BELOVED OSHO,
YOU SPOKE THE OTHER DAY OF HOW, WHEN AN INDIVIDUAL DIES, HE ALMOST IMMEDIATELY FINDS ANOTHER WOMB. BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PEOPLE DIE EN MASSE, AS HAPPENS IN WARTIME OR IN AN EARTHQUAKE, FOR EXAMPLE? HOW CAN THERE BE THAT MANY WOMBS AVAILABLE AT ONE TIME? ALSO, IF A THIRD WORLD WAR SHOULD HAPPEN, OR AIDS ELIMINATES TWO THIRDS OF THE WORLD POPULATION, WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THOSE SOULS FOR WHOM THERE ARE NO WOMBS AVAILABLE?

This is an intellectual question -- not of much significance. But this earth is populated right now with five billion people, two and a half billion couples. How big can an an earthquake be? Even how big can a war be? These billions of people are ready to receive new children, new guests, in their wombs. So up to now there has not been a problem. But if anything happens that is so big that souls cannot find wombs, then according to scientific calculation there are at least five million planets in the whole universe on which life exists. They don't know of what kind, on what level, but on five million planets... and this is a very conservative estimate.
If life exists on that many planets, there will not be any shortage of wombs. If a third world war happens, and life disappears from this planet, it will immediately start appearing on other planets where life has come to the point of human growth. But nothing dies, and no law changes, and the universe is big enough -- so big that scientists have not been able yet to count all the solar systems. And each solar system has dozens of planets.
They have not been able to count all the stars. As their instruments become more accurate, more far-reaching, they are constantly increasing their number. And now one thing is certain: that whatever their number is, it is not right because there is still space ahead. There is no limit to the universe. The vastness is really immense. In this vast universe, do you think it will be difficult to find wombs for five billion people? Just five billion people?
And existence has its way of working. Unless it has prepared a new home for you, it will not destroy this planet. This planet can be destroyed only if it is no longer worth saving and you can have new homes. Just as on a smaller scale... as your body becomes old, useless, a constant trouble, this sickness, that sickness, existence has a way: it simply gives you a new body. And the third world war... if it happens at all, it may be basically that this planet is already old and no more evolution is possible here.
We cannot say anything about existence. Everything remains a guess, but one thing is certain: before a home is taken, another home is already waiting for you. So if this planet dies -- and remember, every day planets are dying, every day new planets are being born. Not only planets, every day suns are dying and new suns are being born. It is a continuously renewing system. It does not allow the old, the rotten, the sick, the dead. For life, there is such a vast existence available that there is nothing to be worried about. Perhaps it will be good, but one never knows. I trust that it will be good. Nothing can be bad. It may look bad -- the whole earth being destroyed. On this side it will look bad, but on the other side, if you are getting a better planet... Perhaps you need now a better planet for higher evolution.
Perhaps this planet does not give you enough energy for higher growth. Perhaps it has come to its climax: whatever it could do it has done. You need a better school. Only then will the world be destroyed; otherwise it will not be destroyed. If evolution is still possible here the world is going to remain, but it seems we are stuck. For thousands of years evolution has been stuck. Once in a while somebody blossoms; that is an exception, not a rule.
But billions of people just go on rotating in the same circle without evolving an inch. Perhaps this universe has no more energy to give to you for higher evolution.
Nobody has been working in these directions. Everything comes to a point where the energy is exhausted. I am amazed about scientists who are working in these fields. They should look into the phenomenon of whether the earth has come to a point where it is exhausted and has no more possibility for people to grow more than they have grown; a full stop has come. Then it is better that people are transported to other places where evolution can become possible and they can reach to higher levels of being.
We don't know... in these five million planets there may be a few where man has reached to superconsciousness, where superconsciousness has become a common phenomenon. Or maybe there is one planet where the collective superconscious has become common. And the possibility cannot be denied that there may be a few planets, or one planet, where the ultimate has been reached, where everybody is enlightened.
So if this earth disappears, people will be moving to different planets according to their growth, according to whatever is needed for them to grow more. And all this happens autonomously.
In India there is a tree that grows its seeds with a little cotton around the seed, cotton wool. It is very rare; no other tree does that. But that tree does a very special thing -- a little cotton wool, and the softest cotton wool. The richest people in India use pillows made only out of that wool. It is difficult to get because to collect it... there is just a little around one seed. To collect it for one pillow you will have to go around many trees. It is the softest thing that I have seen. It does not suit me because it makes the head warm, and that I don't like. But its softness is incomparable. And the reason why this tree grows this cotton wool around the seed is that when the seed falls from the tree it should not fall under it. It is a very big tree with long branches and a great shadow underneath it; the sunlight never reaches underneath it. If those seeds fall underneath it, they will die. They will never get the sunlight, and they will never grow. That cotton wool helps to send them far away. They cannot fall. They start flying in the wind and start going far away; miles away they will fall down somewhere. The tree makes it certain that they should not fall under it; otherwise they are dead already. They should go as far away as possible. Anywhere is good, except under the tree.
Now who manages it? Existence has an autonomous way of working. If you look into minute things, you can see how existence makes things function for their good. Now the seeds may be clinging to the tree and the tree may like to cling to the seeds, but existence does not allow that. They go miles away from the tree. They will fall somewhere, and they will become trees on their own.
The same is true if you look into anything in nature. Something immense, a cosmic consciousness, surrounds everything, and everything is happening within that cosmic consciousness.
The Path of the Mystic
Chapter 20, Q 2

