Osho Jaw Bone Operation without Anesthetic

Various small operations on his teeth were done and also two bigger operations, one of which I was involved in indirectly because I was a good friend of the doctor who operated. 

Dr Modi was a specialist who operated on the bones of the jaw. He had studied in London and was specialized in surgery on the face, working

for many years in England. In Pune he had a private clinic and was considered one of the great Indian surgeons. His wife Zareen had become a disciple of Osho many years before and between us a very deep friendship was born, which continues up to the present, decades later. So I got to know him through her. His mentality was very Western, and his English sounded more like Oxford than Pune. He had never accepted Osho as a Master, unlike Zareen, who left the family and came to live in the commune.

Dr Modi loved horses, and had a sizeable mansion in the city in the colonial style of the English, with a beautiful garden. Being with him nourished me a lot due to his great culture and intelligence. We often talked for hours, passing on information about anything from pharmaceutical drugs to Indian philosophy and gardening.

He had the face of a North Indian, with a wide forehead and small lips that were clearly articulated and often bathed in a glass of whiskey, then busy with a cigarette, and very big black eyes that shone with the light of an intelligence that separated him from the rest of the world. Modi was out of place in India and in his depths he felt like a Westerner who was forced to live there. He didn't like all the poverty or the religious aspects that characterized the continent. In his soul, he was much closer to European existentialism than to the Hinduism of the Indian masses.

Since Osho's time in American prisons, the infections that had begun in his ear and jawbone were spreading dangerously toward the cerebral cavity. So Amrito decided to call Dr Modi. After

a medical visit, he decided to operate as soon as possible. That morning, before entering Lao Tzu, Modi came to see me and shared the tension he felt in having to operate on a man like Osho. After a brief exchange he asked me where he could find me after the surgery was over, because he wanted spend a little time with me before leaving the ashram.

He came to see in my office after about three hours. He was very shaky and vulnerable, as I had never seen him before. After all, he was a surgeon with a firm hand and an iron will. He hugged me, breaking out in tears in my arms. He wasn't able to understand how it was possible, what he had experienced in that small operating theatre. He told me that when everything was ready, he told Osho that he would give him an anaesthetic injection

and that after a few moments he wouldn't feel anything, and then he would start operating. But Osho refused to receive the injection.

Modi responded with all the authority of a famous surgeon and said to him: "Here I am the surgeon and I say we have to give you the anaesthetic and it is not a matter of discussion." But Osho looked at him and answered: "You are the surgeon but I am the Master and I am telling you to operate without an anaesthetic, starting when I give you the signal with my finger."

Modi felt cornered. From one side he knew that surgery on the face was extremely painful and that it wasn't practical to do it without anaesthetic, but from the other side he couldn't refuse because, after all, Osho was the master of his own body and also a spiritual Master who knew what

was happening beyond the physical body and the mind. Modi was petrified by the idea of operating without an anaesthetic on open bones, but he followed Osho's orders and performed the whole operation without a drop of anaesthetic.

Osho, shortly after closing his eyes, made a movement with his finger, giving the okay to start the operation, leaving his physical body in the hands of Dr Modi. After the operation, Osho re-entered his body and calmly opened his eyes. Modi was shaken, knowing that what had just happened wasn't understandable within the realm of normal science and that Osho's behaviour had put in question all his medical convictions about operating without an anaesthetic.

He continued to repeat to me, like a recording, "It's not possible." He was absolutely shocked at

having operated without an anaesthetic and he continued to be agitated for a long time.

As soon as he managed to relax, we went together for a drink at one of the ashram bars. It was an interesting moment, watching Dr Modi recover from this experience that could have changed his life forever. But instead, his ego reclaimed control with explanations generated by his strong rational mind.

The truth is, Osho was always a Master, not only when he came to speak with us and share his state of meditation. Osho was permanently in a state of total disconnection from the false reality of the ego and he took advantage of every situation in order to be able to teach something to people who came near him, even to the detriment of his body.

Osho respected Dr Modi very much and privately told Zareen a few times he would be happy if her husband took sannyas. But in spite of all these doors being opened in front of him, Modi never became a disciple. Because of his intellectual ego, he never could make the jump from the mind to the heart, the jump from the outsider to the disciple, the jump of a lover who lets go into existence, without any resistance.

Osho's body was sick and weak and his consciousness had a lot of difficulty staying in his body. This, as he told us on more than one occasion, is a difficulty that faces many Masters. The process of enlightenment breaks identification with the body, as well as the mind, and few have the capacity to remain in the body after such an experience. The physical body is heavy, gross and difficult to manage once you have entered into divine consciousness. There, the experience of bliss is so great there is no other choice but to stay in that state, not having any interest in physical activity.

Neelam Osho's Secretary's Diamond gift

Neelam, Osho's Indian secretary after Sheela. This is what I remember of her story: Before Neelam became a disciple in the '60s, her husband knew Osho and participated in meditation retreats with him.

 After a while, he tried to persuade his wife to come and meet the guru with whom he was infatuated. She wasn't interested. She only wanted to be a wife and mother. For Westerners who will read this account, it is worth mentioning that almost everyone in India has a guru to consult or worship. Whatever your caste or social status, rich or poor, businessman or farmer, you had access to some kind of guru.Even today, though India has evolved socially and economically, Indian families all have their guru, with whom they consult when it's time for the daughter to marry, or for advice on investment decisions or other important matters. 

The First Door that I mentioned in this book, the door of devotion, is an experience grounded in centuries of understanding for Indians, who don't have a problem with kneeling on the ground and touching the feet of a person in whom they recognize a spiritual quality. 

So Neelam assumed Osho was just one of the many gurus who went around India giving advice to people, with no special quality, and she didn't feel attracted to this world. But, after many months of persistence on the part of her husband, she agreed to go and see Osho. 

At that time Osho used to lead meditation camps, experimenting with various meditation techniques that he subsequently developed and perfected, and which were ultimately used in the commune from 1974 onwards. During breaks between his discourses and the meditations, many Indians got in line to receive his blessings, including not only those participating in the meditation camp but also people passing by, who, realising a guru was available, would stop to touch his feet. 

Neelam got in line with her husband. When it was her turn, she fell at Osho's feet, almost fainting, and remained there for a long time. She was utterly stunned by the force of the Master and from that moment stayed close to him. Even after Osho's death, Neelam stayed in the Pune commune for nine more years, then left to construct a new meditation centre close to Dharamshala, in the Himalayas.

In India, it is a tradition that when you find a Master you bring him a gift as a symbol of your recognition. Neelam and her husband spent days thinking what they could give him, and in the end they decided to bring him a diamond ring that had belonged to her mother and her mother's mother. It was the most valuable and precious thing she had, and she wanted to send a signal to Osho that her devotion was total. 

So at the next meditation camp they brought the famous family diamond. Neelam got in line with the others and when her turn came she kneeled down to touch the feet of the Master, then gave him the box with the diamond in it. Osho looked at it, brought it near to him and blessed Neelam by touching her head. She moved away in order to give space to the next person in line, who was a passer-by, like many others who were taking advantage of the situation in order to receive blessings from the guru. This man was not one of his followers. 

Osho also blessed him, and then gave him the diamond he had just received from Neelam!The man was there only by lucky coincidence, and he was given her precious diamond! Neelam was very shocked by this incident but nevertheless continued in her devotion to the Master. About twenty years after the ring incident, Osho reminded Neelam of the gift of the diamond.

He told her, "If you give an object to someone as a sign of love, you need to totally let go of it, otherwise it is just an attempt to tie that person to you." He had waited almost twenty years to make sure the teaching was understood, then closed the circle by explaining the message behind his act.

For thousands of people – whether they had money or not – the Ranch experience was one huge opportunity to see their attachments and their desires. It was another chance to be total in giving, in love, without expecting anything in return. 

Real love is in fact a gesture that manifests naturally in the fullness of the heart –the heart full of nectar, full of joy in sharing, full of divine energy that isn't personal, a heart that overflows and shares with everyone without discrimination.

 The Master, by the simple fact of his being, like the sun or the stars, lights the way for those who open their hearts to this light. His giving is not an intentional act; he's not thinking, "Now I will work on Tom, Dick and Harry because they need to change their attitude toward life, or because they need to open up to love." Osho simply let the energy flow, interfering in the stream of events as little as possible. 

