Question 2

Osho,

Please say something to us about Swami Prem Chinmaya's death yesterday. Prem Samadhi.

 

 

THE First THING about Prem Chinmaya s death is that it was not a death at all. He died very consciously. Ie died so beautifully! It was rare. Ten years ago when he came to me I was afraid that he might die before he could taste something of deathlessness, because he was suffering from such a disease... it was incurable.

 

But he was a rare individual. He lived for these ten year's by the simple strength of his individuality. His body was not capable of living. The doctors were puzzled, the physicians were unbelieving, but I knew the secret. He was not afraid of death, but he wanted to grow to a certain point before death happened. And he managed it!

 

And the moment he was ready I allowed him to go. I had to tell him, ”Now you can drop your body.”

 

A deep communion had started between me and him. Because of illness he was not able to come to see me – and that’s how sometimes blessings come in disguise. Because he was not able to physically see me, slowly slowly an inner communion was established. The day before yesterday I called Sheela to my room just to tell her, ”Now it is time. Chinmaya can go – he is ready. Now there is no need for him to suffer anymore in the body. He has done whatsoever was needful, he ha.s attained to a certain integrity. Yes, he will be born once more, but that is a great achievement.”

 

He died from his sixth center. To attain to the seventh would have been almost impossible in such a condition; even this was almost a miracle to achieve – to die from such a height. The moment Sheela reached Chinmaya’s room he immediately said, ”Did Osho call you to his room?”

 

She was surprised because it is very rare that I call anybody into my room. In these six years I may have called Sheela only thrice, so it was not an every-day thing. And Sheela may be the only one besides Vivek and Laxmi who has ever been called to my room? But immediately he asked, ”Did Osho call you to his room? What did he say? What is his message?”

 

A deep communion had started happening lately. And when Sheela told him, ”Now Osho has said that you must rest, relax, go deep into yourself and forget about the body”... It was very difficult to forget the body because his body was in immense pain; it was not an ordinary pain. No pain-killer was of any help. Great doses of pain-killers were being given to him, but nothing was helping him. It was even impossible to help him to go to sleep; the pain was so great that it was keeping him awake. He laughed and he said, ”Yes, I will do it!”

 

Thrice in the night, again and again he asked Sheela, ”Please tell me again what is the message of my Master? I don’t want to forget his message at the last moment.”

 

And whenever she said, ”He has said only three words: ’Rest, relax, go deep into yourself,’” he would say, ”Yes now I remember,” and fall asleep again.

 

He told Sheela that he wanted to listen to this series – that he hoped at least he would be able to listen to the first lecture. And he managed! Yesterday he listened to the whole lecture – and fully conscious. With all that pain he listened to the lecture. Then he asked for the last time about the message, and then he closed his eyes and disappeared.

 

This is not death, this is something far more beautiful. This is let-go. This is surrender. This is love! He trusted me so totally. He died beautifully, silently, in utter relaxation. I am happy about him. I was afraid that he may not be able to survive even these years, but it was through his sheer determination, his sheer will power that he survived. The body would have died at least six years ago; for six years he lived a kind of posthumous existence. He would have still lived – he could have still managed at least for three months – but I saw no point in it because it was not possible to attain more in this body than whatsoever he had attained.

 

The body was getting rotten, absolutely rotten, and he was in such a good space that I did not want him to get disturbed as far as his inner space was concerned; I wanted him to leave. There are moments when one should depart. He was in such a positive mood in such a negative body, he was in such a healthy mood in such an unhealthy body.

 

Just the other day when I was telling you a joke about Jesus and the man who was suffering from cancer I was remembering Chinmaya and he was listening! And he must have laughed because he loved jokes. The angels who must have carried him must be puzzled because he is at least six years late.

 

Three Italians arrive in paradise. St. Peter asked the first one, ”Who are you?”

 

”I am-a Carletto from Milano.” ’Very well, you are on time – come in,” says St. Peter.

 

Then he asks the second one, ”And you, who are you?”

 

”I am-a Genaro from Roma.”

 

”You are six hours late. How come?” asked St. Peter.

 

”Well-a, San Pietro, from Roma to here it is-a a long-a journey. I stop-a to rest-a a little on the way.”

 

”And you, who are you?” asked St. Peter to the third man.

 

”l am-a Pasquale from Napoli.”

 

”Pasquale,” says St. Peter, ”this is too much! You are two months late!”

 

”Don’t-a get-a angry, San Pietro. I have-a been-a in bed-a sick.”

 

I don’t know what Chinmaya is going to say because six years is really too much! They may have completely forgotten about him. They will have to look in the files – it will take days for them to find out who this man is! But I think by now they must be becoming acquainted with orange people – that they are not reliable people. They come at all kinds of odd hours, they don’t bother about time, they don’t follow any rules, they don’t know anything of discipline! He used to love jokes. He used to write me beautiful jokes. In his memory I will tell a few jokes to you.

 

A man enters a police station and says that his wife has disappeared.

 

”When did she disappear?” asked the policeman.

 

”Five or six years ago,” he answers.

 

”Five or six years ago!” exclaims the policeman. ”Why didn’t you come earlier?”

 

”Well, you see,” says the man, ”I just couldn’t believe it!”

 

In Moscow a communist chief sees an old man kneeling in front of an icon. He stops and asks him,

 

”Are you praying, old man?”

 

”Yes, I am praying,” answers the old man.

 

”You are praying for us, aren’t you?”

 

”Of course.”

 

”And you pray now for us just as in the old times you were praying for the Czar?”

 

”That’s true,” replies the old man.

 

”Now tell me, were your old prayers of any use?”

 

”Well, yes, they killed the Czar, didn’t they?”

 

And this one he would like the most:

 

It is a bank meeting. The president, heated by the discussion, gets up and starts pacing up and down. His secretary notices that his fly is open so she whispers to him, ”Mr. President, the garage is open. One can see everything.”

 

”Ah yes, and what can you see? – my new Mercedes?”

 

”No,” replies the secretary, ”a Fiat with flat tires!”

 

Samadhi, yesterday you celebrated his departure. Always remember him. He should be a light to you all. He loved deeply, he laughed deeply. He was a man who knew how to celebrate. Of course the body was not willing at all, but he never bothered about the body. Yesterday he wanted to come to the discourse. I had to stop him, but still he heard the whole discourse.

 

And he said to Sheela, ”I wanted to hear the whole series, but when Osho says that I have to go then I have to go. Then this is the time, then this is the right time, and I don’t want to miss it.”

 

He never wanted to let me down. He loved me tremendously. His name, Prem Chinmaya, means love and consciousness. He was both. He was love and he became consciousness. He died with great love and with great consciousness. It is not death at all, Samadhi – it is transcendence of death.

 

Soon he will be back, and whenever he comes you will know because whenever I see that he is back in the womb of some sannyasin of mine I will call him Ko Hsuan in memory of this series of which he wanted to hear the whole but could only manage to hear the first lecture. So whenever I call any child Ko Hsuan you will know that Prem Chinmaya is back to fool around!

 

-Osho, "Tao: The Golden Gate, Vol 1, #2, Q2"