“My sannyasins celebrate death too because for me death is not the end of life but the very crescendo of life.
“Whenever somebody dies – somebody you have known, loved, lived with, somebody who has become a part of your being – something in you also dies.
“Life has to be lived to be known. It has been given to you to live. It is a gift of nature to you. It is not a punishment; it is simply a gift from existence.
“Rejoice in it, and burn your life’s candle from both ends together.
“Live as intensely as possible, and the very taste of life will give you the clue why death is not to be feared. In my religion death is celebrated because there is no death.
“Let this be a send-off of dancing, celebration, festivity.
“Dance as much as you can. Let your whole energy become a dance.
“Dance to orgasm… forget yourself completely.
“When you are happy and bubbling with some unknown joy, then your eyes are clear; then they have a clarity. And for this moment, deep clarity is needed, so that you can see the body burning on the funeral pyre, and you can also see the spirit moving away.
“If you dance, and happily, gracefully, sing… It will be difficult I know — but not as difficult as you think. Once you do it, by and by you will feel that it comes easy.
“It is a moment of rejoicing. When you say good-bye to him on a funeral pyre
“When you have lived in your body for so many years there arises naturally a certain attachment to the body. But when the consciousness sees the body burning — with the body burning, all your attachments with the body, all your prisons that have taken you to many bodies in many lives, start disappearing. One feels a tremendous freedom rising with the flames towards the sky.
“Rejoice, and dance, and celebrate. Such a death is rare. Very few human beings are so blessed.
“Even small kids, if they want to go, take them with you. Let them also face the truths.
“And when the funeral pyre’s flames start moving upwards, remember why in this country for thousands of years we have chosen not to bury the dead, but to give them to fire. There is a special reason for it.
“Fire is the only thing you know which does not allow any gravitation. It always goes upwards. The fire is a symbol of your spirituality; it always goes upwards.
“You see flames, and soon they disappear. They are visible only for a few moments, then they become invisible
“Fire is a great symbol of purification, of detachment, of rising vertically towards the ultimate space which is our home.”
~ OSHO