... lie to you. You do not know anything because you do not know anything more than the body. You are acquainted only with your body, and that too not in its totality. You do not know anything which is immortal. If you know anything immortal in yourself, then this is not a lie. But to know that immortality one has to pass through conscious death. All meditations are really an effort to die consciously...

.... If you can die consciously, only then do you come upon something which is immortal, which cannot die. But we believe in an immortal soul just to deceive ourselves. Through this belief life becomes easier. You have solved the problem without solving it. Now there is no death for you, and you can live as if you are going to live forever. Not only those who are theists, but even those who are atheists...

... so anxious to die?" Socrates says, "Whatsoever is, is. Death is there; death is coming nearer. I must be ready to meet it, otherwise I will miss the moment of meeting death. So be silent. Do not disturb me; do not talk about past days." Many are talking of past days, of how beautiful it was to be with Socrates, and Socrates says, "Do not disturb me. I have known you. In the past...

...? You seem so contented. Your face shows such silence. We have never seen anyone dying in such beauty. Your face is so beautiful! Why arc you not afraid?" Socrates says, "Only two are the possibilities, two are the alternatives. Either I am going to die completely. If this death is ultimate and there will be no Socrates, why bother? If I am not going to be at all, there is no question. There...

...: they are simply lies. For example, you do not know that the soul is immortal, but you go on believing in it. That helps. That is a lie for you; it is not your experience. But to live with death will be almost impossible, so this lie helps. Then you can forget death. You know that life is going to continue. Only the body is going to be dead; you are not going to be dead. You will be there. This is a...

... - who do not believe in soul at all and thus cannot believe in immortal souls - they too live in such a way as if they are going to live forever. They also have to deceive themselves by believing that there is no death and that there are so many lives. Kant has said that if there were no God, then too we would have to invent him because without God it is difficult to live. Why? Because without God no...

... are weak, but also those who are very strong in our eyes, who are more strong than others and who come a little further ahead, they also come to barriers, and from those barriers there is no escape. Even a Napoleon has to die; even an Alexander comes to know things which he cannot win. Then what to do? One thing is to remain continuously in discontentment. That will become a cancer. You cannot sleep...

... one central idea continuously repeated, and the idea was this: "You may be a king, you may be on your golden throne, but I am happy in my dust. I do not care about it. I am contented in my hut. You may be in your palace, I am contented in my hut. Whatsoever you have is nothing to me, because death is going to snatch everything away from you." Like this ran the whole piece. This mind is...

... whatsoever you have will be snatched away by death? He feels happy about it. "Okay, be on your golden throne. Soon I will see that death snatches away everything, and then you will know who was happy. I am happy because death cannot snatch anything away from me." This is a very-cunning attitude; this is not contentment. But he was writing on contentment. That was the title of his poem - "...

... heard that your wife is dead.". Chuang Tzu said, "Of course, my wife is dead. Why should I weep? If she is dead, she is dead. And I never expected that she was going to live forever. You weep because you expect. I never expected that she was going to live forever. I always knew she was going to die any day, and this day it happened. This was going to happen any day. And any day is as good...

... for death as any other, so why should I not sing? If I cannot sing when there is death, then I cannot sing in life, because life is a continuous death. Every moment death will occur somewhere to someone. Life is a continuous death. If I cannot sing at the moment of death, I cannot sing at all. "Life and death are not two things. They are one. The moment someone is born, death is born with him...

.... When you are growing in life you are also growing in death, and whatsoever is known as death is nothing but the peak of your so-called life. So why should I not sing? And, moreover, the poor woman has lived so many years with me, so will you not allow me to sing a little in gratitude when she has left? She must go in peace, harmony, music and love. Why should I weep? "You weep only when you...

..., "Wait! Don't be in a hurry. Life is very patient." After a week, the girl who was going to be his son's wife, whom the family denied to him, died suddenly. So the villagers came and said again, "What are you doing! You have a very uncanny insight. Did you see that she was going to die?" But Chuang Tzu went on saying, "Wait! Wait!" Chuang Tzu had said that everything is...

..., he will begin to say, "Childhood was good." When he is old, just near death, he will create a golden dream. He will say, "What bliss childhood was! What a heaven!" Psychologists say that this is also a trick of the mind. Because the reality is so hard, you have to escape somewhere. You are not capable of facing it, you do not want to encounter it. Really, the old man is now near...

... death, so he wants to escape from it. When he begins to think about childhood, he has escaped, because childhood is as far away from death as anything. In his imagination, he has moved to being a child again. Now there is no death, no disease, no illness, no oldness. He is passing into the past, but why not into the future? Old men always escape into the past, young men always into the future. Why...

...? Because for an old man the future means death, so he doesn't want to see the future. Every day on the calendar a new date appears and death comes nearer. He doesn't want to see it, and the easiest way is to escape into the past. And to escape, you have to make it golden and beautiful, otherwise the journey will be boring. If you really escape into the real past, it is going to be a bondage. Ask any old...

... country, is just an imaginative creation. It is not concerned with reality. You have created it to escape from reality. A young man is thinking of the future, moving into the future, but contentment means to be here. Socrates is dying, and on his face there is so much contentment that everyone feels it is strange - because he is just on the verge of death, and death is a certainty with him. He is to be...

... given poison. The poison is being made ready, being prepared just outside his room. The room is filled with his disciples and friends. They are all weeping and crying, and Socrates is Lying on the bed. He says, "Now the time is coming near. Ask those persons who are preparing the poison if they are ready yet, because I am ready." Someone asks, "Are you not afraid of death? Why are you...

... will be no suffering because Socrates will be no more. Or, the second alternative: only the body will die, and I, Socrates, will remain. So why bother? These are the only two alternatives possible, and I do not choose either of the two. If I choose, then if will become a problem. If the one I choose doesn't happen and the other happens, then there will be disturbance and discontent and fear and...

... no one will remain to worry. But no more questions." Socrates says, "No more questions! Let me face death." He takes the poison, he lies down, and then he begins to face, to encounter, death. No one else has ever encountered death in that way. It is unique - Socratic. He says, "Now my legs have become dead, but I am as much alive as ever. My feeling of I-ness is the same. The...

... destroyed. Visarjan means "uncreated". Create, then uncreate it; then let everything go again to its basic elements. Hindus say death is a dispersion. You are created in your birth; you are a mud image. Then in death the elements move again to their original source. You are dispersed, and that which was not born in you, which was even before your birth, will remain after your death. But your...

... world, we affiliate ourselves with destruction. We shall forever be in the cycle of birth and death. We shall keep on taking new bodies and discarding them. The more we identify with the transient, the more we are prone to destruction. We then die every day and are born every day. We identify ourselves with the body so we die after fifty, sixty or seventy years. Is there an element within us which we...

... appear happy because they forget death. Death is, but it is always the other who dies. "I shall never die because it is always the other who has died up to now, some A or B or C, I am still alive. Then what proof is there that I shall die?" Straight and simple logic. Animals have no knowledge of death, because they have no knowledge of time, they have no knowledge of the future. Therefore, in...

... we think is, "Some poor man is dead." We feel sorry for him and deep within us we are happy that we are alive. That is the only effect that the death of another has on us. Seeing a dead man, Buddha feels his own death. The Irish poet Munro has said, "Whenever anyone dies, it is I who die. Therefore, do not try to find out whose funeral it is. It is my funeral." Buddha sees his...

... can tally with the Gita and not with Marx. Their discovery is that if there is matter in the world, there is anti-matter too, because nothing exists in this world without its counterpart. If there is light, there is darkness; if there is birth, there is death. So if there is matter, there is bound to be anti-matter. They have not only propounded this theory, they have also proved it. They have...

.... There is life today; there will be death tomorrow. It is morning now, soon it will be evening. There is light now, soon it will be dark. The morning found my heart filled with flowers, but by evening they shall have turned to dust. This is bound to be. Therefore, there is no need to cling to the morning flower or to weep over the faded petals in the evening. He who understands the law of change does...

