Things come up, things go down; things are born, things die. But the totality remains the same, says OSHO
Scientists say that nothing is added in existence, and nothing deleted. Not a single atom has been added, cannot be added. From where can you bring it... when we talk about the total, from where can you bring a single atomIJ Or if you want to destroy a single atom, how can you destroy itIJ Where can you push itIJ Science says that nothing can be destroyed and nothing can be created. The totality remains the same, but the parts change. A tree is destroyed, a body is dead; a flower is coming up, a tree is alive.
Things come up, things go down; things are born, things die. But the totality remains as it is. A tree dies because a tree is a part. When it dies it goes back down to the total, but the total remains the same. This sutra says: I suffer not destruction, neither have I birth... How can the total be bornIJ This point also must be looked at deeply.
All the religions have tried to think how the world came into being. Where is the beginningIJ Christianity says that before Jesus Christ, 4,000 years ago, the world came into being, suddenly, in a week. In six days God created the world, and on the seventh day He relaxed. That’s why the seventh day is a holiday. In six days He created the world — on a particular date. This is absurd, because this total cannot come out of nothing. And even if the world came into being, God was before it. So there was a world of a certain kind. God was there, so existence was there.
Hindus say this is without beginning and without ending; existence has no beginning and no ending. So worlds may be created and worlds may be destroyed, but existence continues. The Hindu mind says that one world is created and another is being destroyed simultaneously. A star is born and another star is dying. Our earth is just now old, and soon it will die. Whatsoever we do, the earth is going to die; now it is old. Many things will happen which will help it to die: The population explosion will help, atomic research will help, pollution will help, chaotic trend, revolutions, rebellions will help; everything will help this earth to die.
Man going to the moon is a very symbolic act. Whenever some planet dies, life tries to go somewhere else. It happens only then, never before. Whenever some planet is going to die, life begins to try to go somewhere else, to be replanted somewhere else.
Still scientists are not able to find out from where life came to this earth; there seems to be no reason how it can come up suddenly. It must have come from somewhere else. It is possible that some old earth dying, some ancient planet dying... Even one man and one woman transplanted to this earth would create the whole thing. It may have been Adam and Eve coming from some other planet which was dying; and two are enough to create millions.
It is felt deeply that this earth is going to die soon; that is why there is so much search to go beyond this earth — to the moon, to Mars, or to somewhere, somewhere to find a home again. life is just going to die here. Neither politicians can help us, nor pacifists. This earth is going to die. Everything born is bound to die sometime. And for the earth, one thousand, two thousand years are nothing. So it may continue, but it is just on the verge. Every symptom shows that it is just on the verge. So one earth may be born, another may die.
One world may be born. When I say world, I don’t mean total, because there are many, many worlds. Our world consists of the solar system: This sun and the family of this sun. We don’t know. Out there are other worlds; there are many universes. We are totally unaware of them. Everyday a new star is born and every day a star is dying, disappearing. But the whole remains, and the whole remains the same. It is neither born, nor is there any possibility of its being dead. It is without beginning and ending.
Excerpts from the book That Art Thou