With this in mind, it becomes clear that all the criticisms that were levelled at Osho after the Ranch were just hollow words blowing in the wind. From the standpoint of the growth of human consciousness, it didn't matter that Osho committed practical errors, because, as he himself said: "I am not God! I am a human being with his limits."

This needs to be remembered, because many people expected Osho to be infallible, that he should have seen the future and interfered to save his commune. But all these ideas were just a projection of the mind of individual disciples who imagined that their Master was a special being like God, mainly because it satisfied their egos. 

Osho perhaps made errors in calculating and anticipating events, but this doesn't take anything away from his message, his teachings and his energetic presence. The change that is experienced with a Master happens through work done by the individual, by the lone disciple, on himself. It is for this reason that the spiritual path is a solitary path, because it depends totally on us – how much energy and awareness we put into the process of transformation. 

If the disciple is closed, a real Master cannot do anything, while a false master may try to persuade or push the student toward change according to the direction he thinks is right. Osho, Lao Tzu, Krishnamurti, Gurdjieff, Chuang Tzu, Socrates, Saint Francis, Buddha, Mahakashyapa and all authentic Masters have never forced anyone. They never promised anything to their disciples; they simply remained available, and whoever was alert enough could feel the fragrance of their spirit.

 Of course, disciples who lived through the events that took place in the commune while remaining identified with their own vested interests, their own ego attachments, could only suffer feelings of betrayal. But the Master, in his compassion, never compromises.

 In August, 1986 at Juhu Beach, Mumbai, when he started talking again, after having flown the skies of the planet and been in half-a-dozen jails, Osho declared: "Now I finally have my disciples. I have had to dirty my hands working in the mud for decades, looking for my real disciples. Now that the base of the temple has been built I will raise the temple for all myreal disciples, those alive now and those coming in future generations. Like a fisherman who throws his net, I am now pulling it up, and I find myself with the people that remain with me because they are my real disciples." 

When he pronounced these words we were crammed in the living room of the Indian disciple who offered his house to the Master. We were about forty people, of which only five or six were Westerners, and the rest Indians. In the following days, slowly, day after day, many old sannyasins arrived, and in the space of six months hundreds of devotees came back to the feet of the Buddha, having passed through one of the most intense spiritual devices ever to take place on such a scale.

On January 4th of 1987, we returned to the old commune in Pune in order to live with him the last three years of his stay in the physical body.

Prem Azima: Death Of Ego , Straying from path

On the path of meditation, initially it is

important to clean the layers of the normal mind and the personal unconscious, so that repressed emotions and negative attitudes don't block the flow of energy. 

When the mind is relatively clean, the second stage starts. This is the true state of meditation in which we begin to enter the space of No Mind. After experiencing short gaps – moments in which the thinking process stops – we gradually find that we can spend longer and longer periods in the state of meditation and its accompanying states of bliss and peace. 

According to Osho, these spaces of awareness can be of two kinds: implosive or explosive. In the first, we begin to feel the body getting smaller and smaller, finally disappearing and dissolving into nothingness, imploding into an experience of emptiness. 

In the second case, we experience the body expanding in space and continuing to spread and grow until it loses all definition, melting and dissolving into a vast emptiness. These are two ways of experiencing the same thing. Either way, emptiness is the final destination.

 I don't want to seem discouraging, but the possibilities and opportunities for giving up on the path of meditation are infinite. The ego, the personality structure with which we are identified, will do everything in its power to divert our consciousness from the path that leads inside to our being.

In these 35 years that I have continued to walk the path of inner exploration, I have seen thousands of people abandon the path with a wide range of excuses. For example, many who become curious about meditation are not open

to changing their lives. They cling to the security of a steady job or a settled love relationship. The problem is that, sooner or later, spiritual growth requires radical change, often in the spheres of work and relationships. This is not always the case, but as a general rule it's true.

The true spiritual path is a path of death;

death of the person whom we think ourselves to be; death of the ego structure that seems to protect us but in reality keeps us insulated from life; death of all that is false as it burns in the flame of consciousness; death of relationships to which we cling when love has gone, out of a fear of being alone; death of the past and future as we embrace the present moment.

Death of the ego and the rebirth of the 'I,' the real 'I,' the 'I' that none of us yet knows because we haven't asked the fundamental question in this life: "Who am I?"

Prem Azima on Meditation

Only through meditation can he begin to have experiences of 'No Mind.' In the process of meditation, when we first sit down and close our eyes, the rational layer of our mind continues to be very active. Then, after a certain period of time, which will vary from person to person, the thinking mind begins to slow down. According to Osho, it takes about forty minutes before the mind enters a relaxed state and the production of thoughts starts to diminish. When this happens, if we remain centred in the observer,

or witness, we begin to observe the space of inner emptiness that brings peace. We become less aware of the body, more detached from our emotions, less preoccupied by thought.

It is an interesting fact that the chattering mind cannot easily exist in the present moment. It needs to focus on either past memories or future expectations in order to continue. When we enter meditation, the present moment begins to manifest, allowing us to experience that it is beyond both time and space.

The physical location of the meditator begins to lose its boundaries and it becomes easier to access images and dimensions which are beyond the current time-space continuum. From this perspective, people who engage in channelling are simply connecting with these other levels and allowing

themselves to be used as vehicles to bring news and messages from these dimensions. When we speak of No Mind it indicates a state of consciousness in which the intermediate layer, the thinking mind, is no longer so active – or is altogether absent. This allows us to experience higher levels of mind, gaining confidence in spaces and dimensions to which we are not accustomed and which might otherwise scare us.

The more we let go of the ego and the identity we have borrowed from society, the closer we come to our centre and our authentic self. It's a paradox. The ego promises to give us a clear sense of who we are, but fails because everything it claims for itself is borrowed. The dissolution of the ego looks like the end of the 'I' but in reality gives us a deeper more authentic sense of who we really are.

If there is an effort to control, then the state of No Mind is absent. If No Mind manifests, there is no control; we simply keep the flame of the observer burning without choice, ready to reflect whatever experience manifests before us. This attitude of non-interference is a far cry from conventional Western culture, which is based on self-determination, making plans, creating change and generally trying to manipulate the world that surrounds us as much as possible.

To decide to begin a spiritual journey of self-discovery is to go against the current of our mainstream culture. It is a journey that few initiate and even fewer pursue to a conclusion. The path of dis-identification is arduous, not least because our families, our friends, our teachers, our priests and politicians are all dedicated to the task of keeping us identified with the values of the society in which we find ourselves. They don't want us to change because this might cause them to question their own values and this, in turn, creates fear. So we are, in fact, swimming against the current of the collective mind of all human beings that surround us.

Transcript Osho’s last words: He was so relaxed, as if He were going for the week-end.

Transcript Osho’s last words

This is the transcript of the message Osho’s doctor, Amrito, gave in Buddha Hall after Osho left his body. In it, he describes Osho’s final moments and words.

As you know, over these last few days Osho’s body has been becoming noticeably weaker. What you may not know is that He has also been in considerable pain. By the night of the 18th, the pain in His legs was so severe that He was not able even to come stand on the podium and be with us.

Over that night He became weaker and weaker. Every movement of the body was obviously agonizing. Yesterday morning I noticed that His pulse was also weak and slightly irregular. I said I thought He was dying. He nodded. I asked Him if we could call in the cardiologists and prepare for cardiac resuscitation. He said, ‘No, just let me go. Existence decides its timing.’

I was helping him to the bathroom when he said, ‘And you put wall-to-wall carpet in here, just like this bath mat.’ Then He insisted on walking over to His chair. He sat down and made arrangements for the few items that He has in His room.

‘Who should this go to?’ He said, pointing to His small stereo. ‘It is audio? Nirupa would like it?’ He asked. Nirupa has cleaned His room for so many years.

And then He went carefully around the room and left instructions for every item. ‘Those you take out,’ He said, pointing to the dehumidifiers which he had found too noisy recently. ‘And always make sure one air conditioner is on,’ He continued.

It was incredible. Very simply, in a very matter-of-fact and precise way, He looked at everything. He was so relaxed, as if He were going for the week-end.

He sat on the bed and I asked what we should do for His Samadhi. ‘You just put my ashes in Chuang Tzu, under the bed. And then people can come in and meditate there.’ ‘And what about this room?’ I asked.

