According to Osho, questions about life after death are best held lightly; he echoes Tristan Bernard’s quip: he would choose heaven for the climate and hell for the company. With this humor, Osho sidesteps dogma, implying our afterlife notions mirror our preferences—and the wise response is playfulness rather than speculative certainty.
He jokes that if there’s an afterlife, heaven has nice weather and hell has fun people, reminding us not to cling to guesses about what we can’t know.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF LIFE AFTER DEATH? Sargamo, I totally agree with Tristan Bernard, the French-Jewish writer, who was once asked the same question. He was asked what he thought of life after death. He replied, "With regard to the climate, I would prefer heaven, but with regard to the company I would give preference to hell." The fourth question:
Question: OSHO, DO YOU THINK THAT YOU WILL GO TO HEAVEN WHEN YOU DIE? There is no heaven anywhere, it is here. It is always here, it is never there. It is always now, it is never then. The very idea of heaven somewhere else -- there, then -- is a strategy of the mind to deceive you, to keep you ignorant of the heaven that surrounds you every moment. Existence knows no past, no future. The only time existence knows is now, and the meditator has to enter this 'nowness' of things. this is heaven. This very moment we are in it. You are of aware, I am aware of it. That's the only difference: you are sleep, I am awake. But we exist in the same space. There is nowhere to go!
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, what is the essence of Gorakhnath’s teaching?
Very small, concise— Laugh, play, live in color. Do not keep company with lust and anger. Laugh, play, sing songs. Keep your heart-mind steady and firm. This is my teaching too: Laugh, play, live in color. Live in color! In delight, in merriment, in joy. So much has the Divine given—dance, hum, sing! A song of gratitude should rise from your heart; that is prayer. Laugh, play, live in color. Laugh. If you cannot laugh, understand that you can never be religious. Your so‑called sadhus and saints have forgotten how to laugh. They simply cannot; to laugh is a sin, a transgression. That’s why you can’t stay long with them. You go, quickly touch their feet, bow, and leave. If you stay a full day, you’ll see the difficulty—your own laughter will be snatched away. People become grave around sadhus and saints. They stiffen up—dry, solemn, ultra‑serious! Laughter will feel…
Question: BELOVED MASTER, IS THERE LIFE AFTER DEATH? Nijanando, first ask: is there life before death? People ask: Is there life after death? What concern is that for you? You are alive. Ask the significant question, the really relevant question: Is there life before death? Are you really alive? A woman went to the insurance company and said, "Can I get the money for which my husband has been insured?" The man in the office said, "But he is still alive. He is not dead. You will get the money only when he is dead." She said, "I know that he is not dead, but no life is left in him either." That's the situation: people are not dead and yet not alive either. They are somehow walking, talking, doing things, keeping themselves together, but there is no aliveness, there is no flavor of aliveness.