 

 

All the civilizations in the past.... A civilization existed on Atlantis, a vast continent that was drowned in the Atlantic Ocean. It was thought that that too is mythology, but recent researchers have proved that still there are remnants five miles deep under the water, of great cities. And the same happened with another continent, smaller than Atlantis -- Lemuria. That too was drowned in the ocean.
It seems to the superficial observer that it must have been a natural calamity -- perhaps a great earthquake, a movement of the earth, an entering of the ocean into those great cities, volcanoes -- but something natural must have happened as a calamity. But as far as I can see, those natural calamities are also caused by us. Just the other day I received news about one of the most beautiful forests in Germany, the famous Black Forest. Rumors have been coming for years that a part of it is dying; trees are simply dying for no visible reason. And the government of Germany has been hiding the facts. But just now the thing has become too big; you cannot cover it up. Fifty per cent of the forest has died. And the reason is not natural. The reason is the use of certain gases in the factories. Those gases are mixing with vapors, and when it rains the water becomes acidic. So if it falls on a tree, that tree dies immediately -- it is poisoned. Maybe half the Black Forest is completely dead. The remaining half cannot survive either, because those gases are still being used.
The scientists have calculated that around the earth there is a two hundred mile thick layer surrounding the globe, of air. And in the air is a layer of ozone, which is very protective; it protects life on the earth. All of the sunrays are not good for life. The ozone layer returns a few rays -- those are death rays; if they enter the atmosphere they will destroy life. And only those rays are allowed through by the ozone which are not against life, but life enhancing.
But stupidly, we have made holes in this layer by sending rockets to the moon -- which is a simple exercise in stupidity. When the rockets went, they made great holes in the ozone layer, and when they came back they again made holes. Russia and America both have been competing in creating those holes, and only just now they have become aware that those holes have taken away some of the protective layer. Now death rays are entering into the atmosphere.
When this civilization is destroyed, people may think it was a natural calamity. It is not. We have created it. Because of the accumulation of carbon dioxide and other gases, the temperature of the earth's atmosphere has begun to rise, and that is creating a new problem. The ice at both the poles, south and north, is melting for the first time because the temperature has never been so high. Before, the ice remained eternally settled.
Scientists calculate that by the end of this century, all the oceans of the world will have risen by four and a half feet. There have never been any floods of the oceans -- and this will be a permanent rise. Cities like Bombay and New York, which are on the seashore, will be filled with four and half feet of water.
This is only one calculation of one group of researchers who are working at the north pole and south pole. A third group is working on the Himalayan ice, which has been eternally there. If the temperature rises just one degree more, then the ice from the Himalayas and the Alps will start melting. And that will be a real calamity, because it will raise every ocean by forty feet. It will drown almost everything that we know as civilization; all our great ports, great cities, all will be under water. Anybody researching later on would find it to be a natural calamity -- it is not. It is our own stupidity.
We can learn much, seeing what is happening, and then we can think introspectively about other civilizations which have disappeared, either through war or through calamities which apparently look natural. But I don't feel that they were natural. Those civilizations must have done something stupid that caused the calamities. "Were there not already highly developed civilizations living on this earth?" There were, but they all got into the same mess in which we are entering; they all got into the same darkness in which we are entering. "And yet their consciousness got lost and man had to start all over again." Their consciousness was not lost -- they had no consciousness. They had just the same superficial consciousness as we have.
What are you doing to prevent the calamity that is coming closer every day? The death of this earth is not far away -- at the most, twenty years, twenty-five years. And that is a very optimistic attitude; for the pessimist it can happen even tomorrow. But even if we give twenty-five years to you, what are you going to do to help human consciousness rise in such a way that we can prevent the global suicide that is going to happen?
It is coming from many directions. Nuclear weapons are one direction which is almost completely ready. Any moment... and it is going to be a push-button war. It is not a problem of sending armies and airplanes.
Just the other day the prime minister of the Soviet Union declared that there are thousands of submarines underneath the ocean, moving around the world. Each submarine is carrying so much nuclear power that it is equal to one thousand second world wars. One submarine... and there are thousands of submarines, Russian and American, underneath the water. The explosion can happen just by accident. There is no need for any war, just by accident....
That is only one direction from which we are about to destroy ourselves. The second is creating the holes -- because those experiments continue. Now the moon is not the target, nor has Mars become the target. And there is nobody to protest against all these experiments -- because they are not going to help human happiness or human life in any way. Why waste energy? And why create unnecessarily destructive situations? All those gases that are rising in the air and creating acid rain....
From another dimension, the disease AIDS is spreading so fast that there is every possibility it will destroy almost two-thirds of humanity without any war. And if the oceans are filled with all the ice that the Himalayas hold, and that of the south and north poles and the Alps and other mountains, we will be drowned, just as Atlantis was drowned and Lemuria was drowned.
The only possible way to avoid it is to create more meditativeness in the world. But it is such an insane world that sometimes it seems almost unbelievable.
The Razor’s Edge
Chapter 11, Q 1

