Perhaps this earth, this planet, has come to its end

Beloved Osho,

You spoke the other day of how, when an individual dies, he almost immediately finds another womb. But what happens when people die en masse, as happens in wartime or in an earthquake, for example?

How can there be that many wombs available at one time? Also, if a third world war should happen, or AIDS eliminates two thirds of the world population, what will happen to those souls for whom there are no wombs available?

This is an intellectual question – not of much significance. But this earth is populated right now with five billion people, two and a half billion couples. How big can an earthquake be? Even how big can a war be? These billions of people are ready to receive new children, new guests, in their wombs. So up to now there has not been a problem. But if anything happens that is so big that souls cannot find wombs, then according to scientific calculation there are at least five million planets in the whole universe on which life exists. They don’t know of what kind, on what level, but on five million planets… and this is a very conservative estimate.

If life exists on that many planets, there will not be any shortage of wombs. If a third world war happens, and life disappears from this planet, it will immediately start appearing on other planets where life has come to the point of human growth. But nothing dies, and no law changes, and the universe is big enough – so big that scientists have not been able yet to count all the solar systems. And each solar system has dozens of planets.

They have not been able to count all the stars. As their instruments become more accurate, more far-reaching, they are constantly increasing their number. And now one thing is certain: that whatever their number is, it is not right because there is still space ahead. There is no limit to the universe. The vastness is really immense. In this vast universe, do you think it will be difficult to find wombs for five billion people? Just five billion people?

And existence has its way of working. Unless it has prepared a new home for you, it will not destroy this planet. This planet can be destroyed only if it is no longer worth saving and you can have new homes. Just as on a smaller scale… as your body becomes old, useless, a constant trouble, this sickness, that sickness, existence has a way: it simply gives you a new body. And the third world war… if it happens at all, it may be basically that this planet is already old and no more evolution is possible here.

We cannot say anything about existence. Everything remains a guess, but one thing is certain: before a home is taken, another home is already waiting for you. So if this planet dies – and remember, every day planets are dying, every day new planets are being born. Not only planets, every day suns are dying and new suns are being born. It is a continuously renewing system. It does not allow the old, the rotten, the sick, the dead.

For life, there is such a vast existence available that there is nothing to be worried about. Perhaps it will be good, but one never knows. I trust that it will be good. Nothing can be bad. It may look bad – the whole earth being destroyed. On this side it will look bad, but on the other side, if you are getting a better planet… Perhaps you need now a better planet for higher evolution.

Those who really want to evolve
cannot find more precious a time.

Perhaps this planet does not give you enough energy for higher growth. Perhaps it has come to its climax: whatever it could do it has done. You need a better school. Only then will the world be destroyed; otherwise it will not be destroyed. If evolution is still possible here the world is going to remain, but it seems we are stuck. For thousands of years evolution has been stuck. Once in a while somebody blossoms; that is an exception, not a rule.

But billions of people just go on rotating in the same circle without evolving an inch. Perhaps this universe has no more energy to give to you for higher evolution.

…people will be moving to different
planets according to their growth

Nobody has been working in these directions. Everything comes to a point where the energy is exhausted. I am amazed about scientists who are working in these fields. They should look into the phenomenon of whether the earth has come to a point where it is exhausted and has no more possibility for people to grow more than they have grown; a full stop has come. Then it is better that people are transported to other places where evolution can become possible and they can reach to higher levels of being.

We don’t know… in these five million planets there may be a few where man has reached to superconsciousness, where superconsciousness has become a common phenomenon. Or maybe there is one planet where the collective superconscious has become common. And the possibility cannot be denied that there may be a few planets, or one planet, where the ultimate has been reached, where everybody is enlightened.

So if this earth disappears, people will be moving to different planets according to their growth, according to whatever is needed for them to grow more. And all this happens autonomously. […]

Existence is mysterious.

We cannot predict, because we do not know exactly whether this earth is finished or if there is still some potential left. The third world war is not going to depend on the Soviet Union or Ronald Reagan; these are just puppets in the hands of an unknown force which I call existence. But if existence decides that the earth is exhausted and now man will remain stuck and evolution will not be happening here, then it is better to let this earth be destroyed – and men can move, according to their stages of evolution, to different planets.

everything in this world begins and ends;
nothing can remain forever

Anyway, this time is very precious. Those who really want to evolve cannot find more precious a time. Evolve more and more towards consciousness. If you can become awakened, then there is no need for you to be born in any womb. If you cannot, then too you will be on the way, on some higher plane. And if you are born, you will be born on a planet where a higher plane of consciousness already exists and which is common there.

And it seems that this earth is in a hopeless situation. But everything in this world begins and ends; nothing can remain forever. Perhaps this earth, this planet, has come to its end. Then any excuse will do.

Science has discovered black holes in existence. You cannot see them; there is nothing to see. You can see only one thing: if some planet comes close to black holes, it is simply sucked in, and it disappears out of existence. That is the death of the planet. Because of the black holes, some scientists have assumed there must be white holes which give birth to new planets. That seems to be logical because in existence there is always a polarity. Black holes are almost certain. White holes are still a hypothesis. Even if a nuclear third world war does happen on the earth, and if man is stuck and cannot evolve more, then some black hole will simply suck it up.

Black holes are one of the most mysterious things in physics. We don’t know anything yet, and perhaps we may not ever know anything, because we cannot go inside them. Once you are gone, then you are gone forever. You cannot return.

Those black holes are meant to decreate – and they are doing their work. Every day some planet, some sun, dies, and the way it dies is by being sucked up by a black hole. It is just like death: death is a black hole into which you are sucked. But you are born into another womb. Perhaps there are white holes; perhaps on the other side of the black hole, there is a white hole. So on this side the old is dismantled, destroyed, and on the other side a new planet, with new potential, with new hopes, with new aspirations, is born.

Osho, The Path of the Mystic, Ch 20, Q 2 (excerpt)