.... Audio Available: N.A. Video Available: N.A. Length: N.A. Question 1: BELOVED OSHO, WHY SUCH AN ENORMOUS FEAR OF ALLOWING MYSELF TO BE REALLY ALIVE? Veet Vishada, the fear of allowing oneself to be really alive is not the fear of life; it is a very camouflaged fear of death. If you are alive, you will die. Death is the culmination of life. The fear of life is not basically fear of life; it is basically...

... and death is the end. If you are afraid from the very beginning you will not give nourishment to the rosebush, you will not give water, you will not care about it. You will not come close to it, you will not shower your love on it. The rosebush is going to shrink, is going to die without roses, without ever having experienced any beautiful moment of blissfulness or ecstasy. It will simply shrink; it...

... will never know that it had the possibility of tremendous beauty and the fragrance of roses. Naturally the state of such a rosebush is very depressive. It will die in anguish without knowing what life was. It will know only death. This is a simple logic to be remembered: if you don't live life fully, you will have to experience death. And death is just a fiction, but you will feel it almost more than...

... totally and intensely, who have burned their life's torch from both the ends together, is that they never came across death. They were so alive that a great transformation happened at the moment of death. They don't die, they don't become unconscious; they simply move either in a new form of life, or if they have become so awakened that there is no need for any other form, they move into the formless...

... fear of what life will bring ultimately to you, and that is death. But mind is very clever at camouflaging things and giving you directions which are not right. They take you away from the actuality of your inner subjective experience. How can one be afraid of life? for what? All that we have got is life: all the music, all the dance and all the songs and all the beauty and all the search for truth...

... belong to a man who is fully alive. What fear can there be about life? Life has to be lived so totally and so intensely that you can squeeze each minute's juice without leaving a single drop behind. Only such a life is authentic, great; only such a life does not come to an end in death, but comes at the moment of death to the door of the divine. Death is a complex experience, just as life is - perhaps...

... more complex, because life is spread over seventy or eighty years and death is condensed in a single moment, a split second. Because of its condensedness... it is a miracle. Those who have not lived only experience death. And those who have lived fully experience an eternal release into the universal consciousness; for them death becomes a friend. But begin with life, because life is the beginning...

... is what he used to do. He would sit in deep meditation and slowly his breathing would stop, the pulse would go away, the heartbeat would not be there and the doctors would check - the best doctors of those universities - and a dozen doctors would write a death certificate for him. All the symptoms that medical science thinks of as death were totally fulfilled in the man; there was no possibility of...

... his being alive. His condition was that when they found him dead they should immediately sign the death certificate. After ten minutes, slowly he would start breathing again, the pulse would come back, the heartbeat would come back, and slowly he would open his eyes and smile at the doctors. He collected these death certificates so many times, in so many medical colleges, in so many universities...

... freak out, "Is this man really dead or has he befooled us?" But the world is full of corpses all around - corpses because they are afraid of life. And why are they afraid of life? They are afraid because if they enter the stream of life, finally they will have to face death. But their logic is absolutely absurd. The experience of all those in the whole history of mankind who have lived...

...; they live only one percent, because they can still breathe. Except for that, there is no sign of life. The fear of death takes you away from life. But the reality is that unless you live a hundred percent - or if you can manage it, a little more too - then death is not going to happen to you. You will never experience any death, but only a change of house. Everybody will know that you are dead, but...

..., into the clear, under the sky, under the stars. And this freedom is the freedom from all past, because all past is carried in the body, in the brain. Consciousness is always new. But because you are identified with the body, you think that some time you are young, and then you are old and then one day you die. It is your identification with the body that is creating the trouble. Veet Vishada, you...

... will have to learn from ABC about life, love, laughter. You have got such a small timespan; don't waste it in fear. Jump into life's deepest waters. Only life can redeem you from death. What ordinarily seems to be the end of life is not the end of life for those who are awakened. It is the beginning of a totally new life, far greater, far bigger, far more luminous. You start falling in love; at least...

... you may become ten percent alive. Start enjoying food; you will become a little more alive. Start enjoying the beauty that surrounds the world, and you become more alive. Keep yourself free from all bondages such as marriage, because I don't know anything else which comes so very close to death as marriage. Two persons, both are alive, and both are sitting by each other's side, dead - completely...

..., SPARING NOT A THOUGHT FOR HIS DEATH. DEATH OVERTAKES THE MAN WHO, GIDDY AND DISTRACTED BY THE WORLD, CARES ONLY FOR HIS FLOCKS AND HIS CHILDREN. DEATH FETCHES HIM AWAY AS A FLOOD CARRIES OFF A SLEEPING VILLAGE. HIS FAMILY CANNOT SAVE HIM, NOT HIS FATHER NOR HIS SONS. KNOW THIS. SEEK WISDOM, AND PURITY. QUICKLY CLEAR THE WAY. Niravo asked just the other day, "Is Jesus Christ coming back soon to...

... THE WINTER, AND IN THE RAINY SEASON." SO THE FOOL MAKES HIS PLANS, SPARING NOT A THOUGHT FOR HIS DEATH. It is desire that keeps you clouded and does not allow you to see death, which is approaching every moment closer and closer. Buddha says: The fool goes on thinking, "HERE I SHALL MAKE MY DWELLING, IN THE SUMMER AND THE WINTER, AND IN THE RAINY SEASON." And he is not aware that...

... rainy season. He must have remembered that, but he renounced all that for the search for that which is deathless. Wasting your time in these palaces... and death is coming closer, and death will take you away. Even if you can manage to have all you can desire, mind will not be satisfied. In the first place you will not be able to manage it, because mind desires impossible things. But even if you can...

... desireless person. No, not at all; otherwise you would have misunderstood the whole point. Try to understand the desire and all its miseries and all its futilities, and in that very understanding is transcendence. DEATH OVERTAKES THE MAN WHO, GIDDY AND DISTRACTED BY THE WORLD, CARES ONLY FOR HIS FLOCK AND HIS CHILDREN. DEATH FETCHES HIM AWAY AS A FLOOD CARRIES OFF A SLEEPING VILLAGE. Remember death...

.... Remember death always. Never forget death for a single moment. Why? Why is Buddha so much interested in death? - for the simple reason that it is only death that can keep you aware. If you forget death you will become immediately unconscious. It is because of death that only man can become enlightened and no other animal, because no other animal is aware of death. It is only man who is aware of death...

.... Let this awareness become more and more penetrating. Let it sink in your heart, so it remains there like a thorn, continuously reminding you that life is a shifting sand, that "Don't make your house here. Remember death is coming and whatsoever you do will be undone by death, so what is the point of becoming so much worried, becoming so much concerned, remaining in such anxiety when death is...

... already gave at the office!" The Jew is a Jew. He has fallen into a deep pit and the danger of death is all around, but he is more interested in saving a little money. Just hearing the name 'Red Cross' reminds him only of one thing: they must have come for donations. T.S. Eliot has written these beautiful lines: WHERE IS THE LIFE WE HAVE LOST IN LIVING? WHERE IS THE WISDOM WE HAVE LOST IN KNOWLEDGE...

.... And those who are for are only formally for, they are not truly for. They can't commit their lives in the search for God. What has happened to the modern man? One thing has happened: we have been able to become more and more forgetful of death. The great advancement in medical sciences has given us a hope as if we are going to live forever. Medical science has certainly helped us to live a little...

