Osho in Fiction: Lokesh asks a question

I have just finished writing my third novel. This completes the trilogy that I first began creating ten years ago. In my third book I use Osho as a character.

I don’t know if any other writer has used Osho as in character in a work of fiction before. I am considering bringing out all three books in one 460,000 word long magnum opus. Because of this I have returned to my first book, Mind Bomb, and started revising it for the umpteenth time. What follows below is a short excerpt describing my main protagonist, Angus, attending Osho’s cremation. I wasn’t actually there and had to develop this account from various sources. This is where SN punters come in. I’d like you to read it and if you see anything that does not sound right or is inaccurate please comment. I have worked in the creative arts for most of my adult life and am therefore accustomed to creative criticism. Fire away. Thanks, Lokesh. (writing name Luke Mitchell)

The funeral pyre was burning as hot as a furnace. Angus’s robe clung to his sweating body like an extra layer of thick skin. He wanted to stand back from the fierce heat but couldn’t, because he was hemmed in by hundreds of people. They were crowding round to say a final farewell to their beloved spiritual master.

Osho had died in the milieu in which he’d become accustomed to while alive. During the last thirty years of his life he had been constantly surrounded by controversy, levelled by detractors, which was buffered by the ceaseless love of his devotees. The current debate was centred on the cause of his death. Was he, as the guru claimed, a victim of thallium poisoning? This highly toxic chemical element allegedly mixed with food given to him by employees of the U.S. Government in a plot hatched and implemented in 1985, when the guru was arrested and detained within the shadowy confines of the American Penal System. Or had he, as others claimed, succumbed to the combined effects of a chronic neurological disease and an alleged addiction to prescription tranquillizers coupled with massive inhalations of nitrous oxide? There were even rumours circulating that the master had requested his personal physician to inject him with a lethal concoction of barbiturates and curare-like poison to end his life, which would have explained the rush to cremate his corpse, thus avoiding the legal complications that would have arisen had an autopsy been carried out to determine cause of death.

Standing by the funeral pyre, none of these possibilities coloured Angus’s perception of this anarchistic, Zen-like master’s sudden departure from the earthly plane. He was certain that the world had just lost a crazy diamond from its crown of creation.

The searing heat of combustion was not the only phenomenon that was intense down at the cremation ground that evening. The powerful charge of psychic energy permeating the atmosphere was so tangible it could have been bottled and sold as ‘Incredible Vibrations’. Angus felt like he was witnessing a scene right out of The Bible or some other religious storybook. Everyone present, including himself, was wearing a white robe that, by reflecting the light from the fire, glowed with vibrant shades of orange. To the sound of frantically beating drums, voices raised in song and intermittent screams, the master’s extended international family of lovers, disciples and friends could be seen going through the whole gamut of human emotion: grief, desolation, anger, bewilderment, joy, ecstasy, bliss and even madness. It was all there, registered on the faces of those gathered around the blaze.

In the background loomed a tall banyan tree. Angus looked up and could see people sitting upon its thick boughs. The pupils of their eyes were glowing like rubies, illuminated by the fire and highlighted by the jet black backdrop of a moonless night. By the banyan’s long hanging roots stood a small Shiva temple. Over the past few years, Angus had gone there many times to share the company of wandering mendicants, who would use the pilgrim’s shed by the shrine as a stopover for the night on the road to nowhere.

When an updraught of cool air fanned the flames rising from the pile of wood, soaked in boiled butter, his attention returned to the blaze. The fire crackled, roared and flared. At the heart of the inferno the sage’s body was burning and vaporizing, his once noble head reduced to a charred and broken skull full of bubbling brain matter. It was Osho who had first introduced Angus to the radical concept that death could be seen as a cause for celebration rather than sorrow. He’d described death as a beautiful experience, so intense there is nothing in life that can be compared with it. Nevertheless, the master had often drawn comparisons. Angus had heard Osho portray the release that came with death as being like a cosmic orgasm or, to use a more down to earth metaphor, like removing a too tight shoe from one’s foot.

During the last years of his life, Osho had been plagued by ill health and suffered extreme physical discomfort, to the extent that it would have driven a lesser man to distraction. Now that the master had stepped out of a pair of shoes that were a few sizes too small for him and dissolved into an ocean of bliss, Angus let out a cry of exaltation. The physical form of the most remarkable man that he’d ever had the pleasure of meeting was gone. However, Osho’s rebellious spirit would live on unabated as a palpable presence in Angus’s life and others like him all over the world.”

 

 

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161 Responses to Osho in Fiction: Lokesh asks a question

  1. Arpana says:

    I’ve filled up.
    Really filled up.
    You caught it.

  2. shantam prem says:

    Wow, Lokesh, you have created wonderful vibes.

    I was there during that evening and can relate very well with your description and I have read only half, like that child who does not eat his weekly cake in one go.

  3. Parmartha says:

    The best account I know of the Burning Ghats is on pages 3 to 9 of Sam (Prem Paritosh’s) book, ‘Life of Osho’. Might help you.

    Back in the late seventies I actually appeared as a sannaysin in darshan in the play ‘The Warp’, by Neil Oram, which was a 24 hour play then on at the Round House. I and a few more sannyasins had been invited to do so by Jitendra, who knew Ken Campbell.

    Osho had more than a few lines in the play. It was directed by Ken Campbell. I think that Neil Oram is still alive. His Osho bit in ‘The Warp’ was based on experience, as he did go to Poona One. So anyway, Osho as a character appeared early on within that play.

  4. Kavita says:

    First of all, I don’t want to judge anyone’s creativity, but would like to share that your fiction encapsulated with facts looks like an interesting read.

  5. Tan says:

    Really enjoyed reading this piece of work!
    With so many books out there about Osho, this one is totally different.
    Looking forward to reading it all.
    Cheers, McLoke, you’ve nailed it!

  6. shantam prem says:

    Lokesh´s character Angus must be 25-30 years of age on that historic night in Pune´s burning ghat where master´s dead body was being brought to flames for the ashes to be taken in the copper pot two, three days later.

    Angus must have felt tears of gratitude and love when visiting that space commonly called ‘Samadh, where ashes were kept under a stone mentioning, ‘Never Born Never Died’…

    Now Angus must be in the mid-fifties somewhere in Australia, England, Germany; most probably single living in a council flat.
    I really cannot imagine Angus is the head of some community in Latin America.
    I hope Angus has found a suitable woman to live a life of average Joe.

    Most of the time, “All is well that ends well” comes in a very ordinary way.

    • Lokesh says:

      Shantam, that made me chuckle. Angus is no ordinary Joe. As for what becomes of him…that’s the story. I suggest everyone waits for the 900 page book to come out. Hopefully by about July. I have a Hollywood scriptwriter pitching my story to Netflix etc., with the idea in mind to create a thirty episode series. Dream on, Lokesh.

      Ah, well, the true yogi looks not to the fruits of his actions. My writing is a labour of love, man.

      Thanks to you all for feedback, which leaves me feeling I at least got this part right.

      My third book has several chapters set in Pune One. Most of what I have written is based on experience.

  7. sw. veet (francesco) says:

    “The current debate was centred on the cause of his death”.

    I do not know whether to call “current” the debate, referring to 1990, on the causes of His death, is an appropriate adjective, if not rather a slip on the peel of the unconscious.

    On the contrary, I think it more likely that the sannyasins who gathered around Him in his last years of life, despite the infernal aspects of the American experience, were at that moment his closest friends, including those who had never been to Rajneeshpuram.

    Imho, at that time, for His closest friends Osho was not wrong when he spoke about the responsibility of the US government over his health, even if the evidence of the meetings between Reagan, the Polish Pope and his ex-nazi councillor Joseph will come much later, to clarify the terms of the current (without quotation marks) debate.

    MOD:
    Veet F, RE …even if the evidence of the meetings between Reagan, the Polish Pope and his ex-nazi councillor Joseph will come much later…
    DO YOU MEAN SUCH EVIDENCE ACTUALLY CAME LATER OR THAT IT HASN’T COME YET?

    • Lokesh says:

      Veet, relevant enough point, and just the sort of thing I need to hear about.

      It has to be understood that the story is being told by another person, in another present. This character speaks in first person, while the narration is delivered in third person. ‘Current’ refers to what the character is experiencing in a moment in the past and relates to events that were current in 1990 etc.

      Having said that, I will bear your feedback in mind and apply it next time I review that particular extract from the story. Thanks.

      • swamishanti says:

        Lokesh, you mention that poisoning with Thallium was suspected to be to the cause of death, but I think that you should mention that Radiation was the other major theory. Osho had a lot of pain in the right side of his jaw, this is the side that he slept on.

        Also, Osho was made to sign in to one of the American jails under a false name, “David Washington”, which is suspicous (this has been proven by sannyas lawyers who obtained evidence of the form).

        And it shouldn’t be forgotten that there were sannyasins on the Ranch who were experimenting with different poisons; it seems unlikely but the possibility shouldn’t be ruled out.

        Apparently, books on slow-acting poisons were discovered in Sheela’s bunker, with ‘Thallium’ being underlined in one of them.

        That is when Osho first talked about the possibility of himself being slow-poisoned.

        • Lokesh says:

          SS, I understand the point you are making. There are many theories about what caused Osho’s death. That is why my character’s conclusion is the following:
          “Standing by the funeral pyre, none of these possibilities coloured Angus’s perception of this anarchistic, Zen-like master’s sudden departure from the earthly plane. He was certain that the world had just lost a crazy diamond from its crown of creation.”