 

 

 

It happened that a Zen master was invited as a guest. A few friends had gathered and they were eating and talking when suddenly there was an earthquake. The building that they were sitting in was a seven storeyed building and they were on the seventh storey, so life was in danger. Everybody tried to escape. The host, running by, looked to see what had happened to the master. He was there with not even a ripple of anxiety on his face. With closed eyes he was sitting on his chair as he had been sitting before.
The host felt a little guilty, he felt a bit of a coward, and it did not look good that a guest was sitting there and the host was running away. The others, the other twenty guests, had already gone down the stairs but he stopped himself although he was trembling with fear, and he sat down by the side of the master.
The earthquake came and went, the master opened the eyes and started his conversation which because of the earthquake he had had to stop. He continued again at exactly the same sentence -- as if the earthquake had not happened at all.
The host was now in no mood to listen, he was in no mood to understand because his whole being was so troubled and he was so afraid. Even though the earthquake had gone, the fear was still there. He said: Now don't say anything because I will not be able to grasp it, I'm not myself anymore. The earthquake has disturbed me too much. But there is one question I would like to ask. All other guests had escaped, I was also on the stairs, almost running, when suddenly I remembered you. Seeing you sitting here with closed eyes, sitting so undisturbed, so unperturbed, I felt a bit of a coward -- I am the host, I should not run. So I came back and I have been sitting by your side. I would like to ask one question. We all tried to escape. What happened to you? What do you say about the earthquake?
The master said: I also escaped, but you escaped outwardly, I escaped inwardly. Your escape is useless because wherever you are going there too is an earthquake, so it is meaningless, it makes no sense. You may reach the sixth storey or the fifth or the fourth, but there too is an earthquake. I escaped to a point within me where no earthquake ever reaches, cannot reach. I entered my center.
This is what Lao Tzu says. HOLD FIRM TO THE BASIS OF QUIETUDE. If you are passive by and by you will become aware of the center within you. You have carried it all along, it has always been there, only you don't know it, you are not alert. Once you become alert about it the whole of life becomes different. You can remain in the world and out of it because you are always in touch with your center. You can move in an earthquake and be unperturbed because nothing touches you.
Tao: The Three Treasures Vol. 2
Chapter 1

 

 

