Rajanish Chandra Mohan, popularly known as Acharya Rajanish, Bhagwan, and then Osho, was born in Kuchhawada Village, Madhya Pradesh, India, in 1931. Possessing a brilliant mind and a gold medal in his Master’s degree, this university lecturer claimed himself enlightened on March 21, 1953. A bald man with deep, piercing eyes who used to be seen in black slippers, flowing beard, an ordinary watch and unstitched white robes, he went on to own 97 Rolls Royce cars, a private jet, diamond studded Swiss watches, rich flowing robes, decorated caps, and Gucci goggles.
This most controversial mystic of the 21st century openly spoke against all traditional religions. No Saint or Guru has ever talked about sex so openly to an audience. Sex is a scandalous subject, a sensational word. Osho became controversial overnight after his discourse “From sex to superconsciousness”, which speaks about transforming sexual energy into spiritual energy, and going from lust to light. It does not say anything concerning free sex. Osho was widely misunderstood due to a few journalists who confined his whole philosophy to sex, to the book that labeled him “sex guru”. There are more than 600 books authored by Osho, out of which only one is concerned with sex. But nobody is bothered about these 600 books.
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Osho is not a sex guru. He only taught of the sacredness of sex. According to him, sex should not be degraded from the status of love to the status of law. The moment you make love to a woman because she is your wife and not because you love her, it is prostitution, though it may be legal. I am against prostitution, whether legal or not. I believe in love. If two people love each other, they should live together as long as the love exists. The moment love is gone, they should gratefully separate.
Sex is not a sin. There are men and women with children who despise sex. If sex is a sin, then how can a husband and wife, who frequently have sex, love each other? How can you love your children, who are a byproduct of sex? If we call sex a sin, then our whole life is a sin, because we are born of it. Osho is for healthy sex that is not based on suppression. Most animals need sex once in a season, but due to our suppression of sex, we need it all the time. Sex must be accepted in its totality. The question of inside or outside of marriage is irrelevant, because marriage is just a social construct; there is nothing natural about it. Even historically, India is the country where Tantra originated, and where Khajuraho temple and Konark palace were constructed. Even in Nepal, there are temples with wooden carvings of sex postures. The book of Kamasutra by Vatsyayana is proof that celebration of sex existed as a part of our religion.
Osho taught about the transformation of sex through meditation, in which our repression is a barrier. When we repress sexual energy, it cannot transform. Osho says that we need to make friends with sex. Sex is as natural as everything else. If we can make sleeping and eating a meditation, then why leave sex out? Tantrics were the first group of people who took possession of their sexual energy and managed to transform it, as scientists transform electricity into light.
All the religions are against sex because that is the only way to make us unhappy, guilty, and afraid. Once we are afraid, we can be manipulated by pundits and priests. When men and women were kept separated in schools, monasteries and camps for thousands of years, the outcome was homosexuality. Religion is concerned with the transformation of man’s energy. The aim of religion is to integrate the inner being of a human, both chaste aspirations and basic urges. Religion should guide human beings from the lower to the higher order, from darkness to light, from the unreal to real, from the ephemeral to the eternal.
Unfortunately, in the East, spirituality has always been associated with poverty and suffering. The picture of a saint living in riches was suspicious. Sannyasis are supposed to live in hunger and discomfort, but Osho was against renunciation.
Finally, Osho says “I am not against sex, I am not against anything. I am only against unnatural and perverted attitudes. Be natural and normal, and allow God to flow through you. He will take you. His river is already moving toward the sea. Don’t try to swim upstream; don’t try to push the river. Go with the river. That’s what surrender is, and that’s what Sanyas is.”
The author is a sociologist
girithejorba@gmail.com
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