Before Buddha and Mahavira, sannyas wasn’t anti-life. Vedic seers and rishis were married men and had children, says OSHO
The old sannyas means renunciation of life. It is anti-life. It is because of this anti-life attitude that India has remained a slave for 2,000 years, has suffered all kinds of indignities, has remained the poorest nation in the world.
I blame all your religions for keeping India in such a miserable state because the moment you start thinking of renouncing life, you stop being creative. That’s why, although we were the first in the world to invent mathematics, we could not produce an Albert Einstein. We should have produced an Einstein nearly 3,000 years ago, but this anti-life attitude that all is illusory, matter is illusory, the world is illusory, naturally created a climate in the country that was very uncreative.
We were the first in the whole world to discover the science of astronomy, but the “anti” attitude stopped it. What is the point of learning about the stars, if it is all illusoryIJ We were the first to develop surgery and invent surgical instruments, and yet we could not develop a medical science. Naturally, the body is something you have to be against. So on the one hand it destroyed India’s intelligence; on the other hand it created a false kind of contentment in every misery, every suffering, poverty, disease, sickness, old age, death. That’s why we have suffered so much but have not been able to go through a real revolution.
So I am absolutely against the old idea of sannyas. My vision of sannyas is just the opposite of the old. The old is renunciation of life; my sannyas is rejoicing in life, but rejoicing in such a way that you still remain aloof — dancing, but deep down inside you there is a centre, unmoving. In other words, you should be in the world but the world should not be in you.
There is a certain relationship between the ancient tradition of tantra and my philosophy. Tantra is perhaps the only tradition in the whole universe which accepts man in his totality, which does not condemn anything but, on the contrary, tries to transform everything to higher levels of being.
Man is born of sex: His every cell is full of sexual energy. The more sexual a man, the greater the possibility of him being creative. For example, you cannot find in the whole history of man a single impotent man becoming self-realised or becoming a great painter or musician or dancer or scientist or poet. It is strange that we have ignored the question of why the impotent man has never been creative. Certainly he is missing creative energy. And the whole credit for answering the question goes to tantra. Almost 5,000 years ago it recognised sex as the basic energy of man and it discovered almost everything about sexual energy.
Tantra says that energy moving downwards is reproductive of children — nothing is wrong in it; but the same energy can do much more, it can move upwards too. And there are simple meditations in which the sexual energy starts turning upwards. There is recent research that our sexual centre is not in the genitals, it is in the mind. So if the energy starts turning towards the mind it again creates something, it creates a new man out of you, it makes you luminous, it makes you blissful and, ultimately, it brings you to the point where you can experience the meaning of life.
I am simply astounded that 5,000 years ago there were people in this country of such tremendously revolutionary minds. If I am condemned even now, what must have happened to those peopleIJ And tantra is not my only teaching, it is just a drop in the ocean. Tantra was their whole teaching. But it seems that before Buddha and Mahavira, India had a respect for exploration, for the unknown, for people who bring new facts of life to light. Before Buddha and Mahavira sannyas was exactly what I am making it now, it was life affirmative.
The seers and the rishis of the Upanishads were all married people, they had children, they were not celibates and they had not renounced life. But Buddha and Mahavira created a tremendous calamity for the country. These two persons I respect in many ways but I cannot forgive them for giving the idea of a sannyas which is anti-life.
Excerpts from The last Testament, Vol-V