          • swamishanti says:

            Yes, I see. But I don’t think anyone at the funeral pyre or around that time actually had the idea of the nitrous oxide being a cause of poisoning.

            Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought that that theory came later from some of the ideas on SN, after 2000, including one of Parmartha’s articles, which also influenced Christopher Calder, who started coming up with his theories that Osho poisoned himself with N2O and was suffering from M.E./chronic fatigue syndrome.

            • Parmartha says:

              Around the funeral pyre the average sannyasin would have been like Angus, and was trying to take in the suddenness of Osho’s death and in some cases, like my own, the speed of his cremation.

              Hardly anyone knew about Osho’s intake of n2o at the time, it is true, except the inner circle, who kept it all very quiet.

              However, Devageet, Osho’s dentist, published an article or two around 1999 which were disclosing, and which followed his leaving the 21. He of course finally published a book a few years ago, ‘The First Buddha in the Dentist’s Chair’, which gives more information.

              Shanti, as is his wont, often exaggerates somewhat in a gossipy way, I have never said this is why Osho died, but simply that it cannot be ruled out as a contributory cause.

              I have never had any contact with Christopher Calder, or know him. If he has quoted me somewhere then I would be pleased to know the reference, and to question him about it. As I remember he was actively writing anti-Osho stuff very early on.

              • Lokesh says:

                SS, What PM says is pretty accurate.
                Chris Calder is dead now.
                Hugh Milne’s book came out in the eighties and contained revelations about Osho being in a bit of a mess.

                Knowledge about Osho’s excessive use of gas was not just limited to the inner circle. Reports about Osho’s use of gas began to filter out in the late eighties.

                As far as insiders go, some still believe that Osho used the gas only for dental work. I’ve already made an adjustment in my text due to a comment by Veet.

                I have not really set out to give an in-depth account about who Osho was and deliver an in-depth account of what was really going on behind the scenes. My focus is on describing the different aspects of having regular contact with Osho and what effect that contact had on my main character. I’ve heard it said that it is best to write what you know about first-hand. I tend to use that advice as a rule of thumb.

              • swamishanti says:

                Yes, no doubt many people were shocked when they heard of the death, but I know that also some were expecting Osho to go for quite some months around that time.

                Christopher Calder used to appear on the old Sannyasnews chatboard and I remember his arguments with Devageet, Osho’s dentist, who also appeared.

              • swamishanti says:

                Parmartha, Calder used your article from SN here:

                http://meditation-handbook.50webs.com/osho2.html

                When I looked at this again I am surprised how he asserts his claims as if they are the absolute truth when in reality they’re just his hypothesis.

                • Parmartha says:

                  SS, it seems that C. Calder is dead.

                  I checked his using something I may have written. He does reference but not quote two articles I wrote back in 2003. The main one is:
                  http://www.sannyasnews.org/sannyasnews/Articles/OshoDentalChair.html

                  I in no wise say there more than that N2O should be considered as a contributory cause towards Osho’s death. A view I still share, 15 years later, but this is a thousand miles away from Calder’s absurd views about Osho based on a major flaw within his own psychology.

                • swamishanti says:

                  Timothy Conway, who believes he is enlightened and attempts to mix his Roman Catholic beliefs with Advaita Vedanta( which doesn’t work well, not least because he is clueless about advaita, not to mention enlightenment, was never a sannyasin but has been using the internet in a mission to scare readers away from Osho.
                  His writes from an ignorant perspective, mainly influenced by that disinformation specialist Christopher Calder, and some other books from ex-sannyasins, such as agent Milne. He has been collecting any old rubbish, anything he can find on his not-so-holy crusade agains’t Osho.
                  He is also fabricating things himself, as well as attributing your article, Parmartha, to Christopher Calder last time I looked at his page on Osho. He has also falsely written that you ‘lived in Osho’s house’, which has ended up in a book, ‘who killed Osho’.

                  Also, there seem to be several different versions of Chris Calder’s writing around on the internet. If he’s dead, I wonder if someone else is editing it.

                  Edit 06/07/2023: I have noticed that Parmartha’s reply to this comment from 2018, with his views on this creep Timothy Conway, has disappeared from the site, after Parmartha left his body in 2018.
                  This Conway guy is one of the biggest anti-Osho progagandists on the internet, he uses links to this site, it appears he is being supported by someone who has deleted Parmartha’s own criticism of him.

                  In it, Parmartha expressed that from his professional training in mental health, he considers Timothy to have a psychiatric condition, one of deep mistrust and paranoia. I can’t remember the exact technical term he used.

    • sw. veet (francesco) says:

      @MOD
      The first one you said.

      I heard about this a couple of years ago, during an Osho Celebration Festival in Holland. The declassified documents were exposed by an ‘old sannyasin’ with a Dutch legal name, which I don’t remember.

      The news (I googled a bit for the link but…) fell into a coherent picture that I had in my mind/heart, thanks also to the book, ‘Operation Socrates – How And Why Osho Was Killed’, by Majid Valcarenghi & Ida Porta, published 5 years later.

      Five years after the burning event was maybe the right time to start to feel compassion for the vulnerable and humanly imperfect side of the Master: his hands, eyes, brain cells organised around a miracle.

      • sw. veet (francesco) says:

        @MOD
        Re “The burning event, maybe the right time to start to feel compassion for the vulnerable and humanly imperfect side of the Master: his hands, eyes, brain cells organised around a miracle”

        I meant the opposite:
        5 years (after His death, when the book was published) maybe is the right time one needs to see the Man beyond the Master (I know YOU correct me to make understandable what I write; maybe “5 years later, the burning event” should be changed to “5 years after the burning event”).

        Also here:
        My feeling of compassion that does not privilege the “brain cells” (then his intelligence) with respect to the rest of the body would therefore sound like this: his hands, eyes, brain, bones, etc: cells organised around a miracle.”

        I intended to express that feeling which in those years (95-99) began to grow in me following the offences suffered by Osho, while they began to emerge in their most violent and obscure aspects.

        A compassion that had less and less to do with the Buddha (spiritual function) or the Great Thinker (neurobiological function) but precisely with the Man and his Body (vital function).

      • sw. veet (francesco) says:

        P.S.
        I remembered it: “the declassified documents were exposed by” him:
        https://vrienden-van-osho.nl/hoe-osho-in-mijn-leven-kwam/ojas/

  8. madhu dagmar frantzen says:

    A fiction is a fiction is a fiction, and you, Lokesh, are one of the best story-tellers here, if not the best!

    For me, from the very beginning that I joined the Chat, the most important issue has been if I can sense some of what we call ´Love´ in between the words shared. It´s an invisible flavour, has always been – and is yet perceptible, isn´t it?

    I can feel, Lokesh, that flavour in most of your contributions, also in this one.

    So, I will less follow the fiction you created, but am more about to follow the flavour of Love, which is, how Osho stated it, the most creative and yet unprovable Essence of Life.

    When I tried to describe what happened in me in the Pune Days mentioned in that fictional story – times ago – (and present at that time in India) I´ve been quite aware – some quite more than thirty years ago and up to this present moment – that nobody can ever grasp the mystery which lies in these ´rites of passage´ and how individuals are experiencing that as ´watchers on NO hill´.

    However, anybody here present probably came to know about some of the Tibetan Heritage or the Heritage of some of the other Cultures, be they apparently vanished or not.

    Hence, what to say about story-telling?
    Story-telling is one of the most beautiful ways humans have invented to come into contact with each other for a sharing, and the most beautiful is, in my ´eyes´, when the Silence out of which all ´Storytelling´ comes, is tangible.

    That happened to me when I read your post, Lokesh, and thank you for that.

    And I am also grateful about some of your input these very last days re Shantam´s contributions, as well as in general to the climate of some ´peep-show´ kind of type re so-called ´historical news-features´ (like some bedroom spy stuff, which was really off the wall(s), at least in my eyes!

    Grateful,

    Madhu

    • Lokesh says:

      Lovely post, Madhu. Over the years I have been in many situation that made me question what the seven years I spent around Osho was all about. If I have any doubt I just conjure up Osho talking to me and that remarkable vibe that emanated from every pore of his being. The man was an ambassador of love. good vibes incarnate.

  9. shantam prem says:

    “The flavour of Love, which is, how Osho stated it, the most creative and yet unprovable Essence of Life.”

    This is quite a touching sentence and most probably the USP of Osho. As I remember, Osho has reminded 1001 times, word water is not water, word love is not love…

    Most of the people who came to Pune and have fond memories is because of the reason, in the atmosphere, the most creative and yet unprovable Essence of Life was there.

    Surely this can be corrupted very easily, decay to rare happens faster than to the rotten.

    • Lokesh says:

      Yes, Shantam, there is some truth in what you say. What it boils down to is generating your own brand of positive vibes. This world is full of nego flavours, but love can overcome that. that is why JC told his disciples that they were lambs in a world of wolves. Intimidating perhaps, but that is how it is on the third stone from the sun.

  10. shantam prem says:

    Through my writings at facebook I have got a few friends, most of them Indians scattered around the world. One friend around 35 years of age is from the next town to my home town. We have not met yet though communicate quite often via whatsapp.

