According to Osho, in any living tradition only one Tirthankara functions at a time because a second would be redundant and obstructive—like having two teachers lecturing the same class. When one is active, another simply dissolves into subtle compassion, guiding from beyond. Contact with that presence remains possible through concentrated prayer, sacred timings, and esoteric devices that evoke the subtle or mental body.
Like a classroom needs only one teacher, a tradition has only one Tirthankara at a time; others help quietly from behind the scenes.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
And so someone has asked: Why are there not two Tirthankaras at the same time?
So every compassionate teacher, returning once, arranges everything so that later on, ways to connect with him will remain. When the body is gone, what will be his code number—by what special mental tuning can contact be established with him? The special mantras of all religions are code numbers. Through their attentive, continuous repetition, the mind attains a particular tuning; in that tuning, contact with particular teachers becomes possible. They are exact code numbers, telephone numbers—if the mind moves in that very vibration, it reaches a specific tuning. And that code number belongs to one teacher only; it will not work for another. Hence the strict insistence that these code numbers be kept utterly secret. They are given silently, in great secrecy. To enable contact, they leave many devices: signs, images, words, mantras; special figures—call them tantras; yantras—geometric forms by concentrating upon which the mind attains a specific state, and…
Osho, in the lives of the Tirthankaras we do not see acharyas or monks from the previous Tirthankara’s tradition still present; yet in Mahavira’s time there were acharyas of Parshvanatha’s lineage—Kesi and others. That tradition continued even afterwards—what was the reason for this? A new Tirthankara is born when the ancient tradition is on the verge of extinction. When the acharyas were devotees of Parshvanatha, why was a new sangha established, or a new tirth founded? And how did the old one keep running as well?
First, understand this: a tradition forms only when the living has been lost. A tradition is the dry trace that remains in the absence of the living. A tradition can continue for millions of years and yet have no life in it. In truth, whatever is alive does not become a tradition while it is alive. A tradition is formed only when the living is gone, and what remains in our hands is merely the dead burden of the past—that is what makes a tradition. I have heard: In one household there was an old father and his small children. The father died, the mother died; the children were very young—born to him in his later years. When they grew up, they remembered that every day after eating their father would go to a wall niche and pick something up and put it back. After his death they thought, “This…
Osho, if a Tirthankara wishes to take birth again, it would be in the physical body, right?
Now, this matter is quite another thing. This point, you see, is a completely different matter. Let me say a little about it. If a Tirthankara has to take birth—as a Tirthankara takes birth—there is a very interesting thing: before dying, he does not have to drop the fourth body. And there is a way not to drop it, a method. That way is the vasana—the urge, the seed-intention—of being a Tirthankara. When the fourth body is about to drop, one vasana must be saved so that the fourth does not drop. After the fourth has dropped you cannot be born again; the bridge through which you could return is broken. So, before the fourth body, the vasana of being a Tirthankara has to be preserved. That is why not all who are qualified to be Tirthankaras become Tirthankaras. Many who are qualified simply set out straight on the journey.…
A friend has asked whether in Jainism there can be only twenty-four Tirthankaras, not more?
All religions, sooner or later, shut their doors. Because if the door remains open, the religion can never become old. And if the door remains open, it can never become a fixed label; it will remain a living process. Then such storms and upheavals will keep happening that you will never feel assured. So all religions close their doors—some sooner, some later. And remember, when they close the doors, they do it at the moment when their highest peak has been reached. In Mahavira the Jain vision touched its highest peak. Then those who came after felt: now close the doors. Enough. The highest peak has been touched—now, shut the doors! Now there will be no more Tirthankaras. Because if Tirthankaras keep coming, it means religion will keep happening afresh. A new Tirthankara will say new things. Mahavira also said many new things that Parshvanath had not said. Mahavira said…
If a tirthankara desires to be born, can he take a physical body?
Now this is a different matter altogether. If a tirthankara wishes to be reborn a very interesting happening takes place: that is, before death he does not discard his fourth body. There is a way and a method of doing this, and that is by having the desire to be a tirthankara. So when the fourth body is falling away one desire has to be kept alive so that the fourth body does not drop. If the fourth drops birth in the physical form is impossible. Then the bridge, the connection through which you came, is no more. So the desire to be a tirthankara has to be kept alive through the fourth body. Not all who are worthy become tirthankaras; they go straight along their way without this. There are only a few who become such masters, and their number is fixed beforehand. There is a reason why their…