Ma Yogini’s trip to the divine

MAWHYBEMa Yogini Bharti, a Canadian sannyasin now based in the Amazon rain forest, relates her remarkable story.

 

I first met Osho in 1972, during one of his meditation camps at Mount Abu. We did not exchange words but I did sit quite close to him, close enough to smell that specially made balm he used. It is decades ago and I must confess that my strongest memory of that time is of the troops of grey monkeys swarming all over the place. It was rumoured that some of the monkeys had rabies and I can remember they could be quite aggressive, especially if they smelled food.

Most of the meditators were Indians, a lot of them quite hysterical, with only a handful of Westerners, mostly German. The camp ended on a full moon night. I was not particularly impressed by the dynamic meditation, I have only done it half-a-dozen times in my life. I was impressed by Bhagwan and to this day I have no idea how he managed to generate what I would describe as a universal vibration of loving compassion.

I decided to visit Osho in Mumbai, where he lived in an apartment on Malabar Hill. It was there that we talked for the first time and I was eventually initiated into sannyas and given the name I still use today with my sannyasin friends, Ma Yogini Bharati (or just YB, for short!).

I rented a small apartment in the neighbourhood of Bhagwan’s place, so that I could spend more time around him. I’d fallen in love with the man. Those were very exciting times. You could feel that something was incubating and about to hatch, something big. I became friends with Bhagwan and Laxmi, who I always thought was a bit of a control freak with a very quirky sense of humour. She was totally devoted to Bhagwan.

One wet afternoon, during the monsoon, Bhagwan talked to an American hippie man about LSD. At that point I’d never taken an illegal drug in my life, except for trying pot a couple times, and I do not think Bhagwan had either. Later that day, I had tea with the hippy in a local cafe with an amazing view of the sprawling city below us. He gave me a gift of half-a-dozen orange LSD tabs and told me he was off to Nepal early the following morning.

Three days later, I took LSD for the first time. Within an hour my grip on consensual reality was slipping away. Nothing in my experience could have prepared me for the effects produced by LSD. The hum from the air conditioning unit in my small apartment sounded like a jumbo jet revving up before take-off. I decided to go for a walk, which turned into a mind-boggling adventure, perhaps a little like Albert Hofmann’s bicycle ride back in 1943 when he became the first human to ingest lysergic acid diethylamide.

It was early evening when I wandered under the Gateway to India. I made it to a spot marked on the tiles signifying that I was directly under the centre of the dome. Some kind of magnetic force kept me rooted to the spot. I have no idea how long I stood there. It was my first experience of no-mind, I was out of my mind yet utterly present. It changed my perception of life forever.

The next day was spent in bed. I felt a little depressed.

Two days passed before I saw Bhagwan again. I was sitting near to him at a darshan and he looked at me, smiled playfully and asked, “How was your journey?”

I said, slightly puzzled, “Journey? What journey?”

He chuckled and raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. “Your trip?”

Then I got what he was referring to. “Oh,” I said, “that trip. Yes, well, it was very interesting. It gave me a glimpse of no-mind.”

Bhagwan nodded sagely. “Very good, YB, very good.”

Then the master focused his attention on a couple of new people and asked them where they were from. How he knew about my acid trip will forever remain a mystery to me and he never mentioned it again.

A week later, I had to return to Canada to take care of my mother, who had a heart condition, but went on to live to the ripe old age of ninety-three.

I returned to India in the late fall of 1974, by which time Bhagwan had moved to Poona. I did not go there immediately. I first caught a ferry down to Goa and then on to the Sai Baba ashram in Puttaparthi, which I did not like at all. Sai Baba had strong energy, but it did not touch my heart. I returned to Goa and, after a beautiful LSD trip, which I had by then tried several times, I decided to go and see Bhagwan, having by that time decided he was my master.

I had spent most of my trip staring at a photo of Bhagwan. Might sound like a strange thing to do, but for me it was a wonderful revelation. Bhagwan, Bhagwan, Bhagwan. Just saying His name filled my heart with joy.

I was eventually given a room in the ashram, which I shared with another Ma, an overweight Californian, who kept me awake at night with her loud snoring. I had to buy ear plugs. I worked in the mala shop. I loved my work and my wonderful workmates, especially Asheesh, the boss with a funny eye. I never did any meditations. I found it all to be a bit silly.

You see, the reason I visited India in the first place was to get over the fact that my career as a trapeze artist in a world-renowned circus was over, due to an accident that almost cost me my life. I cannot begin to describe the sense of loss I experienced letting go of what I believed at the time to be my destiny. I had begun training as a gymnastic acrobat at age ten. I was a natural. In the ashram I would hear people talking about trust, let go and surrender, and I would laugh to myself. Try letting go of a trapeze a hundred feet above an audience of 5000 people, trusting that a fellow acrobat will be in exactly in the right position to catch you and then maybe you can begin to talk about surrender. Circus acrobats are amongst the most centred people I have ever met in my life.

I met the love of my life in 1978 in the ashram’s Vrindivan cafe. We left India behind and moved into his apartment in Manhattan, overlooking New York City’s Central Park. It was strange at first. So noisy, so hectic, so frenetic. I eventually fell in love with the city and its crazy inhabitants. On December 15, 1980, my beloved partner was diagnosed with a rare illness. John Lennon had been murdered outside the Dakota Building a week earlier. It felt to me like the world had gone insane.

For 18 months we travelled the world in search of a cure for my beloved’s illness. To no avail. He died on Christmas Day 1982. I fell into such a deep depression I was hospitalized.

By this time Osho (I’ll never get used to that name) was in the USA, but it did not occur to me to go and see him. In retrospect I probably should have.

I eventually went to Rajneeshpuram, a few months before it collapsed. I stayed for two weeks, caught a nasty cold and left without having set eyes on Osho, let alone talked to him. I did not like the Ranch, although I was very impressed by the amazing amount of work done there by sannyasins in such a relatively short time period. That was part of the problem for me. The commune had become all work with very little play. Although enthusiastic, everyone looked exhausted. Plus that mad woman, Sheela, had risen to power. I did not like her in Poona and I liked her even less in Oregon.

A month later, I caught a flight from LA to Quito in Ecuador. I met up with friends and we travelled by road to Iquitos in Peru. It was there that I tried 5-MeO-DMT for the first time. It made my LSD trips seem like weak tea. Somebody present told me that I screamed non-stop for five minutes. I do not recall that. But I do recall understanding  that I was a part of everything that exists. I understood for the first time what enlightenment is.

And so it happened that I spent the next three years in the Amazon Basin with my new teacher, Donna Mercedes Salvadora, an authentic spiritual healer. She passed away in 1989. May she forever rest in peace.

I heard from a visiting Brazilian sannyasin friend that the master was unwell, due to the effects of a slow acting poison. I dreamed about Osho that night and returned to Poona six weeks before he left the body. Somehow I felt like seeing him one more time, although my journey with Osho had somehow ended many years before.

Poona was even noisier and dirtier than how I remembered it. The ashram was buzzing with rumours as usual. The energy level was high and I had a wonderful time reconnecting with friends. Osho’s body being cremated at the burning ghats down by the Bund River was an event that I will never forget. I will not even attempt to describe in words what I went through that night. I returned to South America a month later, with the distinct impression that I would never return to Mother India, and I never did.

This abbreviated life story is actually an introduction to a very different subject, which I will not touch upon now. I will read the comments in response to this article on Sannyas News and decide afterwards whether to write a follow-up or not. Osho once said to me that life passes quickly and it is most important not to waste your time on the unessential. I think he was right.

Dear Osho, one of the sweetest and most gentle human beings to ever grace the world with his presence. I feel blessed that I had contact with him before he became famous, when it was possible to have a more personal relationship with him, even though he said the relationship only existed on your side, him being a hollow bamboo and so forth.

Oh yes, and one thing that I should mention. When I was in my prime I could have had any man I wanted. Yes, I was that beautiful. I wanted Bhagwan. Not once in my meetings with the master was there the slightest hint of anything sexual coming from his direction. To be honest, I can’t say the same for myself.

I now live in a remote part of the Amazonian rain forest, where I instruct students in the preparation of entheogenic plant compounds and how to use them to greater understand our potential as human beings. Every two weeks I travel for three hours to reach the nearest outpost of modern-day civilization, where I shop for provisions, drink an ice cold beer, chat with the locals and check my emails. I am open to answering questions in relation to what I have written here on Sannyas News. Just do not expect a quick reply. You can contact me here: egauthieramazon@gmail.com

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169 Responses to Ma Yogini’s trip to the divine

  1. Kavita says:

    YB, interesting post, especially “Try letting go of a trapeze a hundred feet above an audience of 5000 people, trusting that a fellow acrobat will be in exactly in the right position to catch you and then maybe you can begin to talk about surrender. Circus acrobats are amongst the most centred people I have ever met in my life.” Wondering if we all would be acrobats what a world it would be!

