Are mind, intellect, chitta, and ego distinct entities or one and the same, and is the soul different from these?

Osho, are mind, intellect (buddhi), chitta, and ego (ahamkar) distinct things—separate entities—or one and the same? And is the soul different from these, or is their aggregate itself called the soul? Among these, which is inert and which is conscious? And where exactly are they located in the body?

It’s like asking: is the father different, the son different, the husband different? No—the person is one. But before some he is a father, before others a son, before others a husband; before some he is a friend, before others an enemy; to some he appears beautiful, to others not; to some he is master, to others servant. If we had never visited that house and someone told us, “Today I met the master,” another said, “Today I met the servant,” a third said, “I met the father,” and a fourth, “The husband was at home,” we might think many people live there—some master, some father, some husband. The person is one. Our mind behaves in many ways. When it stiffens and declares, “I am everything; no one else is anything,” it appears as ego—ahamkar. That is one mode of the mind’s functioning. When the mind thinks—reasons—it is buddhi, intellect.…

A friend asks: if everything in nature is purposeless, why man alone should live with a purpose?

For example, you were in Bombay and you came here to Nargol by traveling a distance of a hundred miles. But for the star that is at an infinite distance from us, you did not travel at all. In relation to that star you are where you are. It makes no difference for that star if you have moved a hundred miles from Bombay. If you take that star into consideration you have not moved at all. Your distance from that star remains the same at Nargol as it was in Bombay. That star is so far away that these petty distances don't make a difference. The journey of our lives, of our births and deaths is so long, so infinitely long, that it makes no difference whatsoever if one attained enlightenment twenty-five hundred years ago, another five hundred years ago, and still another only five days or five hours…

Question: ATMAN CHITTAM KALADINAM TATVANAMAVIVEKO MAYA MOHAVARNAT SIDDIH MOHAJAYADANATTABHOGATSAHAJA VIDYAJAYAH JAGRAD DVITIYA KARAH. THE SOUL IS THE MIND. LACKING DISCRIMINATION OF WHAT IS ESSENTIAL IS ILLUSION. THE YOGI CAUGHT IN ATTACHMENTS MAY ATTAIN POWERS BUT NOT SELF-KNOWLEDGE. AFTER CONQUERING ATTACHMENTS PERMANENTLY, SPONTANEOUS WISDOM IS ATTAINED. THE AWAKENED YOGI REALIZES THAT THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IS AN EMANATION OF HIS OWN ENERGY. Mulla Nasruddin owned a dog. Its pedigree was unknown. It was a thin, ugly, weak creature that went about with its tail between its legs always scared, always trembling but the Mulla never tired of praising him. He had named him Adolf Hitler. When I asked him about the dog the Mulla would say, "There may be doubts about Hitler's family background, but my dog is a very valuable thoroughbred. No stranger can pass my house without our knowing it. Hitler lets me know immediately." "What does your do Hitler?

Osho, is consciousness not matter?

No—no. In fact, if you understand what I mean: as I just said, there is something—when it is aroused it is called mind; when unaroused it is called soul. There is such a something; something is—there is no need for a name. Call it Brahman if you like, or call it something else—it makes no difference, because the trouble begins the moment you give it a name. There is something that appears to us in two forms—conscious and unconscious. There is a state where it is absolutely vibrationless; there it seems unconscious, it seems material. And there is another of its modes where it is filled with perfect vibration; there it appears conscious, it appears as consciousness. These are two different aspects of the same thing, two functions of the same reality. The conscious and the unconscious are not matter; rather, they are two functions of one and the same…

Is this difference -- the difference in their stages -- due to their own choice, or is it their destiny?

To me, the solution to the whole problem takes on a different shape. Do not divide them. They are not two, they are already one -- they have always been one. When the energy becomes conscious it is soul, when it becomes unconscious it becomes body. Sometimes you are more a soul and less a body, sometimes you are more a body and less a soul. This flickering back and forth between one and the other goes on continuously. In the morning you may be more a soul, in the evening you are more a body. When you are in anger you are more a body, when you are in love you are more a soul. The degrees change continuously. When you meditate your consciousness expands and your body shrinks; when you take an intoxicant your consciousness shrinks and your body expands. Body and consciousness are two poles of one…