... do not have to change like we change clothes, an element which is stable and, when we are identified with it, there is death no longer? Death comes because we identify ourselves with the transient, the impermanent. The day we break our relations with the impermanent, death no longer is; and that with which you are united is deathless, immortal. Lao Tzu says, "BEING IN ACCORD WITH TAO HE IS...

... ETERNAL." Thus his eternal life goes beyond pain and sorrow. What is unhappiness? It is the shadow of death: a long shadow of death. Wherever death is apparent, there is pain. Wherever we can forget death are our moments of happiness. But man finds himself in a vicious circle for nothing is forgotten by forgetting. Mulla Nasruddin was found drinking one day. He sat under a tree before his door and...

... lot in this vicious circle but reach nowhere. There is no way to reach. The sorrow is that we have no knowledge of joy, we only know sorrow. At times we manage to forget our woes and mistake it for happiness. But the things with which we try to forget our sorrows bring more pain in their wake; so we are caught in a vicious circle. One fact we must understand deeply. As long as I am prone to death, I...

... can never be happy, no matter how hard I try. Death stands before me; and its shadow is forever on me. It will soak every joy of mine with its poison. You are enjoying your meal, it is very delicious. Then someone tells you that you are to be executed this evening. All taste will vanish at once. Do what you will, the taste will not come back. You feel yourself in heaven with your beloved beside you...

.... Suddenly someone says that you are to be killed in a short time. You will at once forget there is someone sitting beside you. Everything will become meaningless. Camus has written, "How can happiness exist as long as there is death?" Animals appear to be happy because they have no knowledge of death. Man is unhappy because he is aware of death. Those human beings who are nearer to animals...

... a way they are happy. Man has knowledge of death therefore he can be most unhappy or can make the most arrangements to forget the unhappiness. There are only these two ways open to him. He cannot be happy until he understands Lao Tzu, until he identifies himself with the eternal. Animals can be happy for they have no feeling of death. Man cannot be as happy as animals are. Because man has gone...

... appear meaningless. Man cannot derive joy in the same way as an animal, and yet that is what he strives for. He becomes unhappy in the process. The reason is that consciousness can only travel forwards; it can never fall back. As long as the shadow of death persists, man cannot be happy. Then what is to be done? One way is to save the body from death as long as possible. But no matter how far we push...

... back death, it is still there in front of us. We may put it off for a few days, a few months, a few years, but it still looms large in front of us. A man may live eighty years or one hundred or even a hundred and fifty years, but death claims him in the end. The truth is, the more a man lives, the more he becomes aware of death. If a ten-year-old child dies, he dies without the knowledge of death. If...

... a forty-year-old man dies, he is only slightly aware of death, but when an old man of eighty dies, he is very much steeped in the knowledge of death. When a man of one hundred and fifty years dies, his knowledge of death is even more profound. If we succeed in lengthening the human age to a thousand years, the knowledge of death will become unbearable. As age progresses from one stage to another...

..., all the things that mean so much at one time become meaningless, they become no more than mere toys. Then a stage arrives when nothing holds any meaning except death; all other meanings are lost. Therefore, the wise among mankind become acutely aware of death. When Buddha sees a corpse, he at once realises that life is futile. But we do not think this way, we pass hundreds of funerals but all that...

... own death when he sees a dead man. If death is certain, life is futile. So the more sensitive the atman, the quicker it is to catch the shadow of death. It takes you eighty years to become old. Buddha was old by the time he was twenty. This does not mean, as it is generally understood in India, that only an old person should take sannyas. Many people come and tell me that I should initiate only...

... early in life, like Buddha, who was mature at the age of twenty. What does not occur to a man of eighty, occurred to Buddha at twenty. He was mature enough to realise that death is certain. Now, when death will come is a secondary matter which he will leave for the foolish to haggle over. For him, it made no difference when death would come. What was of prime importance to him now was to find out...

... whether there was something within him that was immortal, deathless. If there was not, then everything was meaningless. If there was then to seek the source of immortality was the most useful purpose in life. Lao Tzu also says, "He who establishes himself in the Tao becomes immortal, deathless". Death no longer exists for him. He who is beyond death is beyond the whole gamut of sorrow and pain...

...Only the meditator knows there is no death...

... Osho Satyam Shivam Sundram: Only the meditator knows there is no death Main Books Headers Help Your browser does not support iframes. < Prev  Osho Satyam Shivam Sundram   Next > Only the meditator knows there is no death From: Osho Date: Fri, 17 November 1987 00:00:00 GMT Book Title: Satyam Shivam Sundram Chapter #: 21 Location: am in Chuang Tzu Auditorium Archive Code: N.A...

.... Short Title: N.A. Audio Available: N.A. Video Available: N.A. Length: N.A. Question 1: BELOVED OSHO, FOR ABOUT SIX MONTHS I HAVE BEEN WAKING UP EVERY MORNING WITH A DEEP FEAR OF DEATH. I MUST BE MISSING THE MOST IMPORTANT EXPERIENCES IN MY MEDITATION TO BE SO AFRAID OF DEATH IN MY SLEEP. YEARS AGO, I WOKE UP EVERY MORNING WITH A SMILE AND DEEP HAPPINESS THAT I HAD FOUND YOU. OSHO, I AM STILL SMILING...

... your consciousness growing. The question is, "For about six months I have been waking up every morning with a deep fear of death. I must be missing the most important experiences in my meditation to be so afraid of death in my sleep." The situation is just the contrary: Because your meditation is deepening, that's why your morning is filled with the fear of death, not vice versa. You say...

... death. It is not a bad sign; it is tremendously important for you to understand that it is absolutely beautiful. Why does it happen? - because meditation and death are almost synonymous. Meditation brings you the realization of your being, on the one hand; on the other hand it kills your ego, and you have been attached, identified with the ego, not with the being. So the first experiences of deepening...

... that when there is nothing to do you are relaxed, your consciousness starts slipping into deeper layers of meditation. In the morning when you wake up a fear arises of death, because meditation is death of the ego. But the death of the ego is the beginning of your authentic life. Once this is understood, slowly, slowly the fear of death will disappear. Secondly, you being a woman... the fear of death...

... is deeper in woman than it is in man. These are the uniquenesses and differences between man and woman. The woman wants to remain always young, particularly the modern woman. When she is thirty-five, to reach thirty-six takes almost six years. She does not want to grow older, because she knows unconsciously that every growth is going to end up in death. And particularly for a woman - her youth is...

... be dependent on anybody else, death is really a great horror. The very word death is associated with something terrible. You need not be worried, Prem Nishi, about death. Meditation is the cure, the cure from the fallacy that one dies. Nobody has ever died, ever. Death is simply the greatest fiction, in which we go on believing because we always see somebody else dying, we never see ourselves dying...

.... So knowingly or unknowingly we go on believing, "It is always the other who dies." Obviously, when you die you will die to others. And in this continuous flow of millions of years, everybody has only seen somebody else dying. Nobody has seen himself dying, except very exceptional people whose meditation has gone so deep that the moment they are separated from their body they know that the...

... body was always dead, consisted of dead materials; the life that was showing in the body was just the inflow of eternal life that was reflected in the body. The constant river of eternal life flowing within you makes your body also look alive. The moment the eternal flow has moved, has changed its course, your body comes to its reality. But you never die. And the whole art of meditation is to make...

... you aware and alert that you are not the body. This is a good symptom, very significant, that as your meditation is deepening, your joy is deepening, your happiness is deepening. Logically you must have thought that when meditation deepens, happiness deepens, joy becomes greater. This is a strange thing: then every morning getting up with the fear of death seems to be absolutely illogical...

..., irrelevant, because even before your meditations, before coming to me, you were getting up without the fear of death. There are millions of people who will get up every day, but they will not be at all afraid of death because their consciousness never goes to that depth where they can feel in their sleep that the ego is dying. But being a woman, naturally you are more afraid. Meditation will take that fear...

... left alone - because the young fools are doing their own things, nobody takes care of you... Nobody even bothers whether you exist or not - then one finds oneself in a deep depression. Except death, there is no future. Life has passed away; one cannot go back, and ahead... ahead is only death. Ronald Reagan was addressing a massed gathering of American farmers. He began by telling a couple of jokes...