    The young chap is very social by nature. He participants in the sannyas events around his area, also devotional singing group called Radhe Radhe.

    Two, three weeks before he lost his mother. Father was already dead and no siblings around. I can imagine it is quite a lonely moment for someone though he has a small family of his own, wife and two kids.

    Other day, he has sent voice messages to me. They are so innocent and human, and clearly shows what kind of sannyas mind has developed post-Osho and his commune. People from Radhe Radhe group were fully there for him, supporting, holding, standing like a rock, offering their shoulders, whereas sannyasins: someone said, “Celebrate death too”, someone suggested to do dynamic, someone said, “There is a meditation camp next month.”

    • satyadeva says:

      Do you know how old the parents were when they died, Shantam? If they were elderly or any age over around 70 or so, when, especially perhaps in north India, death often occurs or is just around the corner, then I’d find it a bit hard to sympathise with your rather extreme sentiments here.

      And after all, he’s not totally alone in the world and perhaps he has a few (or more than a few) relatives, as people from your sort of background usually do, don’t they?

      As for using a few pieces of possibly (but not necessarily) flakey advice from sannyasins to try to further your ‘anti-regime’, ‘restore the past’ agenda, well, that’s such a specious argument it’s barely worth bothering with.

      Basically, I suspect you’re tending to identify your own sense of isolation in this man’s situation, which is a major reason for you not seeing it straight.

  11. Parmartha says:

    I was in London when Osho died. The sannyas scene was still quite large and active. There was a celebration in Kentish Town.

    I do remember the very widefelt ‘surprise’ that Osho had died. And with it all the sharper bereavement associated with sudden death. It was certainly very unexpected by your average sannyasin. It might be worth bringing that in?

    There were certain ‘foolishnesses’ around in Osho’s last ten years.
    For example, the long exposure to nitrous oxide, and sometimes taking it to the limit, as is clear from the text of the book, ‘Notes of a Madman’.

    Osho himself seemed oblivious to this, and his inner circle were intimidated from criticising his use of it. If this was not the cause of death, it certainly would have been contributory, and would not have helped…

    Shakespeare makes King Lear look “wise”, but also gets one character to call him a “foolish, fond old man”. It has an echo for me.

    • Kusum says:

      This makes me wonder again…can enlightened humans become addicted? Or substance addiction is only for ordinary (unenlightened!)? As some people even become addicted to prescription medicines.

      • sw. veet (francesco) says:

        This is just what I answer when I question myself in the the same way, Kusum.

        For me, enlightenment has to do with having discovered/ realised/recognised that the only thing that makes bearable/enjoyable the mystery of which we, as embodied awareness, are part, being sensitive, creative and social matter, is love.

        Love for ourselves is not enough, love for art not even, shared love is what nourishes & satisfies.

        To share with passion, tenderness and intensity that realization has been for Osho his art, the joy of his life, with limits and risks.

        The limits have to do mainly with his lovers, the risks mainly with his detractors: not everything could be understood and not everything could be said.

        In my opinion, that of silence was a phase in which Osho felt that there were no conditions to share, perhaps because he had already said a lot, with respect to the integration skills of his people.

        I can not exclude that in evaluating the limits of his Sangha he did not weigh the climate of paranoia created by the management of the gang in charge, and compared to the possibility to write new words on the blackboard to correct those beloved disciples (not only the people scared of Sheela’s gang but included it) has preferred to delete words and make that blackboard even darker.

        I see his action in those years as the greatest example of rebellion a Master can offer, symbolically taking on himself that pain caused by those power trips, tearing his teeth off and intoxicating with gas rather than giving up trusting in the seed planted in the heart of his people.

        Btw, about his health, it is almost clear to me that after the jail Osho no longer had his usual look that inspires good mood; but someone could conclude that it was because he was going through withdrawal.

        His last words were pure ecstatic love, for us, not very common among the old and sour junkies.

    • madhu dagmar frantzen says:

      “Shakespeare makes King Lear look “wise”, but also gets one character to call him a “foolish, fond old man”. It has an echo for me.”

      Yes, Parmartha, Shakespeare, the solitäry, the genius of a storyteller; whosoever was this Genius, writing his tales and theatre plays, edited under this name.

      ´Echoes´ then – a million-fold – ever since.
      (Lots of so-called scientific approaches as well, to degrade the storyteller (messenger, so to say), to make Him ´one of us´, to degrade the man, so to say, and didn´t function so well….fortunately..).

      And aren´t the main questions rather why and when, what for and who was/is ‘hooked’ – received an echo mentally, emotionally, yes – even spiritually – by his tales, parables and theatre plays?

      These last weeks and months, whenever I am seemingly desperately ´lost´, I listen again and again to Osho´s talks about the Lao Tzu verses, in particular that about ‘sickmindedness’ (V4, Ch 5/edited 1975).

      Helps me a lot when identifying the ´echoes´ of mine, and I can truly recommend it to take a little distance to inner as outer turbulence.

      Interested? You? Anybody?

      Madhu

    • shantam prem says:

      When devotee is level-headed too, I feel Osho energy in the cosmos feels enchanted. Age of blind devotion is over.

      This post of yours, Parmartha, is worth appreciating.

    • sw. veet (francesco) says:

      “There were certain ‘foolishnesses’ around in Osho’s last ten years”

      Are you saying this, Parmartha, or Shakespeare through you, as it seems to indicate the cheering of your two fool groupies?

      MOD:
      it seems to indicate the cheering of your two fool groupies?
      WHAT DOES THIS MEAN, PLEASE, Veet F?

      VEET F:
      Parmartha’s comment had the approval of a couple of parrots, who appreciated the method of reviewing a book through another book.

      • madhu dagmar frantzen says:

        Seconded, Veet.

        • madhu dagmar frantzen says:

          and a PS to this ´seconded´, Veet:
          there is, sometimes sensible sometimes rather not, a hidden hierarchy amongst the conributers; understandable , really understandable, when you
          be come a bit more aquaintanced with the long time contributers including Parmartha, who is one of the ´editors and very founders of this website , who is left. And is to be honored for doing so, I´d say.
          It helped me often, to have research IN this website- chronic, especially , when I´ve been just shocked about Shantam´s contributions for example.
          We all go through changes changes changes,
          all of us, don´t we ?

          Sometimes though, I like that kind of ´matrix´ less….so I ´seconded this time…wouldn´t speak of ´parrots though…

          • sw. veet (francesco) says:

            I think Parmartha is big enough to bear my epistemological considerations to what he writes, Madhu.

            I guess that also for you, Big P is not fooled by people like that Mr. Calder, who calling Osho “criminal” then has the false modesty to call himself “naive”, despite his many academic titles, with which he tried to reduce spirituality to a chemical-electric phenomenon.

            I’m sure Big P would not be impressed by Mr. Calder with his academic qualifications and his imposing self-assurance about his accusations.

            I assure you that Big P, before drinking from that source, would make some consideration on the method to be applied to the field in question, the legal one, where the burden of proof is borne by those who accuse.

            • madhu dagmar frantzen says:

              “I think Parmartha is big enough to bear my epistemological considerations to what he writes, Madhu.”

              Veet Francesco, I don´t call him, ‘Big P’, like some of the very regular oldies here do on this website.

              Why? Because I came to know by own experience, that getting involved in the honourable ‘Shadow-Work’ has its risks too, i.e. the risk to get lost in it by identifying (getting kind of painfully stuck) with a premium role of a top ´investigator´, if not stuck in the danger to proclaim one ´is´ the only one to undergo this arduous task (and ´the best´ – the latter hidden, not obvious).

              Mr. Calder, whose files of edited accusations I was reading yesterday (and the read had some torture (brainwashing kind of) effect on my psyche, much more obvious than to read some of the regulars here, who would proclaim (and do so) to feel associated with big Gurdijeff, that solitary Being of a Master in the time He walked His talk with a few adepts.

              The work of Amiyo Devienne and others, to make what He left a living heritage in the Gurdijeff Dances-Work is much more convincing to me than those buddhies who indulge with some tangible pride, happily quoting stories how that Master (´big G.´) was “weeding out” disciples in sometimes really sadistic ways – experiencing latter habits my inner alarm clocks are ringing as I am not a masochist.

              “Taking the best, leaving the rest” – like Lokesh has more than once proclaimed it, not at all an easy task (inside-outside!) but what I love about it is the possibility (a vision) of transcending a concept instead of violently destroying it.

              As contemporary living beings, we´re getting very strong reminders re our missing understanding of some of the latter by the Islamist terror on the one hand (and to that, fitting concepts) as well as on the other hand if fighting the fanaticism, and in the ways and means such fighting is undergone – not rarely having to acknowledge that the fanaticism is never totally one-sided and also happens on the side of so called ´freedom-fighters´.

              Ancient stuff – indeed – in the ´history of mankind…

              And what ´maturing´ is really about, I guess, we have to learn anew and ´Moment to Moment´.

              Morning has risen, Veet Francesco. Day-Light happening.
              See the children and some youngsters going to school in the courtyard.
              Some of the new-born are carried outside for their first of series of morning walks.

              Some flavour of spring is in the air – for the time being…
              Trees and bushes are yet postponing to show up (visibly) joining the rhythms of Life; I don’t know though, what they are already about to communicate -

              They all, This all, might have a Chat -
              other than us here – but a Chat too….