    Btw, when & how did you come across Sannyas News (if it’s ok with you to share?)? Welcome to SN!

  2. sw. veet (francesco) says:

    Thank you for your sharing, Yogini Bharti.

    I would like to ask you what you mean by “although my journey with Osho had somehow ended many years before”, given the words of love that still come from your heart towards the “Master of compassion” that you describe.

    Do you think that compassion is no longer with you, with us or with those who, through lovers like you, will discover Osho?
    Do you think that we should no longer speak of Osho using the present tense?

    I make these considerations because it does not seem to be many years between your visit to Oregon (“…but it did not occur to me to go and see him. In retrospect I probably should have”) and your last time in India.

    It touches me in your story the way you talk about the 5 important people that you saw leaving in those years, I thought maybe you wrote it after reading about the Parmartha ceremony. Thanks again.

    Take your time reading me and possibly answering me, between a sip of iced beer and another. If you need my mail ask for it from SN’s friends. Big hug and love.

  3. frank says:

    Hi Yogini Bharti, thanks for your contribution.

    It`s nice to read a (great) story by someone whose involvement with the movement was on/off.
    I often think how many people`s lives were touched by Osho who didn`t stick around but did other stuff, not becoming longtimers, oldtimers, insiders, `catholic` sannyasins or even professional disciples.

    Interestingly, when you think about it, that unknown group of people must, numerically, form the majority of people affected by Osho by far.

    Big P has given a platform for that to some extent. Other than that, the historical records seem set to be either hagiography or hatchet job. Pity really, as anyone with any intelligence will realise that reality is much more multi-faceted and mixed up than that.

    • sw. veet (francesco) says:

      “unknown group of people must, numerically, form the majority of people.”

      It seems to me brilliant to deduce an unknown faceless majority considering a known minority with face.

      If I had enough intelligence and courage I would try LSD to see the rest of the faces of reality.

  4. Lokesh says:

    Reading the article and then the comments from Veet and Frank brings up a question that has arisen for me before: Why do some sannyasins find it difficult to accept that there is life beyond Osho?

    Veet, for example, poses the question to Yogini, “Do you think that we should no longer speak of Osho using the present tense?” Well, who knows what Yogini might come away with, but for me just asking such a question smacks of a cultish behaviour pattern.

    I understand that Osho requested that his sannyasins speak about him in the present tense after he died. It was towards the end of his life that Osho said this, a time when his mental faculties might not have been optimum, yet some sannyasins believe they have to do this for the rest of their lives. To me it sounds absurd and is a good example of how we can make prisons for ourselves through the beliefs we adopt. and remember, Osho was not a believer himself.

    Taking that into consideration, Osho said many things that one could incorporate into one’s belief system. Take, for example, the period when Osho was claiming that AIDS would wipe out two-thirds of the world’s population. Osho gave explicit instructions that when his sannyasins had sex they should use a condom, wear rubber gloves and strictly no kissing. Veet, doubtless a virile young chap, will be enjoying sex. But I will bet you a hundred-to-one he does not wear rubber gloves when doing so, nor refrain from kissing. Why not? After all, his spiritual master told him as a sannyasin that he should. But he does not, because it does not suit him.

    If Veet does in fact speak about Osho in the present tense he does so only because it suits him, for whatever reason. It has nothing to do with what Osho personally requested, or some kind of loyalty in regards sticking to Osho’s instructions.

    I always enjoyed this quote from Timothy Leary: “Think for yourself. Question authority.”

    • Arpana says:

      Reading this comment by Lokesh brings up a question that has arisen for me before.

      Why does Lokesh find it difficult to accept that other people may see the world, life in general, sannyas in particular, differently to him, and act accordingly?

      Sannyas is a plurality. Not a mono-culture as Lokesh sees life.

    • sw. veet (francesco) says:

      Thank you, Yogini Bharthi, for your answer, through your emissaries of the shamanic circle.

      It is enough for them to inhale the laughing gas emitted by the first shaman they meet in a bar toilet after tapas and sangria and manage to give surprising answers that no authority could give, especially since no one asked them the question.

      They are an unknown majority that the known minority fears the most, because they have gone beyond Osho, thanks to a dentist who has provided the unspeakable secrets of an old buddha who has experienced juvenile drugs.

      Truly shocking to see the limits of a vision that explains love with love, the only possible answer to the only question that matters.

      When the container/ body/mind of the buddha has settled the dust and the signs of experiences lived in a long/ short human life, almost hiding the fire under the ash, there must be two dominant tendencies around him: those who blow on the fire to prolong the burning of the flame and those who piss on the embers to anticipate the extinction.

      True lovers carry that flame with themselves, within themselves.

      • frank says:

        Prem Ritvik,
        Do you think that creating an app for SN might attract a few people who can actually string a meaningful sentence together?

        • Lokesh says:

          Personally, I doubt it. If you ask me, half the bloggers on SN are out of their mind on drugs, like Prozac, Aspirin, Funky Cold Medina and Statins. It is a sickening indication of the current state of Neo-Sannyas.

          For the unenlightened, here is a link to a video about the use of Funky Cold Medina in Los Angeles. Prepare to be shocked to the very core of your being.
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63ZIf2H9S0E

        • Veet francesco says:

          Even software cannot escape from the maths logic: a quantity is not an opinion, you cannot say (without lsd) that something is bigger than something else if you don’t know both quantities or deduce it, starting from the summation.

  5. Shantam prem says:

    Comments remind me, regular bloggers never go beyond their projections and shadows.

    Thanks, Yogini, for writing your honest and sweet article for this site. Not many people dare to write here for the reason regular bloggers can shred it apart. You are a courageous Ma.

    • Kavita says:

      Yes, she is courageous, no doubt.

      Would be interesting to read her responses to each of the comments.

    • Veet francesco says:

      SP, it seems to me that there is a majority of Osho lovers, those who don’t claim to have gone beyond Osho/Sannyas, maybe because they don’t drink sangria or use lsd, that prefer to avoid a minority of old cynics working full-time here. Just a free maths opinion.

      MOD:
      Post edited.

      • Lokesh says:

        Veet, my understanding of the nuances of the English language is fairly extensive, yet I often find it difficult to understand what you are talking about. Yes, for a second language, I am impressed that you speak English so well.

        Congratulations are certainly due on that level. On the other hand, your need to impress by using fancy and convoluted language is letting you down, because the reader can’t see the forest for the trees.

        As for your above comment, I only partly understand what you are trying to convey. I do not think it is a case, not for me at least, of going beyond Osho. It is a case of having an intelligent perspective. Osho often said he was a gate. A gate is something you pass through, not something to be eternally worshipped. As the Beeddie Wallah said, gurus and masters are like milestones on the path of life. In other words, you keep on moving forward. You can look back if you want to, pay your respects etc., but what is important is not to get stuck on a form.

        It has been most rewarding for me to have spent time with other masters besides Osho, because, if genuine, one realizes they are all representatives of a common denominator, call it love, consciousness or whatever you want. If you can’t see that, you may well end up, as many seekers do, becoming part of a cult of personality.

        Yes, I loved Osho the man, he was a wonderful guy, but I loved what he was a channel for much more, because since my youth I have always been attracted to that beautiful, nameless and formless energy and I will, like a moth to a flame, remain with that.

        • Arpana says:

          Nice phrase:
          “A gate is something you pass through, not something to be eternally worshiped.”

          A gate into a world of infinite possibility, explored with the help of meditation and Osho, of trial and error; and so completely possible that most people will never, or barely, overlap with anyone else; and most certainly not a world where there is a rigid and narrow path which all have to follow, where not doing so is failure. An infinite and rich plurality of a world.

          • sw. veet (francesco) says:

            Yes, nice phrase, “I am the Gate”.
            While you make me think of it, as a good Bodhisattva, I want to cut some weeds, people could stumble…maybe I would even put some light under a panel with some indication in Italian.

            • Arpana says:

              Osho is the light under the panel.

              • satyadeva says:

                Mmmmmm…Wonder how they’d appear under DMT…(Returning to the topic!)….

                • Arpana says:

                  I’ve been drunk once since I took up painting (about 35 years ago). I freaked a hard-drinking crowd out at a party. My boozing swansong. No drugs whatsoever, or any more drink.

                • madhu dagmar frantzen says:

                  “Returning to the topic”, you´ve modestly suggested today, Satyadeva. Not that easy.

                  As far as I am concerned, the reading triggered (sent) me off to a journey far back into the seventies, reading all this Castaneda stuff, lots of talk with some friends or meeting a bunch of people being involved in some Sufi gatherings or Gurdjieff wannabe practitioners at that time etc. Or watching the hours long documentary work of a Michael Oppitz (‘Shamans in the Blind Land’).

