The next moment may be the last moment on the earth

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“They can destroy your body, but they cannot destroy your spirit,” states Osho.

Osho, 1985 Rajneeshpuram

Beloved Osho,

I love your vision, but whenever I listen to you speaking about the future of the world, I feel like politicians and priests are too powerful and too deeply asleep for our songs and our laughter to turn the world around. Is this skepticism?

It is not skepticism – for that a little more intelligence is needed. It is simply stupidity.

I also know that the powers of the politicians and the priests are so vast. What can our laughter, our song, our dances, our love, do against these big powers?

I have to tell you one thing, that if an atom of hydrogen gas can release so much energy that it becomes the hydrogen bomb, a hundred times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima or Nagasaki, why do you think that authentic love – which is the most precious thing in the world – that a real rejoicing, that a total laughter when you are not laughing but you are laughter, that a dance in which the dancer disappears cannot release a totally different kind of energy?

All these priests and politicians have the energy derived from matter. I am trying to tell you that if material energy can be so big, spiritual energy can be a million or billion times bigger. It just has not been tried, ever. This is a good opportunity.

Remember, the “opportunist” has been used always in a condemnatory sense. I want it to be freed from that association. A really intelligent person is always an opportunist. To me, an opportunist means one who takes the challenge of the opportunity and risks himself.

What are we going to lose? If my sannyasins all around the world go on spreading songs and dances and love, these politicians will look stupid. Right now, they cannot be much bothered with the humanity that is there. If it is destroyed, so what? – it is not worth anything. But if we can make the earth blossom with new people, the politicians will have heart attacks. The very idea of destroying these people, this earth, will become inconceivable.

And the man of laughter, the man who can dance in tune with the wind and the sun and the moon, is far more powerful than any nuclear weapon can be, because his is life energy. They are playing with dead matter. If dead matter can release so much energy, a living being… it is inconceivable how much energy he can release.

We can create of this whole world a celebration.

And I tell you, your politicians will commit suicide, because they will be the only sad people, they will be the only ones who are unfit. And I don’t think, howsoever idiotic they are, they can think of destroying the laughter, the songs, the beauty of love, the innocence of a child, and the authenticity of enlightened people.

Just take the challenge of the time. They are going to destroy you anyway – why not celebrate before they do it? Let them create death for the whole earth. But what are we going to lose? We will die laughing, dancing, singing. We are not going to be like Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

In the first place, it is impossible. If we really work for the New Man to go on spreading like wildfire, it is impossible for them to destroy this earth. Even their conscience – which is not much – will not allow them to destroy this beautiful garden of people.

And the laughter is not American or Soviet, it is not Indian or English. Rejoicing has no nations. Songs, dances, and disappearing into your dances and your songs, don’t belong to any religion.

The New Man will declare this whole earth his own. Politicians will simply fall by the way. They will not be able to figure out what to do with these people. They know how to deal with the sad slaves – slaves of theologies, political ideologies, they know how to deal with them.

My effort is to create a man that they simply have never seen. They will simply stagger and fall wherever they are. And I don’t see that a world full of flowers and fragrance can be destroyed. But just for argument’s sake, even if it is destroyed, that is the best way to go away from this earth to some other planet – dancing, singing, rejoicing. Yes, they can destroy your body, but they cannot destroy your spirit. And I am trying to create a man who has spirit, ecstasy.

You can ride upon your ecstasy to other planets; rockets are not needed. And remember, only bodies die, the soul within you is immortal. No nuclear weapons can destroy it. You have something indestructible in you; you just have to become aware of it, and you have to make others aware of it.

I am not concerned about the future. I am concerned with you, with people who have been given a chance of drinking the wine of life, squeezing the whole juice of it every moment. The future makes no sense to me, but it is going to come whether it makes sense to me or not.

And I am not worried about myself. I died thirty-two years ago, and the one who is speaking to you is beyond any nuclear weapon. I would like you also to be beyond nuclear weapons. And these are the methods: the laughter, the joy, love, rejoicing, making your life a beautiful garden.

The last moment of your life is very decisive. Nothing is more decisive in your whole life. The last moment of your life… if it is a dance, you will join other dancers in some other planet. If it is love, you will join some planet where love is no longer sin, where love is religion.

So what I am saying to you is double-edged. On the one hand it can stop the third world war; on the other hand it can take you to the right place amongst right people. Whatever happens in the future is not my concern. My concern is with this moment, because the next moment may be the last moment on the earth.

Remember this: when you go to sleep, say goodbye to life with great gratitude. It has given you so much – never forget it. I don’t say to you, go to sleep praying to Jesus Christ on your knees, or Gautam Buddha or some other guy. I say to you, go to your sleep with a thankful heart for all that life has given to you: all the laughter, all the loves, all the beautiful flowers, the songs of the birds, the colorful rainbows, the amazing sunsets, sunrises. It has given you so much that if there is not going to be tomorrow you have not missed anything.

Let there be no tomorrow; you are already fulfilled. And if by chance you wake up again tomorrow morning, don’t start with any mantra-chanting or prayer – these are all irreligious ways. Again, start the day with gratitude, love, joy.

People say that you should not get out of the bed with the wrong leg, wrong foot, because then you spoil your whole day. As for as I know, legs have nothing to do with your day. I would like you, when you get up, to get up with laughter. Any leg will do, but go to your bathroom dancing!

Osho, From the False to the Truth, Ch 24, Q 2

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