(Rajneeshpuram 1981 to 1985)
Here are eight Ranch memories worth their salt – and unedited.
(actually the Oregonian published them unedited – so good for them – SN)
Germany
My long-lasting and overwhelming memory of The Ranch was that — no matter where you were or what you were doing — you were doing it with friends. One woke up in the morning and took a bus to the cafeteria for breakfast; the bus driver and servers were your friends. The entire day was filled with that experience and feeling.
(Lasell Jaretzki Bartlett) – New Hampshire
I got into trouble right from the start by going to the farm to see the horses, without specific permission. I did have permission to take a break from helping register guests arriving from around the world to join our first celebration. I didn’t know I was in trouble until the next day, when an angry “Mom” aka one of the bosses, told me Bhagwan was mad because I missed a chance to go see him. This was deeply disturbing, to think I had upset the Master. Years later I learned that this “Mom” was mad, not Bhagwan. She didn’t know where I was and wasn’t confident of my loyalty because there I had made an independent decision. It was the first of several times I was invited to leave after I’d acted independently. The ensuing tears of remorse allowed me to stay though I was never fully trusted.
(Andrea Uehara) – Oregon
The Ranch culture was very much Indo-European. The vestiges of the British raj lived on through our morning or afternoon tea times instead of coffe breaks or in our queing up at mealtimes or pronouncing the word schedule as in the British “sed-ule. “In contrast to the commune in Pune, India, however, the Ranch had significantly more Americans. One of my memories of the culture wars so to speak at the ranch was one January when a group of American swami’s (male Ranch residents) arranged to have the Superbowl video taped in Portland and replayed a week later at the “Disco” bar at the Ranch.
So in the midst of the improbable spiritual oasis that was Rajneeshpuram, I remember the European sannyasins being puzzled or bemused at seeing a live demonstration of American testostorone that was being played out in person, as well as, on the big screen bar television.
India
We were driving our Chevvy pickup along a narrow winding road that marked the southern boundary of the Ranch. It was October 1981, our community was only a few months old, and we were patrolling as part of a ban on deer hunting.
As our pickup crested a rise, we had to pull up and park because the scenery before us was just awesome. The land fell away before us, all the way down to the John Day River, where dark reddish cliffs bordered the hidden watercourse, then rose to steep hills beyond. There was little sign of human habitation… the land was big, wide and empty.
A couple of horses were standing motionless in a field to our right, in a place called, appropriately enough, Horse Heaven. A pair of eagles glided above us, their wings motionless as they rode the thermals and the wind.
The sky was filled with big, puffy, gray clouds that allowed the light to shine through in a few brightly focused beams, as if announcing the impending arrival of a UFO, or the Apocalypse, or the Second Coming.
I turned to look at my companion, a young woman from England who, like me, had been with Bhagwan for several years. “Wow, this is Marlboro Country!” I exclaimed and she nodded her agreement, reaching into her jacket pocket and flashing me a pack.
So, even though neither of us were really smokers, we got out of the truck and lit up, leaning casually back on the warm hood, puffing slowly and enjoying the cowboy country landscape that surrounded us.
It didn’t matter to us that several of the actors who’d played the Marlboro Man in Philip Morris ads were dying of emphysema and cancer. We needed to experience this all-American moment for ourselves. We were laughing while we did it. We knew it was stupid, but, for this special moment, we enjoyed acting out the nation’s cowboy mythology.
To me, this was one of the most attractive aspects of being a sannyasin, as Bhagwan’s disciples were called. We felt encouraged to experience just about everything life had to offer, whether it was hazardous to our health or not.
California
I worked in Edison, the Audio/ Video “temple” for the last 6 months of my time at the Ranch. One evening I was chosen to carry the video tape recorder behind the cameraman, to one of the evening interviews Osho gave to the Press at Jesus Grove. Our job was to film Osho greeting his sanyassins coming into the building& stop at the entrance door while he passed us into the hallway & beyond into the “interview room”. Osho arrived that evening & as he passed into the building he turned around to face me & started waving his hands at me in a gesture to dance with him. For a split second I hesitated then I thought- to hell with it- this may be the ONLY moment I EVER get to dance with my Master. So I “danced” (well, it was jumping up & down really) and the video recorder bounced up & down with me! When Osho stopped waving his arms & disappeared into the room. I fell on the floor laughing & crying- so very very happy that I took the risk to dance with him. I will remember that special moment for the rest of my life! The next day I was summoned to the ‘head office” where I was told by one of Sheila’s side kicks, that I was NOT to dance with Osho again. But I did- one more time!!