..., you will be the same stupid man. In fact, in seven hundred years your stupidity will grow very much. And if death is postponed for seven hundred years, who cares? It is not going to happen soon... and man does not have that much insight to look that far. We live surrounded by small things. We see only so far, just a little bit ahead, enough to walk. Seven hundred years... that will make religion...

... disappear from the earth, because man is not so intelligent that he can be aware of death if death is postponed for seven hundred years. He is not even intelligent enough to see it after seventy years, not even after seven years. I have seen people who are seventy and yet not interested in meditation. Strange, very strange. I can't believe it. A man of seventy is still not interested in meditation? That...

... simply means he has not yet been able to see death, and death is very close. Any moment it can happen. Buddha wants you to remember death continuously. Don't think that he is a pessimist. Don't think that he is death-obsessed - no, not at all. He simply wants you to remember death so that the sword of death hanging on you keeps you aware, alert. It happened once: A sannyasin was sent by his master to...

... to save his head - but there was nothing else he could do. He had to put the cup full of oil on his head and go round the court seven times. And the dance continued, and the beautiful women continued, and of course he was an old type of sannyasin, deep down very much interested in women. Many times the desire came just to have a look, but the fear of death and those naked swords.... He managed...

... seven rounds, although it was almost impossible. Then the king asked, "How did you manage? It was impossible." The sannyasin said, "I could manage because of these naked swords all around. I have never felt death so close, just a foot from my side. Any moment...." And the king said, "What about these beautiful women? And I know sannyasins; they may not be interested in...

... anything else, but they are bound to be interested in women. And what about this beautiful, delicious food? And the aroma of the food, and the wine... and these are the things that you have suppressed, so they are deep down in your being, they want to surface." The sannyasin laughed. He said, "Who cares about these things when death is so close by?" The king said, "You have learned...

... the lesson. This was the lesson the master has sent you to learn." Remember death. It is closer than those swords, it is always closer than anything else. You are living surrounded by death, and if this can be remembered, this can become the greatest stimulation for meditation, for awareness. Hence the emphasis. Buddha says: DEATH OVERTAKES THE MAN WHO, GIDDY AND DISTRACTED BY THE WORLD, CARES...

... ONLY FOR HIS FLOCKS AND HIS CHILDREN. DEATH FETCHES HIM AWAY AS A FLOOD CARRIES OFF A SLEEPING VILLAGE. Don't be a sleeping village; otherwise death will come like a flood and you will be gone. Be awake, be alert, be mindful. HIS FAMILY CANNOT SAVE HIM, NOT HIS FATHER NOR HIS SONS. Nobody can save you except your own awareness. KNOW THIS... and don't only believe in what the awakened ones say. Know...

... lives on derived life, borrowed life. Only light has its own life. Everything else has life borrowed from somewhere else. So one has to return it, one has to give it back. So unless you realize the inner light, you will not know that which is beyond death. In a sense it is beyond death and beyond life also. Only then does it become immortal. That which is born will have to die; that which is alive...

.... So life has two dimensions. One is just horizontal. You go from one moment of life to another moment of life, then another - A-B-C - in a sequence. Then ultimately, the Z is going to be the death. You move from A to B, from B to C, then to X-Y-Z. A is birth, Z is death, and you move from A-B-C-D horizontally. This is one movement - birth to death. Buddha says, "One who is born will have to die...

... minutes you are going to die. The moment this is said, that within five minutes you are going to die, love will disappear. You will forget the beloved, the lover and the poetry, and everything will just disappear. Why does it disappear? It has never been there. It was only that you were unaware of death, so you were pretending love. Deathlessness known becomes love. Then you cannot do anything else...

... in you. The past purified creates a purified future - and this moment becomes eternal. Watch, be aware, observe deeply the contents of the mind. Then you will become aware of the source; then enter the source. It is fearful, because whatsoever you have known as yourself will die. This bath is a death - a death of all that you have known yourself to be. The identity, the ego, the persONALIty...

... potentiality, it becomes life. If it simply remains life, then death is the end. If it evolves more, then it becomes love - and love is deathless. You may call it God, you may call it anything. These are basic points. If you remember them, then we can proceed into the sutra. Thirdly, in this whole world everything is relative except light. Only light has a constant velocity. That's why physics takes light as...

... everything will die. Nothing can exist. This basicness of light is not only basic for science, it is basic for religion also. So now the second part: if you penetrate matter you stumble upon light. If you penetrate life you again stumble upon light. So religious mystics have always said, "We experience Light, we realize light - the light within, the flame within." All the mystics have talked this...

... have inner light also, because you cannot exist without it. rt is the base. To be means to be grounded in light; there is no other being. So when you go in you are bound to come to and realize a dimension, a realm, of light - inner light. This inner light and your life make just two layers. Your life is the outermost layer; light is a deeper layer. Your life will end in death. Unless you realize the...

... inner light you cannot know the deathless, because your life is just a phenomenon; it is not the base. It is just a phenomenon, a wave - a wave on the ocean of light. It will go! If you can penetrate through it to the deeper realm of light, you will know that which is immortal, which cannot die - because only light cannot die, only light is immortal. Everything will have to die, because everything...

... will be dead. So only that can be beyond death which is beyond life itself. Light is beyond life and beyond death. Whenever mystics have been talking about light, they always talk about deathlessness, because the moment you enter the inner light, the source of life, you enter deathlessness. In this sutra, both terms have been used. This sutra says: TO BE CENTERED CONSTANTLY IN THE INNER ILLUMINATION...

... deep cleansing of your soul, of your being, and, thirdly, you will realize the elixir, the nectar - the AMRIT - the immortality, the deathlessness of it, because once the ego dies you are deathless, once the karmas are washed away you are deathless, once you have entered deeper than life you are deathless. Deeper than life, death cannot exist. Death exists parallel to life. It means the end of life...

..., because he is moving horizontally." So death is a necessity on a horizontal plane. But you can move vertically. From A, instead of going to B, drop below the A or go above the A. Don't move to B. So from any life movement, you can move in two ways. You can move to another life movement; then death will be the end. Then you are progressing towards death automatically, unknowingly. You can move down...

... or up - not horizontally but vertically. So move down or up from A, and then you move from life to light. If you move down, then you move to light. If you move up, then you move to love. This is the vertical plane. If you move down from life, then you move to light. If you move up, then you move to love. And both give you the door to the deathless, because death only means horizontal moving. Now...

... you are not moving horizontally. And move either way. If you can consciously go down to light, your life will become love - because once you have known the deathless you can be nothing but love. Really, death is the enemy of love. You cannot love because there is death; you cannot love because you are fearful of death; you cannot love because you are afraid of everyone else, of the other. And all...

... fears are basically fear of death. They all can be reduced to the fear of death. Once you know the deathless, the fear has gone. And when the mind is fearless, it is love. When the mind is fearful, it is never love. You may put on a show, you may pretend, but it is never love. With fear hate can exist, with fear jealousy can exist, with fear anything can exist, but not love. That's why we pretend love...

..., and love is not found. In the end jealousy is found, hate is found, fear is found - love is not found. Why? Because you cannot love really. How can you love when there is death? How can you love unconditionally when every moment death is coming near? Look at it in this way: you are here, your beloved or your lover is here. You are just in the ecstasy of love, and then someone says that within five...

