Do enlightened persons have children?

Osho, another question in the same vein. Can people like Buddha, Mahavira, and Christ bring about conception even after enlightenment? And why don’t they have intercourse again to give birth to a superior soul? And is conception only a possibility between two unenlightened persons?

But who inside that prison will understand? The inmates will say, “You’ve gone mad—come back home.” Home meaning your cell. And however much he speaks of moon, sun, flowers—they will understand nothing, for they have seen nothing but darkness and chains. It may be that, just as we are asking here today, those people also ask, “Can someone, after sitting on the prison wall, come back once to have a child? Or is it only those who have never climbed the wall who have children?” Our question is exactly like that. The world, the life, the Great Life that Buddha and Mahavira are seeing—we know nothing of it. We are shut inside this small prison of the body, carrying it around all our lives. We think this is the great life. So we think, “Bring more souls here—bring better souls.” Buddha and Mahavira are busy sending even the “bad” souls…

If enlightened beings don't have children, and we neurotic people are pronounced unfit for parenthood by you, when is the right time?

You go on unconsciously reproducing your own replicas. First think: are you in such a state that if you give birth to a child, you will be giving a gift to the world? Are you a blessing to the world, or a curse? And then think: are you ready to mother or to father a child? Are you ready to give love unconditionally? Because children come through you, but they don't belong to you. You can give your love to them, but you should not impose your ideas on them. You should not give your neurotic styles to them. Are you ready not to give your neurotic style to your children? Will you allow them to flower in their own way? Will you allow them freedom to be themselves? If you are ready, then it is okay. Otherwise, wait; become ready. With man, conscious evolution has entered into the world.…

By the way, you are the only non-neurotic person around. Why don't you have children? Do enlightened persons have children sometimes?

Mrs. Cohen had come into some money and asked an interior decorator to re-do her house. Mr. Jones asked, "Certainly Mrs. Cohen, I will be glad to help. Can you give me some idea of your taste? Do you like modern decor?" "No." "Swedish style?" "No." "Italian provincial?" "No." "Moorish? Spanish?" "No." "Well you know, Mrs. Cohen, you really must give me some idea of your taste, otherwise I will not even be able to get started. What is it exactly that you have in mind?" "Decor, schmecor. What I want is that when my friends come to visit, they will take one look and drop dead!" The second: The young couple was engaged in a most affectionate embrace when there came the sound of a key in the front door. The young lady broke away at once, eyes wide with alarm. "Heavens!" she cried, "it is my husband. Quick,…

Osho, you spoke of planned procreation and said that, by way of example, society could then receive geniuses like Mahavira, Einstein, and Buddha. My question is: the names you cited as examples were themselves neither the product of planned procreation nor of a commune-based society. Therefore, the idea that a commune alone will yield gifted children, or that a child’s development is primarily society’s responsibility, does not seem entirely correct.

So the highest have often had no children; they did not marry. And the basest have no other occupation. Their only entertainment is producing children. That is why the poorer a country, the more children it produces. Poor countries have few other amusements—no TV, no money for world travel, no expensive alternatives. Only one cheap option: produce children. Keep yourself entangled, surrounded by toddlers. Let them squeal and keep you occupied. Thus life passes in entanglement, and at least the emptiness doesn’t sting. At least you are doing something. You are leaving something in the world; you did not come and go leaving no mark! People will remember that you were here! You ask, Ramshankar Agnihotri, that Mahavira, Einstein, Buddha were not born through planned procreation. I agree. But if only a system of planned procreation were put in place, many Einsteins could be born, many Buddhas, many Mahaviras. Heaps…

A friend has asked: Osho, if sex departs in this way, what will happen to progeny in the world? If, in this way, everyone experiences samadhi and becomes established in brahmacharya, what will happen to children?

Through brahmacharya, too, children will come—but they will not be by-products of sex. For those children, sex will be a vehicle, a mere medium. Sex itself will have no other role. As when a man travels somewhere in a bullock cart—does he have any real concern with the cart? Or he flies by airplane—do you have any bond with the plane? You board here and land in Delhi. Do you have any relationship to the airplane? None. Your relationship is with going to Delhi. The airplane is only a vehicle, only a means. When people attain to brahmacharya and the journey of intercourse reaches samadhi, they can still desire children. But the birth of those children will be true creation; they will be the product, the srijan, the creative act. Sex will be only the medium. And in the same way that until now we have tried—listen carefully—to avoid children…