(Kailash Sozzani) – Arizona
There are so many good memories of my life at the Ranch.One particular memory that gives a feeling of the innocence, freedom, love and celebration that was always abundant, is this: One night around midnight, I was sound asleep in my townhouse, and I felt someone shaking my toe, saying ‘ Varuni, wake up, I need you on Security”.There was no fear or anxiety that a man had come into my bedroom (none of the houses were ever locked), in the middle of the night. I just quietly said ‘ Rashid, it’s Kailash; Varuni lives next door. Of course every day when Osho did his ‘drive-by’ was so incredible. No words can ever describe it. And to this day, now that there’s Facebook, there are people I haven’t seen or been in contact with for 25 years; we connect and the love that was so present with us at the Ranch has kept us connected in a way that is so much deeper than any other.
(Sophr) – Germany
When I arrived on the ranch from Cologne, Germany, in mid-July, 1985, eager to spend 3 whole months in our Promised Land, I had no clue as to what lay ahead: an upheaval of unthinkable proportions. Residents said there had been something wrong with the Summer Festival — the old joy and ecstasy had been missing. None of us then knew that during one of Osho’s last Festival discourses, a murderous attempt on the life of Swami Amrito (Doctor G. Meredith, Royal College of Physicians), Osho’s personal physician, had been made by one of Sheela’s intimates, an Australian nurse. While Amrito was reading the sutra text she had injected him from behind with a dose of poison (almost fatal, as it turned out)! A few weeks later, I fainted during the carrot harvest, and when I came to after three days in our hospital ward, the guy in the other bed declared: “Something happened while you were out of it: Ma Anand Sheela LEFT the ranch!” It took me a to understand that she hadn’t just left for yet another trip around the world, but had actually turned her back on Osho, the ranch, and her life as a sannyasin. This immediately unclenched a flashback to April, 1976, just after I had taken sannyas. At the front office, a woman named Sheela, an assistant of Lakshmi, Osho’s then secretary, had struck me with her strident voice and heartless laughter: it made her stick out like a sore thumb amid all these gentle souls around, and I wondered why Osho had accepted such a one as her as a disciple. On my second darshan, she and her husband, an American cancer patient, were also present, and I was simply amazed how lovingly Osho spoke to her and how much time and energy he gave her. Hearing him, I immediately had a pang of bad conscience and then and there dropped my negative image of Sheela. In fact I never allowed it to surface again — until that crucial moment in our hospital ward. Bye and bye in the weeks that followed, Osho did his best to clear up the mess and confusion in lecture upon lecture, and made me understand that “Sheela and her gang” had their role to play in the ranch drama, according to what they were and who they were…
(Rashid Maxwell) – England
The project that inspired and edified me, that was glorious and uplifting and scary and grueling and ultimately enlightening was the very project of the ranch itself. Rajneeshpuram was not an experiment in ecology and sustainable living, not an experiment in social renovation and psychological improvement, not a blueprint for a new politics and a new economics but, first and foremost, the evolution of a mystery school. It was an experiment to provoke the divine potential in us sannyasins – and ultimately in our bloated, floundering culture too. One evening on the way to Magdalena Cafeteria there was a traffic jam; cars and trucks and tractors and buses backed up both ways for quarter of a mile. We could all see why. On the bridge across the creek at the top end of the Mall a backhoe driver was leaning out of his cab hugging his lover who had been coming the other way driving a bus. Did all the travelers become angry and frustrated? Or where they laughing and joking and delighted that two people were so happy?
My initial response was, “For God’s sake. Not more Ranch nostalgia”, but I read every word anyway, and what a splendid page of not nostalgic recallings. Warmed by every vignette was I.
Thanks for posting, and thanks those of you who did the retelling.
It must be Xmas…sniff…All these years gone by…double sniff…old chestnuts…toasting…waaaaahhhhh…It’s no good, I can’t type any more as my keyboard is filling up with salty recollections…of all the last years of SN recollections…about the Ranch recollections…time to put on my Andy Parmy Williams Xmas hat…and be grateful for small repeated miracles…just like an Osho discourse…
I’m looking forward to giving Parmy his Xmas gift…I got him a DIY moderators kit and a liquid bubble ball of the Ranch under snow…waaaaaahhhhhhhh…
I’m dreaming of a….
