Brahmacharya

In 1955, a 24-year-old Rajneesh – later known as Osho – wrote this remarkable article for the in-house magazine of D. N. Jain College, Jabalpur, where he was then completing his B.A. studies. Soon after graduation, he would leave for Sagar University to pursue his Master’s degree in Philosophy.

The article is titled Brahmacharya. Though commonly translated as ‘celibacy’, Osho uses the word in a deeper and more meditative sense. Brahmacharya not as repression, morality, or discipline imposed from the outside. It’s an inner transformation – from desire toward awareness. (The translators have also chosen the word ‘desire’ instead of ‘lust’ for the expression ‘vasana’, to give it that broader scope.)

Even at the age of twenty-four, the depth of Osho’s insight is striking. The article reveals the early flowering of themes that would later become central to his teachings – witnessing, transcendence of desire, freedom from attachment and the awakening of the inner being. His emphasis is not on suppression, but on awareness; not on fighting desire, but on understanding and transcending it.

What makes this piece especially moving is its intensity and maturity. The voice is young, but the insight is timeless.

Here is an excerpt from that article, translated from the original Hindi text:

Understand the way of the soul and tell the body to fall silent now – for as long as the body speaks, the soul remains unable to speak. To create a life in accordance with the soul means freedom from the body’s desires.

This freedom from desires is brahmacharya.

Brahman has been called infinite bliss. Infinite bliss means the absence of suffering, and the absence cannot coexist with desires. Desire is infinite dissatisfaction – the exact opposite pole of the Divine. Junaid once said: “What is the world? That which keeps you away from the Divine.” This very worldliness is desire.

The colours of desire do not allow you to see your own true nature. Lost within them, you forget yourself. Desire takes on ever new forms and, amidst the seeds of suffering, shines like a distant beacon of light. You go on moving toward this light hoping to reach it – yet the light is never attained. In this way your whole life turns into a foolish story filled with sorrow.

Bliss does not lie in this endless dissatisfaction. Bliss is infinite contentment, and infinite contentment is a life free of desires. Somewhere I have written: “What is the Divine? Man free from desire.” Wash away attachment to desire, and then nothing remains within you except the Divine and its bliss.

This experience of the Divine within is brahmacharya.

Osho
Published in: D.N. Jain College Magazine, Jabalpur, 1955

इस आत्मा के आचरण को पकड़ लो और शरीर से कह दो कि अब वह चुप हो जाये क्योकि शरीर जब तक बोलता है, आत्मा बोलने में असमर्थ रहती है. आत्मानुसार जीवन के निर्माण का अर्थ है शरीर की वासनाओं से मुक्ति.

वासनाओं से यह मुक्ति ब्रह्मचर्य है.

ब्रह्मा को अनंत आनंद कहा गया है. अनंत आनंद का अर्थ है दुख का आभाव वासनाओं सहित नहीं हो सकता. वासना अनंत अतृप्ति है, ईश्वर का बिलकुल दूसरा उल्टा छोर है. जुन्नुन ने कहा है “संसार क्या? जो ईश्वर से तुम्हे परे रखे.” यह संसार ही वासना है.

वासना के रंग तुम्हें अपने स्वरुप को नहीं देखने देते. तुम इनमें अपने को भूलकर खो रहते हो. वासना नये नये रूप धरती है और दुःख के बीज दूर एक प्रकाशदीप बनकर चमकती है. तुम इस प्रकाश को पाने को बढ़ते चले आते हो, किन्तु प्रकाश तुम्हें कभी नही मिलता और इस तरह तुम्हारा सारा जीवन दुःख से भरी एक मूर्खता पूर्ण कहानी में बदल जाता है.

सुख इस अनंत अतृप्ति में नहीं है. सुख है अनंत तृप्ति और अनंत तृप्ति है वासनाओं से रहित जीवन. मैंने एक जगह लिखा है “परमात्मा क्या है? मनुष्य ऋण वासना.” वासना से आसक्ति को धो डालो और फिर तुममें ईश्वर और उसके आनंद के सिवाय कुछ भी नहीं बचता.

अंतर में ईश्वर का यह अनुभव ब्रमचर्य है.

ओशो
प्रकाशित: डी एन जैन महाविद्यलय पत्रिका, जबलपुर 1955

Thanks to Osho Resources Centre (oshoresourcecenter.com – facebook.com).