TO ME SEX IS SACRED AND THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS RELIGIOUSNESS.''OSHO''

Q: BELOVED BHAGWAN,WHAT'S YOUR PERSONAL OPINION ABOUT RELIGIONS AND SEX?

There is no need of religions. All that is needed is a quality of religiousness

and all organized religions destroy this same quality. They make you Christians,

they make you Hindus, they make you Mohammedans, they don't make you

religious.

My effort is you should not be a Christian, you should not be a Hindu, you

should not be a Jew, you should be simply religious.

And to me religion means living life in its totality, accepting existence in all its

beauty, with gratitude. It is so beautiful and it has been given to us just as a gift --

we should be grateful, grateful to the trees, to the birds, to the stars, to the

flowers, to the oceans.

To me there is no God, existence is enough unto itself.

And a deep feeling of gratitude towards existence is what I mean by

religiousness.

And if you live totally then certainly sex is part of it. Sex is part of your life. And

something most important. You are born out of it, your every cell vibrates with

it, it is your only energy.

And if you love and love intensely, sex is the first thing that gives you a feeling

of religiousness.

To me the orgasmic experience is the first experience of religion. You don't get it

in the churches, you don't get it in the temples.

You get it when you are in total love, immersed with your lover, forgotten

everything, thoughts stop, for a moment time stops and that is the moment

when you first experience something beyond mind.

So to me sex is something sacred. It should be respected. And all the religions

have been condemning it.

They have created all kinds of perversions because of their condemnation. They

have created celibates and nobody can be a celibate, it is impossible. Just it is

against nature.

So the celibate becomes a homosexual. It leads to perversions and finally it has

come to AIDS which is an outcome of homosexuality.

I call AIDS a religious disease and I want it emphasized that all the religions are

responsible for bringing such a ugly disease which has no cure.

Celibacy should be made a crime. Anything against nature should be a crime.

And to me sex is something which should be more prayerful, more loving, more

aesthetic.

To my own sannyasins I say that you should make in your house a small temple

where you make love. It should be the most beautiful place in your house, and

when you make love there should be music, there should be incense burning,

there should be flowers all around. Love should be made not under glaring

electric lights but with small candles. Make it more of a dream, out of the real

world, the mundane world. And treat the other person with deep respect. Don't

use the other person because that is not respect, that is prostitution, that is not

love.

And before you make love dance, sing, let your energy vibrate your whole body.

Love should be the climax of your dance otherwise you will never achieve those

orgasmic moments I am talking about.

Millions of people live and die, give birth to children, but have never

experienced any orgasmic phenomenon.

The reason is because it can happen only at a climax so you have to bring your

energy at a climax. Don't make love while you are tired, don't make love just as a

sleeping pill so that you can sleep. Don't make love out of duty, that she's your

wife and you have to make love. Make love only when you are full of energy and

when you would like to dance, when you would like to explode. And make the

situation as sacred and as aesthetic as possible.

To me sex is sacred and the first step towards religiousness. I have immense

respect for it.