... the result. If you can go up from A, again you find the deathless. Vertically, there is no death; only horizontally is there death. So if you find love by going up, you will find light, because entering the deathless one is bound to find light, entering the light one is bound to find the deathless. They are one! So, really, life and death are two aspects of one coin, and death is not opposite to...

... life. It is a part. Light is opposed to death, not life, because light is immortality. Love is also opposed to death because again it is deathless. So the problem is either to enter light by going down or by going up to enter love. This vertical journey is the journey of religion. And this sutra says, "To be centered constantly in the inner illumination and in the infinite inner nectar is the...

..., everything will die. because the personality, the identity, the ego, they are the dirt - the accumulated dirt around your being. Only being will remain without name and form. And this sutra says this is the preparatory bath. Only now can you enter, and only up to here do you have to make efforts. The moment you are purified, the moment you have gone through this bath, the moment the karmas have dissolved...

... become deathless, but you still feel. You feel that now you have entered immortality. But when entering into That, the Is-ness, you are not even aware of deathlessness. Life and death are meaningless now - only Being is. You are, without any conditions. That Being is the Ultimate for religion. Light is the field, mind is around the field, and we are around the mind, we live outside the mind. So one has...

..., suffering is not, disease is not. Death IS beautiful. Death is not a sword that cuts your life, it is like a flower - an ultimate flower - that blooms at the last moment. It is the peak. Death is the flower on the tree of life. It is not the end of life but the crescendo. It is the ultimate orgasm. There is nothing wrong in death; it is beautiful - but one needs Lo know how to live and how to die. There...

... is an art of living and there is an art of dying, and the second art is of more value than the first art. But the second can be known only when you have known the first. Only those who know how to live rightly know how to die rightly. And then death is a door into the divine. So, the first thing: please keep death apart. Only think of illness, disease and suffering. You need not fight against death...

... will simply vegetate; there will be no life. What is the point? Why not allow him to die? There is the fear of death. Death is the enemy - how to surrender to the enemy, to death? So there is great controversy in the Western medical mind. What to do? Should a person be allowed to die? Should a person be allowed to decide whether he wants to die? Should the family be allowed to decide whether they...

... there is love - life in itself is meaningless. Just to live is meaningless. A point comes when one has lived, a point comes when it is natural to die, when it is beautiful to die. Just as when you have been doing work the whole day, a point comes when you fall asleep. Death is a kind of sleep - a deeper sleep. You will be born again in a newer body with a newer mechanism, with new facilities, with new...

... meeting of man and woman, day and night, life and death. You can ask the scientist, the physicist... he will say, 'Only opposite poles meet. The positive repels the positive; the negative repels the negative. Only negative and positive meet.' If you bring two positive magnets close they will repel each other; if you bring one negative and one positive together they will join together in a marriage. So...

... so he goes on writing the same thing again and again. It has never happened, up to now, that after getting a Nobel Prize, a poet or a novelist has been able to do anything original again. The Nobel Prize is a kind of death knell, the person is finished - because now he knows what pays, now he has found the secret of success, now he has the key, so why bother trying other keys? They may not be so...

... paid, but a general is. And the general is doing the wrong thing - killing people. He is a murderer. The soldier is paid, not a painter. Those who bring death into the world, they are paid. Can't you see it? The army people are the well-paid people. They are the butchers and murderers, but they are the most well-paid, well-fed. They live in good houses, have all the facilities of life. Look at the...

... be able to get out of any act easily, and he will go on searching for his original face. He will not be lost in the acts that he has to put up with. This is of immense importance. If he lives in the world in a worldly way, he becomes dead. If he becomes an old traditional kind of sannyasin, he shrinks and becomes dead. Both are ways of death. Life is where opposites meet. Life is where day and...

... night meet. Life is in the world and yet only for those who can remain beyond it. Be a lotus flower - in the water and yet untouched by it. The fourth question: Question 4: I AM MUCH CONFUSED ABOUT THE FOLLOWING QUESTION. I AM TRAINED AS A PHYSICIAN AND I HAVE ALWAYS FELT DEEPLY THAT IT IS A GOOD THING. BUT INTRINSIC IN MY WORK, IN MY ACTIVITY, IS A REFUSAL TO ACCEPT ILLNESS AND DEATH, DISEASE AND...

... HUMAN SUFFERING. VERY DEEP, THEREFORE, IS A REFUSAL TO ACCEPT LIFE OR EXISTENCE AS IT IS. VERY DEEP IS A DESIRE TO CORRECT SOME OF THESE MECHANISMS OF NATURE. ALL MY PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY IS GOADED BY A FEAR, A DEEP PERSONAL FEAR, OF SICKNESS, SUFFERING AND DEATH. I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO VIEW MY WORK IN THE LIGHT OF THE WHOLE. PLEASE SHOW THE LIGHT OF EXISTENCE ON THIS AREA OF CONFUSION FOR ME. This is a...

... A GOOD THING. BUT INTRINSIC IN MY WORK, IN MY ACTIVITY, IS A REFUSAL TO ACCEPT ILLNESS AND DEATH, DISEASE AND HUMAN SUFFERING. Now, a distinction has to be made. Illness, disease and suffering are one thing; death is totally different. In the Western mind, illness, disease, suffering and death are all together - packed in one package. From there problems arise. Death is beautiful; illness is not...

.... That is creating trouble in the Western mind, in the Western hospitals, in Western medicine. People are fighting against death. People are almost vegetating in the hospitals, just alive on drugs. They are forced to live unnecessarily when they would have died naturally. Through medical support their death is being postponed. They are of no use, life is of no use for them; the game is over, they are...

... finished. Now to keep them alive is just to make them suffer more. Sometimes they may be in a coma, and a person can be in a coma for months and years. But because there is an antagonism against death it has become a great problem in the Western mind: what to do when a person is in a coma and will never recover, but can be kept alive for years? He will be a corpse, just a breathing corpse, that's all. He...

... would like him to die? - because sometimes the person may be unconscious and cannot decide. But is it right to help somebody to die? Great fear arises in the Western mind. To die? That means you are murdering the person! The whole of science exists to keep him alive. Now this is stupid! Life in itself has no value unless there is joy, unless there is dance, unless there is some creativity, unless...

... in the world if you don't even allow sleep. And this author suggests that there is a possibility that through some drugs sleep can be completely removed and a man can live awake for seventy years. Just think of the nightmare! These people who are against sleep are against death too. They are against any kind of relaxation, let-go. Just go on fighting. In the East we have a different outlook: death...

... is not the enemy but the friend. Death gives you rest. You have become tired, you have lived your life, you have known all the joys that can be known in life, you have burnt your candle totally. Now go into darkness, rest for a while and then you can be born again. Death will revive you again in a fresher way. So the first thing: death is not the enemy. The second thing: death is the greatest...

... experience in life if you can die consciously. And you can die consciously only if you are not against it. If you are against it you become very panicky, very afraid. When you are so afraid that you cannot tolerate that fear there is a natural mechanism in the body which releases drugs into the body and you become unconscious. There is a point beyond which endurance will not be possible; you become...

... unconscious So millions of people die unconsciously and miss a great moment, the greatest of all. It is samadhi, it is satori, it is meditation happening to you. It is a natural gift. If you can be alert and you can see that you are not the body.... You will have to see, because the body will disappear. Soon you will be able to see that you are not the body, you are separate. Then you will see you are...

