Parmartha,
I thought you would like to see these never-seen-before photos of Osho.
A close friend of ours (my boyfriend/Shashwat) died on 9th Feb, 2018 in Pune. He had left this very precious album of Osho photos at link below with a sannyasin friend whom he met few months ago.
I thought you would like to see and maybe share on SN.
A gentle hug – Kavita.”
https://www.oshonews.com/2018/02/13/osho-in-jalandhar-1967-1968/
Kavita, if you were at the death celebration of Satish, please post some photos of that event too.
Shantam, I didn’t go for the celebration.
Satish’s office is exactly opposite my mother’s bedroom window, so we could see the beginning of the celebration/kirtan.
I don’t have any photos of the burning ghat. In any case, since four years I have stopped going to the burning ghats for anyone’s death celebration & also even if I went would not take pictures, it’s not my scene.
Shantam, a friend did share a burning ghat celebration video; I see you have also commented on it.
Link to the video -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGHhDMRPgkg
Sorry, Kavita, was Satish someone you and Shantam knew, etc. What was his significance? I doubt whether anyone one here apart from you two know.
It sounds like he worked in the ashram, and was quite well known to Indian sannyasins?
We watched the video. Looks like the burning ghats have been modernised!
SN, actually Satish was introduced to me by Shantam.
After he left the commune Satish took to renting out rooms to sannyasins & later property dealing business. Since Shashwat was homeless & jobless after leaving the commune they very soon became friends & started to live with Satish, who gave him a space in his house, food & money for his help as an assistant in a Garden restaurant (‘Basho’) & Property business (‘Bliss Enterprise’).
He was like a big brother to Shashwat so he became like my family too. Shashwat moved out from Satish’s after we started living together in my kitchen (‘Popular Heights’). Satish – we always shared a very loving bond with him.
Satish would often mention about his days when he met Osho at his home in Jullundur/Punjab and his life after. I guess in Poona One all resident Indians mostly knew each other in the commune in those days.
I remember Satish mentioning he was living in Bombay when Osho had returned to Bombay from the Ranch, he was in the core team of Osho’s day-to-day affairs at ‘Sumeela’.
Later, when Osho came back to Poona, Satish also shifted back. Later, Osho had sent gifts with names written on them. There was one more Swami Satish also from the same town, Jullundur, who was visiting, who was handed the gift, this Swami was also a close friend of Satish. When he got this gift the Swami was kind enough to give it to Satish and said to him, “This gift is for you!” Satish very fondly remembered this.
He loved to organise get-togethers/parties at his residence for all Osho festivals as well as whenever he made some good money & would pay utmost attention to the smallest detail.
He was very caring towards his friends who were homeless & would give them shelter, also would encourage & guide them in their field of work to earn a living.
We would see each other from our windows, many times since he started to live opposite our house in August 2016. Last time we met & spoke to each other was in October 2017.
Existentially, I could see him for the last time from our window!
PS:
Yes, seems burning ghat has been modernised – the Indian Government itself modernising, they might as well modernise the final abode of its majority citizens!
Thanks very much, Kavita. That puts other readers in the picture well.
The fucking thing called enlightenment was never a theme in Pune as long as master was alive, and later on, his creation, the commune.
What has impressed me the most is how we the human beings from different parts of India and abroad connected with each other in the name of the master.
Kavita has created picture of Satish in a true and heartfelt way.
So much Beauty – Kavita
A gentle hug to you and to everybody else here – who is open to acknowledge the ´extraordinary´ in the ´ordinary´ – too.
Precious moments, captured in not-fabricated (foto-shop worked-on, eg not distorted or compiled) pics have their very own mysterious strengths to reach the wisdom of the Heart, a space which is beyond time.
With Love,
Madhu
Yes, dear, a gentle hug to you, Madhu.
So much magnificence!
Thank you, Kavita!
Kavita, interesting photos that leave the impression that Osho was a guru from the word go. He was a great-looking man.
Yes, Lokesh, seems to me Osho was a guru to some anti-guru disciples!
“Osho was a guru to some anti-guru disciples!”