What an opportunity Osho created for the people to come out from their shells and live for a higher goal together.
Rajneeshpuram or Oshopuram, it WAS a splendid effort to create unity out of diversity.
Without OSHO, it fell flat like a cardboard Taj Mahal.
When will come the next one from the far away stars to create similar miracle for the generation next?
Sure enough, the world has changed and we have changed with the world.
Dreaming of a X-mas with ´Humanity Trust´, incurable dreaming woman, me.
And the moment I get a glimpse, Prem Martyn, of you – besides your vegan approach to Life, and checking out other humans or fellow-travellers, if they are worth existing or not – that then will be a ´X-mas´ present for me.
As simple as that.
Madhu
“Rajneeshpuram or Oshopuram, it WAS a splendid effort to create unity out of diversity.”
It doesn´t feel for me, when I follow your contributions, Shantam Prem, that you ever have been at the place; have you?
And above that, I might ask you, what ´unity´or ´diversity´ means to you? And I’d love to share with you that ´unity ´and ´diversity´ is not two, but two aspects of the same.
And that any gacchamis to the buddha aspect, a buddha place, a buddhafield and a sangha have always been impersonal, like a prayer to Existence itself.
Having been able to experience that for ´a time being´ in an area on this planet, vast and miraculously not as polluted and overcrowded, or over-domesticated, like most other available spots are, has been of the utmost valur for me, unforgettable.
Any human testimony of that is (when it is not fabricated) valuable too, if it tells us stories of looking at our own responses to a dream of ´diversity in unity and unity in diversity´ in a place where, like in a pressure cooker, so many human trials and errors and also miracles, so to say, were happening.
I loved, for example, the artist´s carved-in-wood poem from Walt Whitman about ´the city of friends´ I passed so often, when I approached my worship place.
When ´pressure cooker´ experiences became too much one day, I went to the store to ask for special wood- carving stuff, to polish each carved letter of the latter.
Being as much ´joked at´ (the least to say) as I am here – decades later.
But I got the supply and I did it in ´diversity´ terms for myself as for my, at that time, existing imaginations of ´unity´.
´Silly romantic´, I was called – but I got what I needed. And did it.
And that was not the only example of exploring trials and errors in
responding.
Regaining dignity in midst of exposing stories of trials and errors and also miracles still more than just an ´issue´ and finding a way to express without sarcasm or cynicism or with a heavy load of judgmental attitude (with real after-effects, not virtual).
So, thank you, SN, for providing a caravanserai space in the http://www.world for this.
Madhu – (courageous)
Madhu
I read all the reports. Interesting enough recollections from bygone days. Lot of good people were attracted to Osho. Nothing new there. I have always known that.
Makes me think of an old TV programme, ‘All Our Yesterdays’:
A voice blares over the PA system, “Last time I saw Nirvano he had passed out in the carrot patch.” Nirvano jumps up from a padded armchair and blurts, “My God, I don’t believe it! It’s Ma Hartima. Last time I saw her she was dancing with Osho, while holding a 20 kilo video recorder.” Grey-haired Haritama limps out from behind a velvet curtain, walking stick in hand. The pair of them hug and a river of nostalgic tears flow. The other guests on the stage spontaneously rise to their feet and give a hearty rendering of ‘Yes, Bhagwan, Yes’. Overwhelmed by emotion, the audience rushes into the aisles and starts screaming and shouting in joy. Cries of “Osho, Osho” fill the charged atmosphere.
This kind of thing reminds me of old school/university reunions, although I have never attended such a thing. The key words are ‘I recall’ and ‘I remember’, well, at least I suppose they are.
I also have a memory-filled past. Thousands of interesting wee stories. I walk down the avenue of the past once in a while. Not somewhere that I wish to dwell overlong. Truth is, I am much more busy with today and let the past rest and fade away. In my sixties, I have pleny of older friends with colourful pasts. When they talk too much about the past I endeavour to steer things more into the present, where life is really happening.
Oh, Lokesh – even I felt a pang of sentimentality about the Ranch! I must be SO emotional!
Coincidentally, I was watching a couple of videos about the Ranch and the days of old only last night. The videos didn’t make me feel sentimental at all, all that over-reverence and worship felt so out of date.
But I do love your sentiment – that living for today is far more enjoyable than living in the past. Thanks for the clear thinking!
Again, Lokesh looks from his frame.