... separating from the mind too. Then the mind will disappear. And then you will be just a flame of awareness, and that is the greatest benediction there is. So the first thing: don't think of death as illness, disease and human suffering. The second thing: illness, disease and suffering are bad because they happen only when you are not natural. Something has gone wrong. Health is natural, death is natural...

... am not talking about the animals who live in a zoo - they are ill. They have become human imitators. To live with humans is very dangerous. But in a jungle, living in a wild situation, animals live and die - they are never ill. They never eat too much because they don't have that much freedom. They never fast, they don't have that much freedom, they don't have that much consciousness. They don't do...

... goes on. For what to continue it? But if Death suddenly appears? You will not be ready. Only a yogi can be ready to die, because only a yogi knows that through a voluntary death, a willing death, the infinite life is attained. Only a yogi knows that death is a door; it is not the end. In fact it is the beginning. In fact beyond it open the infinities of God. In fact beyond it you are for the first...

... the breath has completely gone in -- for a certain second breathing stops. The same happens when you exhale. You breathe out: when the breath is completely released, for a certain second, again, breathing stops. In those moments you face death, and to face death is to face God. To face death is to face God -- I repeat it -- because when you die, God lives in you. Only after the crucifixion is there...

... resurrection. That's why I say Patanjali is teaching the art of dying. When the breathing stops, when there is no breathing, you are exactly in the same stage as you will be in when you will die. For a second you are in tune with death -- breathing has stopped. The whole of THE BOOK OF THE SECRETS, VIGYAN BHAIRAV TANTRA, is concerned with it -- emphatically concerned with it -- because if you can enter into...

...Death to The Limited...

... Osho Yoga The Alpha and the Omega Volume 6: Death to The Limited Main Books Headers Help Your browser does not support iframes. < Prev  Osho Yoga The Alpha and the Omega Volume 6   Next > Death to The Limited From: Osho Date: Fri, 7 September 1975 00:00:00 GMT Book Title: Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 6 Chapter #: 7 Location: am in Buddha Hall Archive Code: N.A. Short...

... load. Not only that wood bundle on his head, it had become a symbolic act: he throws with it the whole life. He fell to the ground on his knees, looked at the sky and said, "Ah, Death. You come to everybody, but why don't you come to me? What more suffering have I to see? What more burdens have I to carry still? Am I not punished enough? And what wrong have I committed?" He could not...

... believe his eyes -- suddenly, Death appeared. He could not believe. He looked around, very much shocked. Whatsoever he was saying, he had never meant it. And he had never heard of anything like this, that you call Death, and Death comes. And Death said, "Did you call me?" The old man suddenly forgot all weariness, all tiredness, the whole life of dead routine. He jumped up and he said, "...

...;Yes... yes, I called you. Please, could you help me to put the load, the burden, back on my head? Seeing nobody here, I called you." There are moments when you are tired of life. There are moments when you would like to die. But dying is an art; it has to be learned. And to be weary of life does not really mean that deep down the lust for life has disappeared. You may be weary of a particular...

... life, but you are not weary of life as such. Everybody becomes tired of a particular life the dead routine, the weary round, the same thing again and again, a repetition -- but you are not weary of life itself. And if Death comes you will do the same as the woodcutter did. He behaved perfectly humanly. Don't laugh at him. Many times you have also thought to be finished with all this nonsense that...

... time really, authentically alive. Not only your physical part of the heart throbs, you throb. Not only are you excited by outer things, you are made ecstatic by the inner being. The life abundant, the life eternal, is entered through the door of death. Everybody dies, but then death is not voluntary; then death is forced on you. You are unwilling: you resist, you cry, you weep; you would like to...

... linger a little longer on this earth in this body. You are afraid. You can't see anything except darkness, except the end. Everybody dies unwillingly, but then death is not a door. Then you close your eyes in fear. For the people who are on the path of yoga, death is a willing phenomenon; they will it. They are not suicidal. They are not against life: they are for greater life. They sacrifice their...

... where you can die willingly, surrender willingly, with no resistance. These sutras are a preparation, a preparation to die and a preparation to a greater life. Sthir sukham asanam. POSTURE SHOULD BE STEADY AND COMFORTABLE. Patanjali's yoga has been very much misunderstood, misinterpreted. Patanjali is not a gymnast, but yoga looks like it is a gymnastics of the body. Patanjali is not against the body...

... you become weightless. Move to the left and the weight enters; move to the right and the weight enters. And go on moving... the farther away you move from the middle, the more weight you will have to carry. You will die someday in some Connaught Place. Be in the middle. A religious man is neither leftist nor rightist. A religious man does not follow the extremes. He is a man of no extreme. And when...

... make bigger and bigger piles of rupees. That seems to be their only meaning to be here, that when they go to death they will leave big piles -- bigger than others'. That seems to be their whole significance. When such a man becomes frustrated he will go on teaching, "Money is the enemy." Whenever you find somebody teaching that money is the enemy, you can know that this man must have been a...

... death. Somebody was telling me, "In the West, we don't have any parallel like Yama, the god of death." And he was asking me, "Why do you call death a god? Death is the enemy. Why should death be called a god? If you call death the devil it is okay, but why do you call it a god?" I said we call it a god very consideredly: because death is the door to God. In fact death is deeper...

... than life -- life that you know. Not the life that I know. Your death is deeper than your life, and when you move through that death you will come to a life which doesn't belong to you or me or to anybody. It is the life of the whole. Death is the God. A whole Upanishad exists, kathopanishad: the whole story, the whole parable is that a small child is sent to Death to learn the secret of life. Absurd...

..., patently absurd. Why go to Death to learn the secret of life? Looks like a paradox, but it is reality. If you want to know life -- real life -- you will have to ask Death, because when your so-called life stops, only then real life functions. "The next step after the perfection of posture is pranayam, which is accomplished through holding the breath...." So when you inhale, hold it a little...

... longer so that the gate can be felt. When you exhale it, hold it outside a little longer so that you can feel the gap a little more easily; you have a little more time. "... or stopping the breath suddenly." Or, anytime, stop the breath suddenly. Walking on the road: stop it -- just a sudden jerk, and death enters. Anytime you can stop the breath suddenly, anywhere, in that stopping, death...

... his freedom. Up to now, we have been victims of death. For the first time we can become masters of death. Up to now we have been just helpless; whenever death comes, it comes. Now it is possible for us to decide both when to die and what kind of people will be born. Up to now it has been accidental. You need carpenters and you go on producing doctors. Strange. You need doctors and you produce...

... a state, going into a coma, coming out for a moment, going back again, he would shout, "Destroy that oath! I want to die; this is not life." For anybody who wants to die, it is the function of the medical profession, of the commune, of the people who love him to make his death as beautiful as possible. Why make it accidental? Why should he die of old age? Why can't he die without...

... time you have arranged everything for his death he changes his mind, he says no. So precautions can be taken: he can be given time, so that if he wants to die, he thinks it over for three weeks, and if after three weeks he still finds that he wants to die and he has not wavered-he can keep a diary for three weeks -- it is enough. And we can give him a beautiful departure. There should be in every...

... hospital, in every nursing home, beautiful places -- death temples -- where everything is arranged the best. The flowers, the garden, the people... and every person who wants to die must be given time so that he can learn something of meditation, so while he is going into deeper and deeper sleep from which he will never return, he can go on doing his meditation. Meditation and death happening together is...