... forward, just an abyss, abysmal. Only the meditator knows there is no death. His certainty that there is no death is not based on scriptures, borrowed knowledge, because such things cannot be based on scriptures and borrowed knowledge. Nothing helps except your own realization. And the old woman particularly becomes very frustrated: she was so much loved, so much appreciated; now nobody looks at her...

.... Hence her fear of death becomes many times greater than man's. Frank was talking to his wife Alice, while the little old lady sat in the living room, knitting. "Now look, Alice," he whispered, "I don't want to sound harsh, but your mother has been living with us for twenty years now. Isn't it about time she got an apartment of her own?" "My mother?" gasped Alice. "I...

... thought she was your mother." They have not even bothered to inquire who's mother she is, and for twenty-five years... This shows a deep ignoring, tolerating. But, Prem Nishi, this is not going to happen to you! You are already on the right path and the symptom of death arising in the morning is very indicative that your meditation is going deeper and making you aware that the ego is not you. Your...

... sleep is perfectly good, your day is perfectly good; then why is it happening only in the morning? It is because the whole night you are enjoying a silent, meditative state, but as you wake up the old habit of getting identified with the ego grips you. A silent knowledge that this ego is going to die "and I am this ego!" makes you afraid, worried, anxious. But the situation is very clear: If...

... you understand what I am saying you should rejoice that this fear of death is coming at the right moment. The morning is the right moment. In India for centuries we have the word sandhya, for prayer. Sandhya means twilight. In the evening when the day turns into night and in the morning, when the night turns into day, there is such a tremendous change that these are the two points chosen by India to...

... Nishi, your symptom is perfectly good, so rejoice in it. Go deeper in meditation, go deeper in your happiness, go deeper in your dance and the fear of death will disappear. And not only the fear - even death will disappear, because death does not exist. Question 2: BELOVED OSHO, SINCE I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO TRUST MORE AND MORE IN EXISTENCE, EVERYTHING IS GOING SO EASILY, SO SOFTLY, SO BEAUTIFULLY. I GET...

... is not going so easily for the millions who are sick and ill and just on the waiting list of death. What is going easily? You cannot find a more insane world than that which surrounds you. There are millions of people behind bars in the jails; things are not going easy for them. And there are millions of people who cannot manage even a single meal in a day; things are not going easy for them. And...

... cannot remain outside long; you will have to stand up and enter into the temple. The moment somebody enters in his own temple of being he knows there is no death, he knows there is no disease, he knows there is no problem. Then the trust arises. Then the trust in the master who has helped for no other reason than simply that he loved and loved abundantly. Then love arises towards all those who have...

... people are the courageous people who have allowed themselves to be examined. There may be many more who are hiding out of fear, because the moment a man is found with AIDS he becomes dangerous to everybody. Friends turn into enemies, lovers forget all about love, his own family closes their doors, he becomes an outcast. This is a double calamity - a certain death in from six months to two years, and...

... are left and perhaps maybe not even a few minutes. Let me repeat my mantra. If he is, I will tell him, 'I repeated the mantra. Forgive me for all my stupidity when I used to tell people that there is no God and things like that.' If he is not, there is no problem - but I can't take a chance." But he did not die; it was only the first heart attack. People die almost always when the heart attack...

... that one is resurrected through it: dies and is reborn. In both the cases, whether through water or fire, death is the point. One has to die to attain to life abundant, one has to carry one's cross. Nobody else can initiate you, only death. Death is the Master. Or, the Master is death. If you are ready to die, then nobody can prevent you from being reborn. But this death should not be suicidal. Many...

... people commit suicide. They are not resurrected. A suicidal death is not a death through understanding; a suicidal death is a death through misunderstanding. You die confused, in agony. You die obsessed with the world, you die attached to the world. You die as a complaint. Watch people who think of committing suicide. They are not against life. In fact, on the contrary, they are so attached to life...

..., death can either be a very terrifying experience or tremendously beautiful. It depends on the attitude. If you feel terrified in death then you will die, but you will not be resurrected. If death becomes a beautiful experience, then you are dying and at the same time resurrecting. Ordinarily death is terror; that's why you are so afraid to die. In life nothing beautiful happens until you die, but you...

... are terrified. A Master has to persuade you, by and by, about the beauty of death. He has to sing the glories of death. He has, by and by, to convince you and create a trust in death so that you can let go. Once you let go nothing dies, only the ego. You remain for ever and ever. You are eternity, you cannot die - the fear is absolutely futile and unbased - but the ego has to die. The ego is a...

... created phenomenon. It was not there when you were born, society created it. Society has given you the ego - and that ego can be taken by the society... and that ego is absolutely going to be taken by death. You will go as you came: empty-handed you come, empty-handed you go - the ego is just an illusion in between. That ego is afraid of death. Once you understand that you are not going to die - only...

... not be a baptism: you will not die in it, and you will not be reborn. That's why my insistence is on searching for an alive Master. Scriptures are there, once those rivers were flowing, but now they are frozen. They are lost in the desert land of churches, temples and organizations. The poetry no longer throbs in them: they are dead dogmas, arguments; the love has disappeared. Remember this always...

... the fulfillment was possible but whenever it comes close, the woman becomes afraid. The woman asks for love and is afraid of love because when love comes, it brings death with it. Love has to bring death because only then can you be reborn. There is no other way. I will read the question again: "Often during the lecture I find a part of me waiting for your glance. When you finally look at me...

..., something in me runs away." You wait for my glance. A deep love arises in you, a waiting. But when my glance comes to you, it brings death. Then you become afraid, you escape, because you were waiting for love and the glance brings death also. It brings love also, but love and death are two aspects of the same glance. If I really love you, I have to be a death to you. There is no other way; the love...

... his manhood and woman has to go beyond her womanhood. And when you are neither man nor woman, then you will be able to allow my glance to reach to the deepest core of your being. Then you will be able to open your doors. Then my knock will not go unanswered. Question 3: SURELY THAT WHICH HAPPENS IN THE INSTANT OF DEATH BY DROWNING IS THE TRUE EXPLANATION OF JESUS' BAPTISM AT THE HANDS OF JOHN. WAS...

... NOT THE SKILL AND STRENGTH OF THE BAPTIST THAT OF TAKING A MAN TO THAT POINT, AND THE PREPARATION YOU TALK OF BEFOREHAND EMPLOYED SO THAT A MAN BE TRANSFORMED BY THE EXPERIENCE RATHER THAN TERRIFIED BY IT? Yes, exactly so. The baptism is possible only when you are ready to die. That is the symbolic meaning: that John the Baptist used to take his disciples to the river when they were ready to die...

... stake. Life was in danger - even that thought disappeared. Then to come out of the river was not a thought; it was my whole being." Farid said, "You have understood. This is the answer. If you are feeling suffocated in this world, pressed from all sides, and if you feel nothing is going to happen in this world except death, then the desire to seek truth or God, or whatsoever you name it...

... understand that where you are thinking life is, there is no life but only death. John the Baptist, or anybody who has ever baptized anybody else, who has ever initiated anybody else, who has ever brought anybody to the world of truth out of the world of dreams, has to prepare you for death. Yes, that is the meaning. By baptism he was saying, "Your old self has gone down the river; you are no more the...

... for you by the existence itself. Now you are in communion with fire itself - you have been initiated by fire." What secret can the fire give to you? The secret of death. In India we have been burning dead bodies so that fire becomes associated with death. Even those who are not seekers also know that fire is the symbol of death - one dies in it. But those who know and seek on the path also know...

... much and it was not delivered. They are frustrated. One who is ready to die WITHOUT frustration.... Seeing the truth of life, seeing the truth that life is just a dream.... It cannot fulfill anything, it cannot frustrate also. Fulfillment, frustration, both are parts of the illusion that life is real. One who sees that life is unreal, just like a dream, becomes detached. A renunciation comes. In the...

... frustrated that only shows that you were still expecting something. Frustration shows deep expectation. One who has become aware that life can only promise but can never deliver - it is a dream! - is neither frustrated nor fulfilled in life. Then comes renunciation. Renunciation is not leaving life; renunciation is seeing life as it is. Then one is ready to die because there is nothing in life. That...