              Madhu

              • sw. veet (francesco) says:

                My intention in calling Parmartha that way was neither offensive nor flattering, Madhu.

                I think Parmartha is aware that the great responsibility implicit in his work requires a great energy that only a great love makes available, especially if in the absence of monetary reasons.

                Making alternative hypotheses (current debate) on “how” Osho is dead can bring surprises that affect the “how” he lived and on “how” his work proceeds today.

                This is the typical risk of any investigation on any conspiracy, the one of being sucked into the vicious circle of the suspicion that moving in this territory involves, the right method is the only antidote to not be swallowed by the vortex.

                I’m happy for you, as you look at your neighborhood today, while those young sons of bitches here keep dirtying the street and the walls (then, I have to paint those in my building) with ugly graffiti and obscene phrases, to break beer bottles and make noise while smoking until late.

                All these things, at least in Islamic fundamentalist countries, do not happen, as they did not when here was in charge a man very loyal to the Royal Family, Mr. Benito.

                But as Osho has said publicly, we should not hate those who in one way or another have poisoned him, above all, I add, if it is true that someone when betrays is to be loyal to someone else, Royal Family or not.

                But is not easy to forgive, then what reamins is to remember his last love word: Sammasati.

                https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/oct/13/benito-mussolini-recruited-mi5-italy

                http://www.oshoworld.com/biography/innercontent.asp?FileName=biography10/10-16-poisoned.txt

                http://www.theweek.in/theweek/specials/the-curious-case-of-oshos-death.html

      • Parmartha says:

        I consider Osho was responsible for his own foolishnesses.

        You, like many others, consider there to be a big and enormous division between the enlightened and the unenlightened. I myself think this Buddhist concept is deficient and do not subscribe to it.

        People are people, and you, Osho and me are all people and capable of mistakes and foolishness.

        The need of human beings to ‘believe’ in some kind of state of enlightenment reflects themselves and the enormous insecurity that human beings experience, finding themselves the subject of death on the third stone from the sun.

        • sw. veet (francesco) says:

          I think Osho would agree with you, as a Master of yourself.

          And I’m sure you agree with me that there is no need to kill the Buddha twice by accusing him with crimes statute barred, unless with this one wants to legitimise any current crimes committed by those in charge in his name.

          MOD:
          WHAT DOES crimes statute barred MEAN, PLEASE, Veet F?

          VEET F:

          http://www.wordreference.com/iten/prescrizione

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_limitations

        • Kusum says:

          Belief & faith give some sort of anchor & Hope to most humans. Also, most humans always need some sort of father figure, whether God in the sky or some Guru or some religion to cling to or to guide through the life. Yes, people are people, but surely their energy fields are different.

          • sw. veet (francesco) says:

            Yes, Kusum, people are people but guitars are different. However, I like your belief system.

            Unfortunately, my father died when I was young and then I met a Master who left me completely alone, with no one to cling to.

            So I do nothing but follow His advice, I create space and wait for the guest; I often take my guitar and sing.

  12. swamishanti says:

    There is no reason why an unenlightend person can’t become enlightened without already being addicted to any substance.

    Sooner or later a heroin addict will become enlightened, I don’t see any reason why not. And if they have enough money to support their habit, no reason why they wouldn’t keep the addiction.

    • Kusum says:

      Shanti, what I meant to ask is whether enlightened humans can have addictive nature or not. As some people become addicted to prescription medicines or certain food etc.

    • shantam prem says:

      Maybe Swamishanti and Kusum write one joint essay re what they perceive as enlightened human beings?

      It will be a lovely read for those who have burning desire to be enlightened and those who have fetish to search such Osram bulbs lightening empty streets!

    • satyadeva says:

      Seems a strange idea, SS, almost as if you want to somehow romanticise taking hard drugs, or at least suggest that ‘they’re not really so bad after all’.

      If the heroin addict is using the drug to anaesthetise himself against pain and stress, to avoid facing up to inner and outer realities, how can enlightenment be any sort of realistic possibility? And that’s taking no account of the damage to the body, including the brain and nervous system…

      Where’s the potential for ultimate clarity in that melange of dysfunctional misery? In finally realising how dreadful the self-inflicted suffering is? Not if the person remains addicted, surely?

      https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/heroin

      • swamishanti says:

        I am not trying to romanticise taking heroin, SD, in fact it has never appealed to me.

        I am simply saying that an unenlightened person, who is addicted to a substance, can become enlightened – and keep the addiction. And people who we believe to be enlightened have done.

        Beedie Baba is one example, who never quit smoking after enlightenment – and nicotine is an extremely addictive substance – and probably more damaging to the body than heroin.

        I have met a couple of heroin addicts who have managed to hold down a job, one of them even a career, and managed to support their habit without shoplifting or burglaries. One of them actually went to Veeresh, a former junkie himself, for help to beat his addiction.

        Just imagine someone who is addicted to heroin for years, but able to support their habit, perhaps through dealing, or a large inheritance, or even a rockstar – John Lennon and Yoko were both addicted to smack for years, and then methadone for many years after that. It was never an issue for them because they had bags of money.

        Just Imagine (exscuse the pun) if John Lennon had become a disciple of Osho, whilst still maintaining his daily habit, and started meditating for hours every day.

        No reason why he couldn`t become enlightened, and then, like the beedie wallah, no reason not to keep the habit after the enlightenment and subsequent detachment from his body/mind.

        • satyadeva says:

          I remain unconvinced, SS.

          Holding down a job or a career is one thing, enlightenment is surely something else altogether. As we all know, just having a job, however high-status or responsible, is no guarantee of emotional maturity, let alone meditative intelligence and insight. (And, btw, addiction to heroin is of a totally different order to addiction to cigarettes. Take a look at the effects listed at the link I gave at my previous post).

          I would say that using heroin regularly, as an addict, would be practically a guarantee of keeping the person concerned absolutely ‘unenlightened’, however much they were to attempt to meditate (note the word “attempt”), Lennon and Yoko included.

          • swamishanti says:

            Smoking causes more deaths every year than any other drug and harms almost every organ in the human body. I used to love smoking and I did not quit because of the health reasons.
            There are still lots of older smokers that live longer than people who follow organic raw food diets.

            But some long-term heroin addicts just use it to get to sleep at night. There is no reason why that would stop a meditator from getting enlightened, in my opinion.

            Existence doesn’t give a shit whether you are a teetotal Hari Krishna or a mohicaned meat-eating smackhead. As long as yer meditating. We’re all equal in God`s eyes.

            Also, you seem to think that a precursor to enlightenment is some sort of emotional maturity, or perfection of the ego. I do not think that this is the case.

            • satyadeva says:

              “But some long-term heroin addicts just use it to get to sleep at night.”

              This pretty well summarises my view, SS, ie that heroin addiction and meditation occupy two opposite dimensions, heroin serving ‘sleepiness’, usually to escape from emotional pain, or, I suppose, as self-indulgence, while meditation is concerned with ‘waking up’, mentally (to thoughts and beliefs), emotionally, including facing pain, and spiritually.

              Also, you say, “…you seem to think that a precursor to enlightenment is some sort of emotional maturity, or perfection of the ego…”

              “Some sort of emotional maturity”, yes indeed. “Perfection of the ego” – not necessarily. Where did I say that? That seems like your imagination, SS.

              • swamishanti says:

                Some meditators drink tea and coffee to stay awake, or possibly other stimulants. What about meditators who need to work the night-shift? Are they not allowed some camomile tea, sleeping tablets or a hit of heroin to help them calm down? These all different substances that have different uses and effects on the body.

                What about weaker opiates like codeine?
                Are you trying to say that someone using these kind of painkillers everyday to relieve health problems cannot get enlightened?

                And don’t forget that Gurdjieff gave his students alcohol and told them to stay aware as a meditation technique.

                P.S:
                I should add that I still enjoy a cigarette or a roll-up with friends who are smoking, rarely, I can take it or leave it.
                I had one recently in fact after a couple of shots of vodka.

                • satyadeva says:

                  I’m beginning to think you’re havin a larf here, SS. Shifting the scope of the issue to include tea, coffee, other stimulants, sleeping tablets and cigarettes in an attempt to make my stance seem absurdly unrealistic, impractical and in your eyes, no doubt, ‘uncool’, well and truly misses the point!

                  Where did you get the idea that I might be “trying to say that someone using these kind of painkillers every day to relieve health problems cannot get enlightened”? That’s your imagination again.

                  It seems I have to remind you that we’re specifically discussing addiction to heroin, the nature of which is on a totally different psycho-physical level to the effects of those other substances.

                  Perhaps an occasional hit of heroin – IF the person taking it is able to take it in his stride – might be relatively harmless, I don’t know, but to suggest heroin addiction, ie enslavement of body, mind and emotions to the wretched, life-destroying drug, is absolutely compatible with meditation beggars belief, frankly. AFTER overcoming it, yes, of course, but not before.

                  Btw, no use quoting Gurdjieff and his alcohol experiments with his followers, as if any of them were already alcoholics then the exercise would surely have been a total waste of time.

                • swamishanti says:

                  Not all heroin addicts take massive doses every day, SD, in an effort to recreate the euphoric states they found when they first started using it.

                  They are not always complete drop-outs or people who use it to avoid the outer world.

                  Sometimes addicts learn to control the addiction to the point where they are only using the minimum dosage to keep themselves from withdrawal symptoms.