... can be asked if there is anything they would like that can be supplied. For a man who is going to die within three weeks, it is simply human that we should give him everything that he wants, and then let him go with celebration. To me, death is not something bad. It is just a deep sleep. Those who fall asleep without meditation will wake up in some womb almost instantly. Here you are preparing their...

... going to be his idea. A man whose sex has been repressed -- a monk, Catholic, Jaina, Hindu -- his last moment is going to be full of sexual dreams, because now there is no life energy to repress it. They have all uncoiled, the spring is no more pressed by energy. Death is coming, energy is moving away. His past of repression will give him a sexual dream. He will die in that dream. But if a man has...

...: BHAGWAN, WHAT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF A DOCTOR TOWARDS A PATIENT WHO IS DYING AND NO LONGER WANTS TO LIVE? SHOULD THE DOCTOR HELP HIM TO DIE? A: It is something very significant to be understood. In the past, in the beginning days of medicine and medical science, out of ten children nine would die, only one would survive. The population of the world was very scarce. Hippocrates created an oath for...

.... Still, in spite of all this, the population goes on exploding. If Hippocrates was here he would change the oath, I am absolutely certain, because the man who cared for life would have cared for the whole living earth. Now, in the oath these words should be added: that a doctor's duty is to help the patient if he wants to live or if he wants to die. It is his choice, and the doctor has to be respectful...

... is not life. And in keeping him alive we are keeping so many people unnecessarily engaged, so much mechanism unnecessarily used, so much money is wasted unnecessarily -- and he will never open his eyes. So these are the three things: If the person is still in his senses, aware, and makes a will that if he goes into a coma, then don't go on keeping him alive; and if he wants to die just today, it is...

... becoming old and suffering all kinds of things which come with old age? He has lived, he has loved, he has created; now there is no need for him just to go on and on. And he is not being forced, we are not telling him to die, but we are simply giving the right, the constitutional right that if he wishes to die.... Yes, there are problems. For example, this moment he may think he wants to die, and by the...

... the best that can happen to anybody, because he is dying yet he is aware that he will be dead for you all, but not for himself. He will simply be freed from this body. And because he has died with awareness, he will not be born again. He will be free, a white cloud in the vast universe. We have to make death beautiful: music, dance, silence, meditation. Up to now man has been born accidentally, dies...

... cannot create the soul, but you can create the beautiful house. That's what scientists are capable of now, and if you can get the best souls, you will have a totally different world -- without wars, without poverty, without sickness, without old age. And you will have transformed even death itself into a ceremony. It is a departure: all the friends can be invited, all those who have loved the dying man...

... can be present. He can say goodbye, thank all those people, can have another look, because he will not be meeting them again. In an accidental death this is not possible. Death has to be made according to the will of the man, and the medical profession is just to serve the freedom of the man, freedom of the individual. It does not matter whether he wants life or death -- whatsoever he wants he...

... should be provided. And there comes a moment in life when you would like to die. It is an immense relief. You have done everything that you wanted to do, you have lived every kind of experience that was valuable to you. Now going on living will be simply repetition, as if you are seeing the same movie again and again and again, because the army is surrounding the movie house, you cannot be allowed to...

... escape -- you have to see the movie till you die, and even if you start dying they will immediately call the ambulance and take you to the hospital because you have to live and see the movie. But you have seen the movie millions of times, and it is time -- and you want to be allowed to get out of the movie house. This is exactly the situation. When you have lived a hundred years, you have lived enough...

... funeral pyre, and they have entered into some womb already. You are unnecessarily wasting your time. The man has managed to enter another body. But if a man can die with meditativeness, then he is going to become part of the whole. No more will he be imprisoned in a small body. He will be as vast as the universe, and that is the goal of true religion, to help you to become part -- organic part -- of the...

... in the Master, whom do you think he will remember? The last thing is the whole life condensed. The man who was after money will remember his bank balance. Certainly he is going to remember his money: "Now what is going to happen to the money?" He is not concerned with his death, he is worried about the bank balance and the stupid sons and daughters who will destroy everything. That is...

... disappears, time disappears. Suddenly, you are available to the Master. The sannyasin dying will die with gachchhamis in his heart, utterly open, available, unconditionally available. Now what is there to be afraid of? He is going to die. There is no risk. Living, there was trouble, there were problems. He could not commit totally, his commitment was divided, partial. He had a wife, he had children, he had...

... take the chance? He could not do it in life, but he can do it in death. He can really feel -- there is no need to say, "I go to the feet of the Awakened One" -- you need not utter the words. Your whole being feels it. And in that is the whole secret. If you are within the twenty-five-mile radius, it is as if you are just sitting by the side of the Master, because that energy field is your...

.... People are living almost in sleep, but the knock of death wakes them up. Suddenly they see their life is finished and they are drowning in darkness. In that moment they realize that they have missed life, they never lived it; they always postponed for tomorrows. They always thought to go to Kashmir, to go to the Himalayas, to see this, to see that, but they always postponed. What is the hurry? There is...

... so much work to be done; they cannot waste time... three months in Kashmir. So you go on postponing living, and you go on preparing to live tomorrow. You sacrifice today for tomorrow, and tomorrow never comes. One day suddenly, instead of tomorrow, death comes. It is a shock: you were waiting for tomorrow, you were planning for tomorrow your whole life, and now there is no tomorrow. And today you...

... it was the only copy. His whole life he was collecting and waiting until the library was complete; then he was going to study all these scriptures. But life finishes in death. He fell sick and his physicians said that he could not survive more than twenty-four hours. He said, "My God, in twenty-four hours, how am I going to read all these scriptures that I have collected and wasted my whole...

... life on?" The physicians said that there is only one way: "You can have one thousand Buddhist monks, you can ask the Dalai Lama that they go through all the books and condense the essential points in those scriptures, so before you die at least you know the essentials." But those poor scholars had to read, and the books were thousands. They said even one thousand monks wouldn't do, and...

..., the man was gone. This is not a story, this is actually an existential fact about almost everybody. I say almost, because I have to leave a few enlightened people out of it. Only in death they are surprised... but then it is too late, nothing can be done. Everybody dies in frustration, in despair, in anguish, but a man of meditation dies in joy, in peace, at ease with the whole universe. And this...

... becomes very easy if he is connected in some way with someone who has already arrived. The best is to do it in life, because then you can live life in an enlightened way. And life is tremendously beautiful; it is just a miracle all around. But if in life it cannot happen because you have this and that and there are conditions, then at least in death let it happen. But it may not be possible for you...

... alone, unless you have meditated so deeply that death will not create any disturbance in your silence. Then it can happen without the twenty-five-mile radius or it can happen anywhere. But the chances of such a happening are rare, because if it could happen anywhere, it would not wait for death. It would have happened long ago. So this device of a commune is simply to keep you engaged here. If you...

... will feel happy that the poor man at last has got new garments; the old were getting really rotten. Exactly that is the case with death. The body is a composite phenomenon: one day it is born, one day it is young, one day it becomes old, and one day it has to die. It is just a preparation. Death is a preparation for a new birth. Those who know it will not say that death is evil. It is good...