                  Strong stuff has been delivered here by Yogini Bharati, but as she herself says:
                  “This abreviated life story is actually an introduction to a very different subject, which I will not touch upon now. I will read the comments in response to this article, and decide afterwards, to write a follow-up, or not.”

                  As I see it, this author doesn´t need to be courageous, as some say. She IS courage and I´ve been as impressed as Kavita by her lines about her trapeze career and what she took out of it (before and even after the accident).

                  When I read her lines:
                  “…and to this day I have no idea how he (the Master) managed to generate what I would decribe as a universal loving compassion”…
                  these words did meet my heart, and I´ve been just in awe – and same moment came a response (as trial and maybe error):
                  There is no shortcut re substances (the topic-title, presumably not chosen by herself?).

                  Ending up, that in this very moment, I´m just in awe about the mani-manifold variety of humans Osho caught in His net.

                  Madhu

                  P.S:
                  I´m grateful for the journey (memories) so I´m grateful for Yogini Bharati´s contribution – knowing though, that I just saw a few bits of kaleidoscopic splinters which are not of any use for me now…just some footprints in the sand, which the ocean will erase the very next moment….

        • sw. veet (francesco) says:

          Lokesh, we in Italian call it ‘supercazzola’, a sort of gibberish that has assonances with a language but that says nothing.

          From time to time I use it with people who prefer to talk about me and not with me (very snobbish), just a trick to get their attention, as Osho did when he didn’t condemn drugs but invited people to use gloves against AIDS.

          Osho is more Italian than you suspect, I never had the doubt that he depended on the validation of his assertions, otherwise what kind of beloved garden would it be?

          That was the place of communion and not of communication and how you turned your brain off when you were with him I can’t know.

          Probably even then some ‘supercazzola’ must have gone unnoticed to your rational critical sense, it would be a generous and honest gesture that every once in a while you would also talk about that every now and then, instead of insisting with your story of the Master’s mental/moral decadence, as to say that if you had been present at that time you would have pressed his intellectual authority…it would have been fun.

          You can have all the masters of the world but it is always here that you love to go back to drinking, otherwise you would have no hesitation in exposing yourself by sharing an alternative source with the same love and passion with which you shared your “days of light with Osho”.

          Every once in a while when someone comes to piss or wash their ass at the source, I like to remind them to think about who will drink at the valley.

          This I owe to Big P. and to our Master, and it doesn’t cost me any effort…with the translator, but when I write from the mobile, like this morning at the bar, the ‘supercazzola’ is perfect; I too risk not understanding what I have written but do you think it’s a good reason to NOT love each other?” Can’t we sing the same song together?

          “I’m just a soul whose intentions are good
          Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.”

          • Arpana says:

            @ VF:
            “we in Italian call it ‘supercazzola’, a sort of gibberish that has assonances with a language but that says nothing.”

            During the time I spent on an Art degree I spent a year making paintings that were constructed in such a way they appeared to have meaning, but were ‘gibberish’.

            Be careful here though because ‘supercazzola’, seems to me, is exploring meaning and meaninglessness.

            If you approach ‘supercazzola’ consciously meta-meaning becomes inherent in it.

            • sw. veet (francesco) says:

              Arpana, if I interpret well what you say, and it is not a matter of a ‘supercazzola’ of yours, Osho was a great artist of meta language, addressing a large crowd, each in search of their own meaning beyond meaning.

              I have my aesthetic sense in art, as in music, without consciously knowing the classical or modern canons of painting, but some paintings have caught my attention in a special way, like a woman immersed in a river in a painting by Klimt (1997, Tate Gallery?).

              • Arpana says:

                V.F.
                Here’s one of mine.

                • Arpana says:

                  And another.

                • sw. veet (francesco) says:

                  @Arpana
                  I appreciate how you managed to achieve the degradation of light on the ‘non-frame’ of silver, and I like the chromatic balance achieved to prevent the possibility of abstracting individual parts to establish a hierarchy between background and figure.

                  I would say that the painting led me to oriental/Japanese atmospheres, perhaps the fertility festival.

                • Arpana says:

                  @sw. veet (francesco) 15 June, 2019 at 10:54 pm

                  I have sought to be aware of the relationship between foreground, mid-ground and background, and in a wider context than painting.

                • Arpana says:

                  Thanks, SD. I’ve been influenced by painting on ceramic, early Renaissance painting. Stained glass. Picasso. Van Gogh. Have a huge interest in materials and happy accidents.

              • Arpana says:

                @VF:
                Osho practised ‘supercazzola’.
                Interesting thought.
                I can go along with that.

                • sw. veet (francesco) says:

                  The other two are also beautiful.
                  I would say, about the second one, “delicate harmony of freedom”, and “solid abundance” about the third one. Bravo!
                  Thank you.

                • satyadeva says:

                  I like them, Arps.

                  A friend says, “These paintings, to me, are very stylised, ready to be turned into ceramics. I can already see tiles, the middle red one particularly for a bathroom, I can perceive fish.”

            • madhu dagmar frantzen says:

              Dear Arpana,
              Have been looking for your (meanwhile) rare response-buttons to share my gratefulness that you did put some of your creative works publicity-wise in the Chat.
              I enjoyed that, thanks.

              Madhu

          • Lokesh says:

            Veet, you say, “You can have all the masters of the world but it is always here that you love to go back to drinking, otherwise you would have no hesitation in exposing yourself by sharing an alternative source with the same love and passion with which you shared your “days of light with Osho”.

            I can assure you that you are mistaken. Your conclusion is inaccurate…way off the mark. As the throwaway line from an old Dire Straits song goes, “This is my investigation/It’s not a public inquiry.”

  6. Lokesh says:

    Arpana, you are mistaken in believing I do not accept other people’s views – unless, of course, they happen to be fascists. Perhaps you might care to question why it is that you adopt such a belief. I suspect it suits you.

    • Arpana says:

      Lokesh,
      Perhaps you might care to question why it is that you adopt such a belief. I suspect it suits you.

      • Lokesh says:

        Arpana, I find the topic to be an interesting one, and therefore will focus on commenting on that.

        Yogini says, “Osho once said to me that life passes quickly and it is most important not to waste your time on the unessential. I think he was right.”

        Not the first time I have heard that and I agree wholeheartedly. I really feel uncomfortable with the sensation that my time is being wasted and that is how I feel responding to Arpana. I also wish to keep the standard of the blog up, and try my best not to get pulled down into the slagging matches and one-upmanship that often takes place on SN. I think if we want to pay respect to Parmartha we should keep it high, man.

        As Shantam correctly states above, “Not many people dare to write here for the reason regular bloggers can shred it apart.”
        Guilty, your honour.

        As Tim Leary so rightly said, “You’re only as young as the last time you changed your mind.”

        • Kavita says:

          “Osho once said to me that life passes quickly and it is most important not to waste your time on the unessential. I think he was right.”

          Lokesh, I think ‘essential’ is very subjective/relative? Correct me if it is otherwise.

          • Lokesh says:

            Yes, Kavita, perfectly correct, as the son of Bhorat would say.

            You will be interested to hear that your question proved instrumental in me and my missus, Prita, having an hour-long discussion on the matter.

            Of course ‘essential’ is subjective. For example, a sadist would find it essential to hurt people.

            My point is that Osho was not addressing sadists, when advising not to waste time on the unessential. He was addressing a congregation of eager-beaver seekers. Therefore I think that what Osho meant was that we should focus on the essential in one’s life in the form of bringing a flavour of meditation into one’s day-to-day, nurturing love and compassion in one’s heart, enjoying the miraculous mystery of existence and celebrating the fact that you are incarnate in this world etc.

            • Kavita says:

              Actually, re my point regarding “Osho once said to me” about the essential: He was not addressing a congregation in this case.

              Thanx for responding, Lokesh.

              Also good to know that you both discussed this!

        • Arpana says:

          Nobody puts others down here more than you, Lokesh. Get off your high horse.

          • anand yogi says:

            Perfectly correct, Yogini Bharti!

            It is utterly necessary to focus on the essential, for example, in following guidelines of master!

            When Swami Bhorat first heard of AIDS guidelines he realised how essential it was, and to act as example to renegade sannyasins riding bareback, he was using gardening gloves, heavy duty bin-liners with hole cut in top smeared with linseed oil, and wellington boots during sex! He also discovered through grace of the master that it was enlightened device to keep population down and also to induce desire for brahmacharya in girlfriends!

            Yogini Bharti, your story is very interesting and clearly you have had many experiences!
            You say Sai Baba had strong energy, but it did not touch your heart. I also had same experience in Puttaparthi! I also felt strong energy touching me and looked down not at heart but bass chakra which was throbbing to the rhythm of the universe as directed by Baba`s well-oiled hands!

            Yogini says that some of the monkeys in Mount Abu had rabies and could be quite aggressive! Skills in this area may come in useful, as throwing spiritual food at spiritually rabid baboons of Sannyas News is dangerous activity! The western baboons of SN are even more nasty and poisonous and constantly fighting with each other about who has biggest banana!

