What happens to an enlightened being at the time of death?

If a being is enlightened, how can he die?

He never dies because he is already dead. You die because you cling to life. Then life has to be taken away, then you have to die. An enlightened being never dies because he does not cling to life. He has voluntarily given it up; he is already dead. But it appears to you that he also dies like you. That is only appearance -- don't be deceived by the appearance. A Buddha dies, of course. A Mahavir dies. Baal Shem will die, Moses will die -- everybody will die. And they die just like you on the surface, but that is only the surface. Watch an ordinary man dying. He makes every effort not to die, he clings to life to the very last, he cries and weeps tears of anguish and fear and trembling. A horror surrounds him; he is terror-struck. And then watch an enlightened man dying;…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, IS IT POSSIBLE TO DIE CONSCIOUSLY WITHOUT BEING ENLIGHTENED? Nirah, existence follows certain laws -- and there are no exceptions. If one wants to die consciously, the only way is to be enlightened. Death is such a great surgery: your soul is being taken apart from the body and mind, with which it has been involved for seventy or eighty years. Even for a small operation you need anesthesia; and this is the greatest operation in existence. Unconsciousness is nothing but nature's way of giving you anesthesia. Unless you are completely unidentified with body and mind, you cannot die consciously -- and a death which is not conscious is a great opportunity missed. Enlightenment is an absolute necessity. Enlightenment only means that your whole being is conscious: there are no dark corners left inside you.

Beloved Osho, enlightenment seems to me always to be an end, a death, a kind of suicide where a comeback is never possible -- no more adventures, no lovers, no sunsets, no dramas, no candlelight dinners. What can be more beautiful than the senseless dramas and joys of all my searchings? How is it after death for an enlightened man? Is it not boring for the next ten thousand years? I feel simply a death-fear.

Enlightenment can be a very scary thing. It can create a great paranoia in you. And your question is significant, because millions of people in the world never think about enlightenment, and the reason may be this deep-rooted fear. They have known a certain kind of life and they think this is the only life possible -- that's where they go wrong. This is the lowest form of life that we are living. In fact, to call it life is not right, it is only birth. It is only a possibility. You can make a life out of it -- life has to be created. And the misunderstanding is so old ... and people don't want to drop it because it is so consoling to think that you are alive and you are enjoying everything and it is a beautiful drama. But you have been through this drama many times.…

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, in the Chandogya Upanishad there is a sutra: na pashyato mṛtyuṁ pashyati na rogaṁ noto duḥkhatām, sarvaṁ ha paśyaḥ paśyati sarvam āpnoti sarvaśa iti. That is, the knower does not see death, nor disease, nor sorrow; he sees all as the Self and attains everything. You are a witness—does a buddha truly see even death, disease, and sorrow as the very Self? Kindly give us direction on this sutra.

Buddha uses nirvana in exactly this sense. When the flickering lamp of ego is extinguished, the whole sky is yours. The moons and stars are yours. When you are not, everything is yours. Understand this paradox well—here lies the secret of religion, the distilled essence of the mystics and seers. The sutra of the Chandogya is profound—very profound. Let the ego dissolve; you are no more; then all is yours. When you are not, nothing is “other.” It is the “I” that creates the “you,” the division. When the line of “I” disappears, the courtyard becomes the sky. Demolish the walls you have drawn around your yard—your courtyard is the open heavens. Na pashyato mṛtyum... To the knower death is not seen—he does not know death, he does not die—because whatever could die he let die in advance. Ego could die—and what is unreal alone can die. What is, is…