Do these eight people who have shared their memories about Ranch not have their todays? I am sure these people too are living their present, where life is really happening.
So, in a way, the comment of Lokesh is out of the way.
El Chudo enquires, “When will come the next one from the far away stars to create similar miracle for the generation next?”
Thus he encapsulates one of man’s greatest problems. The idea that some miracle-maker next one “from far away stars” will one day come and sort out the mess that exists on our planet today. This notion is as old as antiquity itself. Waiting on the second coming of Christ etc. Not exactly fresh, is it?
Problem is that in the old days the simple folks still had time. Today we do not. Our eco-system is going down the tubes. A part of the reason for this is the mistaken belief that some higher authority is responsible for this and it is their job to sort the bad shit out. They can’t and they won’t. I am afraid the buck stops with us.
Wouldn’t you agree that it is time to grow up and tackle life’s problem without the need of a miracle maker, something that Osho was not, in the classic sense of the word. To believe that he was is both childish and immature, not to mention irresponsible.
Story says, Buddha was reluctant to initiate women. His monks were only the men. I just thought, was there a single man from America, Britain, Canada, Germany?
25 centuries later, most of the men initiated by OSHO were from these four countries.
Result is obvious!!
P.S: Scotland is part of Britain.
El Chudo draws a comparison betwen Osho and Buddha, indicating that Osho was a buddha. Firstly, I see no need of such a comparison. Secondly, I very much doubt that Osho was on par with Buddha.
I am no fan of Sheela, but I do appreciate the fact that she stood up and declared that Osho was a man. It is good to be reminded of that, especially if you wear chuddies. It could, of course, be said that Buddha was a man also, but there would be a qualitive difference.
Sheela really knew who Osho was, even taking into account her limitations. Most sannyasins could not honestly say that. The fact that Osho was a man who pissed, shat, fucked and had his weaknessess, just like the rest of us, makes him more human and leaves less room for fantasists like Chudo, to project their holy smoke fantasies upon him.
Chud Meister declares, “Result is obvious!!”
Is it? I do not see it like that. The multi-dimensional impact Osho had on so many people’s lives is not so easy to capture in so many words. There is nothing obvious about it at all. It is much too far spread and diverse a topic to even attempt approaching and really no real need exists to do so. The frog jumped into the pool…plop, and it all happened now and the reverberations continue to ripple through time.
Unlike Buddha, Osho’s impact on a historical level will leave little impression on the chronicles of our current age. Just a wee blip. Then again, compared to the rest of us cosmic dust particles, that is quite an achievement.
Lokesh -
You suggest that Osho was not on par with Buddha – isn’t that a comparison?
Is it possible that if you had been around Buddha, all those centuries ago, that you would have discovered his foibles or weaknesses?
Isn’t it more likely that all humans, from Buddha to Osho, to you and me, also share follies and weaknesses?
There is no perfect state, we are all learning, as Osho did and you also have. I expect Buddha also pissed off a few of his discilples, slept with a few women and made many mistakes. Why not..? He’s human too!
Yes, Simond, of course it is a comparison. It is due to Chud-brain comparing that I brought that in. Buddha’s life was well recorded and really I see little similar in his and Osho’s lives. For a start, Buddha had no Osho to compare himself to.
I saw this first-hand when meeting H W L Poonja in Lucknow. People were saying he was enlightened also. I do not know if he was or was not. Same goes for Osho, even though he blew a loud trumpet about being the master of masters and all that shite. Basically, there existed no need to compare but people did, especially sannyasins. The forms were different yet the essence behind the form was exactly the same. Nothing to think about. That is how it is.
Point is, enlightenment by its very nature cannot be recognized unless enlightened. So you can count us lot out on that level. What matters for people like us is what you actually learn from these people in down-to-earth terms. In the end, it is the earnestness of your very own enquiry that counts. Everything else falls to the side compared to that.
Another comparison. We need comparison to form any intelligent logic worth sharing, otherwise who needs it?
Hi Lokesh,
Thanks for the reply and feedback. It’s a joy to read many of your thoughtful posts. I agree with almost all you say, but the pendantic in me isn’t quite satisfied!
You suggest that Buddha’s life is well recorded, but it was an awful long time ago. History is always written by the victors and the myths of the Buddha are legendary!