            That said, Swami Bhorat feels that Yogini should have surrendered more to the commune, dropped her ego more, done dynamic more and attempted to commit ego-sati so that now she would not have had to move on to Amazonian spiritual wasteland, licking DMT toads and, being so irresistibly attractive, probably licking shameless shamans also!

            Yahoo!
            Hari Om!

            • Kavita says:

              AY, can I please touch your lotus feet? My Indian conditioning is overflowing after reading your invaluable sharing!

            • shantam prem says:

              Whosoever is Yogi, His posts deserve to be collected and published at lulu!

              • anand yogi says:

                Perfectly correct, Shantambhai!

                Moves are already afoot in Bungabungalore ashram to publish full dharmasastra of Swami Bhorat for edification and education of all true spiritual seekers for yugas to come!

                There can be little doubt amongst true seekers and disciples that Yogi is to Bhorat what Plato was to Socrates, Ananda was to Buddha, Dhyan Raj was to Swami Brian and Sannyas News is to Osho`s vision!

                God willing, holy vedas of master will spark quantum leap in spiritual evolution from here to here!

                It is a great regret of Swami Bhorat that you are not here at centre of cyclone in Bungabungalore to witness historic moment in consciousness, but do not be worried, he knows full well that you are faithfully and selflessly carrying out diktats of Nine Unknown of Mighty Bhorat with important contribution to raising global consciousness by cleaning toilets in Europa Park!

                Yahoo!
                Hari Om!

                • anand yogi says:

                  Perfectly correct, Kavita!

                  Certainly, contact with holy words of Bhoratji will make feelings of true devotee overflow like toilets in Bungabungalore ashram during monsoon celebration when roof has blown off and plumber has taken too much bhang lassi!

                  It is to be expected!

                  His blessings!

                  Yahoo!
                  Hari Om!

  7. Jivan Alok says:

    Yogini Bharti, do you still find meditation a bit silly? I am asking because, according to Osho, who was once your master, without meditation there is no sannyas. He also gave some advice that “if you are a sannyasin, that meditation is the only essential thing that you should carry.” And you have been introduced as a Canadian sannyasin.

    Having read your story, I got an impression that you had found a shortcut to the Divine with the helpl of substances that have a potent effect to adjust mind properly. So why worry about meditation at all?

    Will you open the secret? Is meditation only a time-wasting endeavour for those who have not yet discovered the treasures of the Amazon Basin given by Mother Nature?

    • shantam prem says:

      Jivan Alok,
      What is your daily meditation routine?

      In my understanding, meditation brings this much awareness and sensitivity towards others that one tells about oneself first before asking the other.

      A few men and women walking in maroon nighties, holding Osho´s property in Pune, are meditating for decades; they must be the dream come true of humanity as well as their late Patriarch.

      • frank says:

        Meditation is over-rated as something that automatically makes you a better person.

        Too many people believe the hype about siddhis, unconditional love and whatnot. They are like people who get sucked too much in by advertising and say stuff like “I drink Guinness because it’s good for me” or “Osho washing powder washes whiter than white!” whilst standing there in heavily stained trousers!!

        • Lokesh says:

          As such, I do not really view dynamic meditation as meditation, but it can be very beneficial to practise it.

          I was a diehard dynamic fan in Poona One. After a few years it struck me that my contemporaries were no longer doing it, instead working in the ashram. I eventually hung up my hoo hoos and picked up a toilet brush and became a scrubber.

        • Jivan Alok says:

          Frank, the question of over- or under- is being discussed here:
          https://www.quora.com/Is-meditation-overrated.

          Quora won’t tell the truth but sometimes discussions it holds could have been envied by the ancient Greeks.
          Please can you tell me who those ‘Reuters’ that over- and under- rate are? Meditators? Great thinkers? Idle blabbers? Yourself?

          Isn’t meditation itself the valid answer to this stupid question, as it is goes beyond all mental judgments?

          • frank says:

            Hi Jivan,
            I said that meditation was “over-rated as something that automatically makes you a better person.”

            There`s a context there.
            Rather than trying to evaluate it objectively I`m more questioning the overly end-gaining/achieving approach, which sooner or later can lead to feelings of “failure” that then can set up disappointment on one side or covering by pretension/religious posturing on the other.

            It`s possible that all of this is inevitably part of the game, tho`, so we’re lucky that there is “nothing which is not the Tao”, I guess.

      • Jivan Alok says:

        Shantam Prem, I was asking the author about meditation because she had mentioned about her meditation experience twice: “I was not particularly impressed by the dynamic meditation, I have only done it half-a-dozen times in my life” and “I never did any meditations. I found it all to be a bit silly”.

        Was I supposed to tell about my daily meditation routine first? No. Before a waiter is going to ask you what you would like to drink, is he obliged to tell you what he normally drinks?

        If you personally wonder, I can tell you that I do it every day, for at least 40 minutes, usually for 60 to 80 minutes. Should you enquire into more details, please make your particular request privately.

        I do stick to Osho’s stance on Sannyas. We can drop our maroon robes, malas and Sannyas names, provided that we keep at least one practice: meditation.

  8. Prem Ritvik says:

    Hello YB,
    I like your post as it throws light on character of Bhagwan from an angle which is not very well known by me – that is use of drugs as a step to nirvana.

    Personally, it looks like they are highly reliant and hence illusory or maybe sense-enhancing. I have not done them as I find that if such an enlightenment can be taken away, then it is too cheap. You were screaming for 5 minutes, it is an exercise to imagine Buddha screaming for 5 minutes continuously while tasting nirvana for the first time.

    So the riddle is, while I am sure that drugs are not it, yet as very importantly you throw light on Osho asking about trip and appreciating your No Mind experience, to what extent can the drugs be of help?

    • Lokesh says:

      Ritvik, I just read this excerpt from an Osho discourse:
      https://o-meditation.com/2012/06/12/the-attraction-for-drugs-is-spiritual-osho/

      In retrospect, it seems ironic because Osho himself went on to have a problem with drugs, nitrous oxide and valium. My conclusion is that Osho did not actually know much about psychedelics because he had little or no experience of them and was just going from what he’d read. I was told in the early days that Osho had tried LSD once.

      That said, in my very first meeting Osho talked to me about LSD and gave me some advice, which I followed. In essence he told me to start doing dynamic and kundalini meditation daily. I went on to do that for several years, and it was very good for me.

      • frank says:

        Alan Watts quote is interesting:

        “Psychedelic experience is only a glimpse of genuine mystical insight, but a glimpse which can be matured and deepened by the various ways of meditation in which drugs are no longer necessary or useful. When you get the message, hang up the phone. For psychedelic drugs are simply instruments, like microscopes, telescopes, and telephones. The biologist does not sit with eye permanently glued to the microscope; he goes away and works on what he has seen.”

      • Prem Ritvik says:

        Thanks for the link, Lokesh, it satisfied all my curiosities from roots. You have my gratitude.

  9. Shantam prem says:

    “Osho said to me personally during one-to-one meeting” is for sure a milestone for those who were there when Bhagwan Shree opened his establishment.
    And then?
    One can also ask: So what?

    Are not they common sense sentences to boost the morale of those who were going to be the foot soldiers of a neo-spiritual movement which has lost its track long ago.

    Last week I missed the bus to Switzerland, so I got the train ticket. In the train I got the place opposite a young man who was reading Bible. This became good conversation topic as it was easier to break the ice by saying, “It is so seldom to see a young person reading Bible nowadays.”

    We were talking on various issues of life and it was music for my ears to listen to his thoughts and the way he tries to mould his life according to the sayings and life story of Jesus.

    In short, Mistakes, Repentance and Goodness were the key words.

    This thought does not enter in my mind even for a second to say: If you love Jesus and Bible then read Osho’s commentaries.

  10. satchit says:

    I doubt that doing risky things like driving fast or climbing Mount Everest or being a trapeze artist are related to surrender.

    Surrender means giving up the ‘I’.
    When I count the many “I”s in the article, I doubt that this has happened.

    • Lokesh says:

      Who said, belief and doubt are two aspects of the same coin?

    • anand yogi says:

      Perfectly correct, Satchit!

      You are reiterating what Swami Bhorat has already made clear: Yogini Bharti has not surrendered enough!
      A baboon is a baboon, whether jumping through trees or flying through circus big top!

      Instead of wasting her life in egotistical psychedelic pursuits and exciting but unsurrendered activities and pursuits in Amazon jungle, she should move to Germany to learn what it is to give up the ‘I’ by joining you in the truly surrendered, non-egotistical sadhana of sitting slumped on sofa watching Thursday night football 0-0 bore draw with hand down tracksuit trousers twiddling pubes mindlessly!

      Yahoo!
      Hari Om!