... readiness for death is the point John the Baptist was driving people towards. When they were ready he would bring them to the River Jordan and perform the ritual, the final touch. With the water flowing over the head and down the river, the ego, the old personality, is gone. Pure essence - bathed in a new sense of being, with a new mystery of being alive, with a new sense of existence - is born. Of course...

... earth. I have heard that one emperor had a fool. One day the emperor was looking in the mirror. The fool came, jumped, and hit him with his feet in the back. The emperor fell against the mirror. He was, of course, very angry and he said, "Unless you can give some reason for your foolish act which is more criminal than the act itself, you will be sentenced to death." The fool said, "My...

... think about it. And to feel it, one has to disappear. You are trying an absolutely impossible thing: by thinking, you are trying to realize God. It will remain a philosophy, it will never become your experience. And unless it is an experience, it is not liberating. It will become a bondage; you will die in that bondage of words. You are too much. Yoga Chinmaya's head has to be beheaded - cut...

... will have to die; hence the fear of death, so much fear of death, but the Brahman in you is unborn and undying. Everyone is afraid of death. Why this fear? And nothing can be done about it; only one thing is certain in life, and that is death. It is said of one Zen master, Tojo, that he remained silent his whole life, he would not speak. When he was a child it was thought that he was incapable of...

... just sit around Tojo, they would just be in contact with his silence, and many were transformed. He collected all his followers and said, "This evening when the sun sets, I will die. This is my first and last statement." So somebody said, "But if you can speak, why did you remain silent your whole life?" He said, "Everything else is uncertain, only death is certain. And I...

... to die. But right now, behind this ego, the unborn is flowing. If you can look and see and feel the unborn, the fear of death disappears - and there is no other way to destroy the fear. Death is there and you are going to die, you cannot be immortal as an ego. But if you look deep, and if you can find the depth of your ego where ego is no more, if you can see the ocean beyond the wave, you are...

... of it grips you, for a moment the mind stops; but suddenly you become aware that the flower is going to die by the evening, and just after the beauty of the flower comes the sadness of death. It is everywhere. You will find it moving with you, moment to moment. How can you be at ease? How can you be at peace? How can you live in bliss? Impossible! The sun god said, "But if you become aware of...

... dead seed will become alive. The seed will die, but a plant will come in its place. And this seed, this seedling, this growing plant, will become a tree. But this is something which happens within you. You can be helped, but you cannot be taught. A master can create a situation around you - just a situation, remember. And whatsoever he teaches is not knowledge, he teaches only how to create the...

... years. The first and last statement he made was on the day he was going to die. The morning he was going to die, just as the sun was rising, he collected his followers - many had started following him. He was not speaking, but he was living something, and that living something became so significant to those who could understand that there were many who followed him; many were his disciples. They would...

... want only to speak about something which is certain." Once born, death is certain; everything else is uncertain. Why is death so certain? Nothing can be done about it. Science may help to prolong life, but death cannot be destroyed, because it is implied in the very phenomenon of birth; it has happened already. Death is one pole of the same phenomenon of which birth is the beginning, the other...

... two pieces. The one which has the positive pole will immediately create the negative, and the one which has the negative pole will immediately create the positive. You can go on cutting the magnet, but howsoever many fragments you cut, each fragment will have two poles - because a magnet cannot exist with one pole, it is impossible. Life has two poles: birth is the positive pole, death is the...

... negative. You cannot destroy, you can at the most prolong. You can at the most make a bigger magnet, but the other pole will be there. You can cut it and make a small magnet, but the other pole will be there. This polarity is absolute. So whatsoever science thinks or imagines, it can never happen. Death cannot be destroyed; through science, remember, it is impossible to destroy death. Once born you have...

... already immortal. But that one which is hidden behind was never born and it will never die. Unless you come to know something which is not born, you cannot become deathless. SEE IN ALL BEINGS THE BRAHMAN, WHO IS ONE, UNBORN, STILL, IMPERISHABLE, INFINITE, IMMUTABLE AND CONSCIOUS; SO SEEING LIVE IN PEACE AND BLISS. Once you can see that, bliss is just the by-product, peace simply happens. And it cannot...

... happen before. Death is there - how can you be at peace? Death is there - how can you be at home? Death is there - how can you rest? Death will create tensions, anguish, worries. Death is there constantly hammering on your head - how can you be silent? And how can you love this existence? And how can you feel grateful to the divine? Impossible! Death is there. You can forget it for moments, but it is...

... hidden; it is always there behind the mind. And whatsoever you do, knowingly or unknowingly, the phenomenon of death influences you. It is always there just like a shadow, it darkens your life. People come to me and they say, "We are sad, depressed, and we don't know what the cause is. There is no visible cause for our being sad and depressed. We have everything that life can give, still we are...

... sad and depressed." They will remain sad and depressed. They may not know what the cause is; the cause is there - the death always around you, around the corner, waiting for you. And wherever you are moving, you are moving to the death; whatsoever you do, every act, leads you to the death. I have heard one Sufi tale. Once it happened that one king had a dream. In the night when he was fast...

... asleep he dreamed he saw a shadow, a very dark, dangerous looking, ferocious shadow, standing just behind him. He asked, "Who are you?" The shadow said, "I am your death, and before the sun sets tomorrow, I am coming to meet you. I have come just to inform you." The king wanted to ask, "Is there any way to escape from you?" but he became so afraid that he was awakened. He...

... escape from this palace, this palace is dangerous. At least this much is certain - that you should not be here at that moment when death comes. Go as far away as possible." It was worth considering. The king said, "Okay. There is no other possibility, because these fellows are confusing me even more. So let them discuss and let them decide, and I will escape." When you have fear, escape...

... the whole day. And I was afraid whether your horse would come or not - the place is so far away from your palace. Let me thank your horse, he is really wonderful." Whatsoever you do, and wherever you escape, you cannot escape death; wherever you reach, death will be waiting for you there. If you are rich you can have a fast horse; if you are poor you will have to walk, but you will reach - you...

... will reach anyway. Fear is there around the heart, the heart is in the grip of the fear of death. And it spoils everything. You cannot really love. When you are in love, death is there. And love is so deathlike that lovers always become conscious of death. If you have loved anyone you will be aware of it. You may not have noticed, but whenever you love someone the lover is bound to ask, "Will...

... you love me forever?" - the fear of death. "Will you always be with me?" - the fear of death. When you are deep in love you become more aware, because deep in love you are near the heart, and near the heart is the shadow of death. Every beat of the heart is aware that the next heartbeat may not come. Wherever you move, you cannot feel blissful. Look at a beautiful flower. The beauty...

... the one behind the many, if you become aware of the one in the many...." If this multiverse disappears and the universe appears, you will be at peace - because then you cannot die. The ocean cannot die, the life energy that is waving in you cannot die. The wave will disappear, but the energy will continue in other waves. That's what reincarnation means. All the religions which have penetrated...

... way from the middle, I have to find the periphery, and from the periphery I can go out. These are the two poles: life and death, negative and positive. Either affirm life, then you can jump out; or negate life, then you can jump out. If you affirm life then birth becomes the pole, if you deny life then death becomes the pole. Both Buddha and Mahavira were more interested in death than in birth. But...

... not be. He was ninety percent a Jaina and ten percent a Christian - negative, businesslike, serious. He was not like Krishna - playful, enjoying, nonserious. Whatsoever happens Krishna is not worried. He is not going to force anything on the course of life. Wherever life leads is the goal - wherever. If life leads to death in the middle of a stream, that is the goal - nowhere to reach. A...

... energy to move to the right. While you love you are gathering energy to hate; while you hate you are gathering energy to love. While you are alive you are gathering energy to die, and when you are dead you will gather energy to be reborn. If you see only life then you will miss. See death hidden everywhere in life! And if you can see that death is hiding in life, then you can see the reverse also: that...

...; you also see you are choosing hate. And how can a lover choose hate? You can choose because the hate is not apparent to you. You had chosen love, and then you think by some accident hate has happened. But the moment you choose love, you have chosen hate. The moment you cling to life, you are clinging to death. Nobody wants to die - then don't cling to life, because life is leading towards death...

