According to Osho, a tirthankara can take a physical body again only by deliberately not discarding the ‘fourth body’ at death—keeping a single, powerful last desire: to return and guide others. This retained “peg” preserves the bridge to rebirth. Such return is rare, pre-arranged in mystery schools, sometimes aided by higher beings, and is considered supreme compassion.
Yes—if they keep a tiny, selfless wish to help others alive at death, their inner bridge stays and they can be born again.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
If a tirthankara desires to be born, can he take a physical body?
Now this is a different matter altogether. If a tirthankara wishes to be reborn a very interesting happening takes place: that is, before death he does not discard his fourth body. There is a way and a method of doing this, and that is by having the desire to be a tirthankara. So when the fourth body is falling away one desire has to be kept alive so that the fourth body does not drop. If the fourth drops birth in the physical form is impossible. Then the bridge, the connection through which you came, is no more. So the desire to be a tirthankara has to be kept alive through the fourth body. Not all who are worthy become tirthankaras; they go straight along their way without this. There are only a few who become such masters, and their number is fixed beforehand. There is a reason why their…
Osho, if a Tirthankara wishes to take birth again, it would be in the physical body, right?
Now, this matter is quite another thing. This point, you see, is a completely different matter. Let me say a little about it. If a Tirthankara has to take birth—as a Tirthankara takes birth—there is a very interesting thing: before dying, he does not have to drop the fourth body. And there is a way not to drop it, a method. That way is the vasana—the urge, the seed-intention—of being a Tirthankara. When the fourth body is about to drop, one vasana must be saved so that the fourth does not drop. After the fourth has dropped you cannot be born again; the bridge through which you could return is broken. So, before the fourth body, the vasana of being a Tirthankara has to be preserved. That is why not all who are qualified to be Tirthankaras become Tirthankaras. Many who are qualified simply set out straight on the journey.…
And so someone has asked: Why are there not two Tirthankaras at the same time?
So every compassionate teacher, returning once, arranges everything so that later on, ways to connect with him will remain. When the body is gone, what will be his code number—by what special mental tuning can contact be established with him? The special mantras of all religions are code numbers. Through their attentive, continuous repetition, the mind attains a particular tuning; in that tuning, contact with particular teachers becomes possible. They are exact code numbers, telephone numbers—if the mind moves in that very vibration, it reaches a specific tuning. And that code number belongs to one teacher only; it will not work for another. Hence the strict insistence that these code numbers be kept utterly secret. They are given silently, in great secrecy. To enable contact, they leave many devices: signs, images, words, mantras; special figures—call them tantras; yantras—geometric forms by concentrating upon which the mind attains a specific state, and…
Osho, Mahavira’s prior-life state was a state of moksha, and you say that from moksha there is no return. Then how did he return? Please clarify.
In a rush he kissed the maid and said to the wife, “Take care of the children!” The wife protested. He said, “Then let me correct it,” kissed the wife and told the maid, “Take care of the children.” “Sometimes I slip,” he said. So do we all—we keep remembering: this is my father, my wife, my son. If we forget, others remind us: “I am your father.” We must remember our roles; the more dutifully one plays, the more “conscientious” he is. I do not say, “Do not play.” Life is for playing—and it is delightful. Only do not forget one thing—even if you forget everything else—do not forget that it is a play, and that inwardly there is a point in you that forever stands outside. Swami Ram went to America. He had a strange habit; people were puzzled—he always spoke in the third person. He would say,…
Osho, you have said that Buddha attained Mahaparinirvana in the seventh body, but elsewhere in a discourse you have said that Buddha will take one more human birth as Maitreya. After merging into the nirvanic body, how would it be possible to take a human body again? Kindly clarify this briefly.
For example, a man in America died—three, four years ago—and he left a trust of millions of dollars, with instructions that his body be preserved until science has reached the point of being able to reanimate it. Hundreds of thousands are being spent on his body. It must be kept exactly as it was at the moment of death. Not the slightest deterioration should occur—until then. There is hope that by the end of this century the possibility of reanimating a body will emerge. So for thirty to forty years his body has to be kept as it was when he died. This is a scientific procedure. And if by the end of the century we can reanimate a body, that body will be reanimated. Certainly, a different soul will occupy that body; the same soul cannot be available. But the body will remain: the same eyes, the same gait,…