According to Osho, Jesus' baptism by John symbolizes a voluntary death: the surrender of resistance, ego, and past identity. John initiated only those ready to be drowned - ready to let go utterly - so the old self could go down the river. Through this symbolic death, a new center is born, shifting one from the world of dreams to truth, enabling life from a fresh, divine nucleus.
It means choosing to let your old, stubborn self die so a new, truer you can be born.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Surely that which happens in the instant of death by drowning is the true explanation of jesus' baptism at the hands of john. Was not the skill and strength of the baptist that of taking a man to that point, and the preparation you talk of beforehand employed so that a man be transformed by the experience rather than terrified by it?
One who is ready to die WITHOUT frustration.... Seeing the truth of life, seeing the truth that life is just a dream.... It cannot fulfill anything, it cannot frustrate also. Fulfillment, frustration, both are parts of the illusion that life is real. One who sees that life is unreal, just like a dream, becomes detached. A renunciation comes. In the Upanishads there is one very vital saying: "TEN TYKTEN BHUNJITHA... those who have indulged in life have always renounced." It is very revolutionary; the implication is tremendous. It says: those who have indulged in life are bound to renounce because they have seen the truth -- that life is false. They have looked into it and found nothing. Not that they are frustrated, because if you are frustrated that only shows that you were still expecting something. Frustration shows deep expectation. One who has become aware that life can only…
Question: MATTHEW 3 1 IN THOSE DAYS CAME JOHN THE BAPTIST, PREACHING IN THE WILDERNESS OF JUDAEA, 2 AND SAYING, REPENT YE: FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND. 11 I INDEED BAPTIZE YOU WITH WATER UNTO REPENTANCE: BUT HE THAT COMETH AFTER ME IS MIGHTIER THAN I, WHOSE SHOES I AM NOT WORTHY TO BEAR: HE SHALL BAPTIZE YOU WITH THE HOLY GHOST, AND WITH FIRE: 13 THEN COMETH JESUS FROM GALILEE TO JORDAN UNTO JOHN, TO BE BAPTIZED OF HIM. 14 BUT JOHN FORBAD HIM, SAYING, I HAVE NEED TO BE BAPTIZED OF THEE, AND COMEST THOU TO ME? 15 AND JESUS ANSWERING SAID UNTO HIM, SUFFER IT TO BE SO NOW: FOR THUS IT BECOMETH US TO FULFILL ALL. RIGHTEOUSNESS. THEN HE SUFFERED HIM.
Osho, I have heard that john the baptist nearly drowned his disciples when baptizing them. Is this true? Is this type of experience something through which a disciple must pass?
Anand Navin, IT IS TRUE. I KNOW THIS FELLOW John the Baptist! In fact, every Master has been doing that. It is absolutely necessary because the disciple has to pass through a death process. Unless he dies -- dies to his past, dies to his knowledge, dies to his beliefs -- he cannot be reborn. And baptism is only symbolic: it is the symbol of death and resurrection. That's exactly what I am doing here. You cling to your beliefs -- political, social, religious, philosophical You cling to whatsoever you have accumulated -- although it is all junk, although it has not given you a single glimpse of truth, you cling to it. Somebody has asked: "I was initiated by a Master five years ago, and now I am feeling deeply interested in you. But the problem is: can a man have two Masters?" If your first initiation has opened…
Osho, what is the first experience of samadhi like?
You will know only when it happens. It cannot be said; at most a few hints can be given. It is as if, in the dark, a lamp is suddenly lit. Or as if a dying patient, right at the edge of death, suddenly finds a medicine that works; life’s wave, life’s thrill spreads again—so it is. As if a corpse becomes alive—such is the first experience of samadhi. It is the taste of nectar. The experience of the ultimate music. But it will be only when it happens; and only then will you understand. You will not understand by my saying it. It is as with love. How can anyone explain it? To someone who has never loved, never known love, no matter how many explanations you offer—he will hear it all and still ask, “I haven’t understood; please explain a little more.” It is like explaining light to…
Beloved master, what does it mean to be initiated into the spiritual life? What is the deeper occult and esoteric significance of initiation? What sort of initiation are you giving to the non-sannyasins and to the sannyasins? Please tell us about them in detail.
If you are in a hurry, then I will give initiation in your running state of affairs, because otherwise there will be no initiation. So I cannot ask you to wait as a precondition. I must initiate you first and then prolong your waiting in so many ways. Through so many devices I will persuade you to wait, because without waiting there is no maturity. So when you will be ready there will be a second initiation, which would have been the first in the old days. It cannot now be the first. Sometimes people are bewildered. Sometimes someone comes to me; he has not even heard me, he has not even known me, and I initiate him into sannyas. This is absurd, not understandable at all. But I know. And whatsoever I am doing, I am doing very considerately. This is just the beginning, this initiation, because only through…