Incarnation

Through the ages, incarnations like jesus and buddha have accepted to come and help humanity. If life is no more than a joke, why do they take the trouble?

That too is part of this great cosmic joke. Buddha and Christ -- they are part of this great game, this play, this LEELA. Don't take them seriously, they are not serious people. They are playing a game. It is all a joke. When I say 'It is all a joke' I simply mean don't take it seriously and don't take it sadly. Let it be fun. Nobody is a saviour -- neither Buddha nor Jesus -- nobody is a saviour. I am included in it. Nobody is a saviour. Then what is a Buddha? A Buddha is just a salvation. Not a saviour, a salvation. If you understand him, if you look into him, if you partake of him, your life is no longer a misery. It is a bliss. Not that Buddha saves you, not that Jesus saves you. Nobody can save anybody. Only you can save yourself.…

Osho, what are the reasons for calling Krishna a complete incarnation (purnavatara)? Please give some new reasons. And shed detailed light with reference to the sixty-four arts.

No, there is no other reason to call one “complete.” Whoever becomes zero becomes complete. Emptiness is the prelude to the complete. To be precise, the zero alone is the only complete. You cannot draw half a zero—not even in geometry. If you say, “I have drawn half a zero,” it is no longer a zero. There is no such thing as half a zero. The zero is always whole, entire. The incomplete has no meaning. How will you split zero into two parts? And if it can be split, how will you still call it zero? Zero is not cut, not divided; it is indivisible. From where division begins, number begins. That is why after zero we must start with one. One, two, three—this is the world of number. All numbers arise from zero and are lost back into zero. Zero alone is the complete. Who can be zero?…

Questioner: what are the reasons for calling krishna a complete incarnation of god? Kindly shed more light on this matter. Please explain in detail what is meant by saying that krishna possessed all the sixty-four arts that comprise a complete incarnation.

The Upanishads' definition of wholeness is, therefore, tight. It says, "From wholeness emerges wholeness, and if you take away wholeness from wholeness, wholeness still remains." If we take away thousands of Krishnas from Krishna, this man will still remain; more and more Krishnas can still be taken from him. There is no difficulty. Krishna will have no trouble whatsoever, because he can be anything. Mahavira cannot be born today. It will be utterly impossible for him to be born at the present time, because Mahavira reached wholeness in a particular situation, in a particular time. That dimension could be perfected only in that particular situation. In the same way Jesus cannot be born today. If today he comes at all, in the first place nobody will crucify him. No matter how much noise he makes, people will say, "Just ignore him." Jews have learned their lesson from their first mistake,…

Osho, in the incarnation of Rama, just as Ahalya’s stone‑like personhood waited for Rama and, from stone, Ahalya was restored, the Bhagavata also mentions that in Krishna’s incarnation Lord Krishna had union with Kubja. That may have been his biological need, but does it carry a spiritual meaning as well? What is it? Please clarify.

Not everything in life happens all the time; there are moments one must wait for; there is time whose coming must be watched for; there are occasions for which one has to pause. It is necessary to see this in many, many dimensions. A woman lying there like a stone... No, I would say she must have become stone; becoming stone is the poet’s imagination. But a woman who will blossom only through Rama—and only by Rama’s touch—will remain stone until Rama meets her. It is not that someone was literally lying there like a rock. That is the poet’s device, a way of speaking, his metaphor. But a woman who can bloom and become alive and conscious only through Rama’s touch—anyone else’s touch will leave her inert. The heart of the story is just this: each person has their own waiting. Each has their own awaiting. And until the…