Osho on Albert Einstein

 

 

As far as I am concerned and my vision for a new humanity is concerned, I see science as having two dimensions: one, the lower dimension, working on objects; and two, the higher dimension, working on consciousness. And the lower dimension has to work as a servant for the higher dimension. Then there is no need of any other religion; then science fulfills totally all the needs of man.

 

But right now you are right that science transforms nothing. It cannot. Unless it approaches consciousness and works out how to develop more consciousness in man -- how to make his unconscious conscious, how to transform his darkness into a noontide -- it will not be of any great use. On the contrary, it is proving to be one of the greatest dangers.

 

It was Albert Einstein who wrote a letter before the second world war to President Roosevelt of America saying, "I can create atomic energy and atom bombs, and if you don't have atom bombs I can predict that it is impossible to win against Germany in the war."

 

Albert Einstein was a German Jew. He was working in Germany, researching under the German government, which was under Adolf Hitler, to create an atom bomb. Just the very idea... if he was not a Jew, the whole history of the world would have been totally different. If Germany could have produced atom bombs, then there would have been no power -- neither of America nor of the Soviet Union nor of England -- to stand in front of Adolf Hitler; he would have conquered the whole world.

 

But because Albert Einstein was a Jew... he was so important that he was not harassed by Adolf Hitler and his people, but he was seeing that millions of Jews were disappearing, actually evaporating as smoke in the gas chambers of the Nazi government. He would not have been killed because he was so much needed and there was nobody else to replace him, but he became afraid that if Adolf Hitler wins, then all over the world there will not be a single Jew left alive. He was not afraid about his own life; it was safe, because Adolf Hitler needed him.

 

Albert Einstein escaped from Germany, leaving the experiment incomplete. The German scientists did everything, but there was no other Albert Einstein to complete the experiment. And Einstein wrote a letter to the enemy of Germany, to America, saying "I have escaped from Germany and I am ready to make atom bombs for America. Without atom bombs you cannot defeat Germany. And there is also a fear that somebody may be able to complete the experiment that I have left incomplete, because there were many scientists working with me, under me." Roosevelt immediately invited him and gave him all the facilities possible.

 

Truman was president at the time when the atom bombs were produced by Albert Einstein, and Einstein told Truman, "Now there is no need to use them, because Germany has committed a historical mistake."

 

This historical mistake has been committed many times. Anybody who wants to fight with Russia and has committed this historical mistake is doomed, because for nine months the whole country is covered with snow. Russia is so vast -- it covers two continents, from one corner of Europe to the other corner of Asia. And there are only three months when the weather is clear enough to fight. And Russia has a great enough army to prevent the enemy for three months and wait for the winter.

 

Winter lasts for nine months. Then Russia need not fight; that winter finishes the enemies without any trouble. Nobody can survive the Russian winter, except Russians -- it needs a lifelong training. Napoleon got lost, in the first world war Germany got lost, and Adolf Hitler again committed the same mistake.

 

But this time Truman did not even answer the letter of Albert Einstein. The first letter was received with such great joy and he was invited with great welcome, was given all the facilities that he needed, but now the bombs were already in the hands of the politicians. Who cares about Albert Einstein? And he was saying simply, "Now there is no need. Germany is finished, and within two weeks at the most, Japan will be finished, because Japan cannot stand on its own. It was the German support.... There is no need to use these bombs."

 

But Truman was in a hurry to use the atom bomb, because Germany has surrendered and if Japan also surrenders then there is no opportunity to see what great power America has and no opportunity to show the whole world.

 

Nagasaki and Hiroshima were destroyed unnecessarily. Japan was ready to surrender. Preparations were being done on how the surrender should happen; negotiations were going on between the generals. And Truman ordered, "Before the surrender at least we should try out how much power we have. Once the war ends we won't have any opportunity."

 

Two hundred thousand people in two great cities died within ten minutes -- and not only people but trees, animals, birds, everything alive suddenly became dead.

 

Albert Einstein was so much shocked that before his death when somebody asked him, "If you are born again, wouldn't you like to be a physicist in your new life?" he said, "Never! If I am born again, I would rather be a plumber than a physicist. Enough is enough. I have seen how I worked day in, day out to create the atomic weapons. They were for an emergency, but once they were created I had no power over them. I had created them, but once they were created, the politicians had the keys in their hands. And my letter was not even answered! I am dying one of the most frustrated men on the earth."