Inconvenient truths don´t get “gentle hugs”.
Truth is mostly inconvenient, only some humans & some animals hug, gently or otherwise!
One sees already the desire to become a master of masters in his eyes.
Projecting and seeing are quite different pairs of shoes, Satchit, and reading your very recent interpretative comment, I´d like to quote again from some decades ago: “You ain´t seen nothing yet,”
Madhu
Madhu, if you would really see, you would also enjoy the diversity. This you don’t.
Yeah, some boys dream to become a train driver, some dream to become a guru.
“some boys dream to become a train driver, some dream to become a guru.”
Satchit, you have enriched spiritual literature with this one sentence.
Shantam, you have a good sense of humour, better than others here.
Anyway, I suggest, stop meditating in these cold churches, one can easily get a cold there.
I´m glad I´m not a ´boy´, Satchit, neither in responding to your imagined ´issue´ of ´Masterdom´ in this case, nor in your imagined understanding of the latter.
Osho looks so approachable in all the pics, the bare torso and the joy on his face of the just uncovered Truth…In the last picture they all look a bit down to me, including Osho, I wonder why? Maybe a foreboding of the road that lay ahead of being a Master?
No easy task, I think. Many people when they wake up want to be alone. Ramana lived in a cave for 15 years. Sri Lakshmana (a former disciple of R) just wanted to be in his hut, absorbed by the Divine, but people were pestering him, and after some years he gave in and started giving Satsang. Maybe compassion wins in the end and that wanting to sit in Samadhi all the time is only half of the Truth.
Ramana kept walking around in his ‘nappies’, Osho changed from lunghi to white dress to extravagant robes. I sometimes imagined him sitting in lecture or satsang wearing jeans and a shirt, short spiky hair and no beard. I think he would have loved that, if only to see our reaction, so why didn’t he do it?
Thanks, Levina.
I thought the pics a great gift. I agree about the last picture, Osho looks pissed off. Maybe it was that large family, not his, that seemed to be surrounding him.
A few of the other pics I felt seemed of different moods in his face, and I did not experience them all as some kind of ever-continuous bliss…which I actually found reassuring!
When I have seen these photos days ago, my first impression was Osho was born to be a guru (master).
Then came westerns.
With them came glamour, recognition, organisation and downfall!
All that glitters is not that gold!
I’ve always had the impression the presence of westerners (especially the women) was what drew you to and kept you returning to Pune, Shantam.
Is that correct or have I got a completely false idea of your motivation?
Satyadeva, Kavita has shared a video link. Watch this video. Count how many Indians are there and how many westerns. If your answer is factually correct, I will answer your question with best of my knowledge and beliefs.
Shantam, seems OIF has removed your comment from that video!
No, Kavita, that video is not the copyrighted material of OIF. It seems none of their representatives of Resort were present at the burning ghat and neither the death celebration started from ashram/commune/Resort premises.
As I know, Resort has a price list for funeral and burial services. As most of the family members of the deceased sannyasins cannot afford even a cup of chai in their premises so they arrange the final journey with the help of Indian sannyasins settlers.
The comment I have deleted myself.
Yes, it’s true none of his old & really closest friends were physically present at the burning ghats, but they did come to his residential building & office premises where there was a kirtan before they left for the burning ghats.
You are ridiculous most of the times, Shantam, I don’t think even Satish would agree with your kind of thinking.
We all become a bit understanding about all kinds of changes with age, but seems you are getting irritatingly rebellious with age!
“I don’t think even Satish would agree with your kind of thinking.”
Was Satish some kind of mystic or a genius that one should care? He was one of wheeler and dealer, almost the same character who runs the Resort.
I didn’t say he was a mystic or genius. Then why do you bother mentioning enquiring about his celebration attendance list?
Btw, I heard one of his close Israeli girlfriends did come all the way from Israel just to be present in the death celebration.
That’s so often the problem with you, Shantam, you are chronically unwilling (or unable) to respond to a simple question without putting up a smokescreen, creating complexity where none exists.
I’ll try again:
Was it the presence of westerners (especially the women) that drew you to and kept you returning to Pune?
