sannyas
270 questions in the library — the most sought-after:
You learn it by doing—like jumping into a pool—so I give you the key now because you can swim inside, and only then will you understand.
Sannyas isn’t guaranteed; it’s a seed in you that grows only if you care for it with effort, love, and letting go of ego—don’t just wait for fate.
They're named for the usual inner paths: awareness leads to mastery (Swami), love flowers into mothering (Ma); it's about energy, not strict gender.
You don’t need your family’s OK to take sannyas—follow your heart, stay loving at home, and begin now.
Taking sannyas means you start a new life and let the master slowly color your whole being, leaving old habits and name behind, until you’re fully transformed.
Yes—when you see that chasing things outside won’t make you happy, you start looking inside; that turn is sannyas.
Because of painful history and poverty, many Black people focus on survival and stay cautious of outside groups, and Osho won’t recruit them—so it grows slowly.
If you’re not inwardly open, you’ll waste the gift—so the master waits until you can truly receive it.
“Becoming a sannyasin does not eliminate problems; it illuminates them, transforming each challenge into an opportunity for growth and clarity.”
Frequently Asked
Traditional sannyas renounces the world — home, family, possessions. Osho's sannyas renounces only the unconsciousness with which the world is lived. His sannyasins stay in their jobs and marriages; the revolution demanded is inner: meditation, awareness, and a life of celebration rather than austerity.
As symbols, not credentials. Osho was frank that the mala and the color have no scientific function — they are a gesture of love between master and disciple and a public declaration that one has staked oneself on the inner search. In later years he dropped even these requirements.
No. Osho explicitly refused permission-seeking and renunciation alike: sannyas was to be an individual's own movement of the heart, lived at the shop and in the household. He called it dying to the past, not to the world — the lotus stays in the water, untouched by it.