‘This would be good for the Samadhi?’ He asked. ‘No,’ I said, ‘Chuang Tzu will be beautiful.’ I said we would like to keep His present bedroom as it is. ‘So you make it nice,’ He said. And then He said He would like it marbled.

‘And what about the celebration?’ I asked.

‘Just take me to Buddha Hall for ten minutes,’ He said, ‘and then take me to the burning ghats – and put my hat and socks on me before you take my body.’

I asked Him what I should say to you all. He said to tell you that since His days in the marshal’s cell in Charlotte, North Carolina, in America, His body has been deteriorating. He said that in the Oklahoma jail they poisoned Him with thallium and exposed Him to radiation, which we only came to know when the medical experts were consulted.

He said they had poisoned Him in such a way that would leave no proof . ‘My crippled body is the work of the Christian fundamentalists in the United States government.’ He said that He had kept His pain to Himself, but ‘living in this body has become a hell’.

He lay down and rested again. I went and told Jayesh what was happening and that Osho was obviously leaving His body.

When Osho called again, I told Him Jayesh was here and He said for Jayesh to come in. We sat on the bed and Osho gave us His final words.

‘Never speak of me in the past tense,’ He said. ‘My presence here will be many times greater without the burden of my tortured body. Remind my people that they will feel much more, they will know immediately.’

At one point I was holding His hand and I started to cry. He looked at me, almost sternly. ‘No, no,’ He said, ‘that is not the way.’ I immediately stopped and He just smiled beautifully.

Osho then spoke to Jayesh and talked about how He wanted the expansion of the work to continue. He said that now that He was leaving His body, many more people would come; many more people’s interest would show, and His Work would expand incredibly beyond our ideas.

Then He said, ‘I leave you my dream.’

Then He whispered so quietly that Jayesh had to put his ear very close to Him. Osho said, ‘And remember, Anando is my messenger.’ Then He paused, and said, ‘No, Anando will be my medium.’ At that point Jayesh moved to one side, and Osho said to me, ‘Medium will be the right word?’ I hadn’t heard what had preceded it so I didn’t understand. ‘Meeting?’ I said. ‘No,’ He replied, ‘for Anando, medium – she will be my medium.’

He lay back quietly and we sat with Him while I held His pulse. Slowly it faded. When I could hardly feel it, I said, ‘Osho, I think this is it.’

He just nodded gently, and closed His eyes for the last time

Source: https://osholifeandvision.com/transcript-oshos-last-words/

Osho on Rajneeshpuram commune, Sheela, American Press and its Politicians

MOST HUMBLY, MY FIRST QUESTION: WE WERE ALL EXCITED ABOUT YOUR EXPERIMENT IN RAJNEESHPURAM. UNFORTUNATELY, THAT FAILED. KEEPING ASIDE THE U.S. GOVERNMENT AND CHRISTIAN BLACKMAIL WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS FAILURE?

You, and your kind.

First, the experiment never failed. The experiment has been absolutely successful. That was the problem, that it was successful.

Who cares about experiments which should have failed? Why should the American government or Christianity or anybody be interested in an experiment which has failed? It was absolutely successful, beyond their comprehension. Its success was the problem, so please drop that word `failure'; it does not exist in my vocabulary.

Whatever we wanted to do, we did it! A small commune of five thousand people against the greatest world power in history survived for five years and created the commune. And the commune was created in a desert which had never been cultivated, had never seen flowers, had never seen birds.

Within five years it became an oasis; we made houses for five thousand people with every modern comfort. We made roads which are better than any government's, America included.

The desert blossomed, it became green. We cultivated it, we made dams, created lakes; thousands of birds started coming. It was a miracle to see that thousands of deer from all over Oregon assembled in that desert of one hundred and twenty-six square miles.

That said everything, because anywhere except Rajneeshpuram their life was in danger, they were going to be hunted. In America, for ten days each year, people are given total freedom to kill deer. In Rajneeshpuram they were standing on the road; you could go on honking your horn and they would not move. They knew you, that you were not going to harm them; you would have to come down and push them to the side.

Swans appeared, in a desert. There were three hundred peacocks from all over America. It seems that birds and animals are more intelligent than journalists. There was a tremendous harmony between the animals, the birds, the trees, the flowers. We created an ecological system.

We were self-sufficient and we never begged a single dollar from America. We never asked for any help from America.

You cannot live as a country without American help. You are a failure, you are beggars. Your country was at one time a golden bird and you have brought it to this condition.

American politicians were tremendously hurt that their help was not needed, because that is their way to create slavery. Help is simply a cover-up. If you take help in money you become enslaved, without knowing. We never asked for anything.

This was hurting the American politicians -- the success. And each year there was a world festival; twenty thousand sannyasins were coming from all over the world. That time was a golden dream come true: twenty thousand people meditating, singing, playing on their musical instruments, dancing, rejoicing. Twenty thousand people had one kitchen! Just conceive of twenty thousand people eating together, while there was dancing, singing, rejoicing, because that is my basic message: not renunciation, but rejoicing.

Sannyas became degraded because it became associated with renunciation. It was not so in the beginning. In the days of Upanishad, the days of Vedas, sannyas was not a renunciation. All your seers had their communes in forests, rich communes. Poverty has never been praised in the Vedas or in the Upanishads.

And renunciation is against God. The Sanskrit word for god is `ishwar', and ishwar means richness, abundance.

Just look at Ram without Sita and you will see something is missing, something tremendously important is missing. Perhaps the heart is missing, only the dead corpse of Ram is there. Just think of Krishna without those beautiful girls dancing around him. His flute will lose its song.

I was trying, in the commune, to bring back the original sannyas. Not of renouncing the world, but living the world as a gift of god; it is a gift.

This became a problem because American spectators, American television, American news media started coming every day -- planes started coming to see the commune, to see what is happening. And the whole of America was agog to see that these people have turned the desert into a paradise.

We were not politicians. There was no political party, no political ideology. We were neither communists nor capitalists, and yet we were living the best life possible -- of love, of friendship.

We became a wound to the American politician. The only way was to destroy the commune, so that the very question would be removed and there would be no need to answer. The commune was destroyed by the American government and fanatic Christians because it was the first time that Christians had moved out of their fold without getting into another fold.

A Hindu becomes a Christian: he leaves one prison and enters another. A Christian becomes a Hindu: he leaves one bondage and accepts another. For the first time they saw that you can leave the prison and there is no need to enter another prison. You can be a free man.

A sannyasin is religious but has no religion. A sannyasin is a spiritualist but he is not a Hindu, not a Mohammedan, not a Christian. And by coincidence the American president, Ronald Reagan, is both a third-rate politician and a fundamentalist Christian.

They tried every means to destroy us. Poor Sheela had nothing to do with it. She certainly became a victim; I have all compassion for her. It has to be understood how you can become entangled. All the telephones from the commune were taped. I was in isolation and silence; Sheela was my secretary and the president of the foundation. Seeing that all the telephones were taped , she started taping the incoming calls to find that the government, F.B.I., C.I.A.,and other government agencies, had their agents in the commune hiding as sannyasins, who went on giving information.

Sheela was not a criminal. When I chose her as my secretary she was an innocent woman of great intelligence, but the American politicians destroyed her innocence. Whatever they were doing, she had to do as a counterattack, as a defence. All her crimes are basically the crimes of American politicians which she repeated -- just to save the commune.

I have nothing but compassion and sadness for her. She is not a criminal and whatever she did, there was no bad intention in it. She even bugged my own room; she bugged two hundred houses. Naturally, logically, it seems that she was even trying to find out what I do in my privacy, what I say in my privacy. That is not true. The truth is that she wanted to be alert because I lived in a house alone. If in the night anybody opened the doors, which were of glass, her bugging would inform her immediately and she could reach there. It was for my protection, not against me. She never did anything against me or against the commune.

I know she would have died for me, she loved me -- not the kind of love that you have shown me. Your love is simply cunning. You say you are my lover, old lover, but all these years you have been writing articles so ugly and obscene that you should be behind the bars, not asking questions to me.

So drop the idea of failure. We succeeded -- it was the first commune in the whole history of man which succeeded. And remember one thing about human jealousy: it is never jealous of failure. Have you seen anybody jealous of failure? Jealousy is always of success. Seeing a beggar on the street, do you feel jealous? But seeing a rich man's skyscraper you feel jealous.

