What is the need to awaken kundalini and practice sadhana if the goal is to attain shunya?

Osho, if the goal is to attain shunya, the zero, then what is the need to awaken kundalini? And what is the need for sadhana?

This question arises because you think shunya means nothingness—so why practice? If there were something to gain, practice would be needed. You imagine that shunya means becoming a non-entity, so what is the point of sadhana? Sadhana seems necessary only when there is something to become. But you do not know that shunya means the whole; shunya means everything. Shunya does not mean nothing—shunya means all. Right now you cannot conceive what it means that shunya is everything. A well might say: “If going toward the ocean only means discovering that I do not exist, then why go?” The well sounds right. It says, “If I go toward the ocean and in the end it turns out that I am not, why should I go?” But whether you go or not makes no difference. That you are not is the fact; the question of going or not going does not…

Questioner: you say that all the so-called individual wells are one and they are already joined with the ocean which is emptiness. If so, what need is there to go through any sadhana or spiritual discipline in order to be one with the emptiness or the void?

So the question invariably arises in our minds, "Why go where I will die and disappear? Why go there at all, if death is certain?" But if this death is a certainty, it is what it is. And how on earth will you save yourself through such self preserving efforts? If it is true that you will die on entering the ocean, how are you going to save yourself as a well, and for how long? If, in your view, becoming such a huge ocean amounts to dying, how are you going to survive as a tiny well and for how long? Soon its walls will crumble; soon its water will evaporate, and soon it will be covered with dirt and dust. When you are not to survive as a vast ocean, how will you survive as a petty well? And for how long? This is how the fear of…

Osho, in the Nargol camp you said that shaktipat means the Divine power has descended into you. Later, in discussion, you said there is a difference between shaktipat and grace. These two statements seem contradictory. Please explain.

Shaktipat is always the Divine’s. But if a person becomes the medium, we call it shaktipat; if no person is the medium, it can sometimes happen suddenly—and it can harm. Yet if someone has waited endlessly, and has meditated with infinite patience, then the descent of power will also happen as prasad. There will be no medium then—but there will be no accident either. For his endless waiting, his infinite patience, his unbroken ardor, his unshakable resolve create in him the capacity to withstand the Infinite. So there is no accident. Thus the event happens in both ways. But then it will not appear to him as shaktipat; it will be known as prasad, because there is no medium. Only an egoless person can be a medium There is similarity in both, and there is difference. I am in favor that, as far as possible, prasad be available; as far…

Questioner: you said at the nargol meditation camp held recently, that the sadhana or discipline of kundalini is a way of preparing the body. Will you please explain it?

In a deeper physical sense, the awakening of the kundalini means that you have so much energy with you that your old channels are not able to contain it, and so it irresistibly seeks new avenues and new doors. As a result, many new and subtle senses within you will become awake and active. These extrasensory centers will make you telepathic and clairvoyant; you will begin to see and hear things which are beyond the reach of your ordinary eyes and ears. You will experience certain things your normal senses have nothing to do with. Altogether new sense organs will become active within you. And the most profound result of the intensification of the new senses will be that you will begin to know the invisible world which lies hidden in your body, which is the most subtle and imperceptible part of your body, and which we call the atman…

Osho, in the Dwarka camp you said that meditation and samadhi are a voluntary, conscious entry into the state of death, through which the illusion of death dissolves. Then the question arises: to whom does the illusion of death occur? Does it occur to the body or to consciousness? Since the body is only an instrument, it cannot have delusive awareness; and there is no reason for consciousness to be deluded. Then what is the cause and basis of this event of delusion?

They sent word. She came very annoyed. “It’s his same old habit,” she said. “He’s grown old but hasn’t dropped it. Even at death he will create mischief.” She came with a stick, banged it on the ground and said, “Stop this devilry! If you must die, die properly!” The man laughed, came down, and said, “I was only playing a little—wanted to see what they would do. Now I will die properly, conventionally.” Then he lay down and died. His sister left, saying, “Fine, now finish the rites. There is a right way for everything; do things properly.” Our illusion about death is a social delusion. It can be broken. There are methods and arrangements to break it. And even if no one else breaks it for you, anyone who has done a little meditation will break it himself at the time of death. No outside help is needed.…