What is the significance of the tale of Bal-Mukund during pralaya in the Puranas?

Osho, in the Puranas there is a tale that at the time of pralaya, the great dissolution, the whole creation is submerged under water, and a small patch of land remains. There, on a banyan leaf, the tiny Bal-Mukund is found sucking his big toe; and from him the entire creation is re-created. Even when a seeker goes to a Sadguru, a similar pralaya occurs within, and after that his spiritual rebirth happens. Is this story a symbol of that event? Please describe it.

Einstein—if we could hold on to him, he seems immensely useful. Centuries will pass before such a man may be born again. And if we could keep Einstein for a hundred years more, who can say what he would not do? For just when his intelligence was becoming completely mature, his time to depart came. If we could preserve him another hundred years, new edifices could be raised upon that intelligence. And Einstein could give something which children—how will they give? So this effort is on. You may not know that thousands have insured that after their death their corpses be preserved, because there is a suspicion that by the end of this century the art of reanimating individuals will be in our hands. In America, at several places, deep-freezing arrangements have been made where some corpses have been secured. It is expensive; only millionaires can do it. It costs…

Beloved Osho, in the puranas there is a story that at the time of its dissolution the whole universe is submerged under water, except for a little island. There, sitting on a banyan-leaf, the young child mukunda is found, sucking his big toe -- and from him the whole universe is created again! A similar dissolution takes place in the disciple also when he approaches his master and after that comes his spiritual birth. Is it this happening that is symbolized by this story?

So the meditator keeps becoming each moment as the heart of a child. Meditation means cleaning off the rubbish of the past, dissolving all you have learned in the past, cleansing and unlearning all that you have come to know, making it all unknown again, dissolving everything that you have gathered around you and becoming fresh, light, new again -- like a shoot on a tree. Let the dead leaves fall, and let this fall happen every moment, so that spring follows after every fall, new shoots come and you are completely fresh and new, untarnished by any signs of the past. The meditator's experiment is to become in each and every moment so clean that not even a single trace of the old is to be found in him. From moment to moment, the meditator frees himself from the past, goes on dying to the past, and does not…

Osho, there is a Purana tale: Prahlad is born in the house of the atheist king Hiranyakashipu, and then, to prove his atheism, Hiranyakashipu tries to drown Prahlad in a river, to have him thrown from a mountain, and finally to have him burned by his sister Holika on the full-moon day. And the wonder is that he survives each ordeal and keeps singing the Lord’s praise. And since then, in this country, we light the Holi fire and celebrate the festival of Holi, throwing colors and powders, rejoicing. Please explain to us the essence of this Purana tale.

Psychologists say man continually strives to make something, so that he too can feel, “I am a creator.” Yet the satisfaction is never like a woman’s. That is why women do not make such things—no Taj Mahal, no Ajanta, no Ellora; no Kalidasa-like poetry, no Picasso-like paintings. Women do not do any of that. You may be surprised. Even cookbooks are written by men. Innovations in cuisine—men do those; women do not bother. The finest chefs in the world are men, not women. Chefs too! Incredible! If you want interior decoration, furniture arrangement, again men are the experts...! A woman does not make—she feels no need to. In being a mother she is so fulfilled—she is complete, fruitful. Remember: there are two ways to feel power—either through creation, or through destruction. If you cannot experience power through creation, you will seek it through destruction. Hitler, Mussolini, Napoleon, Alexander experience power…

Osho, the question was about the chakra—Sudarshan—and about Panchajanya. And regarding the rasa-lila—yathā arbhaka sva-pratibimba vibhramaḥ? So what is the interpretation of the rasa-lila?

In truth, those who composed the poetry labored greatly with words. The very life of poetry is the word. And they worked on words with chisel and hammer for centuries. Now, Krishna’s discus has been named Sudarshan. It is a carrier of death, and yet it is named Sudarshan—“beautiful to behold.” Death is not beautiful to see, nor is it pleasing in form. But in Krishna’s hand even death becomes beautiful. That is all it means. We could not give the atom bomb the name Sudarshan. It is as destructive as the atom itself. Its strike is unfailing; the death it brings is certain. Once released, it returns only after killing. Where death is absolutely certain, would we still call that weapon Sudarshan? And yet it has been so named. In the hands of a man like Krishna, even death becomes Sudarshan. In the hands of a man like Hitler,…

From flower to child is another step—now not only growth but the capacity for thought; he can think. Mind is central to life. But however developed the mind—a sitting Einstein with a most evolved mind, who gave the world precious theories, power, science—beside him if there sits an ordinary man absorbed in meditation, he is more valuable than Einstein. An ordinary person absorbed in meditation is more valuable than Einstein. Why? Because he has completed yet another step. He does not live only in the mind; when the mind too is stilled, when thought falls away, the consciousness that remains—that is where he lives. Consciousness is central to mind. Consciousness is the summit. Existence is the base; consciousness is the peak. But what is the purpose of consciousness? A man sits silent; thoughts gone, unrest gone—everything gone. He is utterly still, filled with consciousness.