... staff should have only one extreme. The other must be there; if there is a beginning the end must be there. This is what Buddha goes on saying: "If you are born, death must be there. Everything that is born has to die." Because one end is the beginning, then where is the other end, the other end of the staff? It HAS to be there. Everything born has to die, everything made will be unmade...

... sense a thing is, but in a certain sense it is already on the way to being non-existential. You say, "This child, is he alive or dead?" He is alive, yes. But Mahavira says he is already on the path to die. He will die and the death is certain, so let it be implied in the statement, otherwise the statement will be half and untrue. So Mahavira says, "Yes, in a sense this child is alive...

... - and no, in a sense, because this child is going to die" - not only going to die, in fact he is already dead because he is alive. The death is hidden there, it is part of him. And that's why he says it is better to say the third: he is both. But how can a child be both dead and alive? - because death negates life, life negates death. That's why Mahavira says let there be a fourth standpoint also...

... life that the opposite is implied. Looking at the fact, truth, deep inside you, gives you trust. Looking at the fact, faith happens. If I see that I was born, then the fact is there that I will die. This is a simple fact. I don't accept it because there is no rejection; I simply trust. When I trusted being born, life gave me birth - and I trusted. Life will give me death, and I trust. If birth has...

... in death life is hidden. Then both the polarities disappear. When you see them in their togetherness, simultaneously, with that your mind also disappears. Why? Because mind can only be partial, it can never be whole. What will you do if you see hate hidden in love? If you see love hidden in hate, what will you choose then? Choice will become impossible, because if you see, "I choose love,"...

... possible only if love and hate are different, not only different but opposite. So you can write: love is not hate. When you have to define hate, you can say: not love. But what will Sosan do? If you ask him, "What is love?" how should he define love? - because love is hate too. How will he define life? - because life is death too. How will he define a child? - because a child is an old man too...

... around her neck, blood and a head in one hand, and many hands holding weapons to kill. She is the consort of Shiva, and Shiva is Lying down and she is standing on his chest. When for the first time Westerners started to think about this symbol, they were puzzled: "Why? And why do you call this woman 'mother'? She looks like death!" But Hindus say that the mother also has death in her, because...

... she gives birth, then who will give you death, the opposite? The mother gives you birth, then she will give you death also. This has to be so. Kali, the mother, is both dangerous, destructive and creative. She is the mother, the creative force, and she is also death, the destructive force. She loves Shiva but she is standing on his chest as if ready to kill. But this is the nature of life. Love...

... kills, birth becomes death, beauty disappears, ugliness comes in. Everything fades into the opposite, melts into the opposite. All logic looks futile and mind gets dizzy. WHEN SUCH DUALITIES CEASE TO EXIST... And when you see through all of them, they simply cease to exist - because LOVE IS HATE. The right word will be 'lovehate' - one word, not two words. The right thing will be 'lifedeath' - one...

... be beautiful, and then ugliness enters and then ugliness disturbs. You want to be alive forever and forever, and then death knocks at the door and death disturbs. If you can see the opposite is hidden, suddenly you don't ask for anything, you don't seek anything, because you know whatsoever you ask, the opposite will come. If you ask for prestige, respect, insults will be coming from everywhere; if...

... it worth clinging to? If faith also can be destroyed, then what type of faith is this? But it can be destroyed because doubt is there, the doubt is already eroding it. This happens every day. Believers become disbelievers, disbelievers become believers - they change, easily convertible. Why? Because the other is hidden there. Belief carries doubt; as love carries hate, life carries death, belief...

... cannot believe - what can you do? You simply trust and flow into the flow. You move with life, you rest with life. If life brings birth, you trust in birth - you don't hanker. If life brings death, you trust in death - you don't say that this is not good. If life brings flowers, okay; if life brings thorns, okay. If life gives, it is good; if life takes away, it is good. This is trust. Not making a...

... choice on your own. Leaving everything to life, whatsoever... Not desiring, not making demands. Simply moving wherever life leads, because the moment you demand you know now the opposite will be the result. So you don't ask, "Give us eternal life," because you know you will get eternal death. Have you ever observed that in the whole world only Christians have been praying for eternal life...

... been so beautiful, why not death? And who are you to decide? If birth has given you so much, why not death? The unknown is there always. Trust means going into the unknown, not making any demands. Then you cannot be miserable, then bliss goes on showering on you. How can you be miserable if you don't demand? Who can make you miserable if you don't demand? Life seems to be miserable, because...

... praying? Do you think you can improve upon him? All prayers mean praying to God that "Please don't make two and two become four. Whatsoever is happening, whatsoever is natural, don't let it happen." You have some ideas to suggest, some advice - this is not trust. Trust means: "I am no one and I go wherever life leads me, wherever - into the unknown, into the dark, death or life. Wherever...

... God and Devil are one. They are. The Devil is just the opposite: the other extreme, the hate, the death. So you say God is love and the Devil is hate, God is compassion and the Devil is violence, and God is light and the Devil is darkness. What foolishness! Because darkness and light are two aspects of one energy. Good and bad also, right and wrong, moral and immoral, are both two polarities of one...

... alive you don't want to think about death at all, because you are afraid that if you think too much about death then you will not be able to enjoy life. But your fear is, in a way, right. If you really become aware of death, you will not be able to enjoy life the WAY you are enjoying it. It is not much of an enjoyment also. It is not - it is just a misery. You will not be able to enjoy THIS way. And...

... comes, again the world enters, and the worries, and you are again in the wheel. This you have been doing for many many lives. Now try something Sosan is saying, and this is what all Buddhas have said. Look while you are in love, while you are making love - don't be afraid - look how it is turning into hate. While you are alive, look how it is going into death - each breath and you are moving into...

... death. Every moment of time slips, and death is coming nearer and nearer. Look how your youth is becoming old age. Look to the opposite! Courage is needed, because the old pattern will not be helped; it will be destroyed by it. But once you can see hate in love, you will attain to a tranquility which is beyond both. If you can see life and death both together, you transcend. In a single stroke you...

... poison you? Nobody bothers about you." But he would not take it. He said, "I will bring a stove and prepare tea." He would not take the food in the hotel, because who knows...? He was so afraid of everything. How can this man live? As if the only point is, not to die. But life brings death, death is the culmination. If you don't want to die, don't live - that is the only way. There is no...

... other way, because if you live you are moving towards death. Life brings death. So the logical way is not to live. The less you live, the less the possibility of death. If you don't live completely, if you commit suicide, you will never be dead again, you have finished. There is no life, now you cannot die. So such a man becomes already a dead man. You will find these corpses moving in the markets...

..., universities, working, doing things - but they are corpses. Life needs expansion. Fear does not allow you, then security becomes the whole thing - how to be secure. How not to die becomes the whole art of life. And I tell you, the whole art of life is how to die joyfully, how to die blissfully, how to allow death - because if you are ready to die, you are ready to live. If you are ready to die, you are ready...

... to love. If you are ready to die, you are ready to meet the divine. There is no other way, death is the door. What do I mean when I say death is the door? You have to not be there, you have to dissolve, you have to lose yourself. What does security mean? Whatsoever happens, you have to be, you have to persist in your ego. That's why money is so meaningful, because money helps you not to live. A...

... death, a lover can die easily, lovingly. He has known life, he is thankful. Even for a single moment love happened... he has known the glory of it, the benediction, all blessings have been on him. He can thank God for this single moment that has been given to him - and he was not worthy. Who is worthy? Nobody is worthy. Have you ever thought about it - that you are alive? Are you worthy to be alive...

... never afraid of death, because you have known a death - the death of love. And it was so beautiful, it was so melodious, it was such a benediction, that now you can accept even the real death, the death of the body. You can accept it. Now there is no fear, because you have known that merging into one woman or one man was so beautiful - how much more beautiful will it not be when you merge with the...

... whole of existence? Death is a merger. If you know love, there is no fear in death. If you don't know love, then fear becomes the center of your life. How to protect yourself? So you make castles, then you make bank balances; these are just protections against death. And when you are afraid of death you are afraid to live, because to live is always dangerous. To live you have to move on unknown paths...

