Is a person's death fixed in advance, or is it accidental?

Osho, is a person’s death fixed in advance, or is it accidental—like through an accident?

Both are true. In one sense death is fixed—fixed the way a watch you buy in the market comes with a guarantee: it will run ten years. But if you use the watch properly and maintain it well, it can run twenty years. Throw it around, break it, and it may not last even five days. Man’s body is a mechanism. The soul does not die; only the body dies, and the body is purely mechanical. When a child is born, the body made from the germ cells received from the parents has a certain inner capacity—how long it can run. It can last that long. But with great care and right regimen it can go to a hundred and twenty-five years; with poor care it may be finished even by seventy-five. So age belongs to the body; the soul has no age. Therefore the question of age is not…

Someone asked Osho's views on death and dying.

There is nothing as sure as death. Where there is life, there is bound to be death. He who bears not this fact in mind, wastes life, whereas he who knows this truth, obtains that which is immortal. I do not feel depressed at anybody's death, because there is no need to feel anything about it. However, it is a matter of sorrow, no doubt, if I see a life wasted. We have not to grieve after a dead body, but over a wasted life. You know, King Janak was called 'videh', i.e., without or beyond the body. Once, a young minister of his asked him, 'Your Excellency! How can you be considered without a body, when you do have a physical body? The king smiled but said nothing. After a few days, however, the king invited the minister for lunch. Such an invitation from the king himself was a…

Osho, once the tejas body goes out, it never quite re-enters fully and the harmony between the two is disturbed. Therefore yogis have always been sickly and have died young. What preparations are necessary so that disharmony does not arise? Can the chances of illness be reduced? How is this possible?

There are many such “unnatural” trainings. If the body has passed through them, it becomes able to endure that unnatural event; then the body is not harmed. But ordinarily these preparations take years. Later, raja yoga concluded: Why bother to save so much life? It takes twenty or thirty years—thirty at the least. If someone begins at fifteen, he will be ready around fifty. Raja yoga decided: Why be so concerned with the body? If the state is attained and the body falls away, what is there to preserve? So those preparations were dropped. That is why Shankaracharya died at thirty-three. Such a great event occurred, but the body was not prepared for it. Yet there was no need to prepare it either. Only if one sees a need should it be done; otherwise, there is no reason. And if you must labor for thirty-five years just to save thirty-five…

Osho, when the soul leaves the body and has not yet assumed another one, is it possible to describe what happens in that timeless interval, and the kind of environment in which it moves? And, along with this, since you have spoken of the soul’s freedom to take birth by its own will, does it also have the freedom to leave the body whenever it wishes—or not to leave it?

If you look at descriptions of hell’s fire, you’ll find this: people are burned in the fire, yet they do not burn up. The inconsistency doesn’t occur to you at that time—that you are being burned, the fire is terrible, the heat unbearable, yet you are not actually burning! That inconsistency may occur later, not in the midst of it. In the interval between two bodies there are two kinds of souls. First, those very bad souls for whom finding a womb will take time; I call them pretas. Second, the good souls for whom finding a suitable womb will also take time; they need a worthy womb—I call them devas. There is no fundamental difference in species—only differences of personality, character, quality of mind. Their experiences are different. The bad souls come back from this interval with such painful memories that the memory itself is the fruit called hell.…

Question: The first question: Osho! About thirty years ago in Jabalpur, when a pandit was disputing topics like moksha, Daddaji said, “You may know the scriptures and doctrines; I only know that this is my last birth.” On another occasion, he went to Kashi on work and attended a muni’s satsang. Finding Daddaji a stranger, after the discourse the muni asked, “I haven’t seen you here before!” He said, “Yes, I am not from here.” He asked, “Where have you come from, and where will you go from here?” He said, “I have come from Nigod and I will go to moksha.” Five years ago, when he had a heart attack, seeing Mother anxious he said, “Do not worry. I still have five years of life left.” Osho, please shed compassionate light on the mystery behind these proclamations of his.