      • satchit says:

        Be aware with your statements, Anal Yogi!

        Otherwise I will send you my old friend Swami Ali, who will not use a football, but your arse for a goal kick.

        MOD:
        Be careful, Satchit, we’re operating a ‘no abuse’ policy here, y’know!

        • satchit says:

          Why ‘no abuse’? Yogi is making fun about me, I make fun about him. This is democracy: same right for everyone!

          MOD:
          That was a ‘warning shot’, for everyone to note, Satchit, not just you.

          The point being that despite efforts to ‘clean up’ the overall level of debate, ie getting away from insults, abuse, name-calling etc., people still complain that SN is unattractive to new readers/possible contributors due to how people treat each other here.

          So we’ve resolved to operate a stricter policy and see what happens.

          That plus seeing if we can somehow improve the quality of articles (which might, of course, happen if people feel they’re not going to be abused if they put their heads over the parapet, as it were).

          • satchit says:

            Good luck with your stricter policy, Mods!

            This argument, that people don’t come because they don’t treat each other nice I have heard already in other groups. For me this is just an excuse. There will not be more people coming if it feels here like on a pony farm.

            And btw, life is not a pony farm either.

            And where do you make the distinction?
            If you want to be honest, you have to cut almost every contribution of Yogi.
            Eating Germans for breakfast! This is really an abuse. Do you think this attracts Germans? Surely not.

            And btw, what outsiders see as an abuse is mostly fun and a play.

            MOD:
            Thanks for your feedback, Satchit.

            It can be a tricky business at times to distinguish between what’s “fun and a play” and what’s unnecessarily abusive. And I think there’ll always be disagreement about it, one person’s “fun” will almost always be another’s “abuse”. Likewise, one person’s staunch indignation will be another’s self-righteous, boringly repetitious garbage.

            Personally, I think common sense is the answer – but of course, one person’s common sense is another’s rank misjudgment or biased prejudice (etc.). Just as humour for some can be “outrageous insult” for others.

            However, Parmartha became fed up with the amount of needless personal abuse and less of that was allowed in the last couple of years or so of his tenure here.

            He wanted SN to be a place of honest, intelligent discussion, a free exchange of experience and views that doesn’t have to be dragged down into the gutter (as it were). A bit of a tightrope, as the saying goes, as the whole ethos of Sannyas is anything but repressive. But I think there’s still room for improvement without SN becoming like a Christian spinsters’ knitting circle.

            Do you have any original suggestions as to how SN might attract more people?

            And btw, what do you mean by “eating Germans for breakfast”?! Is that a quote from a post?

            • Arpana says:

              Bravo, Scratchit and Mod.

            • satchit says:

              “Do you have any original suggestions as to how SN might attract more people?”

              I would say: Bind your camel and leave the outcome to Existence/God/Osho.

              It’s not your business if more people come or not. If they follow their energy and they come – good.
              If they come not – also good.

              SN cannot only be a place of mind discussion. Some juicy emotional background is needed, otherwise things become too dry.

              • satyadeva says:

                “SN cannot only be a place of mind discussion. Some juicy emotional background is needed, otherwise things become too dry.”

                So, Satchit, how does this preference fit with your recently avowed aversion to anything resembling egoic “I” expressions?

                By championing “some juicy emotional background” aren’t you asking for yet more emotional “I” talk (as you put it): “I” like, “I” dislike, inviting the sort of conflicts that are the very life-blood of “I” – when you also claim that the spiritual way is “surrender”, which is a question of giving up “I” this. “I” that?

                Seems as if there might be some confusion in your ‘”I”deas….

                • satchit says:

                  SD, you seem to be a very rational thinker – I am not.

                  I am here for play.

                  Already Mighty Bhorat said: “It is never good to quote out of the context.”

                  And my old friend Swami Ali spoke: “Who cares about the stuff I said yesterday?”

                • satyadeva says:

                  Then it’s better to ignore everything you say because you always have that get-out clause to hide behind, don’t you? In other words, you don’t want to be responsible for your statements here.

                  It’s the sort of spurious, pseudo-spiritual claptrap we’ve all heard peddled by all sorts of charlatans over the years. Or by political bullshine merchants. Same old same old.

                  Anyway, thanks for clarifying this, it’ll save a lot of otherwise wasted time.

                • satchit says:

                  Certainly I am responsible for my statements.

                  Strange that my statement makes you angry. Maybe something to look at? Why?

                • satyadeva says:

                  You’re self-evidently not responsible for your statenments because you’ve just declared they don’t mean anything. Can’t you grasp this, Satchit?

                  No use playing the innocent victim and trying to turn it around as if it’s me that has the problem! That’s delusional thinking.

                • satchit says:

                  “Innocent victim”.
                  This is your projection, SD.

                  I said that my statements need a context. Sometimes there are too much “I”s. sometimes too less.

                • satyadeva says:

                  Satchit, you say whatever you think will get you ‘off the hook’. And you probably believe you’re always right anyway.

                  The issue is simple enough:
                  Either you support ‘egoic’, ‘I’-based expression, including opinions, preferences and emotions, or you don’t. In this case, context is irrelevant. There’s no significant difference between Yogini Bharti and any other contributor to SN.

                  But you excuse your inconsistency by falling back on the old “I’m only here to play” nonsense. While imagining, I expect, that such inconsistency is a mark of refined spiritual consciousness, or something. And not for the first time.

                • anand yogi says:

                  Perfectly correct, Satchit!

                  Certainly, as you say, SN cannot only be a place of mind discussion which is nothing but mind. Dryness must be balanced by juicy emotional background, which fortunately your posts can produce with force of wet fart with major follow-through after a heavy session watching football in sports bar in Banhoffstrasse whilst drinking Alzheimer Pilzen from unwashed glasses and munching past sell-by date bratwurst pork scratchings!

                  To those who have no ‘I’ the question of consistency does not arise!
                  Such egoic mind-judgments cannot exist for a Gurdjieff, an Osho, a Buddha, a Bhorat, a Satchit…who live and move in one big play….

                  Yahoo!
                  Hari Om!

              • satchit says:

                SD, you are not an angler and I am not a fish. So it is not a question of “hook” at all.

                You give me the impression to want to be always right.
                And even if I am inconsistent, it is my freedom to be.

                And certainly I am responsible for it.
                But I can understand that you have a problem with it.

                • satyadeva says:

                  “You give me the impression to want to be always right.”

                  Really? Imagine that – in an argument…Whatever next? Never heard anything like it!

                  Ok, Satchit.

                  Thank you and goodnight.

                • Lokesh says:

                  Satchit, in poker parlance a ‘fish’ is an inexperienced player. I see you as a fish. The cards you are playing with were dealt out a long time ago and they are marked. So your moves seem old hat and predictable to more experienced players. All your “it’s a projection, I am just playing etc.” just comes across as crap hands to more seasoned players. Just the way it is. Just calling a spade a spade.

                  I usually do not bother much with responding to your comments because you are a fish. Glub, glub, a wee worm for you to chew on.

                • satchit says:

                  I have also a wee worm for you, Loco.

                  I can understand that you try to support SD. But maybe you should have asked him before if he needs your support.

                  Sorry, I have to tell you that things like “projections” still exist in the here and now, not only in the past, as you want to believe.

                  So you are the seasoned player? Are you still working as a DJ or is this card also dealt out?

                  I hope you are fine.
                  I am fine.

            • Prem Ritvik says:

              Hello MOD,
              Parmatha has been a simple man with a vision of producing a platform for intelligent discussion and has succeeded partially. All 100% of the interactions here are not very intelligent.

              The reason is simply inferior tendency to beg for attention. If those who pointlessly go on dragging legs are not attended by those who care for quality, then they will be bored of their acts and stop. There is another category which visits and is here to have fun. Then there is a third category which comes here in hope of finding some gem, even an alive master.

              On the outside, when I first read SN, it felt, what is going on, since this was my first introduction to Osho’s living vision, his Sannyasins. So for many days I observed and my both articles which are published express what was not right with Sannyasins on SN.

              When I read some articles, there indeed are some intelligent people, but it seems they were serious also.

              There is citation of those also who are intelligent and funny and they tend to increase the quality a lot with their wits.

              Here, I am proposing a strategy to increase readership and enhance quality: launch an app. This increases potential multifold.

              • Kavita says:

                “Here, I am proposing a strategy to increase readership and enhance quality: launch an app. This increases potential multifold.”

                PR, seems you are among the intelligent lot here!

                Just need to share with you, they are more interested in increasing their inner potential. As I understand,at this site (visible) administrators are mostly in their prime age! They are more interested in the inner app which is always present!

                • Lokesh says:

                  What’s an “app”?

                • Lokesh says:

                  Oh, gawd, how embarassingh. Here’s me thinking that an app was some kind of clever monkey. Thanks for the link, Kavita.,

                • Prem Ritvik says:

                  Hello Kavita,
                  Yes, I am presently among the intelligent lot.