... that persists in me, twenty-four hours, is that of death. I want to get rid of this rotten body, but I cannot. I have tried but nothing succeeds. I have taken poison but it won't do. I have fallen from the mountains, it won't do. I have entered into fire, it won't burn. Now there is no way to die - and I am tired. "Just think: for millions of years, I have to go on doing the same repetitive...

... nonsense every day. And there is no hope even in the future. I will never be able to die, I cannot commit suicide, and I am tired of life! So now this is my mission: I sit here to prevent other people." And it is said that Alexander thought for a moment, dropped the idea of drinking the nectar and rushed out of the cave - afraid that he might be tempted to drink it. Without death, life would be an...

... worried about that. Wherever he sees the flame he is ready to die in the flame, disappear into the flame. And in that very disappearance, wisdom arises. The death of the ego is the resurrection of wisdom in you. You are again a child, innocent, wondering, full of awe. And then the whole existence is a mystery. Then it is fantastic. Then its beauty is unbelievable, then its joy is unbearable, then its...

... young man, perfectly healthy, can die. And you are old, you are seventy, and you are no longer healthy either. So take a hint: don't waste your time in crying and weeping and suffering. It is an indication that YOUR death is coming." He said, "What?" He forgot all about his son - he was angry at me. Because these are the moments when people are searching for consolation. I said, "...

... it. BOTH A WEDDING AND A WAKE - a wake means when somebody dies and you have to watch to corpse. A wedding and a wake, both together? Yes, it is together, because your death is your resurrection. On the one hand, you die: it is a wake. On the other hand, you become married to him for ever and for ever: it is a wedding. It is a cross, a crucifixion, and a resurrection follows. And only those who are...

... ready to die into God are born anew. Then they have cosmic souls, then they have eternal beings. WHY SHOULD DARKNESS GRIEVE THE HEART? Don't be worried about death and darkness... FOR NIGHT IS PREGNANT WITH NEW DAY. Soon, as the night darkens and becomes more and more densely dark, the morning comes closer and closer. Die, learn to die, and you will be able to attain to life abundant. YOU SAY YOU'VE...

... all that you can desire to do, and millions of times. And still you are not fed-up, not bored? YOU SAY YOU'VE UNROLLED THE CARPET OF TIME, STEP THEN BEYOND LIFE ITSELF AND REASON... Now the moment has come. Step beyond life: die into God. And of course, if you want to die into God you will have to step beyond reason, because reason will say, "What are you going to do? Death? Who knows...

... 'life' it is against death. Wisdom knows no distinctions. All distinctions have to be dropped, only then does one become wise. The distinctions that morality creates, the distinctions upon which our mundane life exists and is built - all those distinctions have to be dropped. The distinction between man and woman is superficial, just on the surface. The distinction between matter and mind is also...

... separate from the earth - it is not. Then you don't see the tree separate from the sun, because it is not. Then the tree is joined with the sun with subtle rays. Without the sun the tree will disappear; it will not be green anymore, no flowers will come to it And without the earth there will be no juice in it, it will not be alive; and without the ocean it will also die. And if you go deep into the tree...

... THINK TO SEE EVIL PROCEEDING FROM HIM... And because the whole consists only of God, how can there be anything evil? But if sometimes you think that evil IS happening... YOU WERE BETTER TO LOOK ON IT AS GOOD. Because you must be wrong somewhere; it must be your interpretation. For example, somebody is dying. Now death looks evil. Death is not evil - and if it looks like evil it is your...

... misunderstanding, just your misunderstanding. You don't know what death is, hence it looks evil. Death is nothing but a change of garments. If somebody is throwing away his old garments because he has got new ones, will you call it evil? Because you know that he is getting new garments and that's why he is throwing away the old ones, you will really congratulate him. You will not start feeling sorry for him. You...

... patient. "Phwat the devil happened - did the building fall?" "No, but you did, my man; you had a very narrow escape from death." "Phwat's thot ye're givin' me to drink?" "Water, to revive you," answered the doctor. "Givin' me wather, after fallin' nine stories! Faith, an' how far would I have to fall to git a drink of whiskey?" Just look inside yourself...

... they had made the world they would have done this and they would have done that. There would have been no disease, there would have been no death, there would have been no ugliness, there would have been no stupidity. And it looks so logical: yes, if a world is there where no disease exists, how beautiful it will be! But do you know? - if there is no disease, there will be no health either. Do you...

... know? - if there is no ugliness, there will be no beauty either. Do you know? - if there are no thorns, there will be no flowers either. Do you know? - if there is no death, there will be no life either. You cannot have a life without death. And if you could have a life without death it would be utterly boring; there would be no way to get rid of it. A story is told of Alexander the Great when he...

... would be immortal. He cupped his hands, and just as he was going to drink, a crow who was sitting on the rock said, "Wait, just a minute!" Alexander was surprised - a crow speaking? He asked, "What do you want to say?" The crow said, "Just one thing, that's why I am sitting here. I have drunk from this pool: now I am here for millions of years. I want to die. The only idea...

... impossibly unbearable burden. Death relieves. And it is because of disease that you have the feeling of health. It is because of the dark night that the morning looks so beautiful. Existence is dual, and existence is imperfect. But it is because of imperfection that there is growth. Just think, if everybody was perfect then there would be no growth. Then the world would be a graveyard; nothing would ever...

... lover has died and left both belief and unbelief. Burning in love of the flame, the moth does not distinguish between the light of the mosque and the light of the monastery. This is a Sufi saying. Wisdom arises when you die, when the ego disappears. The lover has died and left both belief and unbelief. Burning in love of the flame, the moth does not distinguish between the light of the mosque and the...

.... Just see the difference between two words, 'contentment' and 'satisfaction'. Contentment arises out of wisdom, it is a fragrance of wisdom, and satisfaction is just imposed through knowledge. If you go to the priest he will satisfy you. If you go to the priest and say, "I am getting old and I am becoming afraid of death," he will say, "Don't be worried. Only the body dies, the soul is...

...;Yes, it is an indication that your death is coming. Now prepare for your death. God has simply made you aware: this is an alarm." He became very angry with me. Who wants to hear about one's own death? He wanted me to say something nice about the son. And he said, "Can't you say anything nice?" I said, "Nice things won't help; they will only console you, they will satisfy you. And...

... many other people are doing it already. Let me do the real necessity. The real necessity is that you should not waste your time in crying and weeping and getting consoled and enjoying sympathy. The time has come to be shocked. Only such a shock can destroy your shock-absorbers. Look at the corpse of your son. Forty years old, perfectly young, healthy, and he can die within a moment. "He was not...

... ill. In the night suddenly he died, by the morning he was found dead in his bed. He had gone to bed perfectly healthy. Now think about you!" He became so angry that he stopped coming to me. And within a year he did. But he didn't prepare. If he had been a little more intelligent he would have prepared - he would have met his death in a totally different way, he would have met his death...

... meditatively. But the fool's mind works in a certain way. He is only worried about consolations and satisfactions. The real thing is contentment. And contentment is possible only when you have known your reality - when you have penetrated your innermost core of being and you have seen THERE that there is no death, and you have seen there that there is no disease and that you have seen there that it is...

... eternal, it is beyond time. Then all fear, all fear of death, all anguish, all anxiety, disappears. And there arises great contentment. That contentment is prayer. WHATEVER BEFALLS YOU, MISFORTUNE OR FORTUNE, IS UNALLOYED BLESSING; THE ATTENDANT EVIL A FLEETING SHADOW. 'GOOD' AND 'EVIL' HAVE NO MEANING IN THE WORLD OF THE WORD: THEY ARE MERE NAMES, COINED IN THE WORLD OF 'ME' AND 'YOU'. Whatever befalls...