                  I met someone whilst doing a temporary job years ago and he had a normal family life with children, and was working full-time. He was an addict but only taking the minimal dose to keep him ok, whereas he told me that other people he knew were taking much higher doses and literally smacking themselves out.

                  That is probably the scenario you are imagining, where people use it and it takes over their lives.

                  Often money to feed the habit is an issue, but I have known two people, in different walks of life, who managed to maintain their addiction as well as hold down a full-time job. I believe they are both clean now.

                • satyadeva says:

                  You probably have more experience of heroin addicts than me, SS, although I’ve come across a few as well, including a number who’ve kicked the habit through therapy. I don’t doubt there are some who manage to control their intake of heroin the way you relate. But however resolute they might be in that respect, however ‘normal’ and responsible their lives might outwardly be, or appear to be, they nevertheless remain addicts, dependent on the drug, thus choosing the easy option.

                  Can such a person actually meditate while even small amounts of the stuff are circulating in his system? Do any even make an attempt? Can you meditate to any depth after even a small amount of alcohol? I certainly can’t. So wouldn’t the first priority be for an addict to kick the habit?

                  All the literature (not to mention the people) I’ve come across indicates that the cure for drug addiction is far more multi-faceted than just meditating a lot, although after stopping taking the drug, meditation can be extremely valuable in consolidating recovery.

                  So, returning to your ‘John and Yoko speculation’, I suggest that, despite their undoubted intelligence, creativity, drive to find ‘the truth’ and courage, the same would have applied to them, even if, while addicted, they’d have become (no doubt extra-privileged) members of Osho’s commune (and btw, can you imagine the horrendous problems – for them and everyone else – their presence would have caused?! Talk about the prison of fame – and the prison of ‘fan-dom’..).

                  It’s all nothing but pointless speculation, of course, but when ‘clean’, who knows where they might have reached? Maybe far, maybe not so far…Could well have been a good lesson for everyone if, despite the ‘glamour’ etc., they’d have been just ‘nothing spiritually special’ after all….

                • swamishanti says:

                  In the early 2000s I spent a few years in a row working for a few months in different temporary jobs and then travelling in India and other countries for several months afterwards.

                  One year I ended up with a group of other people and we all got picked up in a van from different locations and got driven to work, which was a lot of fun, which included older and younger foreign travellers working in the UK and local folk just needing a temporary job, or people looking for a permanent position. There were students doing TEFL courses and Somalians and Africans. A real interesting mix.

                  We worked in several warehouses, it was physical work which I found very satisfying, and the shift was a comfortable 2pm-10pm and then later a 3pm-11pm, a late shift, so we were paid more money.

                  These days I do different work and I prefer to work earlier hours but…

                  We had a lot of fun and a good laugh. There was a good bunch of young local people, and for me it was just a means to an end for my next trip overseas. There were some funny incidents like a young local girl shagging an older guy behind a large stack of containers.

                  One day, at one of the stops on our way to work, some young guys who looked completely fucked out of their heads got on the bus. I realised that they were smackheads because their eyes were literally rolled up and you could see the whites of their eyes. I found this strange and amusing at the same time, because they looked so wasted.

                  But as some of us were talking, one them joined in the conversation and I realised that they were more coherent than they looked.

                  Anyway, they didn`t last long at the place we were working. Apparently, one them nearly got hit by a forklift truck driver. I think they were both gone at the end of a couple of weeks.

                  Later one night we were laughing about it and smackheads working with us in the van on the way back home, when someone said, “Hey, I`m a smackhead!”, to which someone apologised, “Sorry, we didn’t know.”

                  We had no idea he was a smackhead, because he just looked perfectly normal, while most of us were staying up until 2 or 3am, as we were getting home so late and rising late, this guy had to be up by 8am or his girlfriend would come and kick him out of bed!

                  And he had to help take the kids to school in the morning.

                  And this was the person I mentioned earlier. Just using a small amount of smack, enough to get by. But still working and having a full family life. And he was more together than most of the rest of us.

                  When I went off travelling for four months after that work, in India and later, Nepal, the guy ended up becoming my driver to work for several months the next summer back in the UK while I saved to go away again. I hear he is clean now anyhow.

                  I met an Israeli biker up in Nepal who had had a serious road accident and was into snorting ‘brown sugar’, as they call it there. He offered me some once but I declined. I had always seen it as the nasty drug.

                  He had lots of his legs missing, metal plates, but still loved his bike and another Israeli friend of mine told me he was crazy enough to still do motor-cross events back in Israel.

                  I`ve met quite a few people who were are ex-addicts and managed to kick the habit, one way or another. I know Veeresh helped many.

                  I`ve also known people who had moved onto methadone and lived on it for years, but someone I`m reminded of was living a family life, a beautiful guy, a bit of a poet, spent lots of time in Thailand, and I don`t know if he actually meditated but I don`t see any reason why not.

                  John and Yoko ended up in the same situation and spent years in the seventies on methadone. I`m not sure John ever got off it. But he did produce some of his best work during that time, including Plastic Ono Band, Imagine, and Mind Games.

                  John also did a lot of primal scream therapy. Perhaps then, not such a bad candidate for sannyas after all…

                  I guess he would have been extra-privileged, no doubt, as you say, but he could have been a usual resource for the commune funds….

                  By the way, which song do you prefer, SD, ‘The Needle and the Damage Done’, or ‘Golden Brown’?:
                  https://youtu.be/AWAsI3U2EaE
                  https://youtu.be/Hd3oqvnDKQk

                • satyadeva says:

                  “By the way, which song do you prefer, SD, ‘The Needle and the Damage Done’, or ‘Golden Brown’?”

                  Both equally for melody, ‘Golden Brown’ for production, ‘Needle’ for sentiments and depth of feeling (as if you didn’t know, SS!).

            • Levina says:

              Hi Swamishanti,
              I think it was Isaac Shapiro who said: “You either have to do your homework before or after the event (enlightenment).” I would think a drug addict, or any of us addicts, will be left with clearing ‘stuff’ after “the event”, meaning conditioning, karma that has been lagging behind and doesn’t want to be conscious. It’s different, I guess, for everybody, some have the karma of a flea, but in this day and age, apparently, there is a lot of ‘clearing’ to be done.

              Thinking of Osho now, who knows, all this pain and drug taking might also have been an unconscious ‘leftover’. Although the other theory (as he said himself) might have been that there was no desire to live in the body anymore, hence all the sicknesses. So the only reason I understand that he forced himself to stay in the body was for us!!

              What I don’t understand (if it is true) is why he had to take so many tranquillisers and laughing gas. But then again, with all these things going on in his body he continued to give lectures till almost the very end. I find that a miracle!

              • satyadeva says:

                Re “You either have to do your homework before or after the event (enlightenment)”, isn’t it rather a case of ‘doing your homework’ before AND after “the event”, Levina?

                Also, I wonder what whoever said that actually means by the term “enlightenment”? As that word seems, like the word ‘love’, to have meant various things down the ages, and even in our times a sort of ‘dilution’ of its meaning seems to be taking place, eg people often mistaking a particular ‘realisation’ of some aspect of Reality for the ‘full-blown thing’ (or rather No-thing!) itself.

                The experience of the EST Training, for instance, a pretty intense process, led to what they called ‘getting it’, realising one normally functions as a “machine”, plus a certain consciousness of knowing oneself as ‘Space’ (although not for everyone, including myself). But that was just a relatively small step along the way, awareness of a context for experience, a sort of basic preparation, not an end in itself. Yet, as well as “transformation”, it was quite often referred to in terms of ‘enlightenment’.

                • Levina says:

                  Hi Satydeva,
                  As far as I understand that, if Enlightenment has been an experience, something that comes and goes (after days, weeks, years) and you find yourself back into believing your thoughts and feelings are you, then there’s still some “homework” to be done.

                  If, however, the little ‘I’ has for good disappeared into the Absolute and we find ourSelf every-where and no-where, yippee, no homework anymore!

                • Lokesh says:

                  Levina, you are mistaken in thinking I am telling a lie about the exchange with Isaac. It took place in Amsterdam some years ago. About nine years ago. I also talked to Isaac about living in his house in Lucknow.

                  People believe what they want, regardless if it is true or not.

              • Lokesh says:

                I met Isaac Shapiro at a satsang. I asked him, “Are you enlightened?”
                He answers, “I don’t know.”
                Then I ask, “So what are you doing sitting up here on a podium in front of two hundred people?”
                He says, “I don’t know?”

                Nice guy and a good indicator of how hard-up people are if they need a man like him to supply answers to their spiritual questions. I suppose everyone has to start somewhere. Just could not take Isaac seriously.

                • shantam prem says:

                  Lokesh, ask the same question to Tyohar, Rajneesh, Samarpan, Samdarshi.

                  I don´t think this gentleman has anything to do with Sannyas terminology & expressions. In my understanding, enlightenment means a new age religious entrepreneur, kind of independent, unattached priest.

                • Levina says:

                  Hi Lokesh,
                  You’ve told this story before. Just as well you didn’t take him seriously – what a silly question, and what a silly answer, and it probably never really happened….

                • Kusum says:

                  I have heard that some simple, uneducated people in remote villages are enlightened but they themselves don’t know that they are enlightened. They simply carry on their lives without thinking.

