Love is a very different thing. It has not necessarily anything to do with sex. Sex may be a part of it, may not be a part of it. You can be in love with a person without any sexual relationship. That's what we call friendship. It has disappeared from the world. Now friendship has almost disappeared from the world because we know only one kind of love, which is sexual. A non-sexual love has become non-existent. In fact, that IS love. Friendship is a deeper love than sexual relationship because friendship gives and asks nothing in return.
Sexual relationship is mutual exploitation: you are exploiting the other's body and he or she is exploiting your body. Both are using each other. But just to say it is pure sex looks ugly so we call it love. It will be very good if you call it simple sex; it will be true, sincere and there will be no problem arising, because then you will know it is appetite. You are fulfilled one moment and then, if the other goes on demanding and you go on playing the game, there will be hate, because you will be repulsed. And sooner or later you will become indifferent, because you have explored the other's body and he has explored your body. Now there is no more to it; the territories are known. Now there is no more intrigue, no more mystery to go into. You are finished. Indifference arises.
What you call love is just sex. Call it sex, don't call it love. And it will be good to call it sex because then you know it is sex. There is no need to pretend. If you don't pretend, it will not turn into hate. If you pretend that it is love and it is not, sooner or later you will see it is turning into hate. If you don't pretend, if you call it simply sex, you will be grateful to the other, you will not hate the other. And it will never become indifference; you will always feel thankful.
But calling it by a big name, 'love', creates the whole trouble. Then the problem arises -- why does it turn into hate? Love never turns into hate. Love goes on becoming more and more love. Love ultimately becomes prayer and God.
But this is not love. The first thing -- my suggestion -- is: call it simple, pure sex. And there is nothing wrong in pure, simple sex; it is natural. There is no need to hide it behind the beautiful word 'love'. There is no need to create a cloud of romance around it. Be simple, be true, sincere. If this is done, half the work is done. Then one day you will be able to see the difference. One day you will fall in love and you will see it is not just physiological, chemical attraction, but something higher, something superior -- two vibes falling in tune, two spirits feeling close, two beings feeling harmonious.
My own words are: if two bodies are feeling attracted to each other, it is sex; if two minds are feeling attracted to each other, it is love; if two souls are feeling attracted to each other, it is prayer. And prayer is the highest form. Sex is the lowest form. Don't think of the lower as the higher; otherwise you remain misguided.
-Osho, "The Secret of Secrets, Vol 1, #8, Q6"
Sex has been corrupted by the priests and politicians. Its innocence has been destroyed. Its joy has been poisoned. This is the greatest calamity that has happened to this unfortunate species called mankind. I want to give sex back its joy and its innocence and its spontaneity. My whole effort here is to make sex pure again. Nothing foreign should be involved in it: no jealousy, no ego, no expectations. It should be a pure phenomenon: two persons in that moment feeling that they would like to communicate on a deeper level, that's all. No obligation, no duty, no commitment through it.
Sex should be playful and prayerful. That is what I mean by purity. By purity I do not mean anything moral. God forbid! It is morality that has made it impure in the first place. Sex is and should be amoral. And it will help both. Sex free from morality will be joyous, healthy and whole, and morality freed from sex will be sane and reasonable and rational and practical.
The commitment has destroyed the whole beauty of it. Now humanity has come to the point where commitments can be dropped and sex can become a simple joy, a very simple joy. Not that because you love the woman you have to marry her, or the woman has to marry you because she has made love to you. Not that now you have to be parents, you have to bring children into the world. Not that now you have to manage a house, that now you have to look at the financial problems. Those things have destroyed the very joy of it. The cost is too much.
And that's why people have lost enthusiasm for it: it asks too much, the price is too much. And the price has been made too great because the people who have managed this society were against sex. Power-seekers are almost always against Joy. That's why they seek power! Power is a substitute for love. Because they could not get love they want to get attention. And power-seekers are pathological. Unless one is insane there is no reason why one should seek power. These people are miserable and they cannot tolerate anybody else being blissful either.
Power-seekers don't allow sex just as fun. They know in what way it is a basic need. It can be exploited for many things -- for society, for family, for politics, and this and that; it can be exploited for many things. And it is such a basic need that people will have to agree, they will have to pay the price, whatsoever it is. Knowing the need of it the politicians and the priests have exploited it immensely.
They have made sex such a serious phenomenon while in fact it is the most non-serious thing. It is fun! It is god's gift to enjoy and celebrate. It is participating in the great festival that existence is. But the so-called leaders are all against it. Even to say that sex is fun is to provoke their anger. Sex is subversive to them. Sex is dangerous to them.
-Osho, “Only Losers Can Win in This Game, #2“