All the teachers I have known, from Krishnamurti to Osho to Barry Long to anyone you care to mention, has been mythologised in one way or another. On closer examination, all have been found wanting in their personal behaviour to one degree or another. It’s just a case of seeing that the closer you get, the more intimate you are, the personality with its ‘weaknesses’ reveals itself.
I can’t believe Buddha was any more ‘enlightened’ than any of these other teachers. Or that he didn’t have ‘weaknesses’. It’s just not my experience of anyone, including myself.
If you can’t tell if Osho or HWL Poonja was enlightened, does it matter? As you say, they revealed something to you about your own nature and that is all that matters. I like that.
However, I think you do a disservice to enlightenment by saying “all of us can be counted out”. This can be used an an excuse not to realise the simple truth of the here and now, the love of the present – all things you do value and you do know? Why is this so profane a statement to make? Fear of the mob’s judgment ? As you beautifully put it, “We can learn from these people in down-to-earth terms”. So true. The down-to-earth is the simple realisation of your truth. Why not call that enlightenment?
My sense is that all these teachers, as realised as they were, all found it difficult to integrate their understanding into ordinary life, into matters of the heart, into dealings with the world of work and love. Some tried to do so more than others, and they all did their best. But I won’t mythologise any one of them, especially those whom I never saw, heard or met!
Yes, I agree. This myth-building trip is a real number. I must admit it has entertainment value. That is about it. Miracles did happen around Osho. How much he actually had to do with it all is debatable.
As for Buddha, I love the idea of him as I do Christ. Thing with Osho is he blew the lid off the whole thing and I like the idea of that also. He left us his dream. I mean to say if that ain’t a joke, what is? He spent a lifetime trying to wake people out of their dreams and then before he disappears he leaves you his.
Was he being compassionate and trying to fill the shunyata in our lives? Osho’s dream turned into quite a nightmare from time to time and it wasn’t all good, clean fun. Now the zombies are busy maintaining Osho’s heritage and promoting his vision. Man, that is so outrageous you have to laugh.
“How much he actually had to do with it all is debatable” – Omg, that is so enlightening, it almost blew all the lights!
P.S: Thank you, Simond & Lokesh, for a very wonderful debate.
“When they talk too much about the past I endeavour to steer things more into the present, where life is really happening.”
Dear Lokesh,
‘We’ connect the ‘world’ is one of the advertising slogans of new communications-technology.
Wow! That´s why I chose your last two lines specially for my response.
There are many ways to ´endeavour, friends, to steer “things” more in the present, aren’t there? One way is to silence them, the other way is a gentle counsel, face to face.
And in between the two aspects are numerous other ways in ´creating´ what we call ´the present moment’ amongst humans.
Alas, if ‘we’ all entered as humans of flesh and bones (and Soul) already algorithms of an IT programmer somewhere in the anonymity of the net, then and there, a paradigm change of some other kind is playing GAMES.And if that is so, the invitation to share as human amongst humans has become obsolete.
The tool I am writing in and on, is an APPLE, which I bit into (this one) a year ago or so. Often, I am reminded of the old story, the Brothers Grimm´s not to bite the ´wrong apple´. This also is an old, old story, but that doesn´t mean at all that it is not an important testimony of the history of mankind.
Yet it may be agreed, not only by you and by myself, that the educational aspect included in the story has been a wrong approach to educate, educating with fear and greed for a good outcome (like most of the Grimm stories are doing).
As merely aways, you are true to your habits in your contribution.
Believe it or not, I love you doing it that way. And you have something to say. As I love myself, too.
The present moment here, somebody of the Munich ´Münchener Kindl Facility´is cleaning the stairs of the little house here.
What a romantic name for a service of (energetic) administration, besides cleaning with water and brushes, isn´t it?
Morning itself marching in all ´shades of December grey´ up to ´lunch time´.
I will cook later, may be around afternoon, and just now have a TEA.
Madhu
Ony takes one rotten apple to spoil a whole barrel of apples.
Life is such a shit – educated men and women changed their name and identity under the impression of an another man.
Osho was not a Buddha but just a man, how dignified and wise those people must be who did not take notice of such a man.
I love all those Pune resedents who did not care even for a second to visit that man someone like Lokesh was hanging around with for 7 years.
http://i.imgur.com/xw6Feba.gif
Arpana, you are the limit, or maybe just beyond limit!
Thank you.
Yes, Chud Meister, what you don’t get, in hip parlance, is the difference between hanging around, hanging with and hanging out.