                • shantam prem says:

                  One reason I doubt the intelligence of satsang givers is their inability to use common sense to recognise Lokesh kind of people, who look so self-confident due to age and experience.

                  In my case, I will ask bouncers at the gate, “Don’t allow certain kind of people in my congregation, no one is bound to answer such stupid, arrogant, ugly questions.”

                  It is like going to night club and asking ladies, “If you don’t have Aids, I can have half an hour with you?”

                • madhu dagmar frantzen says:

                  You are a liar, Lokesh, but Isaac Shapiro most probably wouldn´t ´mind´.

              • swamishanti says:

                Hi Levina,

                There is a Sufi saying, “Trust in God but tie your camel first.”

                Basically, I think it means take care of the practical matters in life, and the earthly matters, before attempting to move into deep meditation, or in the the case of the Sufis, devotion to God.

                I think Osho did a very good job of this in his ashram in that he allowed people to indulge freely with sex and relationships, and try to clear up unresolved issues from the past, as well as clearing any blockages that could hinder the passage of meditation.

                That was the theory anyway. And it does seemed to have worked for quite a few.

                However, the Sufis and the traditional sadhus and renunciates were really drop-outs in a sense, they did move themselves away from society and normal relationships and responsibilities. They were free to pursue the spiritual path with intensity.

                And there were no therapy groups or any ego-based ‘work’ at all, this is a new approach that has only been around since the beginning of the human potential movement in the early seventies. Osho included it all in his Ashram and hoped that it would help to provide the ground for meditation to move more freely.

                Up until that time, the only approach of the all the enlightened ones and meditators was meditation in different styles. So the ‘clearing’ would only have been through meditation techniques themselves.

                But whether this is a faster route than the traditional methods or ways is difficult to judge. Often people just got addicted to therapies.

                I do feel that I have cleared issues from the past using catharsis, and I have Osho to thank for that.

                I see no reason why anyone using pain medications, including opiates, once or even twice a day, would hinder enlightenment from happening, as long as the consciousness is able to be brought to boiling point, where the transformation happens and the person is able to put enough energy and totality into their method. And the methods themselves are often very simple.

                Although meditation itself can also completely pull an ego apart and put people into a mess, which is actually similar in a way to some drugs.

                Also, there are some groups in India who actually use drugs, usually the consciousness-expanding varieties, as an aid to meditation itself.

                Personally, I have not done this, but smoking charas or ganja is very common on a daily basis amongst many sadhus, and I doubt that this practice discontinues if someone becomes enlightened.

                I remember in an old Osho lecture he talked about some schools using lsd or similar natural substances to push people over the edge, into no-mind, when they were ready.

                I think as far as Osho was concerned, if he got introduced to valium prescribed by his doctor, it is very addictive and he could have quite easily got into it.

                I get the impression he didn’t really care about his body much, like many other mystics, and probably didn’t really care if he got addicted either.

                His body was really something he wanted to leave behind anyhow. Also, the nervous system of an enlightened person will be very expanded and therefore any intoxicant is likely to be even more enjoyable, or addictive even, that is my theory.

                • satyadeva says:

                  “I see no reason why anyone using pain medications, including opiates, once or even twice a day, would hinder enlightenment from happening, as long as the consciousness is able to be brought to boiling point, where the transformation happens and the person is able to put enough energy and totality into their method.”

                  I find this belief extremely difficult to accept, SS, it sounds too far-fetched to be credible. The key sticking point here being whether “the consciousness is able to be brought to boiling point” when it has been and continues to be, to say the least, ‘sedated’ by such a powerful opiate as heroin.

                  Btw, what exactly are these methods for enlightenment – perhaps those 108 ancient ones? – and if “the methods themselves are often very simple”, are there any instances of success stories you know about with non-addicts, that you can share here? Have you yourself any experience of them, or are you simply fascinated by hearing about them?

                  Re drugs commonly being used by drop-out Indian sadhus, well, what have such people got in common with a typical western addict, or indeed a typical westerner? An exotic sight to behold and to fantasise about, perhaps, but what do these people have to teach us and why should we imagine what might (or even might not) be good for them might also help us people from such a radically different background?

                  As for various groups and schools in India using drugs like ‘acid’ to aid consciousness expansion, the key here is surely, as you note Osho said, “when they were ready”. But I don’t think it’s relevant to the heroin/meditation/enlightenment debate, is it?

                  Finally, may I ask about your own drugs experience, SS, as I have an impression that you must have passed through quite an extensive such phase even if it might have been a long time ago?

                • Levina says:

                  Thanks, Swamshanti.

                  I’m beginning to see that it’s such an individual path, we can compare notes but it’s only one’s own experience that really counts, and that is from moment to moment. I see my mind likes to understand what the big E is all about, so it can claim it or make a problem out of it.

                  You speak about catharsis, in my experience it’s a great way of bringing to the surface what’s been hidden, but it doesn’t go to the root of the ego-mind, and that is total insecurity and afraid to be nothing, which it is!

                  It’s so tragic-funny when somebody (myself) says, “You are nothing, you are a fake etc.” which is totally true about the mind. But why does it get so defensive, that is if there is identification? Because it cannot accept this simple truth, it makes a problem out of it, and then I am on the bandwagon problem-resolve again.

        • shantam prem says:

          Swami Shanti, what substance you take regularly?

          • swamishanti says:

            Tea is my only addiction.

            • anand yogi says:

              Perfectly correct, Swami Shanti!

              The use of heroin is no barrier at all to those who, like the ancient rishis, vedic scientists, satsang junkies and skag-bhais of mighty Bhorat, knew how score the ultimate high and stay completely out of their minds 24/7 on hefty doses of brown soma!

              I am reminded of that fateful day of the 21st March 1973 when my guru Swami Bhorat finally arrived. He had been chasing the dragon of enlightenment for many years, clocking long hours of meditation waiting for the man and seeking the ultimate medicine from Bombay to Santa Fe!

              On that legendary day in the history of consciousness, he staggered into the Metropolis Hotel, Pahar Ganj, completely out of his tree, sat down and ordered a chai and started to nod off. When he awoke, his face on the table, the chai had gone cold so he shouted for the boy to bring another chai. Again he nodded off and again, when he awoke, head on the table, the chai was sitting in front of him, cold. This happened several times until feeling total hopelessness and helplessness overtook him and a deep sense of the utter futility of existence clucked at him like a cold turkey!

              At that moment, a sudden longing arose in him. He stumbled to the toilets, pulled a bag of high grade H out of his waistcoat pocket and cooked up. There were not many clear spots left on his body so he decided to shoot straight into his bass chakra!

              Suddenly a stream of white light surged up his chakras, blew his mind clean away, white heat rushed from his head back to his toes. He floated in bliss. He had arrived home. His ego was dead on arrival. His individual self had left the building. He did not even have time to remove the hypo. He fell into the bottomless void that he had been squatting over, as the immortal sutras of the Chinese mystic Chuang Lou, “When that rush begins to run, I feel like Shiva`s son” echoed in his third ear!

              He found himself floating above his body looking down at himself floating in the toilet.
              His search was over. His race was run. The mundane world paled into insignificance: he was completely out of it! No past, no present, no future!

              All was revealed to him. The answer to the koan he had been working on for many lives became clear in one jumping jack flash:
              “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”
              “Smack,”

              When time allows I will elucidate further on Swami Shanti’s great insights and reveal Bhorat`s tantra teachings involving use of cocktails of E, Cocaine, Viagra, Horny Goat Weed and a few handfuls of valium for the valley experience or comedown!

              Certainly in this matter he has followed Osho`s guidelines and introduced all latest technology for modern world!

              Yahoo!
              Hari Om!

          • Levina says:

            Swamishanti, I wrote 2 similar pieces, cause I thought I accidentally removed the first one! If you don’t want to be bored, I recommend the 2nd piece!

  13. Lokesh says:

    I met a heroin addict down by the harbour this morning. He rubbed his nose and asked me for money. I offered to give him five euros if he answered a question. He agreed. So I asked him if he was enlightened. He rubbed his nose again, smiled and said, “Yes.”

    • swamishanti says:

      There you go. That was probably a real master waiting for you, not the scaghead beggar you took him for.

      I just remembered that apparently Sai Baba of Shirdi used to sometimes smoke a bit of opium in his chillum.

  14. shantam prem says:

    As I have seen the various sects, cults, religions, no other group of people have shown this much interest in enlightenment as Osho followers. Mostly it is the manifestation of will to power in the westerners and one can add will to have harem of western women in the Indian ones.

    Enlightenment seems to have become very cheap peak of a hilltop created by sandstones. Interestingly, Dalai Lama is asked many times about his enlightenment, his answer is always No.

    I can understand. To get attention he has a hereditary title, like princes of England. And sincere he is this much to his religion that he does not want to create impression that he is in that state where Gautam Buddha was.

  15. swami anand anubodh says:

    LK,

    There is one observation I would make about the atmosphere you have described at Osho’s cremation.

    In the list of emotions experienced: grief, desolation, anger, bewilderment, joy, ecstasy, bliss, madness. I feel the word “relief” is missing. A sense of relief that now Osho is dead – egos are safe.

    Draw a line down a sheet of paper to mark the day Osho died. Then on the left side, representing the time before his death, write the names of sannyasins who – on their own initiative – announced their ‘enlightenment’. Then do the same on the right for the time after.

    The result should hint at something.

