According to Osho, Ramakrishna and Ramana followed a dualistic, ascetic path that deliberately widened the gap between body and soul until the body was forgotten. With the connection snapped, the body’s ailments—like cancer—are unsurprising and even “fitting” for that trajectory. This doesn’t negate their enlightenment; it reflects their method. By contrast, Tao’s path unifies body and soul, reducing such strain while leading to the same ultimate.
They became free by forgetting the body, so the body naturally suffered, even though their enlightenment was genuine.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
A friend asks, Osho, if an illness like cancer can arise when the embrace of the inner heaven and earth breaks, then why did enlightened ones like Ramakrishna and Ramana have to die of cancer? Had the heaven and earth within them become severed? They should have died of any disease except cancer.
Tao is an effort to bring earth and heaven close. Neither Ramana nor Ramakrishna were moving on the path of Tao. Ramakrishna and Ramana were walking on a path opposite to Tao. That too is a path: a path of taking earth and heaven farther and farther apart. They proceeded with the feeling that body and soul are separate. The body has to be dropped—and kept on being dropped; the expanse between body and soul has to be increased, the space widened; and a moment has to be brought where only the soul is experienced and the body is completely forgotten. So naturally, the entire connection between body and soul in Ramana and Ramakrishna had broken. Earth and heaven had gone as far apart as they can. Therefore I say, they should indeed have died of cancer. That is fitting. This does not mean they were not enlightened. Nor does…
Osho, is it possible that by attaining your state of consciousness a person could remain perfectly, physically healthy? Or is that not possible—that such is the law of Tao? Because I have heard that all true masters have been physically unwell.
Ramakrishna said, “Sharada, you do not listen. The day you bring the plate and I turn over in bed to the other side and do not look at your plate, understand that only three days of my life remain.” Sharada thought he was joking. But that is exactly what happened. One day Sharada entered his room with the food. Ramakrishna neither rose from the bed nor took any interest; instead, he turned his face toward the wall. The plate slipped from Sharada’s hand. She remembered what Ramakrishna had said years before. Ramakrishna said, “Whether the plate falls or not, nothing will change now. I am here only three more days. And today I will tell you—because you used to ask again and again and I kept silent—today I tell you that all my bonds with the body have broken. Somehow I have been holding on to a tiny bond—the bond…
The questioner asks: “Is it true that when the soul descends—when self-realization happens—the body too changes completely in every respect?”
That Word is hidden in you; nowhere else to go—not to Kashi, not to Kaaba. It pervades your every pore, your heartbeat—its very throb. Like music asleep in the veena—touch it and it wakes. But the inner veena is more marvelous: there is no instrument, no strings—only music—the unstruck sound. Enter and you will find no veena and no player—yet a wondrous, timeless music without beginning or end. To hear that music is to hear God. That music overflowed in Muhammad when the Quran descended; he trembled. It overflowed in the Vedic rishis—hence the Vedas are called apaurusheya—not composed by man. Whenever anything of worth is spoken, it comes from there; the rest is rubbish. Whenever truth or beauty appears, know it comes from there—whether the smile of a child or the passing beauty of a woman—deeper, it comes from there. The Gita, the Quran, the Bible—all arise there. And…
If faith can move the mountains, why can you not heal your own body?
I don't have any body. This feeling that you have a body is absolutely wrong. The body belongs to the universe; you don't have it, it is not yours. So if the body is ill or if the body is healthy the universe will take care of it. And a person who is in meditation should remain a witness, whether the body is healthy or ill. The desire to be healthy is part of ignorance. The desire not to be ill is also part of ignorance. And this is not a new question -- this is one of the oldest questions. It has been asked of Buddha; it has been asked of Mahavir. Ever since there have been enlightened persons, the unenlightened have always asked this question. Look... Jesus said faith can move mountains, but he died on the cross. He couldn't move the cross. You or someone like you…
These three words measure distance: disease—endless distance from God; union—no distance—oneness; indulgence—midway. Sometimes for a moment there is union with God; for a moment; and years of distance follow. That is what you call indulgence. Eating: for a moment a taste flashes; in that taste there is deep satisfaction; in that moment you are close to nature, close to God. Hence the Upanishads say: food is Brahman. When a seer eats, he comes closer to God—through food he knows Brahman—annam brahma! Tantra says: sexual union too is near to samadhi. The tantras say: the bliss of the senses is the sibling of the bliss of Brahman.