What will happen to the human consciousness if he suddenly realizes that an invincible, deadly plague epidemic is raging in the world, which can destroy many relatives and friends?
It all depends on the person himself. For enlightened people, nothing special will happen; they will accept the epidemic in the same way that they have accepted everything else before. They will neither fight nor worry.
If a person is able to accept his death, then he is able to accept the death of the entire planet. And this acceptance is in no way proof of his helplessness. On the contrary, such a person sees the nature of things: everything is born, everything lives, and everything dies.
This planet was not here 5 billion years ago, then it appeared. Maybe the planet is out of date. In any case, even if the human mind comes out victorious in this crisis, unleashed by politicians, the planet will not live long, because the Sun will one day die out. In a few million years, its energy will completely dry up, and without the Sun this planet will not survive. We receive all our energy from the Sun.
A conscious person will perceive this as a natural occurrence. Leaves are falling now; Last night there was a strong wind and the leaves were falling like rain. And what can you do? This is the law of nature. Everything on earth takes on some form and disappears into formlessness. Therefore, nothing will change in the consciousness of an awakened person.
The sleeping person will react differently.
Somehow an old man was dying; he was very old, he had already lived his life and was not too worried about death. The sun was setting, it was getting dark. The man opened his eyes and asked his wife, who was sitting on his right:
- Where is my oldest son?
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“He sits opposite me on the other side of the bed,” my wife replied. “Don't worry about him, don't think about anything. Relax and pray.
But the man replied:
- Where is my second son?
- He sits next to his older brother.
And then the dying old man decided to get up.
- What are you doing? - asked the wife.
- Where is my third son?
Both his wife and sons felt how much he loved them all. The third son was sitting at his feet.
He said:
- I'm here, father. Relax, we're all here.
- Are you all here and want me to rest? Where did you leave the store?
Even before his death, he thought about the store.
It is very difficult to predict how an unconscious person will behave. It's safe to say that his whole life will be reflected in his reaction. But each of us went his own way, each of us has different experiences, and therefore the reaction will be different.
Death brings to the surface the true essence of each of us.
One very rich man was dying. The whole family gathered around him. The eldest son said:
- What are we going to do when he dies? We must hire a hearse to take him to the cemetery.
The youngest son suggested:
- He always dreamed of a Rolls-Royce. During his lifetime, he never bought it, then let him ride it even after death - at least once, to the cemetery.
However, the eldest son objected:
- You are still very young and do not understand anything. The dead cannot enjoy. The deceased person does not care whether he is taken to the cemetery in a Rolls-Royce or a Ford. A Ford will do.
Then the second son intervened:
- What do you waste money? The body must be taken, that's a fact. A friend of mine has a truck; it will be better and cheaper.
The third son said:
- How long can you talk nonsense? They also invented a Rolls-Royce, a Ford, a truck … Is he going to get married? He is dying. Let's put it behind the house, where we usually dump garbage. City scavengers will clean up the body themselves, and for free.
At that moment, the old man opened his eyes and asked:
- Where are my shoes?
The eldest son put forward a hypothesis:
- Here is a stubborn man. He probably wants to be buried in shoes. Put your shoes on.
Putting on his shoes, the old man said:
- Don't worry too much about costs. I'm not dead yet. I have enough strength to walk to the cemetery myself. See you on the spot! I will die right in the cemetery. You don't have to be so wasteful. I've always dreamed of a Rolls-Royce or some other beautiful car. Dreaming is worthless, you can dream about anything.
Having said this, he went to the cemetery, followed by all his sons and relatives. He died right in the cemetery to save money.
The dying man's last thought characterizes his entire life, his entire philosophy, his entire religion. Before death, a person is fully revealed.
One of J. Krishnamurti's followers, an elderly and highly respected man in India, often came to see me. His son was the Chief Prosecutor of Madhya Pradesh and a member of the Supreme Court in Jabalpur. This man often came to visit his son and always stopped by when I was in town. He has been a Krishnamurti fan for almost 50 years. He abandoned all rituals, all holy scriptures; he was quite sure that Krishnamurti was right.
I told him:
- It must be remembered that beliefs and beliefs are very superficial, shallow. During a crisis, such beliefs disappear, evaporate.
But he objected:
- Cannot remain superficial for 50 years.
One day his son came to me with the news:
- Father is dying. I think he would be very glad to see you next to me at such a moment. He loves you very much. We don't have much time, I came to pick you up by car.
I went with him. As I entered the room, I saw the dying man moving his lips. I came closer to hear what he was talking about. He chanted "Rama, Rama, Rama", the name of the Indian God … But for 50 years he maintained that there is no God.
I shook his shoulder. He opened his eyes and said:
- Don't bother. Now I have no time for arguments.
- I will not argue, I just want to ask you a question: for 50 years you did not believe in God. How can you pronounce the name of God? You always said that He is not.
He replied:
- Then it was right, but now I am dying - the doctors said that I had no more than half an hour left - so please do not distract me. Don't bother me chanting the name of the Lord. Who knows? Perhaps He actually exists. But if there is no God, then there will be nothing wrong if I repeat His name. And if God exists and you do not repeat His name before death, then you will be blacklisted. I do not want to end up in hell, I have endured enough suffering on earth.
“This is exactly what I told you: convictions are of no use.
He didn't die, he survived. After 3-4 days I came to see him. When I arrived, he was sitting in the garden. I asked him:
- Well, how do you answer my question now?
- Forget it. I showed weakness, I was afraid of death and had to repeat the name of God. Yet there is no God.