    I don’t know if Angus is the sceptical type, or just happy to take things on face value. But I have always found sannyasins joyfully celebrating Osho’s death unconvincing.

    • shantam prem says:

      This is something!

    • shantam prem says:

      This post of Anubodh has penetrated the memory bank in the brain as somewhere I have this feeling I have heard Osho speaking, Even Many sannyasins would like to see this commune fail. In this way they can continue as they are.

      As far as understanding about individual mind is, master´s words are very often prophetic.

    • satchit says:

      “In the list of emotions experienced: grief, desolation, anger, bewilderment, joy, ecstasy, bliss, madness. I feel the word “relief” is missing. A sense of relief that now Osho is dead – egos are safe.”

      Egos are always safe – even in the presence of Osho.
      Lokesh was there and did not take the jump.
      But why should one take the jump when 9 of 10 die physically in the process of enlightenment, seriously?

      • satyadeva says:

        What do you mean “take the jump”?

        Come on, Satchit, spell it out so that we can relate this strange phrase to our actual lives. In other words, give it some reality, otherwise it’s just useless pseudo-spiritual gobbledegook.

        • satchit says:

          SD, ask Lokesh, he knows what I mean.

          • satyadeva says:

            No surprise you avoid the question and make someone else responsible for your bullshine.

              • satyadeva says:

                A lazy line in passive-aggressive avoidance – is that all you’ve achieved through your so-called ‘enlightenment’, Satchit?

                Seems you might not have, er, ‘jumped’ as far as you think!

                • satchit says:

                  You should be more careful in reading, SD.

                  I did neither say that I jumped nor did I say that I’m enlightened.

                • satyadeva says:

                  But, Satchit, you’ve made certain claims of a profound ‘realisation’ or two.

                  Returning to the point of discussion, it’s not helpful to use a phrase like “taking the jump” without being willing to explain it to those who have no idea what it means.

                  Do you understand that this suggests to the reader that you might not actually know what you’re talking about?

                • satchit says:

                  “Returning to the point of discussion, it’s not helpful to use a phrase like “taking the jump” without being willing to explain it to those who have no idea what it means.”

                  What should it mean? Taking the jump means dying with your identity.

                  Look: ‘Until You Die’ (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)

                • satyadeva says:

                  And what exactly does “dying with your identity” actually involve, please, Satchit? In everyday terms, please, for the vast majority of us who are living very ordinary lives, not living around a master in a spiritual commune?

                  Also, it would be good if you might clarify where you yourself are in terms of this process, if possible, please.

      • satyadeva says:

        Re “9 of 10 die physically in the process of enlightenment”, are you suggesting “the process of enlightenment” invariably causes death, or enlightenment almost always happens in the process of physical death – or perhaps, both?

        Whichever you say is the case, how do you know this to be true, Satchit?

      • swami anand anubodh says:

        Satchit,

        Why don’t you tell us about your experience of being in the presence of Osho?

        • satchit says:

          Why don’t I tell about my experience with Bhagwan?

          Because the Master-disciple thing is a very private and intimate affair. Or do you tell your friend how it is in bed with your wife?

          • shantam prem says:

            One more sixer!

            • satyadeva says:

              Oh, the hero-worship of it all! Next, you’ll be camped outside his house, waiting to beg him for an autographed photograph!

              • shantam prem says:

                Shantam has only one hero and he is no more.
                Maybe I should write ‘He’ instead of ‘he’. Customary present tense surely I have used for the departed one.

                A few people say He exists like a satellite but I believe He has erased His identity forever. If not, not my business, but I believe He was enlightened and also beyond of it, therefore He has erased His identity for ever. He is not online, He is not offline, He has no wlan*, no mobile anymore.

                *wlan – Wireless local Area Network.

          • satyadeva says:

            As, apparently, is much of your ‘wisdom’, Satchit, as you seem averse to actually explaining anything in detail.

            • satchit says:

              What is there to explain, SD?

              Either you are stubborn or you are a greenhorn in the spiritual.

              Why do you think Osho had this power? Because he did jump.

              Neither you nor I did it.
              You even don’t seem to understand of what I speak.

              • satyadeva says:

                Exactly, Satchit, I genuinely don’t know what ‘taking the jump’ means. Eg, is it something that’s supposed to happen once and for all, or something that can happen many times, as often as one wishes, or is required?

                Presumably, will is required, since you’ve suggested as much earlier today, when alleging Lokesh failed to “take the jump” in Pune.

                Sure, I’ve come across this phrase before, but what the hell is ‘it’ anyway – something physical (easily understandable), emotional (yes, ok), psychological (being open to new ideas?) spiritual (please explain) or a mixture of two or more of these dimensions?

                That’s why I’m asking you, as you use the term so presumably you know what it means and are hopefully able to explain it all in understandable, not obscure, terms. Otherwise, I’ll have it down as yet more pseudo-spiritual bullshine.

                • satchit says:

                  Okay. I would say it is something spiritual. I had it once during my first time in Pune.

                  Some so-called Kundalini rising. There comes a point where you have to say yes – or no.

                  After this experience I was thinking that I was enlightened and wanted to jump over the fence of the ashram and tell it to Bhagwan.

                  Thanks God, there were a few Indians around who stopped me and said that I was fortunate and it was “only” a Kundalini rising.

                • satyadeva says:

                  Ok, thanks, Satchit.

                  Do you think such a happening might be confined to a place like Pune, where the Master was in close proximity, together with many fellow-travellers? I tend to think so, as I’ve heard of no such experiences taking place elsewhere.

                  Someone I knew, a former heroin addict who’d successfully passed through Veeresh’s treatment programme in the early 70s and had been something of a therapist himself, seems to have chanced upon perhaps a potentially similar inner event during kundalini meditation in Pune One, which terrified him so much he was put off that meditation for life. Fairly soon after that, when back in London, he renounced sannyas and chose an ordinary life.

                  And just once, even I, again during kundalini, one of the first I’d done, could barely contain a most uncomfortable sense of rising fear, verging on panic, with yellow light filling my head and the feeling I was about to faint. I think I eventually stopped standing (3rd stage) and lay down.

                  I had to tell Bhagwan, who merely, almost casually, said it was “ok to faint”, and that it wasn’t what I’d thought it was (which I forget now) but (chuckling) “something else”. Probably some energy block surfacing, I imagine. Anyway, nothing like that ever occurred again, thankfully.

                  Thing is, as I implied yesterday, what do such extremely rare, even seemingly rather ‘exotic’ one-off happenings have to do with one’s ordinary daily life? If “taking the jump” essentially refers to the spiritual, what does this mean in the context of our habitual lives?

                  Unless you can explain the practical relevance of this term then it’s redundant, irrelevant, without meaning, isn’t it?

                • Levina says:

                  Maybe, Satya, it’s more a falling away of identity, since we are so tired of all the ‘jumping’ we did for donkeys’ years!

                • satchit says:

                  “Unless you can explain the practical relevance of this term then it’s redundant, irrelevant, without meaning, isn’t it?”

                  Certainly it’s without meaning.

                  Like poetry, like sannyas, like an enlightened one. :-)

                  My experience did not happen during kundalini meditation. It happened alone in a small room, sitting, a woman sleeping beside me.

                  I suggest you try to remember what the yellow light meant for you. And forget what Bhagwan said – he did only create doubt in you. The experience is so obvious.

                • satyadeva says:

                  You don’t appear to understand my point, Satchit. To reply that ‘take the jump” is “without meaning. Like poetry, like sannyas, like an enlightened one. :-) ” isn’t helpful at all, it merely sounds (and, with the emoticon, looks) like a rather self-satisfied, cliched attempt at spiritual one-upmanship, it’s not an answer to the question at all.

                  To repeat:
                  I’m asking what is the practical use of the term “take the jump”, in spiritual terms, as you’ve accepted is the relevant context. Outside occasional unusual inner happenings that might happen around a Master, which one can ‘go with’ or somehow ‘block’, where’s the relevance of this dramatic-sounding phrase in our ordinary spiritual lives?

                  As for your advice to forget what Bhagwan said, well, I disagree. I’m sure he knew that it would have been pointless, even counter-productive, to say any more, the way I was at that time.

                  Also, why on earth should I concern myself with the ‘yellow light’ experience, which came and went over 43 years ago – so what?

                • satyadeva says:

                  As you haven’t replied yet, Satchit, let’s return to what you originally said (March 7, 11.06am):
                  “Egos are always safe – even in the presence of Osho.
                  Lokesh was there and did not take the jump.
                  But why should one take the jump when 9 of 10 die physically in the process of enlightenment, seriously?”

                  Here you indicate that by “take the jump” you mean ‘enlightenment’, implying that it’s something one can choose to ‘do’, exceptionally dangerous but still within the realms of personal choice.

                  Which is contrary to any teachings that I’ve ever come across, all of which maintain it’s rather a ‘happening’ one can ‘work towards’, in various ways, usually for very many years, but whose actual provenance is out of our hands.

                  Perhaps you meant to indicate a potential choice to allow or to resist such a traumatic (to personal identity) process? Although let’s face it, very, very few ever reach such a point anyway.

                  That’s why I suggest that in this context ‘taking the jump’ is a dramatic, exotic-sounding phrase that has little or no actual relevance.

                • satchit says:

                  “Perhaps you meant to indicate a potential choice to allow or to resist such a traumatic (to personal identity) process? Although let’s face it, very, very few ever reach such a point anyway.