.... And there is danger; on every corner death may be waiting. A man who is afraid of death by and by shrinks and becomes afraid of life also. He cannot fly in an airplane, he cannot go in a train, because there are accidents. He cannot make a stranger a friend, because who knows...? He cannot fall in love with a woman, because who knows whether she is going to deceive or not? He cannot believe. If love...

... where you are earning, accumulating, and where you are getting more successful every day: the factory is growing bigger and bigger, and the bank balance is accumulating, and everything is going so good. Why become disturbed by a new, foreign element? So don't allow in any element from the outside. Live in your prison, sheltered, secure. If you know love you are not afraid of death. And when you are...

... not afraid of death, then only do you become capable of living - because if a man is afraid of death, how can he live? He is even afraid of taking a breath because germs are there. I know one poet. He is a great poet, but I have always been wondering how he can be a great poet - he cannot even be a man. He must know the tricks of language, he must be a grammarian. He must be playing tricks with...

.... Who knows? - the wife may be a spy. He never got married. He got married only just before he committed suicide - three hours before, because then there was no fear. When death was certain he got married, never before - because a wife is a dangerous thing. Who knows? - she may be in association with some foreign power, or she may be a communist; in the night she may kill him. He loved many women, but...

... never allowed any woman to live with him, never allowed any woman to be in his room in the night. Just three hours before, when he had decided that now there was no way to escape - death is certain, the enemy is bombing Berlin - he called in a priest in the night. The priest was awakened from his sleep; immediately he was brought to the underground cell where Hitler was, and Hitler told him, "Now...

..., "Then who is minding the store? If everybody is here then who is minding the store?" And he was on his deathbed; just a moment later he died. No, neither life is meaningful nor death... the store, "Who is minding the store?" Even at the last moment, no temple is there in the mind - just the store, the market, the money. Why is money so important? It is your protection against love...

..., against life, against death, against God. Hence, Mahavira and Buddha renounced it. The renouncement is simply coming to understand that this whole arrangement is against life, against love, against God. They simply renounce! It is not because of money that they are renouncing it, but just because they have come to understand that through this protection they have been killing themselves, this was poison...

... moment of love, for eternity and eternity you will be thankful and singing songs of gratitude to the divine. Then there is no death - love knows no death, love knows only life. You know only death. Love... you have bypassed it, somehow you have not been through it; you have bypassed it, and now money has become significant. Money is symbolic of a dead man, money is the love of a dead man. So look at a...

..., rationalizations, and go on hiding the basic fact that you are killing your feeling. If you are on the path of money - and almost everybody is, more or less - then see the whole phenomenon of what is happening within you; you are killing yourself. And life cannot be prevented from moving, life will reach up to death. You cannot withhold it, it is not in your control. It has to go - as it has come, it has to go...

.... Before it leaves you, you can only create anxiety, that is all. If you accept the ebb and flow of life, the birth and death of life; if you accept, you need not create any anxiety. You can love. While dying is there, love. And allow love to happen. Don't try for security and don't be afraid of death. Death will come. Give a chance to life to flower. If life really flowers, death will be the culmination...

..., not the end. It will be the climax, the crescendo. It will be the highest peak, the Everest, not the end. And at the moment of death, a man who has lived rightly, through love - and that is the only right way to live - for him death comes as the most beautiful ecstasy. He dies with a song in the heart. He dies with ecstasy all over the body, throbbing. He is going to meet the divine beloved. He has...

... learned how to love and how to give. So in the moment of death also he can give. He gives his whole being back to nature; the body, the air goes to the air, the fire goes to the fire, the earth goes to the earth, the sky goes to the sky. He gives, he is a giver, and the being goes to the source, to the brahma; he does not cling. But you cannot do it if you have been a clinger your whole life. At the...

... moment of death, if you cling everything becomes ugly. If you have been clinging and clinging and clinging, and always afraid and in fear and have never allowed love, then at the moment of death you will miss the highest peak that is possible, that was possible. These are the two paths; one is right, the other is wrong. Now we will try to go into this story. You will be able to understand - but...

... of money, he should not go. But I know the reason - that too is part of fear, that too is making security in the other world. He must have been nearing death, he must have become an old man. And people of money are always old, they are never young - because death is always near and they are trembling. He must have been feeling any day death can come; he has to make arrangements for the other world...

... provide your own hell there. Immediately you reach there you will create your hell all around. You cannot do anything new. The mind is old, it goes on in a pattern, moving in a circle. This Umezu must have been a miser. But now death is coming near and he must think of the other world also. This world he has lost, now the other cannot be lost. Something has to be done, but that too has to be done...

... through money. Money may be necessary; it is not enough. And if there is only money and nothing else, it is better you die, the sooner the better. Because you are living unnecessarily, you are just passing the days - it is not life. Jesus is reported to have said: "Man cannot live by bread alone." He also knows that bread is needed - nobody can live without bread, that's right. But there is a...

... experience that you are not separate from existence, that you are one with it, all fear of death disappears because there is nobody to die inside you. In the first place there is nobody at all, existence lives through you. Saint Paul says, "Not I, but Christ lives through me." And Christ says, "Not I, but God lives through me." They are expressing their non-separation, they are...

..., afraid of death. The less the ego the less the fear of death. That's why small children are not afraid of death - their egos are not yet born. Animals are not afraid of death, they simply die; when death comes they die. When birth comes they are here, when death comes they are gone. A person of true consciousness will come like the wind and will go like the wind. He will not leave any traces anywhere...

... able to listen to it. And if He comes and knocks on your door, you should be ready to open the door, you should not be afraid of Him. Yes, when the unknown comes fear arises, and when God knocks on your door it is a death for you... and a resurrection - but the resurrection will come later on. First the crucifixion, first you will have to die. Being with God means only one thing: dissolving in Him...

... about a Hassid Master, Sosya. About seven hundred years ago a great Master and mystic named Sosya, ripe with years and honors, lay dying. His students and disciples asked if he was afraid to die. "Yes," he said. "I am afraid to meet my maker." "How can that be? You have lived such an exemplary life. You have led us out of the wilderness of ignorance like Moses. You have judged...

... remain separate from existence creates fear, creates paranoia. Why are people so afraid of death? Do you think they are really afraid of death? You may not have meditated over it. Nobody is afraid of death - because how can you be afraid of something which you have not seen yet? You cannot be afraid of something which is unknown, you can only be afraid of something which is known. A child is not afraid...

... of catching hold of a snake, a child is not afraid of putting his hand into the fire. Why is he not afraid?because he does not know! How can he be afraid of the snake? He has no past experience, no bitter experience. How can he be afraid of the flame? - he has never been burned before. How can you be afraid of death? You don't know anything about death. Who knows? It may be a beautiful rest. Who...

... knows? It may take you to a higher plane of life. Who knows? It may give you freedom from your body. Who knows? How can you be afraid of death? No, nobody is afraid of death; let me say it clearly. But you will say everybody IS afraid of death, I know. There is something else in it: people are NOT afraid of death, they are afraid of losing their separation, they are afraid of losing their ego. Once...

... you start feeling separate from existence the fear of death arises because then death seems to be dangerous. You will no longer be separate; what will happen to your ego, your personality? And you have cultivated the personality with such care, with such great effort; you have polished it your whole life, and death will come and destroy it. If you understand, if you see, if you can feel and...

... declaring that they are one with existence. Once you know that you are one with existence there is no death possible. For death to be possible first you have to create a private, personal life; then death becomes possible. YOU MAKE DEATH POSSIBLE by creating the ego; and the stronger the ego, the more will be the fear of death. Hence the most egoistic person is very very prone... deep down, trembling...

.... He will not struggle with death, because he will not struggle with life itself. He will allow life to flow through him and he will allow death also to flow through him. Life is God's and death is God's; life is a manifestation, death is a rest. And remember, if the fear of death disappears then all other fears disappear automatically, because all other fears are nothing but by-products of the main...

..., basic fear - the fear of death. Go into any of your fears and ultimately you will come to the rock-bottom, and that will be the fear of death. You are afraid of losing money? Go deep into it and you will find that money somehow gives you a feeling that you are more protected, that you can resist death more than the poor man; hence you are afraid of losing money. If you are powerful, politically...