Without that “glamour” (as you put it) would you have bothered to, in effect, make Pune the be-all and end-all of your life?
Satyadeva,
You are not a public prosecutor and I am not a defendant, you need an answer from me therefore you have to fulfil certain conditions. This is mystical way.
In your questions one can already see the man who has the answers!
It will not take more than 4 minutes to count how many westerns and Indians are there in the latest video from Pune.
My answer will be very intensive and very honest and it will take around 20 minutes of concentrated writing.
“In your questions one can already see the man who has the answers!”
Precisely, Shantam. “This is mystical way”, you see….-
Don’t let that put you off though, I’ve had a cold for 10 days and I could do with a good laugh….
Me too having cold and fever for last 7 days. Time for my once a day antibiotics!
Shantam, if possible, please have garam huldi ka doodh (hot turmeric milk).
Shantam, colds and flus are viral infections. Taking antibiotics for colds and flus is stupid, because they are not bacterial infections. Therefore antibiotics will have no effect on them. One should only only take antibiotics when there is no other alternative.
Thanks, Lokesh and Kavita, for your kind advice.
Antibiotics are prescribed by the ENT doctor after the check-up. I was also doubtful about his diagnosis as he was looking grumpy that day. Most probably I won´t visit him again.
Falling sick in a foreign country and being single really shows how we the human beings can feel lonely.
I was making a story, Shantam´s status update at facebook, “Feeling sick, feeling lonely.”
Someone writes the comment, “33 years after sannyas you are feeling lonely; please meditate more instead of wasting time in writing!”
Out of this lost state, I started antibiotics treatment. Funny thing is, doctor said while writing the prescription, “You are from India, you can take this without complaint.”
Yes, it’s a drag going through it on your own, Shantam, I appreciate what you’re saying. As for “33 years after sannyas you are feeling lonely; please meditate more instead of wasting time in writing!” – I wouldn’t take a great deal of notice of that rather sniffy remark at the moment, the main thing is to be practical, isn’t it?
Apart from keeping warm and eating hot meals, everyone seems to have their own favourite remedies, mine being increased dosages of Vitamin C, regular hot drinks with root ginger and squeezed lemon juice, plus the main one, recommended to me about 20 years ago by a great naturopath, Jan de Vries: IP6 (inositol) capsules or powder, rice extract, which in my experience makes a cold less severe and shortens the illness. Unfortunately, as far as I know it’s only available via his health centre at Hadley Wood (just outside London).
In my experience, getting sick in a place really lets you know where you are.
The way disciples’ mind has unfolded after master´s demise, I can imagine master thinking in his heavenly room, “Neither I am Bhagwan nor Osho, my name is Rajneesh Jain.”
Whichever way the disciple’s mind unfolds after demise of the master – maybe a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose…!
Loved your ´play with messages’, Kavita.
When the remarkable author, poet and friend of other artists, Gertrude Stein, died in a Paris hospital (1946) her last words (were questions) addressing the friends around her death bed, and are reported:
“What is the answer?”, she is said to have said.
Nobody present knew what to say.
She then asked (apparently): “What then is the question?”
And she died. Leaving this message to the friends around her bed.
Also found other versions of her numerous playing with ´the rose´ theme, like these:
“A rose tree may be a rose tree may be a rosy rose tree if watered.” (‘Alphabets and Birthdays’)
“Indeed a rose is a rose makes a pretty plate….” (‘Stanzas in Meditation’)
“When I said, A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose. And then later made that into a ring, I made poetry, and what did I do? I caressed, completely caressed and addressed a noun.” (‘Lectures in America’)
“Civilization begins with a rose. A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose. It continues with blooming and it fastens clearly upon excellent examples.” (‘As Fine as Melanctha’)
The first one, a ´Gertrude´-quote from ‘Alphabets and Birthdays’, I like best for this moment of the snowy, cold, freezing winter day here.
Wish you all well. Or well again. Caressing this.
Madhu
Madhu, thank you for this interesting sharing.
Interesting post, Madhu.