Buddha said the effort is to be done – and you will not be there.+

Bhagavan Buddha existed in India in a period when the whole country was going through a crisis of everything irrational: the VEDAS, the UPANISHADS, and the whole mysticism. The movement against all this was very great, particularly in Bihar, where Buddha was. Buddha was charismatic, hypnotic. People were impressed by him. But the interpretation of Buddha was bound to be rational. If Buddha had lived at another time in history, in a part of the world that was not against mysticism, he would have been seen as a great mystic, not as an intellectual. The face that is known belongs to the history of a particular time. As I see Buddha, he was not primarily rational. The whole concept of nirvana is mystical. He was even more mystical than the UPANISHADS, because the UPANISHADS, however mystical they look, have their own rationality. They talk about the transmigration of the Soul. Buddha talked about transmigration without a Soul. It is more mystical. Buddha said:~ The Upanishads talk about liberation, but you will be there. Otherwise, the whole thing becomes nonsense. If I cannot be in that ultimate state of existence, then the whole effort is useless, illogical. Buddha said the effort is to be done – and you will not be there. It will just be nothingness. The concept is more mystical. (OSHO)