Chakras

Do you mean to say that the points of contact between our physical body and the etheric body are the chakras—and that there lies the consciousness of the soul?

No, no. These centers of contact between this body and that body are what yoga calls the chakras. And the field that links those centers—what should properly be called a field—is called kundalini. In an ordinary human being these two bodies touch each other at several places. Understand that at five points these two bodies are touching. These points cannot be found by cutting open the physical body, because they are only contact fields. There is no “thing” there.

Osho, do the chakras accompany the subtle body or not?

Chakras? Yes. If we understand closely, chakras are the fields of contact between the subtle body and this gross body. Wherever your gross body and that subtle body touch, those points are chakras. So they are the same in everyone; there is no difference— in all creatures, in everyone. Wherever the body is touched—even in a cow—there a chakra will form. And those touching sites are fixed. For example, understand that at the sex center there will be a chakra. Whether the being is of any species—a dog, a cat, a man, a woman—it makes no difference; there will be a very forceful chakra at the sex center. So that chakra will be present in all bodies; whatever their form, there will be a chakra at that place. Yes, that chakra may be smaller or larger, weaker or stronger. “Are there seven chakras?” Yes, there will be seven chakras. (Question…

If people who are established in the fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh chakra die, what will be the state of their chakras in the next birth? People of which plane stay in the realm of bodiless higher beings after their death? Do bodiless higher beings have to be reborn as human beings for the final attainment?

One rishi of the Upanishads prays, "Oh Lord, open the golden covers of this inner womb within which the reality is hidden." The covers are definitely of gold. They are such that we do not want to throw them aside; they are such that we are eager to keep them. The I-ness is the most priceless cover that is over us. We ourselves will not want to part from it and there is no external obstruction to stop us. The cover itself is so lovable that we cannot leave it. Therefore, the rishi says, "Remove the golden covers and open the womb that makes a person twiceborn." So Brahma gyanis were called twiceborn, and by Brahma gyani is meant one who has attained the sixth body. From the fifth to the sixth the journey is one of being twiceborn. The womb is different, the mode of being born is different.…

Osho, if a person situated in the fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh chakras is reborn after death, what will be their corresponding cyclic status? Which embodied people attain the disembodied higher realms? For the final attainment, does a disembodied being have to take a human body again?

One whose fifth body has become active goes beyond the deva-yonī as well. The fifth body is the atma-body, the soul-body. And at the level of the fifth body, activity and awareness mean the same thing, because no one can reach the fifth without awareness. There, activity and awareness are simultaneous. Up to the fourth body, one’s journey can happen even while asleep. If one awakens, the journey changes toward the deva-yonī; if one remains asleep, the journey goes toward the pret-yonī. With the fifth body, activity and awareness are one and the same, because it is the soul-body; without awareness there is no meaning to “soul.” The very meaning of soul is consciousness. Therefore another name for soul is consciousness. There is no place for unconsciousness there. So from the fifth body onwards, the two are the same; but before the fifth, the two paths diverge. Up to the…