                  As for the idea of app, it does following things:
                  Increases readership
                  Introduces new and many genuine seekers to share their ideas
                  Expands platform of SN
                  About 1000 people will join within short period of time, estimated 4 months.
                  It will not be 30 names or so repeated again but 300 names looking in through articles and commenting. Those who write with quality will be attended well instead of the whole closed well, “I am too important” stuff.

                  SN should at least once think about this.

                  MOD:
                  Thanks for clarifying this, Ritvik. We’ll mull it over, although one obvious drawback is the amount of extra work for ‘admin’ so much more input would require.

                • Arpana says:

                  SD,

                  An app doesn’t work that differently to a bookmark on your phone, tablet or PC.

                  Anyone who is interested in Sannyas and Osho, would, I presume, do a search, either on a PC for a site, or on google play, or in app store, for a Sannyas or Osho related app; so, ‘horses for courses.’!!!

                  There is an internet phenomenon which goes something like, 90% of content is produced by 10 % of participants, and 90% of that by 1%, which is as true of major sites, like twitter, as here.

                  So 90% of individuals, on all sites, not just here, don’t post because they are afraid to, or they have nothing to say, or they derive pleasure from feeling superior, and not taking the risk of expressing an opinion.

                • kavita says:

                  Thanks for clarifying this, Ritvik.

                  “We’ll mull it over, although one obvious drawback is the amount of extra work for ‘admin’ so much more input would require.”

                  PR, this is exactly what I was implying in my own way.

                • Prem Ritvik says:

                  Hello Kavita and MOD,
                  I will send a detailed mail after research in this regard to Kavita and Satyadeva. We should be able to spread our legs beyond the sheet.

              • Kavita says:

                Actually, you are right, Lokie, it’s a clever monkey which today’s smart people use to expand their horizons!

        • anand yogi says:

          Perfectly correct, MOD!
          The baboons of SannyasNews are certainly even more aggressive and rabid than monkeys Yogini Bharti encountered on Mount Abu!

          But no worry! My friend Swami Ali says if any problem, give him a call, he like German hoo-hoo hooligans! For breakfast!

          In fact Swami Ali now important disciple in Bungabungalore ashram!
          He has job as head of security. Unconscious masses hate true buddhas and want to kill and crucify them so Ali very busy!
          He also work in kitchen making novochok lassi for negative local people who speak bad things about mighty Bhorat!

          Yahoo!

        • Lokesh says:

          Yes, Satchit, you should be ashamed of yourself. You are behaving like a football hooligan.

  11. Lokesh says:

    Hardly highbrow reading but definitely a sign of the times. I watched an interview with Iron Mike recently and came away impressed. The man has real guts for sure, which is something needed to smoke toad crystals. I do not think I have the courage or inclination to do that.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/9047418/mike-tyson-toad-venom-monster-inside/e

  12. Lokesh says:

    Yes, I have several friends who have inhaled the toad medicine. Not for the faint hearted for sure. One friend, who is a bit of a shaman type, went down to Mexico determined to take two hits of the pipe after having only taken one on his first try a few months before. He took one hit, but could not take a second because the pipe and his hands, and his body had disappeared.

    Met someone at the gas station the other day. We are friends but not close. I noticed immediately something had changed in him. He was a kind of hardcore good time guy. Up for anything in excess. He’d done the toad crystals a few months before and now it’s all over. He just wants to lead a simple and quiet life.

    A closer friend, who has probably done ayahuasca a few hundred times and helps people in big communal ceremonies, told me about her toad experience. She absolutely loved it. She returned to the source and came back having undergone a rebirth. Over the past 30 years her enthusiasm for extreme altered states has never waned. She is a very sane, well balanced, generous, loving, meditative human being, who also took sannyas a long time ago.

    Me? I am happy hanging out with the non-hallucinogenic, crystal-producing frogs in my garden. Noisy little buggers.

    • frank says:

      I have no doubt of the potential for positive experience from psychedelics.

      There are doctors and scientists these days who are talking about the inevitable developments of using psychedelics as psychological medicine for depression etc. Altho` whether such co-optation will be for the best remains to be seen.

      Alan Watts’s ideas still hold good tho`. Personally, I hung up the phone when they were mostly still landlines!

      For me, psychedelics are something of an extreme sport of my younger days. I wouldn`t any more take a trip now than I would swim across the Ganges! I don`t want to end up like one of these guys who have a midlife crisis, buy a Harley Davidson to get back their youthful mojo then end up crashing into a wall. (Quite a common experience, I hear).

      All things considered, for the most part, I do suspect that the most benefit comes from the initial very few experiences. It’s interesting to hear about Iron Mike, as most I have met who have done the toad serum thing are already seasoned psychonauts, which is less dramatic in a way; as with psychedelics, the distance between zero and one is probably far greater than the distance between one and a hundred or a thousand.

      I know a guy from my earlier life who is now involved with the ayahuasca ceremonies. Relatively early in his aya career I asked him if there was any plan in the programme for stopping the drug (“medicine”, he corrected me) and then integrating the experiences and so on. He looked at me a little blankly and said, “That`s irrelevant.” He`s still hitting it about 10 years later.

      I did feel that he was more alive than I remembered him in earlier days, but that seems to have levelled out somewhat, which makes me suspect that it could be a little akin to taking Prozac with a tie-dye shirt on.

      Another thing I liked about Alan Watts is that he tripped with some of his kids when they were old enough. Mark Watts, who runs the (burgeoning) Alan Watts media biz, speaks very highly of his experiences with that.

      To go back to the original article, I wonder about Yogini Bharti. Hanging with shameless shamans deep in the jungle, whacked out on DMT after years of Orange Sunshine. Blimey! I`m sure she`s a lovely, gutsy woman and all but I bet her mind`s a bit of a rainbow custard.

      I think she should certainly be inducted into the Orange Sunshine Old Folks home Hall of Fame!

      • Tan says:

        Frank boy, not Frankie, Frank like sincere,

        I quite agree with you, and I am not surprised with all that advertisement that comes with drugs, any kind of drugs. It is very profitable.

        If I am not mistaken, there was an enlightened Swami in the Amazon rainforest. He was recognized as enlightened by the Poona Resort people (?). From what I understood he was handling organic drugs, as well. Anybody know about him?

        I am curious reading YB trip to Divine when she says that she understood what enlightment is. How could she understand it? Had she an idea what enlightment was before taking the stuff?

        Anyway, drugs are very romanticised nowadays. They are liked with intelligence, enlightenment and whatnot.

        Cheers.

        MOD:
        Tan, what does “Frank boy, not Frankie, Frank like sincere” mean, please?

        • madhu dagmar frantzen says:

          Tan, you say: “Anyway, drugs are very romanticised nowadays. They are linked with intelligence, enlightenment and whatnot.”

          Well, what a nice way to put it…you didn´t mention the greed, the addictions and its madnesses – and last and not at all least, the (whatnot) crimes happening in that context.

          Madhu

    • Lokesh says:

      Intelligent article…The sacred, in other words, is not going to go away.

      • madhu dagmar frantzen says:

        “Intelligent article”, you seconded, Lokesh; I would contradict that.
        And then you said:
        “The sacred, in other words, is not going to go away.”
        The latter – however – I would not contradict at all.

        The ways, though, how in different phases of evolutionary ´humankindness´- developments, the Sacred ever found its ways to hide, not to be abused and misused by greedy, power-stricken, ambitious people.

        Sometimes, as one knows, even whole cultures of Humans, which one even nowadays would define as very highly evolved, simply disappeared (mostly by a seemingly inbuilt inner destruction-mode..).

        Rare survivors with their testimonials or with their pieces of ART surviving testimonials teach us historically a lot about the latter.

        The Sacred is not at all an easy INNER-LOVER! Not at any time!

        And mostly doesn´t happen to respond to some public relations hype (PR) or noisy monkey business in the more than less nowadays technically (and virtual) ´human-Zoo´.

        It´s then, that some feel the ´Missing´: going inside then…or having a break…or both…or (if they are fortunate) engage in Soul-Hunting, investigating what they´ve lost of value on their pilgrimage of Life.
        Looking for Friends and looking for support to keep going.

        As we are not islands – isolated from the rest of the Living.

        Madhu

  13. shantam prem says:

    Sometimes I wonder why someone does not start a spiritual movement with the assertion, “While taking this or that psychedelic I got enlightenment on this or that date under this or that tree in the presence of fellow chillum smokers!

    And to understand the whole impact, master takes substance before discoursing, and disciples too, before sitting on their cushions!”

    Such talks will be surely breakthrough.

    • Lokesh says:

      Shantam, that breakthrough already happened…one sunny afternoon a long time ago.

      • shantam prem says:

        It seems, Lokesh, in your world, every breakthrough has already happened on this or that sunny or cloudy afternoon!

