“I received a letter from a bishop of Wasco County, who had been for almost five years condemning my Rolls Royces. In every Sunday sermon he was not preaching Jesus Christ, he was preaching me and my Rolls Royces. The day I was leaving he wrote a letter to me, “Now you are leaving, it will be great kindness on your part if you can donate one Rolls Royce to this church.” Now, this shows the man….
I informed him, “Would you like all ninety-three, or only one?”
And a letter came, “If you can give all ninety-three, that is just the right thing. You are really great. I’m very sorry that I condemned you for five years. You are a man to be worshiped.”
It is a very strange world if you understand people: whatever they are saying shows more about them than it shows about the person they are talking about.”

Osho, The Great Pilgrimage: From Here to Here, Ch.12

One really good free thing to meet people etc was Sufi Dancing which was a mid morning thing.

As for the current Resort’s attitude towards hippies, etc, well, yes, things may well have changed over time. But in 1974/5 many (but not all) of Osho’s western followers could have fallen somewhere within that term, if used as a broad label.

The Osho communes from 1974 to 1985 – well, yes, one did the work/play in a sense for free, but when a full commune member one had good food, lodging and pocket money, and an annual trip to Rajnneshpuram, for free – not dissimilar ‘terms’ to other communes not devoted to Osho.

Being a ‘volunteer’ for truth, and somehow trusting that shelter and sustenance will arise as an act of trust, seems not a bad place to be.

You listed an an impressive inventory of ‘freebies’ from Osho.

Just a few things you forgot:-

SD: When you were asked to edit ‘The Mustard Seed’ (sorry to mention that again) how much did you charge Osho for your services? or did you give for FREE?

Shantam Prem: When you were asked to be a Hindi typist, did you charge an hourly rate? or did you give for FREE?

And all you Sannyasins who worked in the fields, gardens and kitchens were you paid? or did you give for FREE?

Remember Kabir, Osho was not the only one who gave for FREE.

(OK he was the only one to receive 100 Rolls Royces in return, but lets call those ‘gifts’)

What year was that? It’s certainly a lot more than that now, around 15 US bucks, last time I heard, which was earlier this year. In fact, the rip-off gate prices have now succeeded in putting off large numbers of punters (it is rumoured that this is a specific tactic employed by the Mismanagement to put off the ‘lower class’ types, hippies, scroungers and so on!).

As I have experienced it, there is nothing free in the ‘Resort’. You can’t get in and access the daily meditation programme unless you have coughed up the gate fee, and from what you wrote, Kabir 1440, it seems that that has always been the case. Presumably, the activities you listed took place for the most part inside the ashram complex, with the possible exception of the ‘love-making’?

Of course, the whole daily package may have been comparably a lot cheaper then, compared to now. However, let us not forget the possibility that it was a marketing strategy for a new product line ie start off cheap to get the punters in and then crank the prices up once you’ve got ‘em hooked.