 

He was one of the most successful men, perhaps the greatest scientist that we have ever known, but his own feeling was far more true. He was a man of conscience; he died almost like a wounded lion, utterly frustrated with politicians and their ugliness, their murderous and criminal minds.

 

Up to now, science certainly has not brought much of a transformation as far as human consciousness is concerned, but it has the potential -- just a great awakening is needed. The scientist has to realize his responsibility. He has almost become a god; either he can create or he can destroy. He has to be reminded that he is no longer the old scientist of the times of Galileo, just working in his own house, with a few tubes and a few bottles, just mixing chemicals and experimenting. Those days are gone. Now he has the power to destroy the whole life of this planet or to create a life so beautiful and so blissful that man has imagined it only in heaven; it can be possible here. A few small groups of scientists have started working on those lines. Nobody believes them.

 

In Manali, in one of the press interviews, I was talking about the possibilities, the creative and absolutely new possibilities of doors that science can open. Neelam was there, and she reported to Nirvano in Kathmandu that I was talking "off the wall." And I can understand that anybody will think what I was saying was "off the wall." It will appear like that.

 

But just the other day Japan created an artificial island, because in Japan there is so much a shortage of land that it is becoming impossible to expand industries. Japan has become the richest country in the world. It needs more and more land. The old way is to conquer some other country; that is not possible anymore. The fear of a third world war hangs over everybody.

 

Japan has created an artificial island which will be used for industrial development. It will be floating in the ocean. Once it becomes a success, many more artificial islands... and Japan will be creating more earth than God created in those six days.

 

There are tremendous possibilities for science. Once it no longer serves death, it can float cities in the ocean. Japan has also successfully tried to make underground cities, because why go on with the old conception that you have to live overground? You can live underground; it is more peaceful there, and you can get the right kind of light, the right kind of oxygen, because everything will be in the hands of the scientist.

 

I was talking about such things in that press interview, and poor Neelam thought that I am talking "off the wall." Just as underground cities are possible, floating cities in the ocean are possible, under the ocean cities are possible, flying cities are possible....

Once science changes its attitude and stops being supportive to politicians for war, so much energy will be released that scientists can do all these things which may appear off the wall to you, but they don't appear off the wall to me.

 

To me, all that seems to be almost predictable. It is going to happen, because the earth is going to be overburdened with population. It has already reached five billion, and by the year two thousand and ten it will have almost doubled. Ten billion population? -- this poor earth, which has been exploited for centuries, will not be able to support it. You will have to create artificial food, perhaps new vegetables, new food.

 

In the Soviet Union they already have new fruits which God had not created in those six days. Just as animals can be created by crossbreeding, they are crossbreeding trees and creating new fruits, giving them the right taste, right juice -- fruits which man has never eaten, for which there is no name in the dictionaries. They are being given new names.

 

And man may have to live more and more on chemical food. Perhaps it may be more healthy, because right now ninety-five percent of whatever you eat is roughage; it has to be thrown out of the body. Hardly five percent is used. This is sheer nonsense! This is burdening your digestive system unnecessarily. Why not only give exactly that five percent that your body needs? If your digestive system is not tired, your life's length will become longer.

 

It is the digestive system that kills you. All the experiments about the digestive system show.... It has been tried on many animals. Animals which were given enough food, as much as they wanted, had only half the life span of animals who were given half the food they asked for. The first group lived ten years, the second group lived twenty years, because the digestive system remained more fresh, younger, untired.

 

And if man's food becomes more and more chemical, more and more scientific, it will not be digested, it can be directly injected. There is no need to tire your digestive system, and if your digestive system remains stronger, younger, your life will become longer. Scientists say man can very easily live three hundred years, without becoming old.

 

Science has great possibilities, Satyam Bhairava, just we have not yet been able to use those possibilities. And all the scientists are in the service of politicians, of governments -- that means in the service of death and war. A great revolution is needed.

 

Just as scientists revolted once against religion, fought against religion, now they have to fight against politics, against nationalism. Their responsibility is great. The new man will need them and their revolution. They are the most important people for the survival of humanity.

 

-Osho, "The Golden Future, #36, Q1"