Here’s what Osho had to say about Birth Control, and in many places. I never heard him speak against it! Some disciples felt dragooned into sterilisation, but who was doing the dragooning. One suspects, having been around at that time it was themselves.
” have to criticize religions which are obstructing human progress, in many ways.
Right now all the Christian priests, Hindu priests, Mohammedan priests all around the world are doing one thing: teaching poor people against birth control, because it is overpopulation that is going to give them numbers. And it is overpopulation that is going to keep half of the earth poor, starving — and the poor and the starving are easily vulnerable to being converted.
You just give them education, food, a house to live in and you have brought gifts from God — they will be Christians. Poverty should continue; otherwise who is going to be in the churches, who is going to be converted?”
Yea, Osho did say all this and many times.
But his main aim was not world opinion, but to lead his close disciples beyond sex, but only by going through it. I feel that should be the main debate, is that a solid way, is that better than celibacy?
Whether one is in a commune or not, one is still finally responsible for what happens to you. One thing for sure was that the doors of the Osho communes were never closed to those who wanted to leave, and many choose to do so with good grace, and some without any grace at all.
The gateless gate never kept people in, but was very well oiled for those who wanted to leave. Hence it;s main difference with the communes to which it has been ridiculously compared like the Rev Jones!
samadhi
During the late seventies Osho’s disciples, living in and around his ashram in Pune, were actively encouraged to undergoe steriliztion procedures. There were actually quotas to be filled at a local steralization clinic. It is all very well saying that people have to be responsinle for themselves, but what of the young teenagers who underwent these surgical procedures? I believe Heraclitus has chosen the wrong alias as his comments are ill-informed and viewed from a blinkered perspective.
Poona one was a great social experiment. Experimentation by its very nature implies making mistakes. Osho was a great experimentar and therefore made some great mistakes, many of which we can learn from. It is time that people awake from the illusion that Osho’s experimentation was without casualties. There were many. Having participated in the great experiment that was Poona One I can only say that from my personal perspective the experiment was worth it. The Buddha part of Osho’s experiment was only one side of the picture. The Zorbah side needs more juice on this level to help people remember and understand that Osho was a man and as the saying goes. its is human to err. A good thing too, as it is only through learning from our mistakes that real progress is made and a more comprehensive and expansive perspective of life is gained. Enough for today.