Can a master take on the pain of their disciples and become sick in the process of helping them understand enlightenment?

Beloved master, is it possible for a master to take the pain of his disciples in helping them to understand their enlightenment, and in the process cause his body to become sick?

There was so much disturbance that Ramakrishna told the sudra, "When nobody is there... By the evening all these people go away" -- he used to live outside Calcutta, near the Ganges -- "and you can come then. You live on the other side, so if you cannot come, I can come. We can have a little chit-chat. And you play the flute so beautifully... you can play the flute." The man was immensely in love with Ramakrishna and Ramakrishna showered his whole heart on him. What happened on that day was empathy: so much at-oneness that the same experience starts happening to both persons. That's why I say, theoretically it is possible. And once in a while it has happened, not because consciously enlightened people take other people's sicknesses and diseases on themselves, but accidentally, just like in the case of Ramakrishna. The reality is that the enlightened person…

Beloved Osho, before I made my application to take sannyas, I had a big problem, thinking that taking sannyas was recognizing that one is ill. I was so confused about it, and I didn't trust telling any sannyasin. I read that you said in poona that we are all ill until we are enlightened. Can you talk more about the relationship between master and disciple, between doctor and patient?

And as they went out to take him to his car and came back in, Nasruddin opened one eye and asked, "Has that nut gone or not? Now everybody gather, and the sermon begins: You idiots, you should have given me twenty rupees and I would have been silent the whole night. Just give me twenty rupees each night and I will be silent. Don't waste money this way. Rather than talking business to me, you are bringing these idiots. I befooled him within seconds -- and he believed even the snoring. Who has ever heard that in hypnosis people snore? He does not know even the ABC of hypnosis." Everybody is in confusion, young or old. Sick, sick unto death, but nobody is willing to accept it. On the contrary, he is throwing out the doctors, proving that "I am not sick." Accepting your sickness is the beginning of…

Osho, is it possible that by attaining your state of consciousness a person could remain perfectly, physically healthy? Or is that not possible—that such is the law of Tao? Because I have heard that all true masters have been physically unwell.

Ramakrishna said, “Sharada, you do not listen. The day you bring the plate and I turn over in bed to the other side and do not look at your plate, understand that only three days of my life remain.” Sharada thought he was joking. But that is exactly what happened. One day Sharada entered his room with the food. Ramakrishna neither rose from the bed nor took any interest; instead, he turned his face toward the wall. The plate slipped from Sharada’s hand. She remembered what Ramakrishna had said years before. Ramakrishna said, “Whether the plate falls or not, nothing will change now. I am here only three more days. And today I will tell you—because you used to ask again and again and I kept silent—today I tell you that all my bonds with the body have broken. Somehow I have been holding on to a tiny bond—the bond…

If faith can move the mountains, why can you not heal your own body?

I don't have any body. This feeling that you have a body is absolutely wrong. The body belongs to the universe; you don't have it, it is not yours. So if the body is ill or if the body is healthy the universe will take care of it. And a person who is in meditation should remain a witness, whether the body is healthy or ill. The desire to be healthy is part of ignorance. The desire not to be ill is also part of ignorance. And this is not a new question -- this is one of the oldest questions. It has been asked of Buddha; it has been asked of Mahavir. Ever since there have been enlightened persons, the unenlightened have always asked this question. Look... Jesus said faith can move mountains, but he died on the cross. He couldn't move the cross. You or someone like you…

A friend has asked: Osho, if events happen in nature and feelings in man, then when one attains siddhi and experiences one’s separateness, do bodily pain and mental anguish stop?

This needs a little understanding. First, understand the difference between pain and suffering. If a thorn pricks your foot, two things happen. One is pain. Pain means you experience that there is hurt in the foot. I know there is hurt in the foot. You are the knower. The pain happens in the foot; you are the seer of it. You are the witness. This does not mean that if you are a witness and someone pricks your foot you will feel no pain. Do not fall into that illusion. There will be pain, because the prick of a thorn is an event. But there will be no suffering. Keep this distinction in mind. Suffering happens when I become one with the pain. When I say, “A thorn is pricking me,” then suffering happens. When I say, “A thorn is pricking the foot—and I am seeing it,” then there is…