From Sex to Samadhi? Tradition’s Response to Rajneesh-Osho

Description

Rajneesh, later known as Osho (1931-1990), was a controversial modern guru. Central to Rajneesh’s philosophy was an iconoclastic critique of traditional institutional religions, conventional morality, and social norms. He proposed that human sexuality, rather than being repressed, could become a gateway to higher consciousness if approached with mindfulness and awareness, and should be given full freedom. According to him, complete detachment and samādhi can only be achieved through the satisfaction of every physical and psychic impulse, without any inhibitory restraint. He published “Sambhog se Samādhi kī Or” (in Hindi), in 1969, and “From Sex to Superconsciousness” in 1971.

Swami Karpatri (Hariharananda Saraswati, 1907-1982) was recognized as a jīvanmukta and a very learned champion of Sanātana Dharma orthodoxy and orthopraxis. He clearly understood the danger of Rajneesh’s teachings and wrote “Kyā Sambhog se Samādhi?” (From Sex to Samādhi?) as a rigorous refutation (khaṇḍana) of Rajneesh’s ideas — an attempt to protect the traditional understanding of brahmacarya and transcendence from what he perceived as a materialistic reinterpretation of yoga and spirituality.

Drawing from the scriptures (śāstra-s), he clearly expounded the place and value of kāma — desire, and especially sexual desire, one of the most entrenched desires — in traditional Hindu culture. Kāma is even said to be the origin of the universe, when the unmanifested Divinity wished to create multiplicity. Swami Karpatri shows clearly how Hindu tradition accepts kāma in its proper place — it is even one of the four aims of life (puruṣārtha-s) — but he insists that, as the scriptures repeatedly tell, it should be controlled and regulated. Indulging in desire, far from extinguishing it, makes it stronger. Control of the senses is of utmost importance, as told for example in the Bhagavad Gītā and so many other sacred texts.