It is a strange mind, undeveloped, retarded. If the same building catches fire you will feel sympathetic, you will say to the man, "We all have sympathy for you. It was bad, it should not have happened." And all the time, when the building was there, every day you had thoughts against the building and against the man who had made it.

Who is jealous of India? I have been around the world, I have not found anybody jealous of India. But I have found people who are jealous of Gautam Buddha, who are jealous of Krishna, who are jealous of Nanak, who are jealous of Kabir. Because these diamonds that we created, their countries have not been able to produce, even to imitate. In all the languages of the world there are not words which can be compared to Nanak or Kabir. There are not scriptures which can be compared to Dhammapada and Gita.

If the commune was a failure it would have been still alive, but it became a success and nobody can tolerate a success.

OSHO

The Last Testament, Vol 6

Interviews with the World Press

Talks given from 31/07/86 am to 13/08/86 pm

Osho Challenging

Everyone who came near Osho, realized many times that Osho never let anyone stay and settle anywhere, at any stage in his or her spiritual journey. Wherever you hide, He reached there to shake and wake you lovingly from your sleep. He was capable of shaking thousands of sleepy people simultaneously. In all His discourses, He shook each and everyone in the audience individually. He went on inspiring us from death to eternal life. In His presence, there remained no way for the mind to survive.

In April 1971, during the meditation camp at Mount Abu, Osho spoke on ‘Ishavasya Upnishad’. He explains, “There are two kinds of people in the world. One: self-destructive, the other: self-creative. And self-creative people are rare-one in lacs. Mostly people are self-destructive. But we are not aware of it.”

Osho explained further, ‘Whatever we do or live, if it takes us away from our soul, if it helps the self to sleep, then we are self-destructive. And if it is to awaken us then we are self creative. However, the difficulty becomes multiple when self-destructive people are in an illusion of being self-creative. And we all carry such illusions.”

As Osho said, immediately I said to myself, “Bhagwan, I clearly accept that I am self destructive.”

Osho responded immediately, “But we are dead to such an extent that we do not even get hurt. We are such cowards that we console ourselves and accept to be self-destructive. How long shall we remain dead? Infinite lives have passed like this.”

And I realized that He leaves no space for us to hide.

Ageh Bharti. Blessed Days with OSHO . 

Osho Tratak Meditation & Suppressed Feelings

Then one evening, during ‘Tratak’ meditation, Osho stood up and made gesture with hands to put our energy in meditation.

 In those moments, it seemed that Osho was the ocean of compassion itself. In the depth of my heart, I felt like dying. The ecstasy was too much to bear with. 

After meditation, many friends shared their experiences. They also had the same feeling. There were many who felt that Krishna, Buddha, Mohammed and Jesus Christ and all the enlightened masters had joined to become one Osho. 

On another evening during ‘Tratak’ meditation, many meditators were seen in a strange state of being. Their faces looked angry as if they wanted to swallow Osho. So, some friends stood up and joined their hands to prevent them from coming closer to Osho for the sake of safety. 

Next evening before the ‘Tratak’ Meditation, Osho iterpreted, “Yesterday some people started to take care of me. They do not know how much harm they do by preventing the meditators from advancing towards me. The whole of meditation is to give an outlet to the suppressed feelings. And if they are prevented here in the camp also then what harm we cause is not known to us. You have come here to meditate, not to guard me. And if even one person attains to meditation and my body is left, there can be no greater happiness to me than this.” (Hearing this, there was sudden outburst of cries, sobs, and screams.)

He added, ‘All my effort is towards this. Moreover, those who move towards me are fully aware. They are not mad. To you, they may appear to be dangerous but the depth of their sublime feelings and love in moving towards me is not known to us. However, if you prevent them, then certainly you are creating a situation for them to go mad. Therefore, it is my request that from today onwards nobody should bother about my safely. Each of you will concentrate on meditation for which you have come here.’ From that day, every one tried to put lot of energy in meditation. It had been the most beautiful camp attended by me ever in which the participants were euphoric that they used to walk dancingly and used poetic language while talking.

Ageh Bharti. Blessed Days with OSHO . 

Osho's Feet Touching

Once someone inquired Osho at a gathering, “Acharya ji, People touch your feet, why don’t you prevent them?”

Osho : “I do not have even this insistence that I should ask someone not to touch my feet. If someone wishes so, what right do I have to stop him? If someone puts his head on the feet, it is his will and if someone comes to put his feet on the head, then too it is his wish. I will not stop him too. Who am I to dictate someone ‘to do’ a certain thing or ‘not to do’ a certain thing? No, from my side, there is no insistence at all.”

Osho lived in Bombay for some time. One day, a woman came to see Him. Instead of greeting Him, she gave one slap on His face. Osho felt neither alarmed nor volatile at the unexpected behaviour of the woman.

In a soft and tender voice, Osho asked, “Do you have anything more to say?” Instantly, she gave another slap on the other side of the face. Even at this, He asked the same, “Anything more?” Now that poor woman replied, “I wanted to test whether you are a real saint?”

Osho transcended one and all. That’s why all were attracted towards Him - friends and foes alike.

Osho on Self Respect and Ego Difference

Once I inquired Osho in some other reference, “What is the difference between ego and self-respect?” Osho responded, “Ego is aggressive. Its interest is in attacking others. It feels pleasure in causing pain to others but self-respect is defensive. It is not at all eager to attack. Nor does it have any interest in causing pain to anyone, but if someone attacks him, then he wants to defend himself. Only for this reason, in ethics, self- respect is said to be a lesser evil because at least everyone has the right of self-defence.” “But the difficulty is that everyone thinks that his is the ‘self-respect’ and the other’s is the ‘ego’. This is how ‘ego’ thinks. For him, all others are ‘egoist’. And every one thinks the same way. So, a seeker has to be alert towards self-respect too. A seeker has to go beyond self-respect also, get it?”

Vice Chancellor questions Osho on his beard

May 15, 1970. Time - Evening Hours. Place - Jabalpur. I sat near Osho. Narayan and Kamlesh Sharma (a friend from Raipur) were with me. Osho made a gossip with reference to a beard. Kamlesh described an incident that when he sought the admission in the science college at Raipur, the professor asked him ‘Why have you grown beard?’ and finally, the professor permitted admission only when he got his beard shaved. Osho quipped, ‘So, you shaved the beard because he didn’t like it?’ Kamlesh replied, ‘Yes, because he was not granting admission unless I shaved.’ Osho recollected an incident, ‘Once there was trouble with my beard also. It so happened that I was to get rupees two hundred as scholarship from Sagar University and for the sanction of the scholarship, one had to meet the vice-chancellor and face an interview.’ ‘In those days, I used to wear wooden slippers, which used to make noise. I would wear ‘lungi’ and above all, I grew a beard, I had told my family members that I would not take any money from them for my post graduation rather I would study with the scholarship money. There was a professor named Dr. S. S. Roy. He loved me very much. He took me to see the vice-chancellor. Before going there, he took a promise that I would keep quiet and won’t indulge in any argument. However, when we reached, the first question posed by the vice- chancellor, ‘Why have you grown beard?” Prof.

Roy felt embarrassed and pulled my ‘Lungi’ from behind the chair to keep quiet, but I asked Prof. Roy, “Now you can go, because the purpose for which you brought me here is out of question. Now I have to answer his question.” Prof Roy was in a fix. The vice-chancellor was rather confused to ascertain the topic. He said, ‘I asked it just by the way.’ I replied, ‘I too will answer just by the way. In fact, before coming here, he took a promise that I won’t argue here; but now such question has been asked that I leave my scholarship. The scholarship is out of question. So Prof. Roy’s work is over. Now, I will answer you. Therefore, I asked him to go or sit quietly without any interference.’ Prof. Roy remained on his seat. I told him, ‘You have put a wrong question. In fact, I should ask you; why have you shaved? Because, I have not grown the beard. It has simply grown on its own. I have not done anything directly with it. But you have done something directly with the beard. You have shaved it. So the first question arises as to why have you shaved?’ At this stage, the vice- chancellor felt quite embarrassed. He shut his eyes for sometime. Then he said, ‘In fact, I have never thought over it seriously.’ I intervened, ‘You please think over. Should I come to get reply tomorrow or after a week? When should I come?” He replied, ‘It is not necessary, I may not be able to answer by next week also.” I said, ‘The matter won’t end like this. It will end when you attribute the reason for shaving. In that case, I may think of shaving the beard. If you don’t justify, let your beard grow as it used to.’ At this juncture, he tendered an apology. He was so much impressed that he granted scholarship without any hesitation. Later, he remained a very good friend of mine till I was in Sagar University. He extended, many facilities, which were not accessible to students. He was

daring and upright. To ask for an apology with a student needs courage. He selected only erudite scholars and meritorious students during his tenure.’

