According to Osho, the subtle body’s mind and past conditioning do not change merely because the gross body changes; ordinarily only the body dies and is replaced. Transformation can occur, however, in the catalytic presence of a realized master like Krishna, whose vibration accompanies the subtle body. Love lets one transcend the bodily prison; hatred binds, sometimes necessitating death to break the shell so inner change becomes possible.
Switching bodies is like changing clothes; your habits stay the same unless a wise, loving presence helps you, and love opens the door while hate keeps you stuck.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, by merely obtaining a new body, does the subtle body—the samskaras of the past and the mind—also change?
It does not change by itself. But if one gets the chance to die at the hands of a man like Krishna, it makes a great difference. Not everyone gets that; it comes as the fruit of great merit. Ordinarily, it does not change. When a person dies, only the body changes; nothing else within changes. But to die at the hands of a man like Krishna is a tremendous event, because a catalytic agent is present. In the presence of such a man, this event of your dying is taking place, and the moment your body drops, the subtlest web of rays that spreads from that man’s being will be absorbed into you; you will catch it, you will drink it in. The body that was obstructing your meeting with Krishna will be removed from between, and then meeting Krishna becomes easy. In that meeting, much will happen. For…
Questioner: do you think that the past conditioning of the subtle body and its mind changes with the change of the gross body?
They don't change on their own, but It makes a great difference if one has the rare opportunity of dying at the hands of a person like Krishna. And this opportunity comes once in a long while as a result of great meritorious karmas. Ordinarily, after death, one's mind does not undergo a change, only the body changes. Except the body, nothing of one's subtle form changes with death. But a death at the hands of a person like Krishna is in itself a great phenomenon, because it happens in the presence of a catalytic agent. If you die in the presence of such a being, his vibes will go with your subtle body. And with the removal of the gross body, which was an impediment in the way of your meeting with Krishna, and with the assimilation of Krishna's vibes by your subtle body, your meeting with Krishna will…
Osho, could each one of those sperm cells also be used?
If you are not in love with a certain woman, take an injection of LSD and look at any woman you’re not in love with—you will go madly in love at once. The LSD injection releases in your body the very drugs that are released naturally in a lover’s body. With those drugs released, any woman will appear extraordinarily beautiful; it isn’t about a particular woman. After taking LSD even an ordinary chair can look so unique that no woman has ever appeared so beautiful; a simple flower becomes so beautiful, so otherworldly. With LSD coursing through the body, everything changes. When we are angry, a kind of poison; when we love, a kind of antidote; and so on—these juices are constantly being released in the body. That is happening on the physical plane. But it is also happening on the subtle plane: when you are angry, specific kinds of…
Osho, when we are reborn, where is the accounting kept? What remains?
We are all bundles of habits. If you want to change these habits, resolve is needed. And the beginning of resolve is this: that it dawns on you that they can be changed. If you think they cannot be changed, your resolve will die completely. A German Jew, Frankl, during the last world war was imprisoned in a great camp. He has written—he has written very astonishing things—in his memoirs. Because he is a psychologist, he kept observing what was happening. December was approaching; the festival days were near. All the prisoners hoped that at least around Christmas there would be release; that around Christmas Hitler would show mercy and people would be freed. Frankl writes: until Christmas, however many tortures the prisoners were given, no one died. People remained ill, but there was a hope—Christmas is approaching. With that hope, there was strength in their life-breath. He writes: the…
Beloved Osho, in discourse the other night you said that at one's death there is but a two or three second gap between which the soul travels from one body to the next. Master, you have said that your last life was seven hundred years ago. Where were you for all those years?
Just here, in Uruguay! Where else could I be? The whole existence is available. When you are not in a body, you are just part of the whole existence without any partition. The reason why I had to remain seven hundred years... A few people don't get into the next life immediately. Either the person is so wicked, so animalistic, so murderous, like Adolf Hitler... He is not yet reborn because he needs a certain kind of womb which may not be available for thousands of years: he has to wait. Or if you have attained a certain evolved consciousness there is the same problem: you need a certain womb. Unless that is available, you cannot get another birth. Ordinarily it is two or three seconds, because for the sleeping humanity the same kind of wombs are available. All day long millions of people are making love, and they are…