I did hang out with Osho on numerous mornings and evenings. Hanging around is something I rarely do and have done. If my missus catches me hanging around she kicks up a fuss and quite rightly too. There is something dead about hanging around.
So, no, Chudo, you are very much mistaken if you envision me hanging around in Poona One for seven years. That never happened, except in your imagination. You want to watch out for that. Imagination unbound is a force to be reckoned with. It can make a complete fool of you for starters. You being the pefect example.
Like others here, I liked these unedited short memoirs. But of course memories can get glazed – and sentimental.
To Rama Prem I would like to say I have certainly met people who self-describe as having been “lonely in a crowd” on the Ranch. Their comment is as authentic as his is authentic about endlessly being surrounded by friends.
To Subhuti, I would say his sentence, “We felt encouraged to experience just about everything life had to offer, whether it was hazardous to our health or not”, lacks perspicacity. Only a fool risks his health unnecessarily and actually I never felt such encouragement from anyone.
I liked Rashid’s story about the traffic jam! There was the feeling of being in a mystery school there at the Ranch, and with Osho being very close to it, but I would say it happened in spite of, and not because of the rampant totalitarianism!
Thanks to the Oregonian newspaper who invited unedited comment, and thanks to those who provided it.
“Omg, that is so enlightening, it almost blew all the lights!”
Kavita, you know much more about the rappers’ speech; so please help me out,
blew them (lights) off or what?
Looking forward to one of your ever so polite, sisterly responses.
Madhu
Madhu, it’s a figure of speech, just a paradox.
P.S:
Btw, Madhu, Iam sisterly 24×7, I hope you understand my limitations.
P.S: Btw, Madhu, Iam not sisterly 24×7, I hope you understand my limitations.
Uups, Lokesh, you are quite right in relation to organic stuff so far. Who knows though, if even you may get a lesson in the e-tec realms and by uncontrollables – even from your evolved side, uncontrollables, to teach you modesty in judging others. Could be painful too.
Madhu
Madhu, no need to be concerned about lessons for others. Learn your own. That will be of much more benefit.
Memories of the Ranch will remain an integral part of the participants but not of Pune 2. As I know from the faces, many were in Pune 2 for long time.
Reason is clear:
For the destruction of Ranch, all the participants can blame the third party.
For Pune, blame cannot be shifted.
After the death of the master, He too becomes a product which needs marketing, promotions, customers(followers) feedback and after-sales service.
Because Buddhism and Christianity take care of these aspects in a systematic way, Buddha and Jesus Consciousness will go on creating positive resonance in laymen as well as professionals like Lokesh.
Unfortunately, brand Osho lacks this.
Business people around Him think, ‘Who needs something extra when words are so Chocolate sweet?’
Shantam, Lokesh speaks more truth in the following (from yesterday) than all of your posts put together re ‘the deficiencies of the Pune regime, the abuse of Osho’s Vision/Legacy’ (whatever)…
“Chud Meister declares, “Result is obvious!!”
Is it? I do not see it like that. The multi-dimensional impact Osho had on so many people’s lives is not so easy to capture in so many words. There is nothing obvious about it at all. It is much too far spread and diverse a topic to even attempt approaching and really no real need exists to do so. The frog jumped into the pool…plop, and it all happened now and the reverberations continue to ripple through time.”
That’s simply how such things are. You can bet that any attempt to ‘institutionalise’ the life and work of a dead master is doomed to degeneration and ultimate failure, however ‘well-meaning’ might be the efforts of those involved.
But the work and being of one as prolific as Osho, who touched so many, is bound to have entered significantly into the collective human psyche, to be a resource, a power for great good in the years to come. You’re far too concerned with ‘obvious’ externals, Shantam, you need to ‘wise up’ about such matters.
SD, thanks man, appreciated.
Satyadeva, fact is you are so mediocre that unless some Indian promises you some kind of placebo, you will always remain hooked with your own people.
What Lokesh writes is a common sense western mind. Potato juice tetra packed.
Surely it is compatible with the android system you guys are carrying inside.
“…unless some Indian promises you some kind of placebo, you will always remain hooked with your own people.”
What a pile of unadulterated, meaningless crap! Such stupidity is unworthy of further comment.
For me, it is a failure of Lokesh and Satyadeva that in spite of leaving the Osho wagon years ago, they have not cultivated any group or community feeling somewhere else.
I mean, the people who have not seen shadow of Osho after 1970s talk in the way as if they know every street he built during the later years.