Osho and Senior Bacchan - Madhushala

We reached Delhi the next morning i.e., on August 6, Lala Sunderlal and Shantilal are at the railway station to receive Osho. We reached Lalaji’s residence. There were several friends to welcome Osho. After a shower, lunch and little rest, Osho was available to a group of friends to talk. Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan (a poet of international repute and the most popular name as a poet in India) comes to see Osho, at 2.30 p.m., I arranged his meeting with Osho Bachchan greeted Osho with folded hands and said ‘My name is Bachchan’ Osho reciprocated Him with a smile. Bachchan took a seat. He offered a copy of his most popular collection of poems Madhushala. Bachchan explained, ‘Although there may be 50 books in my name but this has been the most popular. I have been doing this play during my life.’ Osho just smiled and before He told something, Shantilal besought Bachchan Ji to recite some of the poems. Bachchan often recited two or three rubaiyats (verses) from Madhushala. Osho appreciated his poems and emphasized, ‘It is good. One should take everything as game. Nothing should be taken seriously. But as long as ‘I’ am playing, the ‘play’ does not happen. The play also, ‘I’ am not playing. The ‘play’ goes on happening, that’s all.” Bachchanji seemed to be looking inside, realizing something and he repeated slowly unto

himself, ‘The play also I am not playing. The play goes on happening, that’s all.’ Osho spoke for a few more minutes. Meanwhile, Dr. Tripathi arrived with some 20-25 girl-students. It was August 6th of that year. Hiroshima was bombed on that day during 1945. The day is being celebrated as the World Peace Day. Dr. Tripathi posed some questions relating to peace and Mahatma Gandhi. Osho asserted, “Peace is not going to take place by shouting ‘peace’, ‘peace’ or by repeating Gandhi’s name. This ought to be understood first. If we can understand the cause of our restlessness then, of course, we can manage peace to reign.’ “Then violence is also of several kinds. I do not consider Mahatma Gandhi to be a non-violent man. It is violence if I command you to accept what I say otherwise I will stab you. And this too is violence if I ask you to accept what I say otherwise I will stab myself In fact, the latter one is more dangerous because when I go to stab you, perhaps you can fight back or at least you can run away, but when I am ready to stab my own self then there is no way for you to escape.” One of the several traditional sanyasins (Osho has not yet begun His Neo-sanyas movement) who were present were volatile and argued with Osho. He went on levelling accusations to Osho but the latter kept smiling. Osho wanted to say something but the sanyasin was enraged and began purring like a bird without allowing Osho to speak. He yelled, ‘Mahatma Gandhi is such a great man that the whole world respects him as a great soul and you criticise him?’

 

Osho replied, ‘I can say only that what I feel is right. It is not necessary that you accept it. My request is only to kindly listen and think over; if it does not seem to be right to you, throw it away.’ The sanyasin challenged angrily, “Buddha, Mahavira, and so many other great beings have been here. Do you want to say that they were all wrong? Osho replied, ‘This is now time for me to leave to catch my train, there is no time left. Some other time, we will discuss the issue in detail but this much I would like to say before I leave that they were all wrong!’ We all stood up with Osho to leave for the railway station. The sanyasin now apologized to Osho that he has hurt Him. Osho wondered smilingly, ‘No, no, you haven’t hurt me’ The sanyasins left the scene. At this point Dr. Tripathi, while taking leave to move with students, regretted over the episode, ‘We liked your thoughts. We wanted to have more of it, but due to those sanyasins our talks got interrupted.’ Osho acknowledged him with a smile. Dr Tripathi left the scene with students. Shantilal ji and I packed the luggage. Now came the crucial moment, the most touching and euphoric one of the journey: We stood ready to leave when Bachchan ji interrupted, ‘I would like to make a prophecy.” ‘Osho welcomed it with a smile.’ Bachchan ji commented, ‘You are a tragic person and you shall be crucified.’

Bachchan’s eyes welled with tears and I also wept simultaneously. Osho put His one hand on my shoulder to console me and told Bachchan with a pause, ‘You are right.’ A deep silence enveloped us for a moment. We left for the railway station in two cars. In one car, Osho sat on the back seat in the middle with Bachchan ji on His right side, Lala ji on the left and I sat next to the driver. Shantilal and other friends sat in the second car. Osho went on talking with Bachchan all the way, but I could not hear. I have plans to stay in Delhi for two more days. I have already shared my plans with Osho which He endorsed. I left Osho at Delhi railway station and went with Bachchan ji to his residence. On the way Bachchan ji suggested, ‘There should be an organisation near Osho to spread His thoughts. He has put His hand on the right pulse of India. When He speaks, there are ripples of energy coming out from Him. I am very much impressed by Him. You are close to such a great man; you should make the best use of it. Why not write an introductory book on Him, like “An introduction to His thoughts.”? Osho should initiate the people. I am engaged until October, but later whenever He was at Jabalpur for eight-ten days, please inform me. I want to come to Jabalpur for ten days. I would like to be with Him for as long a time as He may allow.” I inquired Bachchan ji, “Whatever you have told me, you can directly write to Him.”

Bachchan ji replied, “I have presented my book to Him. If He writes something after seeing it, then I would certainly write.” When I returned to Jabalpur, I told Osho about the aforesaid conversation between Bachchan ji and me. Osho wrote a beautiful letter to Bachchanji. I wrote to inform that Osho would be at Jabalpur between October 7-12 and 19-26, wherein he could join. Later, Bachchan ji slipped in his bathroom, and sustained some injury and could not come. The letter that Osho wrote to Bachchan ji in Hindi on September 8, 1969 from His residence at Kamla Nehru Nagar, Jabalpur is as under: My beloved one,      Love, Where does it happen that two persons meet? At least on this earth, it does not happen, isn’t it? Dialogue seems to be impossible here. But sometimes the impossible also happens. That day, this is what happened. Having met you, I felt that meeting could also happen, and dialogue too, and even without words. And your tears gave the answer. I am very grateful for those tears. Such resonance happens only once in a while. I have gone through “Madhushala” Again and again I have gone through it. If I could sing, then what I would have sung is what is sung in it.

Only such sannyas that can accept the world also happily, I call sannyas. Aren’t really the world and ‘Moksha’ (salvation) one and the same? In ignorance, there is duality, in knowing, there is but only one! Ah! Is that worth calling a religion that cannot sing the song of love And cannot dance in joy? – Rajneesh Ke Pranam 08.09.1969 P. S. Shiv says that you are to come over here. Do come soon. Time has no certainty. See, the morning has happened, The sun has arisen, And now it is not very far that it will set!

Osho on Acceptance

‘Just a few days ago, in Bombay, a girl came to see me. She told me the name of a boy and said that they both had been waiting for me to come so that they could have my consent to get married. I was acquainted with the parents of the girl and the boy both and knew the boy personally. I gave my consent. I told the girl’s father that the boy was very nice. Certainly, it would be good to get them married. Everything was settled, and the marriage was to be solemnised after some time.’

Then recently, I happened to go there again and the girl told me that she would not marry that boy because he says ‘yes’ to everything. Say anything and he says, ‘yes’. He accepts everything. He is not fit to be a husband.’ ‘Now this is human mind! If a husband really becomes a husband, the mind would say that he does not love me, he opposes me at every step. And if the husband loves the wife, then she would say that he is not worthy of being a husband.’ ‘Hove is not possible without acceptance.’ ‘From the same city, another woman met me. She was unhappy because her husband loved her very much and she could not love him as much as she should. Later on, she disclosed that before marriage, she was in love with a young man. I suggested her to tell it to her husband and get unburdened. She did tell it to her husband whose love for her grew even more for her innocence and honesty. And the woman saw that even confessing to him all, made no difference in his love for her. Seeing this, something happened inside her and her love for her husband burst forth. Now both are happy.’ ‘So, the only way is to accept the friend as he or she is. Know it well that he or she is so and just love. Your acceptance may save him from going mad. But your effort to make him like you, even if he was not going to be mad, would turn him mad.’

