A liberated soul is like a quiet radio station you can still tune into if the signal (connection) is there; if the signal fades, you can’t.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, in that timeless interval you have described what happens to the soul. But what is the soul’s disembodied form? Is it still or does it wander? How does it recognize other familiar souls? And is there any possibility of dialogue in that state?
Ask: in a dream are you still or moving? It is hard to say. Waking, you find you lay still in bed; yet within the dream there was great movement. Strictly speaking, even movement in dreams is not real. If you understand precisely, in dreams you are not a participant but only a witness. You can see yourself dying in a dream; you can see your own corpse. Even when you see yourself walking, what you see walking is only the dream; you remain the seer. Properly understood, in dream you are only the witness. Hence religion devised a maxim: one who comes to see the world as dream-like attains the supreme realization. Philosophies calling the world maya or dream arose for this reason: if we can see the world as a dream, we become the witness. In dreams there is never a participant; there is always a witness. You…
Osho, do they have any separate entity now, in the liberated state?
They have no separate entity left. The moment moksha happens, no personality remains for a person. But we still have a personality, because we are not liberated; therefore, through certain methods—if we make use of them—answers can become available to us almost as though from a person. They have no personality left.
Osho, you have told us what happens to the soul during that timeless interval between two births. But some points remain unresolved, regarding the bodiless soul: in that bodiless state, does the soul remain stationary or can it move about? And how does it recognize other souls? In that state, is there any possibility of a dialogue between souls?
Sometimes different types of events may also happen, but these kinds of experiences will differ. Occasionally, it may so happen that souls which are neither stationary nor in movement will enter other bodies. But to say that the souls will enter is a linguistic fallacy. It would be better to say that some body may behave in such a way that it will cause a soul to enter into it. The world of such souls is not different from ours. That world exists also beside us, close by. We are all residing in the same world. Every inch of space that is here is filled with souls. The space right here which appears empty to us is also full. There are two types of bodies which are in a state of deep receptivity. One is of those that are in great fear. Those who are in great fear cause their…
In the realm of dharma, temples, mosques, gurudwaras, places of worship become important. The Gita, the Quran, the Bible become important. Satsang, listening to the truth, the company of the virtuous begins to taste sweet. A new veena starts humming. For the first time you sense that matter is not just matter; God is hidden in it. In every particle, you begin to get a little glimpse of him. Sometimes suddenly a window opens and you find that people are not ordinary; they are extraordinary. In everything—however ordinary—a great dignity is hidden. Everything is haloed. The world no longer feels alien; it is your home. Opposition drops, conflict fades, cooperation begins. The tone of a religious person’s life is cooperation. His language is no longer of conflict. Some cultures reach up to dharma. But the East does not stop there. It says: one step more—and that is moksha.
A friend has asked: Osho, if in the mother’s womb man and woman create the opportunity for a soul to be born, does that mean souls are separate and there is no all-pervading Soul? He also asked: I have said many times that truth is one, God is one, the soul is one—then don’t these two statements seem contradictory, opposed?
These two statements are not opposed. The Divine is one; in truth the soul is one. But bodies are of two kinds. One is what we call the gross body, which we can see; the other is the subtle body, which we cannot see. When death happens, the gross body falls away, but the subtle body does not die. The soul abides within two bodies, a subtle body and a gross body. At death the gross body drops. This body made of earth and water, of bone, flesh and marrow, falls. What remains is an extremely subtle body—of thoughts, subtle sensations, subtle vibrations, subtle filaments. That filament-woven body begins the journey again with the soul and takes birth anew by entering a new gross body. When a new soul enters a mother’s womb, it means the subtle body has entered. At ordinary death only the gross body falls, not the…