...? Resurrection may follow, may not follow. Who knows? The seed may die and there may come no sprout and no tree in its place. How can it be guaranteed?" Reason will create a thousand and one doubts. But you have been reasoning and reasoning for millions of lives, and reason has not given you a single conclusion, it has not made you a little bit more intelligent. It keeps you in the old rut. If you have...

... the bed. And if that person wants then it is simply ludicrous just to wait for death to come. And this death is going to be terrible, because he will be old, sick and he will die by and by, inch by inch, and we have now every scientific way to send him joyously into deep sleep forever. If you and your society cannot give a man a beautiful life, at least you can arrange for him a beautiful death. And...

... the paradise on the earth. So if they died with the idea of being born in America, great; let them die with the idea, and let them be born there. I am perfectly in favor of freedom, and death is only one part of my whole idea of freedom. Q: HOW DO YOU SPEND YOUR DAY? A: Have I to spend it? Q: HOW DO YOU SPEND IT? A: No, I am asking you -- have I to spend it? I live it! Spending is not a right word...

..., there is such a great explosion. Just a single atom, which is not visible to the eyes, can destroy Hiroshima, Nagasaki. When man's body and his soul separate, if the man is alert and aware in that moment, he will see a tremendous explosion of joy, light, eternity, truth -- whatever you want to call it. But most people die unconsciously. Before death, they become unconscious, so they never come to know...

... it. My people are learning meditation. There is no need for them to be especially prepared for death. I am preparing them for life, and in that very preparation, they are getting ready for death. Any time they will have to die. Q: IF I MIGHT INTERRUPT YOU, IF I UNDERSTAND YOU CORRECTLY THAT IF SEPARATION BETWEEN BODY AND SOUL IS SUCH A TREMENDOUS EXPERIENCE, WOULDN'T IT BE DESIRABLE TO ACHIEVE THAT...

... much. First I will try to open your eyes but if I feel that everybody wants to sleep, then why I should bother? I should go to sleep myself! I don't take anything seriously. Leaders are serious people, taking the responsibility of the flock. And that's why I call them names, because I cannot find worse condemnations for these people. Jesus I call crackpot, a mental case, a man with a wish to die. And...

.... That's why cross has become its symbol: I call it "crossianity." I don't call it Christianity, it has nothing to do with Christ. Its whole thing is the cross, and the cross is a symbol of death. So I don't say that Reverend Jim Jones did anything which goes against Jesus. he simply followed him to the very logical end. Jesus was saying to people: soon I will go and prepare ground for you and...

.... In the second place, they have guts to ask the money back. From whom? The city does not exist. You gave money to a non-existent city, so go and ask the holy ghost if he knows anything about it! Q: THE PRINCE OF HANOVER WAS ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE SANNYASINS. HE WAS VERY ILL, AND THERE IS A RUMOR THAT YOU ASKED TO CUT THE OXYGEN TO SHORTEN HIS SUFFERING. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT HELPING PEOPLE TO DIE IN...

... anything if the rumor had any evidence in it? Just their being silent is enough proof that all this is nonsense. So as far as Vimalkirti's death is concerned, the rumor is simply a rumor. So please don't get confused about my idea, my approach about the death of an individual. My way of life accepts that every individual has the birthright to et out of life if he wants. Death is not something that should...

... be in the control of government, law. It is an individual freedom. If I don't want to live in this body anymore, nobody can prevent me. And in fact, even though all the governments and all the legal systems are against it, suicide goes on happening every day. And it is such a amusing phenomenon, that if a person is caught redhanded committing suicide, then he is sentenced to death. Because he was...

... trying to commit suicide! What kind if lawmakers we have? He was trying to commit suicide, now you are making arrangements for his death. He should have come in the first place to you -- that I am going to commit suicide, please kill me. Why I should unnecessarily take the risk of falling from a tree, getting broken legs, hanging myself from the ceiling, feeling suffocated, but not dying, jumping into...

... a river -- but because I know swimming, getting out of it? Why should I, or anybody should take all these difficulties. So as far as philosophical opinion is concerned, I am for individual's total freedom -- death included. And it is the duty of the community to provide him beautiful facilities for death. Why one should wait for old age and the troubles of old age, the degradation of old age, the...

... least one day give him total freedom and let him die. Help.... Your medical hospitals, all the hospitals in the world should have a beautiful place for those who want to die. He can be taught even on the last day how to be silent, how to relax, so when you are given the injection which will take you deep and deep into sleep, you don't fight it. Otherwise, you will be in suffering. This can be simply...

... explained. He can practice beforehand, do a little rehearsal. And I am ready to provide to every hospital one of my sannyasins to teach meditation. And his room for death should be a temple, beautiful, with flowers and with everything. He should go from this earth like a king. Just resting, relaxing and going forever into deep sleep. When we can manage it, I don't think we should prevent it. And, anyway...

..., it is going to help world population problem immensely because 1,000 people are dying every day in Ethiopia. Out of hunger when one dies, it is real torture. Out of thirst one dies, it is a torture of days together. Why not they should be given injections which is simple, so they can relax and die and be reborn in America? Because they all want, all over the world, the poor people think America is...

... resemble any people who have ever lived on the earth. They don't resemble any old religion. Neither do we want to be categorized with those insane theologies. It is a totally new phenomenon. Q: YOU SAID ONCE THAT YOUR RELIGION WILL DIE WITH YOU. WILL YOU NOT ASK ANYBODY TO CONTINUE FOR YOU -- PERHAPS SHEELA, PERHAPS ANOTHER PERSON, LAXMI, OR AN ORGANIZATION FOR YOU? A: Nobody. It is up to them whatever...

... is dead. The moment I am dead, for me the whole world is dead. Now who bothers about a dead world? It is not one-sided death, that I am only dying. I am disappearing to you, you are disappearing to me. It is equal, equal death on both the sides. And I have no desire to control. I don't control even while I am living. But these people, for example, John the Baptist, baptizes Jesus, initiates him as...

... interfere into his freedom. But my people -- why should I interfere in their freedom to protect me. So those few guards are here. And what a strange thing that in a world which has gone nuclear -- just those toy guns -- do you think we are going to attack America or Soviet Union? Q: YOU DECLARED DEATH AS THE BIGGEST ORGASM OF ALL TIMES ONCE. DO YOU WANT TO LEAD YOUR DISCIPLES INTO THIS SUPER ORGASM, OR DO...

... YOU FEAR ANOTHER JONESTOWN AMONG THEM? A: No. This is the only place where Jonestown cannot happen. it can happen in the Vatican, it can happen in any Christian context. You should be aware of few things: Both the world wars happened in a Christian context. Christianity for centuries has killed millions of people -- burned people alive -- it is a death-oriented religion, in the service of death...

.... Poor Reverend Jones was simply doing the best he could. This is the only place where Jonestown cannot happen, because there is nobody who is a "reverend" here. As far as my idea about death is concerned, if a man can go meditatively into death, then death is the greatest orgasm you can feel. Because death is the separation of body and soul; it is just like when the physicist breaks the atom...