Osho on Imposing onself on to others in relationships

‘Everyone is imposing oneself on the other or wants to impose. Hardly can one escape from being imposed. I find the whole world going into a wrong direction. The husband is imposing himself on wife. The parents do the same to their children. If parents don’t do, in school the teacher will do. Friend is imposing on a friend. Nobody is anybody’s friend. We do not even know what friendship is. There is no difference between a friend and a foe. The enemy says, ‘Accept what I say otherwise I will beat you.’ The friend says, Accept what I say otherwise I will break off friendship.’ It is all the same. There is no difference.’ ‘The right thing is - one should understand that Mr. A is so and one should accept him being so. If one cannot accept, it is better to leave the person alone. But one must not impose upon somebody. It is straightway a murder. And this is the root cause of neurosis and tension of the whole mankind because the reality is that everyone has one’s own individuality, own personality and own speciality’. ‘Recently, I read a marvellous book. It says that for the past twenty years, an experiment is being carried out on mad people and it has brought wondrous results. The experiment is that of acceptance. The author says that mad house is not the right place for mad people. In fact, that is their last discard by the society. According to that experiment, mad people are to be accepted as they are. If a mad man abuses, it’s O.K. If a mad man dances naked, it’s O.K. too. This way, he is relaxed in 15-20 days and gets cured. The acceptance dissolves the tensions created by denial. Whosoever is psychologically mad, the treatment is only acceptance. Yes, if there is some physical part in the madness, for that medicines can be of help.’

Disagreement with Osho

I went to meet Osho some evening. I thought often that Osho never expects anything from anyone. Not only that He gives total freedom to everyone. I have seen people disagreeing with Him yet receiveing the same love from Him. It is only after meeting Osho, I got the correct interpretation of what Rabindranath Tagore says, ‘I am ‘Able to love God, because he gives me freedom to deny him. ‘ I feel very fortunate that I never found any point about which I could disagree. When I was near Him, I was not; my thought process ceased. Who can then disagree or agree? Just His presence made me meditative.’

HOW THIRSTY ARE YOU ? Osho & Swami Ageh Bharati

One winter evening, feeling the rosy chill of the weather, I reached Osho’s residence. I had the privilege to meet Him without an appointment by His grace. He told during the maiden meet, ‘Whenever there’s anything, whenever you feel like coming, come, doors are open’. Time: Five minutes to 8 p.m. I opened the outer gate and entered the garden. It was laden with various kinds of plants and creepers with fragrant flowers. Osho entered His study room at 8 p.m and sat on a chair. It was His usual time to read or attend to appointments. I could see Him through the glass-door, but I never rang the bell, on its harsh and unpleasant sound. How can I make such sound for Him whom I revere so much. I remain standing in the garden expecting that someone will surely come out. After a little while, four men arrived on scooters. One of them inquired me, ‘Is He there’? I replied, ‘Yes’. ‘Is there some other visitor with Him?’ ‘No.’ ‘We want to see Him. We have taken an appointment.’ ‘If you have an appointment, then go in. I have also come to see Him.’ And one of them rang the bell. Kranti (the then caretaker and cousin of Osho) opened the door. I also entered with the friends unknown.

Osho inquired about their welfare with a smile. He also inquired about mine. Now those friends went on posing questions, ‘Acharya Shri, you claim that when mind is silent, the experience that happens in that state is the Self-realization (God). But why doesn’t that experience become possible?’ 

Osho explained, ‘There are many reasons that it does not happen. I would talk of a few of them that are the main ones’. ‘First, there is a lack of thirst for God in us. A few days ago, I was in Patna city. There were four meetings in a single day. At the end of the last meeting, one friend drove behind my car and reached where I was staying.’ He said, ‘I want to realize God, please guide me.’ I told him, ‘I have already spoken in four meetings and I am tired. Better come tomorrow morning at 7.00 then I will talk to you.’ ‘I wake up at 8 a.m. How I can be here at 7 a.m.?” ‘Come at 10.30 a.m, then.’ At 10.30 A.M. I would be in my office.’ ‘Then come at 5 p.m.’ I have another appointment at 5 p.m. Can’t you be awake for me one night? Don’t you have even that much love?’ I replied, ‘I do have enough love. I can keep awake also but how long can this go on? How long can one love this way? If one has to work, one needs rest also.’

Osho continued, ‘So shallow is our thirst that we cannot even wake up half an hour earlier for God. We are not aware that in this world, one has to pay for everything. Nothing can be gained here without paying for it. And God is the costliest of all. For God, one has to give oneself. But people want it at the cheapest. They are going somewhere in connection with some work, some business and on the way, they expect some saint, some Baba should put God in their pockets.’ ‘They will work hard for trivial things. To have a certificate of matriculation, they will work hard for ten years. If one fails, he will work again for one year. To become a wrestler, one exercises and practices for 15-20 years; And, if he is defeated somewhere, he feels that perhaps there was some shortfall in his practice. But for God, if one meditates for two months and he does not realize God, he stops meditating thinking that it is useless to waste time on this’. ‘Second, someone may be thirsty. He may work hard. Yet he may not be successful.’ ‘The reason for this may be that he is working in a wrong direction. And if direction is right and still he does not succeed, then probably be lacks self confidence. May be the life-long teaching that God can be attained only by somebody’s grace; does not allow him to have self-confidence. And where there is no self-confidence, there the very beginning is impotent.” * * * Another friend inquired, ‘What do you say about the Indian doctrine of Karma (the past actions) and sanskar (the conditionings)?’ Osho responded, ‘Past actions, rituals and fate etc, are useless concepts. It is these concepts that have made India lifeless, impotent, and good-for-nothing. These concepts have rendered the people effortless and worthless. On the whole earth, India is the only country that has remained a slave for 1,000 years. That is because of 

these concepts. Right from Rajaram Mohan Rai to Jawaharlal Nehru, all those who dreamt for freedom, got their inspiration from the west otherwise India would have remained a slave even today’. ‘One gets the fruits of one’s actions instantly. If you put your hand in the fire, the hand will be burnt right now, not in the next life. If I love now, I will be happy now only, not in the next life. If I hate now, I will be unhappy now.’ ‘In short, I would like to say that I do not support any such thing that deprives man of manly effort and courage; that depletes his will-power. I do say that man can accomplish all. If he wills, he can do it; that is all. These monks and so-called sanyasins have made this country incapable. Osho continued, ‘If a man murders someone, he is called a criminal and he is being punished. If someone misguides millions of people (in a wrong direction), propagates wrong things, then the society remains asleep about it. As I see it, monks and so-called sanyasins are far greater criminals, because they have turned the souls of millions of people to be good-for- nothing. These monks and so-called sanyasins have given us these superstitions.’ Osho winded up, ‘It is very strange that whatever little knowledge we have today is contributed by those whom you call irreligious people (scientists). Two hundred years before, we did’nt know that blood keeps on circulating in the body. We believed that it just remains filled in the body. So many things that we know today, that we use today, are all contributions by those individuals whom you call irreligious people.’ * * * Another friend questioned Osho, ‘During your discourse in Indore city, you told that there is no next life. Is there really no re-birth?’ Osho replied, ‘People misunderstand me many a time. There is rebirth certainly. I do not oppose this. When I

say there is no next life, my intention is not to make the next life a basis for any of your actions.’ ‘For example, some one may think that one should follow the maxim - eat, drink and be merry - in this life and search for God in the next, or that one should do good deeds in this life so that one’s next life is good.’ My emphasis is that present is all that is. Present is the only reality. The past is gone. Future has not yet come. What is present is the only truth. When I say there is rebirth then your habit of postponement gains strength. If man’s habit of postponement is broken, he can accomplish a lot. So, when I say there is no rebirth, my meaning is only this. Do not postpone things in the name of rebirth or next life.’ Those friends paid obeisance and parted after listening to His enlightening talk. I too take leave of Him after some time.