                  That’s why I suggest that in this context ‘taking the jump’ is a dramatic, exotic-sounding phrase that has little or no actual relevance.”

                  Not everybody “takes the jump”. For example, Osho accepted more the
                  “darkness and falling” and the giving up.

                  The “relevance” question you can always ask when somebody else became enlightened. What relevance had it for you that Osho became enlightened? Beside that you chose to become his disciple, or did you not choose, was it a happening?

                • satyadeva says:

                  Satchit, your comments about “relevance” are themselves irrelevant to the issue.

          • swami anand anubodh says:

            Satchit,

            There can be dozens of people in close proximity, all straining to hear what is being said while you speak with Osho in darshan. So to say that they are private and intimate – suggests you have never been to one.

            • swami anand anubodh says:

              Shantam Prem,

              Let me quote you from a pledge you made in the previous topic, in response to LK’s criticism of your ongoing crudeness and disrespect for female SN readers:

              “…Turning points come when they come. Lokesh´s reminder last evening is quite a turning point for me. Not only I am going to drop expressing mundane spiritual thoughts through sexual imagination, also will be very, very careful not to attack with sarcasm….”

              Now, let me quote you from a posting you made, barely two days later, in this topic:

              “It is like going to night club and asking ladies, “If you don’t have Aids, I can have half an hour with you?””

              Perhaps you should be more concerned about hitting ‘yourself’ for six.

            • satchit says:

              Anubodh,

              Personally I have been to a darshan. Even Vivek standing behind me, touching my shoulders.

              It depends how you understand “presence of Osho”. There are sannyasins who have never met him in flesh and feel his presence by watching his video, listening to his lecture or reading his book.

              Because it is a heart connection, a love affair.

    • sannyasnews says:

      A sense of relief that now Osho is dead – egos are safe.

      A very good point, Anubodh….

  16. satchit says:

    Good style, Lokesh.
    Reminds me a bit of Dan Brown, don’t know why.
    Just wondering, did they really walk through the streets with his bones waving, as I have heard?

  17. shantam prem says:

    Hey, dear friends,
    Yesterday I have completed 55 years of my life, still don´t have my own ashram, cannot claim Wow, I am finally fucking enlightened.

    To live this long is already an achievement when you were once very much touched by your late master´s assertion, “Suicide or Sannyas.”

    • sw. veet (francesco) says:

      Happy birthday, Shantam!

      I hope that all this talk about shortcuts to paradise will not create a chemical appetite in you, losing sight of the fact that many junkies after Osho have found many more creative and healthy ways to celebrate.

    • anandrahul says:

      Namaste, Shantam.

      Does your this Birthday give you a little more courage to face Death? OSHO has always said that people would not have been interested in spirituality if there would not have been Death.

  18. sw. veet (francesco) says:

    P.S:
    20 years ago a friend of mine died of heroin, a few months before I managed to take him to Pune for only 2-3 days at my invitation to do an Osho group. He kept repeating: “But why one must feel bad trying to feel good?”

    ‘Canticle of the Junkies’

    I fired God
    I threw away a love
    To build a void
    In my soul and in my heart.

    The words I say
    Have no shape or tone anymore
    The sounds now become
    A dull lament.

    While among the other naked ones
    I crawl towards a fire
    That illuminates the ghosts
    Of this obscene game.

    How will I tell my mother I am afraid?

    Who will talk to me again
    About bright tomorrows
    In which the mute ones shall sing
    And the boring ones shall stay silent.

    When I again will listen to
    The wind among the leaves
    Whisper the silences
    Gathered by the evening.

    I can’t see anything else but
    Glass imps
    Spying in front of me
    Laughing at my back.

    How will I tell my mother I am afraid?

    Why haven’t they made
    Great rubbish bins
    For the days that have been used
    For these and other evenings.

    And who, who will ever be
    The bouncer of the sun
    The one who, every day, pushes him
    On the scene in the early hours.

    And most of all who
    Brought me into the world, and why
    Here w(H)ere I live my death
    With horrendous anticipation.
    How will I tell my mother I am afraid?

    When the rent of this idiotic body
    Will be expired
    Then I will have my reward
    Like a good mark.

    I will be cited as a warning
    To those who think it’s delightful
    To play ball
    With your own brain.

    Trying to throw it
    Beyond the established limit
    That someone traced
    At the edge of infinity.

    How will I tell my mother I am afraid?

    You who listen, teach me
    An alphabet which is
    Different from that
    Of my cowardice”.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UgqJsulKTI

  19. madhu dagmar frantzen says:

    Anubodh, you wrote:

    “Draw a line down a sheet of paper to mark the day Osho died. Then on the left side, representing the time before his death, write the names of sannyasins who – on their own initiative – announced their ‘enlightenment’. Then do the same on the right for the time after.
    The result should hint at something….”

    Yes indeed, ´it´ hints at “something”, as you wrote, but to call that “relief”, like you are up to interpret it , I´d put into question.

    I can relate, though, to these of your lines and the in-between(s), and know, I´ve been deeply sad in my disillusionment about more than a few former sannyasin friends who didn´t wait an instance to go for ´guru-hopping´ or have been very eager to proclaim themselves ´this-and-that´ ( making an ´advaitic business´ out of such) immediately (!) after Osho´s Departure ( 1990).

    As far as I remember, Osho foresaw this kind of stuff and sometimes – even in the very old lectures or Q&As, spoke about that too when He was asked by sannyasins as well as by non-sannyasins (journalists): “What will happen, when you are gone?´

    And as far as I remember, He always stated not to be concerned about it, and always – sometimes in a very soft, sometimes a stern way – His responding related to the questioner rather than literally to such a question.

    That was His way of responding. A way of responding, which is strong and unforgettable.

    Madhu

  20. madhu dagmar frantzen says:

    Levina, you share this morning (re the big jump and other jumping): “Maybe, Satya, it’s more a falling away of identity, since we are so tired of all the ‘jumping’ we did for donkeys’ years!”

    I take that gratefully as it may serve as a little and as one of the lighter psychic dishes, spiced in the back with some humour and self-irony.
    What a sharing can give. Sometimes. Sensitive.

    Thanks,

    Madhu

  21. shantam prem says:

    Once, “take a jump” was very much part of neo-Sannyas lingo.
    “Don´t hesitate, take sannyas” – it is as rare as once few monkeys jumped from the tree and became humans.*

    When you fill too many people in a ferry shuttling between banks of Ganges, sometime neo-Sannyas kind of scenarios happen, people jump to get next life jacket in a sinking boat.

    *”Don´t hesitate, take sannyas” – it is as rare as once few monkeys jumped from the tree and became humans.”
    While writing this sentence I remembered Sannyas scene of 1984-85. It was common to say to friends, “Take Jump into Sannyas” and Osho too, indirectly, was condemning the fence- -sitters, and how rare is the moment when some living Buddha walks and talks among us.

    It is very true in a way, joy is to jump when coach is still in the ground and is not replaced by some Arun or Amrito kind.

    I hope seniors still remember the little book called ‘Rajneeshim’. It was mentioned we are in that phase of human evolution as once monkeys were. The courageous monkeys started walking on two feet, I think this example is also given by Osho, though not sure.

  22. sannyasnews says:

    Lokesh,
    Somewhere in this string you mention that Christopher Calder has died. We cannot find any confirmation of this. What is your evidence for this?

    We say this because of the linking he made of Parmartha’s 2003 articles, which was a form of abuse. It was not a proper use of them and we seek to get them taken down from the link he makes on his site.

    • swamishanti says:

      Parmartha,

      Your article is also being used on Timothy Conway’s site: http//www.enlightenedspirituality/rajneesh.org,
      which has a strong Roman Catholic inclination. When I looked at the site three years ago, he had attributed the article to Christopher Calder, but now this seems to have changed:

      “Swami Anand Parmarth, a longtime faithful disciple of Rajneesh/Osho and member of the household around Rajneesh, has affirmed his Master’s longtime use of nitrous oxide (but doesn’t think it detracts from Osho’s enlightenment). In his article, ‘Osho in the Dental Chair’, at http://www.sannyasnews.org/sannyasnews/Articles/OshoDentalChair.html#Anchor-49575, Parmartha also states: “I do not think the evidence that Osho received thallium is very convincing, the symptoms do not….”

      He certainly makes a long and rather tedious effort to undermine Osho, and writes as if he really knows what he is talking about. However he was never a sannyasin and has got all his ideas about Osho from reading Calder and some other ex-sannyasin books.

  23. Lokesh says:

    Hi, SN,
    I read about CC, Krishan Christ, dying about three years ago.
    I think he was the skinny guy who led the meditations in Poona during the Seventies. I liked him back then. Not everything he says is rubbish, He made some good arguments. His interpretations of events surrounding Osho were, of course, personal. I will enquire and if I clarify the facts will let you know.

  24. shantam prem says:

    http://meditation-handbook.50webs.com/Picture%20of%20Christopher%20Calder.html

    Last photo of Mr. Calder is from 2011. Maybe his cells got disintegrated during these seven years.

    Whatsoever, I appreciate the courage of man. If you don´t believe in Lifts, you have to walk all the stairs up and then back till the graveyard.

    Religions give the consolation, if you buy our Insurance policies, you will get life plus post-life insurance.

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