Yes, a time of crisis is a very valuable time. When everything is established and there is no crisis things are dead. When nothing is changing and the grip of the old is perfect, it is almost impossible to change yourself. When everything is in a chaos, nothing is static, nothing is secure, nobody knows what is going to happen the next moment -- in such a chaotic moment -- you are free, you can change. You can attain to the innermost core of your being.
It is just like in a prison: when everything is settled it is almost impossible for any prisoner to get out of it, to escape from the prison. But just think: there has been an earthquake and everything is disturbed and nobody knows where the guards are and nobody knows where the jailer is, and all rules have dissolved, and everybody is running on his own -- in that moment if a prisoner is a little alert he can escape very easily; if he is foolish, only then will he miss the opportunity.
When the society is in a turmoil and everything is in crisis, a chaos pervades -- this is the moment, if you want, you can escape from the prison. It is so easy because nobody is guarding you, nobody is after you. You are left alone. Things are in such a shape that everybody is bothering about his own business -- nobody is looking at you. This is the moment. Don't miss that moment.
In great crisis periods, always, much enlightenment has happened. When the society is established and it is almost impossible to rebel, to go beyond, not to follow the rules, enlightenment becomes very, very difficult -- because it is freedom; it is anarchy. In fact it is moving away from society and becoming individual. The society doesn't like individuals: it likes robots who just look like individuals but are not individuals. The society doesn't like authentic being. It likes masks, pretenders, hypocrites, but not real persons because a real person is always trouble. A real person is always a free person. You cannot enforce things on him; you cannot make a prisoner out of him; you cannot enslave him. He would like to lose his life, but he would not like to lose his freedom. Freedom is more valuable to him than life itself. Freedom is the highest value for him. That's why in India we have called the highest value moksha, nirvana; those words mean freedom -- total freedom -- absolute freedom.
Whenever society is in a turmoil and everybody is tending his own business -- has to tend -- escape. In that moment the doors of the prison are open, many cracks are in the walls, the guards are not on duty... one can escape easily.
Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol. 5
Chapter 10, Q 2

 

 

[A sannyasin asks: Today I was reading a german newspaper and there was written in it that in many parts of the world there are earthquakes. I should like to know what is going on.]

Mm... nothing much. It is just that the earth is burdened too much with human beings and wants to get rid of them. We have overproduced ourselves and created too much tension. The earth is really burdened. So it is nothing much. Nothing to be worried about.
The Passion for the Impossible

 

 

In Bihar, one of the provinces of India -- the poorest province -- there was a great earthquake. It was already poor; every year it suffers from floods. And then this earthquake... thousands died. And what did Gandhi say? Gandhi said, "Bihar is suffering because of its bad actions." In the twentieth century? -- an earthquake? -- and the whole population of Bihar?
It was understandable that you had been explaining to single individuals that they were suffering because of their bad karmas, but the whole state suffering because of its bad karmas...! As if all these people in their past life were also in this same state, and they all committed such bad karmas that the earthquake happened. And the whole of the rest of India did not suffer from the earthquake because they had done good karmas in their past life. Strange!
It is even more strange because Bihar is the birthplace of Mahavira, of Gautam Buddha, of Makhkhali Gosal, of Ajit Keshkambal -- great teachers and great prophets -- and Bihar is suffering because it has committed bad karmas! In India no other state has given birth to so many prophets, philosophers, thinkers. And what wrong could Bihar have done? But Hinduism knows everything.
I want you to remember that the basic mistake that all the religions have committed is that they have not been courageous enough to accept that there are limits to their knowing
They have not been able to say on any point, "We don't know."
They have been so arrogant that they go on saying they know, and they go on creating new fictions of knowledge.
That's where the true religion will be different, fundamentally different.
From Ignorance to Innocence
Chapter 11, Q 1

 

A Few of Osho's Jokes on the Subject:

 

I have heard: it happened in a Zen temple. One morning there was a great earthquake -- as it happens in Japan. Half the temple collapsed. The priest, who had been pretending that he was a real Zen man, immediately gathered his disciples and said, "Look. Now you must have observed what is the real quality of a real Zen man. The earthquake was there, but there was not even an iota of fear in me. Have you observed? I remained as if nothing had happened. Not only that, you must have seen that after the earthquake stopped, I went to the kitchen because I was thirsty, and I drank a big glass of water. Did you observe that my hand was not trembling at all while I was holding the glass?"
One disciple smiled. The priest felt annoyed. He said, "What is funny in it? Why are you smiling? "
The disciple said, "Reverend sir, it was not a glass of water. It was a big glass of soy sauce that you drank!"
When you want to show off, from somewhere or other the reality is bound to leak.
Come Follow to You, Vol. 2
Chsapter 8, Q 4

 

There was a big alcoholic party on at this flat in San Francisco. Everything was at its drunkest and wildest when it happened -- an earthquake. Chimneys toppled in the street, water mains were broken. All the guests rushed outside from the wild party. But one man was missing. The heroic host dashed back and there in the bathroom he found the missing man, knee-deep in water. The inebriated guest could only mumble, "Honest, Paul, I swear all I did was pull the handle."
The Dhammapadda: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 10
Chapter 10, Q 3

 

Thank you to my dear beloved friend Bhagawati in Bali for the Osho quotations.

More information will become available here soon.

Blessings to Planet Earth and us all.