Hotel bombing - Osho Oregon commune

While Osho had worked on individuals in the sixties and on groups in the seventies, here in Oregon he was working on the collective unconscious, on the collective habits and patterns of our culture. These are the very impediments that have paralysed humanity and prevented this earth into turning into a living paradise. Osho’s work is precisely to help us make this possible. This miracle visible in Rajneeshpuram, financially however, had been an enormous undertaking. Millions of dollars had been lovingly poured by Osho’s disciples into humanity’s greatest experiment of the twentieth century. The resources, meanwhile, were also applied for developing an economic base in Portland, Oregon. Disciples acquired a hotel there and renovated it into a flourishing commercial enterprise. However, the sannyasins had to pay hugely for this. It was an endless struggle for survival. The efforts in Portland met with similar hurdles and hostility which climaxed in the bombing of the hotel by a religious fundamentalist.

Metaphorically speaking, the bombing of the Portland hotel was the last turning of the other cheek. The Rajneeshpuram administration now turned strict and used their legal rights, as an incorporated city, to create an armed force, normally called a police force but chosen to be called a peace force here. Several sannyasins earned special recognition for their accomplishments at the Oregon Police Academy. 

The idea of ‘religious’ seekers being armed, caused a disconnect in the conventional American mind which incidentally is no different than the traditionalists who were disturbed seeing a neo-sannyasin of Osho living a worldly life. But the effect was dramatic. The armed peace force worked remarkably as a deterrent and not a single violent incident occurred after the hotel bombing.

Swami Anand Vimalkirti - Prince Welf Of Hanover - Osho Disciple Enlightenment and death

The year of 1981 will perhaps be recalled as the most eventful year for the ashram. It began with one more disciple of Osho’s attaining enlightenment. Thirty-three-year old Swami Anand Vimalkirti, formerly Prince Welf of Hanover, reached enlightenment on the evening of 9 January 1981. He died and attained Mahaparinirvana (freedom from birth and death) on 10 January 1981. The story of this event, in brief, is as follows. On 5 January, while Vimalkirti was doing his daily ‘warm-up’ exercises, he collapsed due to a cerebral hemorrhage. He was put on respiratory machines in a Pune hospital for five days. His mother, Princess Sophia, and his brother, Prince Georg, came from Germany to be with him. Osho paid his tribute to Vimalkirti in the morning discourse in the following words: ‘Vimalkirti is blessed. He was one of the few chosen sannyasins who never wavered for a single moment, whose trust has been total the whole time he was here. He never asked a question, he never wrote a letter, he never brought any problem. His trust was such that by and by he absolutely merged with me. He has one of the rarest hearts. That quality of the heart has disappeared from the world. He is really a prince, really royal, really aristocratic. Aristocracy has nothing to do

with birth, it has something to do with the quality of the heart. And I experienced him as one of the rarest, most beautiful souls on the earth.’ Osho wanted Vimalkirti to be kept on the respiratory machines for at least seven days, because, as Osho explains, ‘He was just on the edge—a little push and he would become part of the beyond…Hence I wanted him to hang around a little more. Last night he managed. He crossed the boundary from doing to non-doing…’ Osho also explained that because of his meditative quality, Vimalkirti succeeded in disidentifying from his body and thus attaining consciousness beyond the body. All members of Vimalkirti’s family including his wife, Ma Prem Turiya (formerly Princess Wibke of Hanover, also a sannyasin), daughter, Ma Prem Tania (formerly Princess Tania of Hanover), his father, Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hanover, mother, and brother, joined thousands of sannyasins in carrying his body to the cremation ground. While Vimalkirti’s body was burning on the pyre, everyone danced and sang in celebration. Messages of condolence were received from Queen Elizabeth II of England, H. R. H. Prince Charles of England (Vimalkirti was a nephew of the Queen and so a cousin to Prince Charles), Queen Fredericka of Greece, Mrs Indira Gandhi, and many other prominent people. 8 September was declared Mahaparinirvana Day, to be celebrated annually in memory of Osho’s father and Vimalkirti and all those sannyasins

who have left their bodies (people who have died) and who will be leaving their bodies in the future.

Osho's father's enlightenment and death

While sannyasins enjoyed energy darshans, living in celebration, and working creatively, they were unaware that an experience of great intensity and meaning was to occur shortly—the death of Osho’s father, Dadda. Dadda and most of the family, including Osho’s mother, brothers and their wives and children, had left Gadarwara and had been living at the ashram since 1978. It was almost impossible not to notice Dadda, the white haired man who was old in body but whose face showed vitality and joy. His bright and laughing

eyes showed inner peace and contentment. He was a delightful host during the kirtan celebrations that were held every week at his residence. Dadda had not been in good health for some time. He had six heart attacks since 1975, and was admitted to the hospital for heart failure about a month and a half before he left his body. The following is a personal account of how I experienced the incident. It was one of those damp evenings of the monsoon season in September. After supper, I was working in my office. I had been working for half an hour when I heard a female voice: ‘Swami, Dadda is dead. We are going to have a celebration in Buddha Hall.’ The message came like a jolt. I immediately put my papers aside, got up, and joined other sannyasins in the Buddha Hall. The news cut me off from everything else; it just pushed me into the moment, and I remained seated silently in Buddha Hall. Just a week before, I had met with Dadda in his hospital room. I had an appointment with him. In fact, it was agreed that we would talk about Osho and he would tell me stories, incidents from Osho’s childhood. He looked as cheerful as ever and also seemed to have greatly recovered from an attack of paralysis. He had now been hospitalised for about five weeks. Doctors had assured his release within the next few days. But as I sat, touching his feet, he looked at me and said: ‘I don’t feel like saying anything more than what has already been said previously by me (about Osho). I don’t like to see people anymore. I don’t even feel like eating anymore. I feel sorry for this, since you have come from such a long distance especially for this.’ I told him not to feel sorry, and said that we could arrange a meeting later when he was fully recovered and back at the ashram. I chatted briefly with Ammaji (Osho’s mother) and Shailendra and Amit (Osho’s brothers). With the help of his sons, Dadda walked slowly out of the room, feeling very hot and exhausted. We brought him back to the room and laid him down on the bed. He closed his eyes and went to sleep. I returned to the ashram. Dadda left his body on 8 September 1979, at 8:45 pm. But this was the death of his physical body. He had attained the state of samadhi, the state of detachment of mind from body, early that day at three o’clock in the morning. And with that first glimpse of the eternal he became aware that he was going to die. He sent a message to Osho to come as he wished to say goodbye to him. However, immediately thereafter he sent another message that Osho need not bother and need not come. Osho went to see his father anyway. This death was extraordinary, but then again so was the meeting of father and son, the master and disciple. Two beings—one already one with the whole, and the other stepping into it. It was their last meeting. The father had loved his son immensely. Osho had served him lovingly since childhood. At one of my meetings with Dadda, he remembered fondly how once during an illness, Osho, when he was fifteen, used to give him a massage and, despite the doctor’s prohibition, bition, bring sweets to him secretly and feed him. But now this illness was the last one, and father and son were no longer the same. It was an incredible meeting of two beings in an intimate yet unattached relationship. So a great celebration began in Buddha Hall at about nine that evening. Disciples were crying, dancing and singing ‘Hallelujah’. That is the way Osho wanted it to be. Because, as he says, ‘He left the world in utter silence, in joy, in peace. He left the world like a lotus flower. It was worth celebrating. And these are the occasions for you to learn how to live and how to die. Each death should be a celebration—but it can be a celebration only if it leads you to higher planes of existence.’ Around 10:30 pm, Dadda’s body was brought into the hall and laid on a marble stage from where Osho gave his discourses. Osho’s mother and other family members, full of tears, were near the body. There was a distinct glow on Dadda’s face and he looked to me more as though he was deep in meditation, rather than dead. After a while, Osho came. As usual he smiled and signalled greetings to everyone with hands pressed together in a namaste. Then he placed a garland of leaves around Dadda’s neck and knelt down. It was a remarkable scene; the energy in the hall was intense. Osho touched his father’s head at two spots. In his lecture later that day, he explained what he was doing. 

‘I had touched his body at two spots, one on the agya chakra because there were only two possibilities, either he could have left his body through the agya chakra, in which case he would have had to take one more birth, though only once more. And if he had left through the seventh chakra, sahasrar, then he would not have to take birth again. First I checked his agya chakra. I put my hand on his agya chakra with a little concern because the chakra through which life departs opens up like a bud which blossoms into a flower. And those who have experience of chakras can immediately feel, just by touching, from where life found its way out. I was very happy to see that his life had not passed through the agya chakra. Then I touched his sahasrar, which is also known as the ‘thousand petal lotus’, and found it open. He flew away through the seventh door.’ In a few minutes Osho left the hall smiling, and a little after that the body was taken to the nearest cremation ground, followed by the hundreds of ochre-robed sannyasins chanting, ‘Rejoice, rejoice!’ Around two o’clock in the morning the body was placed on the pyre and the fire was lit. As the chanting and dancing reached its peak, the orange-coloured flames engulfed the body and the whole cremation ground lit up in its glory. Celebrating life and death in the same spirit.

