According to Osho, only a Kshatriya is truly suited to be a Tirthankara or avatar because he stands at the threshold—half inward, half outward. Unlike the pure introvert Brahmin or the extrovert Shudra, the Kshatriya unites prajna (awakening) with karuna (compassion), diving within to realize truth and looking without to share it, becoming a living bridge and path-maker for others.
Like someone who can both dive and help friends to shore, the Kshatriya can find truth inside and share it outside.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, why did it become necessary to be a Kshatriya in order to be a Tirthankara or an avatar?
There are reasons—reasons rooted in the very structure of karma. As I have said, there are three gunas: tamas, rajas, sattva; and three fundamental varnas: Shudra, Kshatriya, Brahmin. The Vaishya is a mixture of all—he is a compromise, a crossroads, a crowd. He is not truly a varna, but a confluence of all the varnas. These three have three distinct streams of life. The Shudra is utterly outward-turned—the extravert, as Jung called it. His gaze looks outward, not inward. Therefore service alone can be his religion. He can see the other. Either he plunders the other or he serves the other. If he plunders, it becomes adharma; if he serves, it becomes dharma. But his gaze is on the other. The Shudra is an extrovert; his eyes open only outward. The Brahmin is inward-turned; his eyes do not open outward—he is an introvert. Hence remembrance, remembrance of the divine, devotion,…
He came, of His own will He came. And understand this too. Wherever you are, you are by your own will. If you are in the world, it is by your own will. The Divine within you chose this. There is nothing to be troubled about. You are not here against your will. You are here by your own cause, your own longing. And this is great good fortune—that it is not against your will. Because the day you will, that very day the door of home is open—you can return. As long as you wish, you can go far. The very day you decide, that very day the return will begin. Brahmin culture is the tale of the Divine’s expansion. Shramana culture is the tale of the Divine’s return home. Surely, the one who had grown tired in aloneness will be tired in the crowd as well.
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.…
Before asking about the fifth verse, three small questions remain from yesterday’s discussion. Yesterday you said that the Kshatriya is extroverted and the Brahmin is introverted, and accordingly their spiritual practices differ. Please tell us: in which mental category would you place the Vaishya and the Shudra?
The Kshatriya’s longing is a longing for power; the Brahmin’s longing is a longing for peace. The Kshatriya longs for power. And if someone fails to become a Kshatriya and remains a Vaishya, then the Vaishya’s personality is very fearful, frightened, timid—but he carries the Kshatriya’s seed, so the longing for power does not leave him. Yet he cannot attain power as a Kshatriya would. Therefore the Vaishya seeks power through wealth. He tries to manufacture power by means of money. He cannot fight, cannot be on the battlefield, cannot take a sword in his hand—but a strongbox can be held, and swords can be bought. Indirectly, then, the lust for wealth is a lust for power—by a backdoor, fearful route. The longing to be a Brahmin is present in the Shudra too; it must be, for the seed of introversion is within him. If he develops, he will set…
By the time I see my moods, I am knee-deep in them. Then it is not so much a question of watching, but of riding on the wave until it subsides.
And that;s the meaning of the historical fact that in India the twenty-four teerthankaras of the Jains, Buddha, Ram, Krishna -- they all were kshatriyas, warriors. All the Hindu avataras except one man, Parashuram, were kshatriyas, warriors: angry people, violent. The twenty-four teerthankaras of the Jains -- all kshatriyas. Not a single brahmin. Buddha himself was a kshatriya. In India, the whole history indicates something. Why has it happened to kshatriyas? -- that they became the greatest openings of compassion in the world? -- they had anger, they were fighters. They could have been violent. Once the energy is released and awareness arises, the awareness rides on the energy and uses it. Only one brahmin, Parashuram, was one of the avataras. But he was not a brahmin at all. It is said that you could not find a more violent man in the whole history of the world. He was…