... powerful, it gives you an appearance, as if you have conquered death. Because you are so powerful over people's lives, it creates an illusion that you are powerful over your life too. It is a SHEER illusion, but it is maintained by your high post: you are the president, the prime minister, and millions of people look up to you - you are so important, how can existence afford to lose you? You are so...

... important, how can life continue without you? You are so important that you will be needed; that gives you the feeling. Also, because you are so powerful over people, you can kill thousands of people. Adolf Hitler killed millions of people, and those who have looked deeply into his mind are all convinced of one fact: that he was very much afraid of death. He was afraid of death, so much so that he never...

... suffering from so much fear of death that he wanted to kill to convince himself that "If I kill so many people, if I can kill millions of people, then I am beyond death. I am so powerful." A man who is afraid of death is dangerous, dangerous to himself and to others. And the fear arises out of a very fallacious beginning; the fallacy is that we think we are separate. But consciousness has that...

... meaningless, with no significance. His heart longs for the beloved, there is only one thirst - again to be in that vast space, again to be with the Friend. WHEN MY FRIEND IS AWAY FROM ME, I AM DEPRESSED; NOTHING IN THE DAYLIGHT DELIGHTS ME. Once you have known God then these so-called days are like nights. Once you have known God then this life is like death. Once you have known God then all the joys of...

... dreaming?" Great fear grows, great trembling arises, one is scared to death. And one cannot even share it. It would have helped if there were a companion with whom it was possible to share. It would have helped if some consoling words from the other had come; if the other had told him, "Don't be worried, it will happen again. It has happened to me again." That would have given confidence...

..., tremendously beautiful, ecstatic, utterly silent, but it gives you the taste of eternity, of timelessness, of something beyond death. The second question: OSHO, WILL SURRENDER HAPPEN ONLY WHEN I AM READY TO DIE FOR YOU? Veet Marc, I AM NOT TELLING YOU TO DIE FOR ME. I am telling you just the opposite: to live for me. The surrender will happen only when you start living for me. I am not a worshipper of death...

... happens after death. Mohammedans say if you die in a jihad, in a religious war, you may be a sinner but you will directly go to heaven because you are dying for religion. The same is the attitude of the Christians and the same is the attitude of all the religions. And who would not like to go to heaven? All the heavenly pleasures... and they are eternal and this life is momentary, this life is going to...

...? Is it life? Is it worth living? Death is far better! Life is so miserable - death is a relief. Let go of my hand and let me jump!" Since life is so miserable - and Adolf Hitler had made life miserable - everybody was ready to die. First make people's lives miserable, don't let them enjoy life, destroy all the roots of enjoyment, teach them all kinds of inhibitions, tell them that sex is sin...

... eat, drink and be merry for me. I want you to celebrate for me. I want you to live your life as totally, as fully as possible. Yes, death will come, but when it comes out of a fulfilled life it has a beauty of its own. It is not death then, not at all; it is the door to the divine. But you need not die. Your work is to live; that is your sadhana. That's my whole teaching: live, because that's the...

..., I am a worshipper of life. I am not here to teach you some kind of martyrhood. Enough of it! For thousands of years stupid people have been sacrificed by the cunning ones. Somebody was dying for Christianity, somebody was dying for Mohammedanism, somebody was dying for Hinduism. Everybody was dying - as if death were the goal! - and nobody was being taught how to live. Live for God, because God is...

... life. And, of course God is also death, but death is beautiful only when it comes out of a fulfilled life, when it is an ultimate flowering of life. When death is a sacrifice it is ugly. Then you are dying for some cause, for some purpose, for some vested interest. Then some cunning politician, some cunning priest is using you as a means to his own ends. Of course he makes promises to you, otherwise...

... how are you going to sacrifice your life? He promises you everything - after death. Now nobody knows what happens after death so it is very easy to promise something after death: I promise you everything before death, not after death. That is the way of the cunning people - promising you something after death. You sacrifice now and the rewards will be given after your death. Now nobody knows what...

... finish anyway sooner or later. And what is there to be so worried about in this life? It is ugly, it is painful, it is suffering, it is misery. These same people have made this life so miserable that anybody would like to die. I have heard: A British politician was talking to Adolf Hitler just before the Second World War started. He had gone to persuade him not to enter into this foolish war: "It...

... die," to make the point absolutely clear, he came out of his room with the diplomat. They were on the fourth story of a building. Three guards were there. He ordered the first guard to jump out of the window. The man simply jumped! The British diplomat was aghast; he could not believe his eyes. The man did not even think twice! When Adolf Hitler said, "Jump!" he jumped. There was no...

... shock; he could not believe such an inhuman act. To strike while the iron was hot he ordered the third man to jump. By this time the diplomat was alert. He jumped immediately, took hold of the arm of the third man and said, "Are you mad or what? Why are you jumping? Why are you so eager to die? Don't you want to live?" The man looked at him with anger and said, "Do you call this life...

... need to persuade, they are already ready, just waiting for the opportunity. And whenever such a great opportunity arises to die in a religious war, when heaven is so close and so easily available, who would like to miss it? Everybody is ready to die! No, that is not my idea of religion, Marc. Do you know? Marc means a warrior, a soldier. Mythologically it means the god of war. I have changed his name...

..., but by changing his name it is not so easy to change him. I have given him the name Veet Marc. Veet Marc means go beyond war, go beyond fighting, go beyond the very idea of fight. But he asks: WILL SURRENDER HAPPEN ONLY WHEN I AM READY TO DIE FOR YOU? Veet Marc, I don't want anybody to die for me - I am not a sadist. I want you to live for me. I want you to blossom and flower for me. I want you to...

... only way to show gratitude towards God. He has given you life and you want to die. No reason is worth dying for. Find out every excuse to live and live to the utmost, live to the maximum; don't live in a minimum way. That's how people are living. People are living only a very minor percent of their total, just a small percent of their potential - not more than seven percent. Even your greatest...

... simpler processes are available: just take a few sleeping pills and die silently. There is no need to make much fuss, because even jumping from the mountain peak you may hesitate, you will have to take a decision. Just swallowing some pills is not that big a problem; you can easily do it. You can inject poison. Dying is not of any value. To live is to really accept a great challenge, moment to moment...

..., learn to live for me. I am giving you a bigger task, I know. And it is a lifelong process; death can happen in a single moment. Unless you are really unfortunate death can happen in a single moment. Mulla Nasruddin wanted to commit suicide. Being a man of a very calculative nature he made all the arrangements possible so that in case one arrangement failed, another would work. He went to the top of a...

... small hillock with a rope, with kerosene, with a matchbox, with a pistol. He found a beautiful place - the branch of a tree which hung out just above the river from the top of the hill. He made arrangements to hang himself on the tree. There was every possibility that just the rope would do and he would die, but if something were to go wrong he had other arrangements, alternatives. So he hangs himself...

... need guts, not stupidity; it will need intelligence. The more intelligent you are the deeper will be the quality of your life, the higher will be the value of your life. The more meditative you are the more you will be able to know what life really is. It is nothing but God in a manifest form. To destroy this for any reason whatsoever is wrong, is a sin. So remember it. You are not here to die for me...

..., you are here to learn how to live. Let death come as an ultimate reward of living. And if you have lived rightly you will be able to live through death too, you will be able to live death too. And that is the most beautiful experience because it is through living one's death that one transcends death and becomes one with the eternal. The third question: OSHO, I STILL DON'T ACCEPT MYSELF. WHY NOT...

... fight will break out. And all the saints will be at each others' throats - a jihad, a religious war for the woman! Everybody will be ready to die! You have been told to be perfectionists. That's why, Leena, this problem arises. It is not only your problem, it is everybody's problem. But remember a few things. First: All evil is potential vitality in need of transformation. Even evil is to be accepted...

... chosen by some of the best English judges!" Judges are never very nice people. Socrates was condemned by very nice Greek judges, sentenced to death. Jesus was also condemned by very nice judges - the highest rabbis and the greatest Roman magistrates and the governor - highly cultured people, well-educated. And Jesus himself was uncultured, uneducated, just a carpenter's son; he belonged to the...