Osho's Travelling, Controversies

The hectic travelling schedule that followed from 1960 onwards, shows the rajas phase of his life. This activity, according to Osho, is possible only when one has thoroughly lived out or transcended the inactivity phase. Then it develops automatically and flows naturally from within. Osho explains that this sort of activity is tangentially different from the anxiety-ridden or the tense kind that, for example, a politician experiences. Unlike the latter’s, this activity is

1970. In the book, Dimensions Beyond the Known, Osho describes this phase of his life: ‘When this second phase—that of rajas—began, I moved throughout the country. As much as I have travelled within the span of those ten to fifteen years, no one can, even in two or three lives (births). As much as I have spoken during those ten to fifteen years, would ordinarily require (someone else) ten to fifteen lives. From morning till night, I was on the move, travelling everywhere.’ Stating the purpose and nature of this phase in the same book, Osho adds: ‘With or without reason, I was creating controversies, because more the controversies, quicker this

transition through the second phase of activity is. I therefore began to criticise Gandhiji. I began to criticise socialism. Neither did I have any relationship with these subjects, nor was there any attachment to politics. I had no interest whatsoever in these. But when the entire population of the country was absorbed in these tensions, there seemed, even if just for fun, a necessity to create controversies. Therefore, during the transition of my second phase of activity, I engineered a number of controversies and enjoyed them. ‘If those controversies had been created due to tension-filled actions motivated by desire, it would have brought me unhappiness. But as all this was just to develop the rajas guna, just for its expression, there was fun and interest in it. These controversies were

just like the acting of an actor.’ Osho’s travels were hectic, where he was on the go from three weeks out of a month. Osho had spoken very little, when he was passing through the phase of inactivity. But he says: ‘During the period of activity, I myself went up to people just to speak, and my language was full of fire…That fire was not mine. It came out of the rajas guna. That was the only way to burn out the fire of the rajas guna. It must burn in full ferocity so that it can quickly turn to ashes. The milder the fire, the longer it takes to burn out.’

Osho's appointment as Sanskrit professor

Osho’s rebelliousness could not remain under

wraps for even a day. Right from the first day he started his job at Raipur Sanskrit College, he was asking uncomfortable questions and rendering the customs of the old college loose. The following incident narrated by Osho attests this: ‘I was a professor in a Sanskrit university. The first day I reached the university I was not yet allotted quarter(s) so I had to stay in the hostel for a few days. Because it was a Sanskrit university, and nobody wants to learn Sanskrit nowadays…almost 90 per cent of the students were on government scholarships. They were there only because of the scholarships. They had no desire to learn Sanskrit, they were not interested in it, but they were poor students and they could not get scholarships anywhere else, so it was better than nothing. And because there

were almost all scholarship holders, they were forced to pray every morning at four o’clock. ‘When I reached the university it was wintertime, and at four o’clock they had to take baths with cold water to get ready for the prayer meeting and were shivering. No hot water was provided—Sanskrit scholars are not supposed to have such luxuries as hot water; they are supposed to live like the ancient rishis and their disciples. And they had to get up early, at four o’clock in the brahma muhurta (which is one of the most divine moments according to the Hindu mythology). ‘That first day, they did not know that I was a professor. I loved to have a cold bath in the morning, so I went to the well to take a bath. And the students were so angry: they were using all kinds of four-letter

words… not only for the vice-chancellor but also for God. ‘I went up to the vice-chancellor and said, “This is not right. You are not teaching them prayers. After the cold bath they have to stand in a line and pray for hours in Sanskrit. Now, how can they be prayerful? They are angry with God. If they come across God they will kill him! And they are praying all that while. What kind of prayer can it be?” ‘But the vice-chancellor was an old Sanskrit scholar. He said, “No, that’s not right. They are doing it on their own; we are not forcing anybody.” ‘I said, “I know that they are doing it on their own, because if they don’t do it their scholarships disappear. You are not forcing them in a direct, but an

indirect way. And if you want to argue with me, then give me only one day and I will put up a notice saying that whoever wants to have a cold bath at four o’clock and pray can get up, and whoever does not want to, need not worry about the scholarship; it will be up to him.” ‘Now the vice-chancellor was caught. He had to agree. I went to the vice -chancellor at four o’clock and he himself was asleep! I dragged him out of bed and said, “Come on! What kind of vice-chancellor are you? Your students are praying, taking cold baths, and you are asleep!” He was very angry at me. I said, “The same is happening to them. Come on!” ‘And there was not a single student, the well was empty and the prayer hall was empty. I told him, “Now take a cold bath with me, and we will both

pray!” ‘He said, “I cannot take a cold bath. I am an old man!” ‘I said, “Okay then I will take the cold bath. You sit here and watch, and then we will go and pray.” ‘He said, “But I am feeling tired and I want to go to sleep!” ‘“Then,” I said, “I am the only person who will be praying—and I don’t know Sanskrit at all! And God understands only Sanskrit! I was wrongly appointed to this university by the mistake of the Ministry of Education. They thought, looking at me, that I must know Sanskrit. I don’t know Sanskrit at all. I am not interested in anything dead.”

‘So he went to his room and I went to my room, and everybody slept. That morning the students came to me and they were very happy and thankful. I said to the vice-chancellor, “This is far more beautiful, this is far more prayerful—their coming to me and thanking me.” I said to him, “Stop all this nonsense!” ‘But rather than stopping the nonsense he made the government transfer me to another university, saying, “This man is dangerous! He will destroy my students’ morality, character and religion.”’

Osho's stint as professor and his Class & his Students

Osho got a teaching position at Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya, Raipur (Raipur Sanskrit College) in 1957. In 1960, he moved onto becoming a professor of philosophy at the University of Jabalpur. Throughout his teaching career, Osho was

respected as a brilliant and wonderful teacher. He inspired interest and a spirit of curiosity in his students and encouraged them to search for answers on their own. He was so popular that at the university, students often missed other classes to attend his lectures. As Osho describes, ‘I had only ten students in my class, but soon the vice-chancellor had to give me special permission for a bigger class because 200 students were attending who were not my students. The other teachers were angry because the students who should have been in their classes, were sitting in mine. They told me, “This is not right.” I said, “You don’t be bothered. You can also come,” and in fact a few teachers started coming too.’ 

Osho trying to get character certificate from University Professors after his graduation

After he graduated from the Saugar University, Osho looked for a teaching job. But his defiance of social norms once again threatened his prospects. He narrates an interesting episode: ‘When I passed out of the university, I applied for a government job. The education minister called me for an interview and asked me for some character certificates (references). I said, “I am here; you look

at me. I can sit here, you can watch me. I can live with you for a few days if you like. But don’t ask about certificates. Who can give me a character certificate?” ‘He couldn’t understand and said, “You can bring one from your vice-chancellor, or at least from the head of your department.” ‘I said, “If my vice-chancellor asks for a character certificate for himself, I cannot give it to him. So how can I ask for a character certificate from him? So that is impossible. I can ask for a character certificate only from a man whom I can see is a man of character. But that will be absurd. That means that first I give him a character certificate—only then his character certificate becomes meaningful.”

‘He totally failed to follow me. He said, “Then it will be difficult, because at least two character certificates are needed.” ‘So I wrote a character reference in the name of my vice-chancellor. Later I went to the vice-chancellor and said, “This is the certificate I have given to myself. You have to sign it.” ‘He said, “But this is absurd. How can you give a character certificate (to) yourself ?” ‘I told him, “If I cannot give my own self, then who can give one to me? I know myself more than anybody else knows me. You don’t know me at all. If you can give a character certificate to me, then why can’t I? This is the certificate. You have to sign it.”

‘He looked at the certificate and laughed, because I had written in the certificate that man is freedom, and character is always of the past, and the future remains open. I may have been a good man up to now, but next moment? Nobody knows! I may have been a saint up to now, but the next moment I can become a sinner. In fact, each moment I have to give a new lease to my character, again and again I have to hold it.’