Osho’s (Apocryphal) Take on Pandemics


CULTURE / Thursday, April 1st, 2021

We found this floating around the internets. Maybe Rajneesh never said this, so read it for what it is worth.

Question: How to avoid an epidemic?

Osho answers: “You are asking the wrong question. The question should have been like this: “Say something about the fear of dying in my heart because of the epidemic?”

How to save yourself from this fear?

Because it is very easy to avoid virus, but it is very difficult to avoid the fear that is present within you and in the world.

People will die more because of this fear than because of the epidemic.

There is no virus in this world which is more dangerous than fear. Understand this fear, otherwise you will become an alive dead body before your body will die.

It has nothing to do with the virus. The frightening atmosphere you are watching right now is a collective madness, which is always decreasing after some time. The reasons keep changing, but this kind of collective madness keeps on being revealed from time to time.

Many people either get help or they die. It has been a thousand times before, and it will continue to happen. And will continue unless you will understand the psychology of the crowd and fear.

Stop enjoying the juiciness of fear. Usually every human being enjoys fear a little bit. If they don’t have fun in fear, then why would they go to watch movies?

Understand this juiciness within you; without understanding it you cannot understand the psychology of fear.

Look at the juice of this fear and at the fear within you, because if we take in the juiciness of fear, it is not much possible to wake up our unconsciousness.

Normally you are the owner of your fear,

But in the moment of collective madness your ownership can be touched. Your unconsciousness can take it over completely. You won’t even know when you have lost control over your fear and fear others.

Then fear can do anything to you, in such a situation you can also take the life of yourself or that of others.

It will happen so much in the coming time: many people will commit suicide and many people will kill others.

Stay alert. Do not look at any video or news that gives you fear within. Stop talking about the epidemic – repeating the same thing again and again is the birth of self-hypnosis. Fear is a kind of self-hypnosis. This idea will cause chemical changes in the body. By repeating the same idea again and again, this chemical change can sometimes be so poisonous that it can also take your life.

There are a lot of other things happening in the world, pay attention to them.

Meditation becomes a protective aura all around the seeker, which does not allow negative energy to enter within. Now the energy of the whole world has become irrational. In such a way you can fall any time in this black hole.

Sitting in the boat of meditation you can avoid this.

(…) As long as death doesn’t come there is no meaning of fearing what is inevitable. Fear is a kind of foolishness and proof of the fact that life has been lived in the wrong way. Those who offer their today for tomorrow, are afraid of death.

Death is not a problem for those who live their life totally each moment.

Rethink life. Fear will not solve anything and there is no cure for death.

If you don’t die from a pandemic, then you will have to die another day, and that day can be any day. That’s why: keep ready. Don’t take down your life.”

We would love to hear your thoughts on this