        Do you foresee something new, something authentic. or some new superstar on the horizon of spiritual sector?

        • satyadeva says:

          Keep reading the article and comments and perhaps you might ‘see the Light’, Shantam!

          Btw, if you’re looking for a “new superstar” forget it. It’s down to you now, no one’s going to come along and provide you with everything you think you need.

          • anand yogi says:

            Perfectly correct, Shantambhai!

            • anand yogi says:

              Perfectly correct, Shantambhia!

              Leave these absurd baboons who are still lazing on sunny afternoon in the summertime!
              It is certainly extremely meditative to look into future in hope of release by new avatar!

              Keep going with your spiritual search in spiritual wasteland and remember the words of Swami Bhorat himself:
              “When the master-debater is ready, the new porn superstar will appear!”

              Yahoo!
              Hari Om!

  14. Kavita says:

    “Every two weeks I travel for three hours to reach the nearest outpost of modern-day civilization, where I shop for provisions, drink an ice cold beer, chat with the locals and check my emails. I am open to answering questions in relation to what I have written here on Sannyas News.”

    YB, you perhaps will need 2-3 days of stay in modern day civilization to answer all of us here!

  15. Lokesh says:

    Shantam, sweet man and good father you may be, but you are still a square. You know nothing about the psychedelic culture that has been going on for half a century in the West. Right now there is a psychedelic revival going on. I am not saying you should go out and take some mushrooms, although it might be a good idea. What I am saying is you have not got a clue about any of that and your comments come across as if from someone stumbling around in the dark.

    In psychedelic culture a breakthrough experience is when you enter into another dimensional reality, a world that is as real as the one you are sitting in reading this on a screen right now, except it will probably be a lot more fascinating. You are operating from a basement level in such matters, unaware that you have a skyscraper to explore at your disposal. You seem pretty hot on churches and Bibles at the moment so here is a quote for you to contemplate:
    “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”

    My reference to a one sunny afternoon a long time ago is something I chucked in just in case any of the other readers are hip to the fact that it is a reference to a famous Grateful Dead song, called ‘Box of Rain’. Aye, pal, there is something going on but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mister Shantam? I would not be surprised if you became a Jehovah’s Witness.

    “Look out of any window
    Any morning, any evening, any day
    Maybe the sun is shining
    Birds are winging or
    Rain is falling from a heavy sky,
    What do you want me to do,
    To do for you to see you through?
    For this is all a dream we dreamed
    One afternoon long ago
    Walk out of any doorway
    Feel your way, feel your way
    Like the day before
    Maybe you’ll find direction
    Around some corner
    Where it’s been waiting to meet you,
    What do you want me to do,
    To watch for you while you’re sleeping?
    Well, please don’t be surprised
    When you find me dreaming too
    Look into any eyes
    You find by you, you can see
    Clear through to another day
    Maybe been seen before
    Through other eyes on other days
    While going home,
    What do you want me to do,
    To do for you to see you through?
    It’s all a dream we dreamed
    One afternoon long ago.
    Walk into splintered sunlight
    Inch your way through dead dreams
    To another land
    Maybe you’re tired and broken
    Your tongue is twisted
    With words half spoken
    And thoughts unclear
    What do you want me to do
    To do for you to see you through
    A box of rain will ease the pain
    And love will see you through
    Just a box of rain,
    Wind and water,
    Believe it if you need it,
    If you don’t just pass it on
    Sun and shower,
    Wind and rain,
    In and out the window
    Like a moth before a flame
    And it’s just a box of rain
    I don’t know who put it there
    Believe it if you need it
    Or leave it if you dare
    And it’s just a box of rain
    Or a ribbon for your hair
    Such a long long time to be gone
    And a short time to be there.”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r8aycpHmY0

    • frank says:

      Would Osho`s movement ever have taken off if it hadn`t been for psychedelia?

      What percentage of people coming through the gateless gate were being propelled entheogenically?

      Would Shantam ever have got jiggy with the western girls if it hadn`t been for “the summer of love”*?

      “If you know your history
      Then you would know where you coming from.” (Bob Marley)

      *”The summer of love” – 1967, when “Flower Power”, LSD, dope and ‘free love’ was all the rage in the States and the UK.

    • satyadeva says:

      What a great song. Conjures up sunny days and better collective times (or am I merely succumbing to nostalgia, like any old git?).

  16. Lokesh says:

    “Look into any eyes
    You find by you, you can see
    Clear through to another day
    Maybe been seen before
    Through other eyes on other days
    While going home.”

    Of course it’s a great song. Not nostalgia, just recognizing what it is today. Beautiful, man.

  17. shantam prem says:

    I care not what is true Samadhi, but surely I remembered the famous sentence of Osho, after reading many comments, “LSD: Short cut to false Samadhi.”

    Winning the races after taking substances is not winning.

    • satyadeva says:

      I don’t think anyone here is claiming it does, Shantam. You seem to have missed the point that taking such a substance can lead to a radical opening of the psyche, delivering a huge impetus to self-transformation.

      No one (apart, perhaps from YB!) is suggesting these things are the be-all and end-all, everyome here seems to accept that such experiences are a beginning not an end.

      You might think, of course, that you’ve already ‘begun’ and are perhaps well on the way (to somewhere or other) and therefore have no need for what’s on offer?

    • Lokesh says:

      Shantam says, “Winning the races after taking substances is not winning.”

      Maybe so, but in this case there is nothing to be won. It is not a competition.

      Shantam, do you believe every sentence of Osho? You would be a fool if you did, because he said many things and some of them were not true. Unless you know something through your own understanding it is useless. Do you believe, for example, that two-thirds of the world’s population will die of AIDS because Osho said it. Of course you do not.

      What I am driving at is that you are picking and choosing what you want to believe from what Osho said in order for things to fit into your world view.You are free to do that if you wish. For your own sake, just be aware of what you are doing. That is, unless you wish to appear like a fool.

      • shantam prem says:

        Lokesh, tell me one Osho disciple who writes more sceptically than me? Surely it is you, if you consider yourself His disciple, though I know in this age and time, one can be disciple of many people.

        I even doubt the famous assertion, “Tell my people not to use past tense for me.” More than 99% chances are it is scripted by those who created Osho´s false will.

        At this site anyway, it is always pick and choose and create your own post accordingly.

  18. shantam prem says:

    My one sannyasin friend of last 35 years got the spiritual high due to the cocktail of Osho talks, meditation techniques and hasheesh smoking. In His belief, Osho had chosen him as his medium. He can speak for hours with perfectly created logic based on Osho talks.

    It is joy to listen him. Why I should say it is bluffery, that it is not real? He has not created a personalised sect, therefore does not deserve public scrutiny.

  19. Lokesh says:

    If you take the time to read it you will find this to be a well informed article in a respected publication, which ties in perfectly with the thread and sheds light on a hitherto psychedelic potential that nobody has so far mentioned here.
    https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23631530-300-mind-menders-how-psychedelic-drugs-rebuild-broken-brains/?fbclid=IwAR1fY2RR9QnUfqHQ_1Di1Rdg_0VOns7z7CbqTG9LrgcL6y3zi13USYKaLLI#.XQFd4k6tkBo.facebook

  20. samarpan says:

    Lokesh: “Osho himself went on to have a problem with drugs, nitrous oxide and valium…”

    Lokesh says Osho had “a problem” with drugs. (I do not agree). Yet those who have taken ayahuasca or other psychedelics hundreds of times in the “psychedelic revival” are not said to have “a problem.”

    • frank says:

      Samarpan, you say: ”Lokesh says Osho had a “problem” with drugs. (I do not agree.) Yet those who have taken ayahuasca, or other psychedelics, hundreds of times in the “psychedelic revival” are not said to have a “problem.” ”

      It`s a valid point that brings back that thorny issue of stoner/drinker teachers and masters.
      It also brings up a more general question of how much is enough and when do you start to have a problem?

      Firstly, the basic lines of “problem” with substance abuse are roughly something like (although they clearly overlap):
      Personal (eg change for the worse in basic behaviour, often honesty).
      Interpersonal (eg fall-outs, fights, relationship breakdown, violence).
      Financial (eg spend money on crazy schemes/dope/inability to work properly).
      Medical (eg your liver goes, you go bonkers, have car crash).

      I have just finished reading ‘In Search of P.D. Ouspensky’ by Gary Lachman. Not everyone will agree with Lachman`s take but what is clear is that both Ouspensky and Gurdjieff`s drinking would have flagged up several of what are tell-tale signs of “problem” in this straightforward view. Although, due to their success in their fields, they could also qualify as ‘functional’ alkies.

      Of course disciples and supporters will speak of “devices”, “superpowers”, “siddhis”, “being extremely capable”, “pretending to be drunk”, “beyond attachment”, etc. etc. etc., which is to say that they are putting such actions beyond the reach of normal discourse. They are “beyond good and evil”.