...? A: No. Because before that you have to learn how to be alert and meditative; otherwise, you won't get anything, no orgasmic experience. Because the experiencer will be in a coma. The whole life is a preparation for death, and you should be able to be so conscious in life that when you are making love, there are not only two persons, but four persons. Two persons making love, and two...

... consciousnesses watching, witnessing. Or you are walking on the road, you have to walk with watchfulness, alertness, so that you can see your own body walking. The whole life you have to prepare; then only in death you may be able to retain consciousness. So it is not just separating the body and soul; otherwise everybody who is given electric chair will enjoy an orgasm. Then Jesus being crucified would have...

... enjoyed an orgasm. Then all those Jews -- one million -- whom Hitler put into gas chambers. He did really great religious work: gave one million people spiritual orgasmic experiences, and still these Jews are against him. No, just death won't do. Between death and you there must be full consciousness. Then only it can become an orgasmic experience. The whole life you need to prepare, and then death is...

... the climax of life. Then it is not the end of life, but the climax of life. The whole perspective changes. Q: YOU SAID THAT EVERYBODY WHO WILL DIE IN A TWENTY-FOUR MILES RADIUS OF RAJNEESHPURAM WILL AUTOMATICALLY ENLIGHTENED. WHY IS THAT SO? A: That is true. Not everybody. There you are wrong. Only a sannyasin. Not Oregonians. Only a sannyasin dying within a twenty-five mile radius will become...

... enlightened, their death was not death. I could see it. When Vimalkirti died, we celebrated his death as it is celebrated for an enlightened man. You could have seen on his face the joy, the marks of that orgasmic experience through which he had gone. He was still radiant. The body was still somehow carrying the stamp of the experience. And then, many sannyasins in these fifteen years have died. Then slowly...

.... And when a sannyasin dies in this loving energy field, it is easier for him to be awake than otherwise. It is just like if you are sitting amongst a few people who are yawning and dozing, soon you will find yourself yawning and dozing. And you will be surprized -- why you are doing it? Those people are creating a certain vibe. If you sit with people who are bored to death, soon you will feel a...

... let-go, allowing nature to flow through you without any obstructions from your side, as if you are absent and life is moving on its own. Rather than you living life, life lives you, you are secondary; then the culmination will be a natural death. According to my definition, only an awakened man can die a natural death; otherwise all deaths are unnatural, because all lives are unnatural. How can you...

... nature in all its dimensions, who has not left anything unexplored. Animals are prisoners; they have a certain limited area of being. Man has the capacity, the intelligence, the freedom to explore. And if you have explored nature totally, you have come home. Nature is your home. And then death is a joy, is a celebration. Then you die without any complaint; you die with deep gratitude, because life gave...

... Available: Yes Length: 75 mins Question 1: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT IS A NATURAL DEATH? It is a significant question, but there are many possible implications in it. The simplest and the most obvious is that a man dies without any cause; he simply becomes old, older, and the change from old age to death is not through any disease. Death is simply the ultimate old age -- everything in your body, in your brain...

..., has stopped functioning. This will be the ordinary and obvious meaning of a natural death. But to me natural death has a far deeper meaning: one has to live a natural life to attain a natural death. Natural death is the culmination of a life lived naturally, without any inhibition, without any repression -- just the way the animals live, the birds live, the trees live, without any split... a life of...

... arrive at a natural death, living an unnatural life? Death will reflect the ultimate culmination, the crescendo of your whole life. In a condensed form, it is all that you have lived. So only very few people in the world have died naturally, because only very few people have lived naturally. Our conditionings don't allow us to be natural. Our conditionings, from the very beginning, teach us that we...

... you so much, and death is simply the ultimate height of all that you have lived. It is just like before the flame of a candle goes out it burns brightest... the natural man, before he dies, lives brightest for a moment; he is all light, all truth. To me this is natural death. But it has to be earned; it is not given to you. The opportunity is given to you, but you have to explore, you have to earn...

..., you have to deserve. Even to see the death of an authentic man, just to be near him while he is dying, you will be filled suddenly with a strange joy. Your tears will not be of sadness, sorrow; they will be of gratitude and blissfulness -- because when a man dies naturally, living his life fully, he spreads his being into the whole of nature. Those who are present and close to him are bathed... a...

... sudden freshness, a breeze, a new fragrance and a new feeling that death is not something bad, that death is not something to be afraid of, that death is something to be earned, to be deserved. I teach you the art of life. But it can be called also the art of death. They are both the same. Question 2: BELOVED OSHO, HOW CAN ONE GET OUT OF THE TRAP THE MIND CREATES OF NEVER BEING QUITE BLISSFUL IN THE...

... tried different dimensions, strange dimensions: swordsmanship, but with meditation. Two swordsmen bent upon killing each other have to remain centered in themselves without tension, without fear, without anger, without revenge, just playful. To the observer it is a question of life and death, but to those two meditators it is playfulness. And a strange thing has been observed again and again: if both...

... meditations would be suitable for her, saying that if she did Nadabrahma [the Humming meditation] in the morning, she should do the 'life/death' meditation each evening.] In the night before you go to sleep, do this fifteen-minute meditation. It is a death meditation. Lie down and relax your body. Just feel like dying and that you cannot move your body because you are dead. Just create the feeling that you...

... back and the whole body is full of vitality and energy. Start moving, swaying in the bed with eyes closed. Just feel that life is flowing in you. Feel that the body has a great flowing energy - just the opposite of the death meditation. So do the death meditation in the night before falling asleep and the life meditation just before getting up. With the life meditation you can take deep breaths. Just...

... feel full of energy... life entering with breathing. Feel full and very happy, alive. Then after fifteen minutes, get up. These two - the life and death meditation - are going to help you tremendously. [The Hypnotherapy group that was present tonight. A group member said she had liked it so much and had found it helpful, Osho suggested that the meditation he had given (above) would be good for her...

... also. He went on to talk about the significance of death .... ] And remember, there is no fear in death. We cannot be afraid of something which we do not know. To be afraid, one first needs to be acquainted. So the fear of death is not really a fear of death. It is just fear of losing life. It is not because of death that we are afraid. We are only afraid that we may lose this life with which we are...

... acquainted. But death is a door and leads to a higher life, a richer life. [Osho said death is something like the existence before birth, before one started breathing.... ] But now the womb is bigger. It is a cosmic womb. You are not entering the mother's womb. Now the whole cosmos is the mother. When one does the death meditation, one is again moving to a place where breathing is not needed because...

... breathing is part of life. So while doing this meditation, if you feel that the breathing is getting slower, it is perfectly alright. Don't be frightened by that. There are moments sometimes when the death meditation really possesses you so that you may feel almost as if the breathing has stopped. So don't get into a panic, because that is one of the most beautiful spaces one can enter. When there is no...

... a new space and you go on expanding. You are no more attached to this new body. So don't be afraid. It is mind-blowing - the experience. And death is very beautiful. It is dark but very relaxing. It is very silent. There is no noise of life in it. It is like a dark, deep night... you are alone and everything is silent. So do this for fifteen minutes every night and fall asleep doing it so that...

... sleep and the death meditation become almost one phenomenon. The death meditation turns into sleep. And death is like sleep. A mini death is needed every day, otherwise you will not be fresh and new. So sleep is a small death. If you fall asleep meditating, your sleep will be of a totally different quality. It will not have dreams. In the morning you will feel as if within seconds you are awake again...