- Does this mean that you must once again experience the fear of death? You had your first heart attack, you could survive; there will be a second soon. You will probably survive the second time, but you will not survive the third heart attack. Remember what you just told me.
- Nonsense. I'm pretty sure there is no God.
- When you feel the approach of death, you will see that your superficial theoretical beliefs will immediately evaporate. The idea that there is no God does not belong to you, you borrowed it. This thought did not become the result of your research, it did not become your own insight, it did not become part of your consciousness - it is just a part of your mind.
In a critical situation, people behave differently.
You ask, "What will happen to human consciousness if people suddenly realize that an invincible, deadly plague epidemic is raging in the world, which will destroy many relatives and friends?"
The following can be argued. When the whole world dies, all your relatives - mother, father, girlfriend, wife, husband, lover, children - cease to mean anything to you. When the world is on the verge of death, when it falls into a black hole, a person does not think about relatives. Under the guise of family relationships, we remain strangers to each other.
This scares the person, and he prefers not to think about it. A man is alone even in a crowd; even if his name is known - what does it matter? He remains a stranger. And this can be seen in life: a husband and wife have been living together for 30, 40, 50 years, and the longer they live together, the more they realize how alien they are.
Before the wedding, they imagined that they were made for each other, but this illusion disappears at the end of the honeymoon. Every day they are more and more distant from each other, pretending that everything is good, that everything is fine. But deep inside, they realize that they are still strangers to each other.
In this world, everyone is alien. And if in the next moment the world was destined to disappear, if it was announced on radio and television, then suddenly you would realize your nakedness - loneliness.
One day father and son went to the zoo. There they saw a ferocious lion in a cage, he walked from corner to corner. The boy was very frightened; he was not yet nine. He told his father:
- Dad, tell me the number of the bus on which I could get home if the lion suddenly breaks out of the cage and something happens to you.
In such a situation, the boy asks a quite pertinent question. He cannot imagine that something can happen not only to his father, but to himself; but if a tragedy happens to the father and he survives, then he really needs to know the bus number. The father was shocked that his son did not think about him at all: no matter what exactly happens to the father, the son wants to know the bus number.
Imminent death suddenly strips away all masks; it makes a person realize his loneliness, makes him realize that all his family ties were a deception, they were necessary for him in order to hide from loneliness - a person does not feel lonely in a family.
But death always reveals the truth. And this only applies to "small" deaths; when it comes to the death of all mankind, then all family ties will disappear even earlier. A man dies alone, like a stranger who has no name, no fame, no respectability, no power; he dies completely defenseless. But even in this helplessness, people behave differently.
It all depends on the individual people, on how they lived. If they lived naturally, if they lived according to the laws of nature, enjoying every moment of life, then they will simply watch the greatest tragedy, the greatest drama in the world.
They will not do anything; they will just watch.
It is impossible to issue one general law defining uniform norms of behavior for all people.
We can confidently say that behavior will remain unchanged only in enlightened people. These people understand the nature of things. This is the whole approach of Gautam Buddha - his philosophy of circulation in nature - when autumn comes, the leaves need to leave the tree.
With the arrival of spring, flowers appear, and in the East, in particular - in the West, they do not know anything about it - in the East, this does not refer to one thing: all living things wither, just as, having come home from work in the evening, a person will soon time goes to sleep.
This is a far-reaching idea. After a certain time, each creature - now even the exact time of life is calculated - must leave this world. Everything needs rest.
This is not unusual for an enlightened person; it is part of life itself. Just as the day ends, the night ends, and the creature wakes up again.
Modern physics comes close to this idea. First, physicists discovered black holes; There are strange black holes in Space, and if some planet or some star approaches this hole, then it will disappear without a trace in it.
But scientists understand that there is balance in nature, so they are looking for white holes. The black hole is probably one side of the door and the white one is the other. On the one hand, a planet or star falls into a black hole and disappears from our eyes, and on the other, a new star is born from a white hole.
Every day old stars go out and new ones flare up; life and death change each other in an endless circle.
If life is day and death is night, then there is no opposition. Consider that death is rest, sleep, the time of rejuvenation.
An enlightened person will not worry about this. Ordinary people will be afraid of danger, they will begin to do what they have never done in their life. They have always kept themselves under control, and now it makes no sense for them to restrain themselves, they cease to control themselves.
I would like to know about the global catastrophe in advance … but this is not possible. The nuclear arsenal is capable of destroying the planet in 10 minutes. Nobody will warn you in advance: “Attention! Get ready! As soon as the radio and television announces that in 10 minutes. the world will perish, that all people will freeze or be paralyzed, the world will panic, the world will be seized with horror of the unknown.
Many people will die from shock rather than nuclear weapons. It will be enough for them only to hear that in 10 minutes. the world will perish: shock will destroy their fragile lives. We can only guess how they will behave.
I want to state with full responsibility that only the behavior of enlightened people will not change. If the news catches them drinking tea, they will continue to drink tea, their hands will not even shake. If they took a shower during this time, they will continue to take a shower. They won't be shocked; they will not be paralyzed or afraid. They will not rush to do what they constantly suppressed in themselves, because an enlightened person does not suppress anything in his life; he knows that he will always say only one word to nature: "Yes!"
The enlightened person will say yes to the vanishing Earth; he will say yes to death itself; he does not know the word no. He will not cling to life; it will be the only person who will die consciously. The one who dies consciously becomes immortal and does not die.
Unenlightened people will reappear on some other planet, another woman will give birth to them, because life cannot be destroyed even with nuclear weapons. It can only destroy homes where life exists.
Osho