Chud Brain declares, “they have not cultivated any group or community feeling somewhere else.”
Methinks the poor chap presumes to know a lot more than he actually does.
Let me ask a simple question to the three wise guys, Parmartha, Lokesh and Satyadeva:
How much is the possibility that you give interpretation to Osho´s words and expressions as per your own cultural and collective conditioning?
A westerner accepting that he too has a collective mind is already a step ahead from his other comrades.
“How much is the possibility that you give interpretation to Osho´s words and expressions as per your own cultural and collective conditioning?”
That is not a simple question. It is a complicated question produced by someone who is simple-minded, as in lacking in mental acuteness or sense.
Thank you, Kavita, to leave it all to my limited understanding PLUS sending me two little fire crackers into the today´s so dark grey Munich December sky….
Madhu
Fiddling the dole in Germany and now this…You can`t fault Swami Iqbal for effort!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-30352231
Swami Iqbal, slipped on a wet bag. Iqbal good name for….
Madhu , I do not take much effort these days, I am more inclined towards effortless effort, so this scene from my favourite movie comes to mind. Maybe it will shed more light for all of us. No intention of sounding preachy whatsoever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7X9zDtsiG0
Ah, YES, Kavita.
Thank you,
Madhu
Lokesh was asked in another article if he is a sannyasin. By his comments on this site, it is obvious that, yes, Lokesh is a Judas-neo-sannyasin.
Sounds like a typical ‘us v them’ cult-mentality attitude there, its origins no doubt some sort of fear.
Thanks for that, Saadz. Now that you have ascertained who I am, at least in your eyes, maybe you’d care to share a little about who you think you are. The invisible man, perhaps.
Fascinating biblical character you’ve chosen to pair me with. Judas was the most socio-political of Christ’s disciples. If it is to be believed, Judas had no choice in his role as traitor, he was a man of destiny.
Such was his angst, after his main part was played out, he threw away the copper coins he’d been paid and frantically searched for a suicide method to despatch himself from the stage of life poste-haste. He came across a solitary tree by a cliff edge and tied one end of his shawl to it. The other end he tied around his neck in order to hang himself. He then threw himself off the cliff.
Unfortunatey for Judas he’d done a shoddy job of tying a hangman’s noose in his frantic haste. The knot came undone and it was thus that he tumbled down onto a pile of boulders. The poor man died a slow, agonizing death on the blood-splattered rocks.
It is a tragic tale indeed and one I cannot relate to in any way that comes to mind on a personal level. It is therefore that I presume Saadz has some need to project the role of some kind of Judas on me because something in my writing provides a screen for him to do so. I really haven’t a clue what he is talking about.
It was wonderful to hear you tell the tale of Judas, Lokesh.
I’m glad you’re keeping up your biblical studies.
Yes, Sam, the Bible is full of interesting stories and, more importantly, parables.
Noah’s Ark is a beauty in regards its esoteric interpretation. Or how about “let he who is without sin cast the first stone?” That would be a good one for Saadz to contemplate. As it is, Saadz provided me with a little food for thought in regards branding me as some sort of traitorous betrayer.
If Osho was who he proclaimed to be, the question of betrayal is null and void. Osho supposedly lived in a state of complete openess and honesty. One can only betray someone who has something to hide. Therefore Saadz obviously believes that Osho needed to cover something up and I have apparently threatened the cover-up by exposing it in some way unknown to me, well, at least in his clouded eyes. Whether I have or not is another question.
One thing is for sure, Osho did not present to the public anything that would smear his cherished image of being enlightened, although, over time, it has emerged that he was capable of behaving in a thoughroughly unenlightened way, especially behind the scenes.
On another level this could be viewed as Osho being completely honest because, unless I am mistaken, Osho declared that he would behave in such a way as to blow everyone’s preconceived ideas about how an enlightened man should behave clean out of the holy waters. At this Osho succeeded magnificently.
Thank you, Guardian of ‘text ´saves´, Arpana.
Will keep me busy for a while, as coming up just in the midst of this and that. Reminding me of countless situations I had to go inside and check if my own life experience in my neglectable but yet available everyday´s can sufficiently relate to that.
It´s not that easy – some stuff, as it appears to be.
As mind is cunning.
Also when it senses a ´short cut´. For peace’s sake.
Thank you. For your effort ever to look into the lost and found shelves and putting it on the table.
Madhu