Tirthankara

Osho, how could the iconoclast Mahavira accept himself as the twenty-fourth Tirthankara of the most ancient Jina tradition? Please explain!

Within this revolutionary tradition, Mahavira is the most glorious, the most brilliant. Therefore his words are worth understanding and contemplating. He must have been uniquely revolutionary; for the Jainas have two sects—Digambara and Shvetambara. The Digambaras hold that not a single word of Mahavira remains, no scripture remains. That too is part of the revolution. They say, no scripture is Mahavira’s word. The words we have are from the Shvetambara compilations. The Digambaras have no compilations. It is astonishing that the Digambaras did not preserve! But that too belongs to their deep revolt: if you preserve words, today or tomorrow they become scripture; preserve them, and soon they become Veda. Hence the Digambaras did not preserve Mahavira’s words. It is an extraordinary rebellion against scripture. They revere Mahavira, but preserved no texts—only what was passed personally from master to disciple; they did not write it down. Therefore, for the Digambaras,…

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.…

Osho, according to Jain history, the twenty-second Tirthankara, Neminath, was Krishna’s cousin. After intense austerities he became known among Hindus as the austere sage Ghora Angirasa. And in the lineage of spiritual wisdom, in the esoteric domain, he was Krishna’s link. What is your view on this? Does such a connection exist? Because you yourself have said that Krishna’s “being” depended on inner causes. What were those inner causes—in the context of esoteric knowledge?

Neminath is Krishna’s cousin. And this is from a time when Hindu and Jain had not yet become two separate streams. Hindu and Jain split clearly and became distinct streams after Mahavira. Neminath is Krishna’s cousin and the Jains’ twenty-second Tirthankara. But there is no esoteric connection of any kind between Neminath and Krishna—no connection of any hidden teaching. There is a reason: Neminath belongs to a very different kind of one-dimensional tradition. In the Jain tradition of twenty-four Tirthankaras—perhaps the most extensive experimentation on this earth in the dimension of renunciation—nowhere else on earth has there been such a long lineage and such a great chain of extraordinary individuals. The first Jain Tirthankara is contemporaneous with the Rig Veda, or a little earlier. Because in the Rig Veda there are such respectful words for the first Tirthankara that contemporaries rarely show such courtesy to one another. The words are…

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…