... to do with your inner change, inner transformation. Kirlian has found that six months before a person is going to die his aura starts shrinking. If care is taken, that man can avoid death for a few more years. In the same way he has found that before a disease shows itself on the body, six months before, he can guarantee that his disease is going to come, although medically there is no way to check...

... only thing that is needed on your part is a deep waitfulness. Meditation will create watchfulness and you have to learn the art of waiting. Philosophical Phyllis said she has learned three discouraging things about men. One, they go to war and kill each other when, if only they would be patient, they would die a natural death. Two, they climb trees and knock down apples when, if only they would be...

... fortunate ones, because authentic living needs great intensity and great totality, not a thin layer. A lukewarm survival is not living. But if you know that the next moment you are going to die you will drop everything that you were involved in, and the only priority will be to know yourself. Before death comes at least be aware who you are. You don't have time to postpone. It happened that one man used...

... at all. And I cannot see that any doubt in the future is possible. I have known the space in which you are living." Eknath said, "It does not matter whether you are going to die after seven days or seventy years. Once you become aware that you are going to die, it does not matter when." The awareness of death makes you live life as totally, as joyously as possible. Death is not your...

... say, Chintan, rejoice! Make all these days a celebration. And if you can make all these days a celebration, your death will be found to be a fiction. These days of celebration and meditation and silence and joy and love will create in you the capacity to die consciously. And one who dies consciously knows that death is nothing but changing the house. And it is always for a better house because life...

.... As your death approaches your aura starts shrinking. It means your life is gathering itself at the center from where it can leave condensed -- the way you close your shop. He has been puzzled by many things. For example: you have five fingers on the hand and even if one finger is cut off in an accident, in a Kirlian photograph there are still five fingers. The one that is no longer there still...

... given such a great contribution to medical science, but nobody seems to use it. No government is interested in life; all governments are in the service of death. Seventy-five percent of national incomes are wasted on the armies and arms. People are living only on twenty-five percent of all income. Just the other day I was reading a calculation of a scientist who says this is the highest peak of...

... production in the world ever. We can feed more people than there are on the earth. There is no need for anybody to die through starvation. Science has provided every possible technology, but no politician, no political party is interested in it; no government is interested in it. Their interest seems to be very insane. If it was in my power, I would put all the presidents and all the prime ministers into...

... is enough time to cure it and to check by Kirlian photography whether it is curing or not. In the East for centuries there has been the idea that six months before your death, you stop seeing the tip of your nose because your eyes start turning upwards. A dead man's eyes are turned completely upwards; you can only see the white. That's why in every country, immediately a dead man's eyes are closed...

... still green; it is still alive. There is no way to say that it is going to die soon, fall and disappear. But through Kirlian photography other leaves which are going to live show a bigger aura, and the leaf that is going to die within six months' time starts showing a smaller aura. The day it will die it will not show any aura, as if the whole light of life has become condensed inside. Now it does not...

..., but the radiation is there. And his thesis was saying that radiation from atomic explosions or nuclear weapons can be used for creative purposes. The first immense experience was that although he is sixty- five and has been living one year in Hiroshima -- ordinarily it was expected that he would die of radiation -- now he looks nearabout the age of forty-five. He is sixty-five. He has become younger...

... twenty-four hours to yourself, to your meditation, to your silence -- just being, not doing anything, just waiting and learning to wait. In the end of your life you will be surprised that your twenty-three hours have gone to waste. Only that one hour, whatever you have gained in that one hour is still with you and is going with you; even death cannot take it away. Just one hour can give you immense...

... peace, silence, blissfulness, and slowly, slowly the aura of grace will arise around you. Question 2: BELOVED OSHO, CAN YOU TALK A BIT MORE ABOUT ACCEPTANCE? Chintan, I understand your question.... Chintan is on the verge of death. The doctors have told him that he cannot survive more than two months, and almost one month has passed. He had inquired of me when the doctors had said he has some canceric...

... be terminated tomorrow. Because you know exactly that within two months you are going to die, live these two months as intensely and as joyfully and as meditatively as possible. You cannot postpone. Others can postpone because they are not aware when they are going to die. You are in a good situation because you cannot postpone. You have to do everything now." He understood and he has been...

... very happy, very joyous, meditating, dancing, singing. And his friends have written to me, "We could not believe such a change. His doctors are in wonder; they have never seen anybody taking his death so beautifully, so lightly." His question needed this context for you to understand, when he says, "Can you talk a bit more about acceptance?" Human languages are very poor. The word...

... it can change you, transform you from an ordinary human being into an awakened human being. But don't accept reluctantly. That is deceiving yourself because deep down you don't want to accept. Just after two months you are going to die? And naturally, when somebody said, accept it, what else to do? There is nothing. The doctors are doing the chemotherapy -- they are doing everything that is...

... never seen you jealous; I have never seen you in any negative state of mind. You are always smiling and always joyous and relaxed as if there is no worry in the world, no problem in the world. You don't seem to be concerned even about death. You take it so lightly. "And the problem is that a doubt arises in me whether you are an actor or you are really enlightened? One can manage to act smiling...

... will be setting you will be dying. This I have been forgetting and this too is as important as your question. Now we can discuss your question." The man stood up. He said, "I don't have any question and I don't have any time to discuss. If death is coming within seven days why should I worry whether you are real or unreal. That is your business; it is not my problem." The man started...

... the bed. He collected the whole family and told them what Eknath had said. It was inconceivable that Eknath will lie; there is no point in lying. So there was crying and weeping, and that man stopped eating. What is the point now when you are not going to live? But a strange thing started happening as he became settled with the idea that death is coming and nothing can be done. "Why not use...

... family and other relatives and friends from far away arrived. They were even more disturbed. Death is coming; that is a shock. And what has happened to this man? He does not open his eyes; he does not eat; he does not take any interest. This was a time to meet the family, the friends, because who knows when you will ever meet these people again; there is not much chance. But he is not interested in...

... needs to say, because it is very embarrassing to come to a man who is going to die. What to say to him? You cannot talk about movies, you cannot talk about politics, you cannot talk about football games, you cannot talk about boxing. What is there to talk about? It is very embarrassing if somebody is dying and you have to leave. Then one prepares a dialogue to console him, "Don't be worried...

... was setting they all started crying and weeping. And he was saying to them, "Be quiet. There is nothing to worry about." At that moment Eknath arrived. The whole family touched his feet and told him, "Save him. Can you do anything?" Eknath said, "With death there is no possibility. Just let me see him." So they all respectfully moved and gave way to Eknath. The man was...

... sitting silently with closed eyes, looking almost like a marble statue of Gautam Buddha... in just seven days, and he was an ordinary person. Eknath called his name and said, "I have come to see you and to tell you that it was only a device. You are not going to die. You have a lifeline that is very long. You will live almost as much as you have lived. You have lived only half the lifeline, so...

... enemy. In fact, it is an invitation for you to live intensely, totally, to squeeze every drop of juice from every moment. Death is a tremendous challenge and invitation. Without death there would not have been any Gautam Buddha, any Jesus, any Lao Tzu, any Tilopa. There would not have been any Kabir, any Raidas, any Mansoor, any Sarmad. It is death and its awareness that makes you live as totally, as...

... deeply, as consciously as possible. Before death knocks on your doors you should be able to see the eternal life within you. Then there is no death; death is a fiction. It is a reality only to those who have not lived, not lived in its completeness, in its entirety. For those who have lived there is no death. It is only a change -- just changing the house. I am reminded... One night a thief entered...

..., but you don't know much. I don't go anywhere and thieves come by themselves and fifty- fifty, sometimes even more, sometimes a hundred percent. Because I am always happy to change the house and they are afraid to take me to their house." The man who knows himself knows death as only changing the house. Acceptance is not the right word, but there is no other word; this is the difficulty. I would...

... good. My concern is for the future, not for the past. I want man to evolve. It does not matter whether monkeys evolve into men or not, but man can evolve into superman, into new man. But that evolution will happen only through deep meditation, watchfulness, waiting and accepting life with joy, and accepting death with joy, with no reluctance, without any pressure, but from your innermost feeling...