      The problem with that is, of course, that is precisely what all dictators and despots of all stripes do. Not to mention everyday wasters: “Fuck off, I know what I`m doing, I can handle it.”

      Psychedelic users are also very prone to put themselves beyond the norms, too. Which is understandable with the history of illegality but on the other hand allowing them to get caught in the same kind of traps. Believe it or not, I actually had someone the other day asking me for advice about how to break through permanently to the 5th dimension – her eyes wide as flying saucers. I was a bit thrown, all I could think of was: “It might be nice to get into the 5th dimension, but I would sort out any problems you might have in the 3rd first.” She looked disappointed.

      It`s back to Alan Watts` phone, for me.

      I`ve said it before. Any long-term user has his rationalisations – “denial scripts.”
      Doing it for someone else`s good/spiritual advancement for me has to be the most sophisticated denial script ever invented in the history of substance abuse.

      As far as the use of psychedelics for depression, PDST etc., that is mentioned in the article Lokesh has posted. Again, careful dosing and knowing when to stop is going to be a vital part in it. As we`ve learned already with drugs: people want to keep taking, and docs and dealers, be they street or big pharma, want to keep selling.

      The possibilities in promoting and marketing psychedelics is probably the 21st century advertising man`s wet dream. Look at the runaway success of CBD oil.

      When the Ayahuasca ceremony thing first came out, old cynic that I am said, ”Two of the biggest businesses to come out of the counter-culture, dealing drugs and group therapy, rolled into one package. Sorted!”

      • Arpana says:

        Excellent post, Frank.

        Regarding the consciousness-raising aspects of drug taking:

        I have met a lot of drug takers, and at best they got away with all the drugs they took, but I most certainly never met anyone who persistently used drugs who led me to believe this is the answer, this is the way forward, apart from Osho that is.

        Although, and I haven’t considered this before, I have never been particularly interested in anything he has said since the nitrous time, although ‘Notes of a Madman’ impacted on me greatly early in 1987, for a very specific reason, and which was recorded while he was hitting the nitrous.

        • Arpana says:

          P.S:
          All long-term drug users I have come across seemed stuck in a time warp to me. Nothing about them evolves – clothes, speech, interests – nothing.

          • Lokesh says:

            Maybe you are hanging out with the wrong crowd.

            • Arpana says:

              Well, not for a long time actually. Came to an end when I got into Sannyas, but I see people about.

              Drug abuse in a large city is probably more deleterious than on a small conservative island in the Mediterranean.

              I am also not saying it doesn’t happen. I said I have never come across such a thing.

              Further to that, your claims to know loads of cool druggies who are so enlightened is much more to do with your desperate clinging to a hip image.

              You’re an old guy and your cool days are over. Time to grow up and accept that.

              • satyadeva says:

                Surely age has nothing to do with being “cool”, Arps? Although it depends what you mean by “cool”, I suppose. If you take it to indicate being ‘fashionable;, fodder for the gossip columns, glossy mags, ‘style’ pages and advertising bullshine then yes, I guess you’re right.

                But who’s the ‘coolest’ person you’ve ever come across? Wasn’t it that old guy in Pune and the Ranch?

                • Arpana says:

                  SD,
                  Can’t disagree with that. You got me on the subject of ‘cool’; although the old guy in Poona, contains ‘cool’, but is so much more. ◦°˚\☻/˚°◦

                • Arpana says:

                  P.S. on coolness:
                  Really cool people don’t need to keep telling everyone how cool they are.

              • Lokesh says:

                I suppose I do know a few ‘druggies’ as Arpana says, although I do not hang out with them and I certainly do not believe any of them are enlightened.

                I have no idea if I am cool and hip or not, so I suppose you would have to ask people who are familiar with me. Shantam maybe, although we only spent a pleasant afternoon together.

                Coolness is an aesthetic of attitude, behaviour, comportment, appearance and style which is generally admired. Because of the varied and changing connotations of cool, as well as its subjective nature, the word has no single meaning. It has associations of composure and self-control and often is used as an expression of admiration or approval. Although commonly regarded as slang, it is widely used among disparate social groups and has endured in usage for generations. Yeah, that’s cool with me.

                As for hip: Hip is a slang for fashionably current and in the know. To be hip is to have “an attitude, a stance” in opposition to the “unfree world”, or to what is square or prude. Being hip is also about being informed about the latest ideas, styles and developments. Hip, like cool, does not refer to one specific quality. What is considered hip is continuously changing. Yes, that is cool with me, I can relate to that, so maybe I am a bit hip, man.

                Amazing what one can discover through writing on SN.

        • shantam prem says:

          In Sheela´s version, “Nitrous” was the beginning of an end. Her book´s title, ‘Don´t Kill Him’, was prophetic.

      • Lokesh says:

        Good post, Frank. Pleased to see some decent debate and shared perspectives on this thread.

      • satchit says:

        Yes, interesting research going on.

        Some found that experiences on an lsd trip can be similar to schizophrenia. Seems beside the door of heaven, hell is waiting.

        • Lokesh says:

          Wow, what a shocking revelation. Satchit, what are your personal experiences in relation to schizophrenia? Is it a bit like being Dorian Grey, or maybe Jekyll and Hyde? Or perhaps closer to home, Laurel and Hardy? Or are you more a Bill and Ben type? Do you live in a flower pot?

          • satchit says:

            No Lokesh, I live in a rose garden.

            I cannot compete with your 1001 trips experiences. But why should I?
            I have had my own experiences – this is enough for me.

            • Arpana says:

              Satchit,

              You have never written anything I agree with more.

              “I have had my own experiences – this is enough for me.”

              The way I put that is to say, “I wouldn’t change my life for anyone else’s life; and I mean ANYONE.”

              ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

              • satchit says:

                Thanks, Arpana.

                Yes, that’s true. You can only ride your own bull.
                You cannot ride the bull of somebody else.

                On my first trip, long time ago, I had the experience of Oneness. Why shall I repeat it 1001 times? It is simply not needed.

            • Lokesh says:

              Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid?

              Satchit enquires,”Why should I?”

              Ehm…erhm…I thought you were supposed to be a sannyasin, Satchit, following Osho’s teachings as in,
              “Experience life in all possible ways -
              good-bad, bitter-sweet, dark-light,
              summer-winter. Experience all the dualities.
              Don’t be afraid of experience, because
              the more experience you have, the more
              mature you become.”

              • satchit says:

                Romeo and Juliet?

                Is this quote from you or Osho?

                It’s okay for me if you have your 1001 experiences.

                What’s with this:
                “Experiences come and go.
                In the morning it is there,
                in the evening it is gone.
                You have to find a place that is silently watching the change.”

                • shantam prem says:

                  Satchit, quote may not be of Osho but someone in the similar trade.
                  If it is not Ariel, still it is a detergent; maybe unbranded one.

              • shantam prem says:

                Lokesh and Satchit,
                How you will describe your life if there were no Osho Quotations?

  21. Lokesh says:

    Hi Sam, I don’t really see how you can compare valium and ayahuasca use.

    Osho had a problem because long term use of valium and laughing gas has a detrimental effect on one’s health. Osho was not in great health at the best of times. Back in the seventies, I tried nitrous oxide on a number of occasions. At first it was quite an interesting high, bordering on the psychedelic with increased sensory perceptions. Further along I found that the gas produced terrible headaches. It really is not a good thing to do overmuch, and Osho did a lot by anyone’s standards. Valium depresses the central nervous system and with excessive use can produce seizures, muscle spasms and anxiety attacks. Hardly what you would call good for the health, and Osho was taking maximum dosages.

    I know friends who have done hundreds of ayahuasca sessions. None of them are messed up in any way. The one odd thing about it is they have, at least in relation to appearances, remained the same people on a personality level. They do not have a drug problem, although you could say they are addicted to the experiences the brew produces.

    I have never taken ayahuasca myself. I have done almost every other psychedelic known to man. My big time tripping days are a thing of the distant past, and I simply could not be bothered throwing up and tripping out of my head for hours on end. I am quite boring on that level these days. I much prefer to sit in my garden and simply enjoy the miracle of life. Once in a while I might be inclined to have a wee appreciation booster…all things in moderation.

  22. frank says:

    Don`t forget Roger McGough`s classic poem, written for National LSD week in 2005:

    “Mind, how you go!”

  23. Lokesh says:

    It seems that even our most respected politicians are not immune to the drug-induced madness that has spread like a holy fire on SN.

  24. satyadeva says:

    No problem here with the video…Perhaps demonstrates how repressive Spain’s becoming, Lokesh?

    How refreshing though to find that UK has such a liberal approach, despite the uptight, pro-censorship/anti-drugs brigade. Should be required viewing for all business management trainees.

  25. Lokesh says:

    SD, nothing to do with repression:

    “This video contains content from LDS, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.”

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