Of all the Osho quotes ‘Existence is not a problem to be solved it is a mystery to be lived.’ is perhaps one of the most well known and commonly repeated by sannyasins.
I myself have quoted it over the years. It comes in handy when confronted with something you cannot figure out with the mind, and serves well when someone else is in that position and needs a little advice to put their mind at ease. Yes, it is a poignant saying that holds much appeal, but recently I have began to question it. I think it is a great mistake to repeat things Osho said as if they are irrefutable, especially if it has become a sort of personal mantra. How about sannyas or suicide? Sounds a bit extreme these days, but once upon a time it made perfect sense to many of us.
According to Ramana Maharshi, ‘Mystery and suffering only exist in the mind.’ Does that mean all this ‘Mystery School’ business is just a mind trip? Could it be that seeing life as a great mystery is actually not conductive to awakening, that it is actually a trap for the seeker after truth? When set in a historical context keeping life mysterious has always been a foundation stone in any organized religion’s framework and worldview. Enter the priests, who have the keys to the door of the mysterious and will give you a glimpse of what lies behind it…for a price.
Another pitfall of being logged into a worldview that subscribes to life being ever so mysterious is that it is easy to write things off by shrouding them in a cloak of mystery. An image of sannyasins back in the Ranch days comes to mind. Instead of saying to each other, I think something is fundamentally wrong in the way Sheela is running the commune, it was all written off as part and parcel of Osho’s great rock and Rolls Royceing magical mystery tour. In other words, adopting an attitude wherein one sees everything as a great mystery can and sometimes does short-circuit our critical faculties and, like dosey sheep being fattened for the abattoir in a verdant alpine meadow, leave one ripe for exploitation and manipulation.
According to Osho, and in direct contradiction to life not being a problem,  there exists one very big problem and that is the mind, very much a part of life which, when one considers it, is quite a biggie that we all deal with on a daily basis. Osho and many other mystics seem to agree that all other problems will fade to insignificance if we can sort out the problem of the mind. Nothing mysterious there as this has pretty much been established as a fact of our spiritual reality.
To round this off I’d say that there is another problem,  and there is nothing mysterious about it either. This problem has to do with the fact that we have become totally identified with our body-mind complex and forgotten who we really are,  and as a result all manner of problems have arisen…you name it we got it! Our job as seekers is to rid ourselves of this mistaken identity. This means we have to debunk the mystery package that has always been part and parcel of all all religions and religious cults…sannyas being no exclusion, for in itself sannyas fills many of the criteria as to what it is that constitutes a cult or cultish mentallity.
Our situation is such that it is only through embracing our aloneness and diving directly into ourselves that we will come to know the truth. We don’t need any social framework for this. We don’t need to belong to a mystery school. We, you, can enter the kingdom right now, by simply closing the eyes, relaxing and maintaining inner awareness. In so doing all of our problems dissolve and our lives will become concentrated in this very moment,  and there will be no longer a need for any mystery or problems that need solving. It is important to understand that we are all destined for enlightenment. End of story.

Eighty Four Hours of Wakefulness

Satya Vedant’s story below is in response to the question: “What situation at work in the commune became a device for you?”

With a master, around a master, there is no such thing like ‘work’. It is not work, it is one’s way of expressing love for our master. With ‘work’ come expectations, likes and dislikes. With a master, whatever it is, it is always an offering. Whatever happens around a master is essentially a device for our own transformation, however insignificant the occurrence may be.

With Osho, anyway, whatever was happening around him was always a challenge. The Ranch, for instance, was a huge phenomenon on 64000 acres of land with multiple possibilities for creative expression. We used to start at six in the morning and go until eight in the evening with just two hours break when we stopped to greet Osho during drive-by. We were working around the clock in more than 50 departments and we had the opportunity to express our love for our master in as many creative ways as possible. So, everything which was going on there was a challenge. Every moment we had to be aware of “Where do I stand?” Not just “What am I doing,” but “How am I doing it” became significant.

In that context, one day a message was related to us that we would bring homeless people, ‘street people’ as they are called, to the Ranch and show them how to grow, how to bring meditation, happiness and joy to their existence. I thought it would be a real challenge to bring them to the Ranch because they would have had no idea about an environment like ours. But when the message came, no matter if it was in Oregon or in Poona: “Message comes“and you “just do it.” If you ask me what I went through, well, I went through nothing. I was just excited that I would have a chance to comply with a message, a project that was given to me.

Before we left a team had already gone to New York and had set up a base for us in an apartment. There was another sannyasin who came with me, because in those days for projects like these we would always be paired up. We were to fly from Portland to New York.

As soon as we reached New York we started searching for the street people. We walked through streets and alleys to look for them. Then we saw them, lying around on the pavements, screaming, shouting, swearing, and all that. Our next question was: “How do you attract them?” You could be standing there a whole day and they won’t bother about you. We needed to find something we could offer to them, something like a sandwich, juice, and so we did. The first day we did not bother to talk to them; we simply offered them food – which they took.

Then slowly we started spreading the message that “We would like to invite you to come with us to Portland, Oregon as our guests at the Ranch.”
Someone asked “Guest? You mean we don’t have to work or do anything?”
I said, “Yes, you don’t have to do anything, we provide you with food, clothes, shelter and whatever you need.”

It was too good to be true. In this world, and in America of all places, how can you have anything for free? They were obviously skeptical. They simply did not trust us. They used to laugh, make faces and move away. But our job was to persist. By the third day, they slowly began to sense that we were serious and that there was no catch. Someone passed the word that they would only come if their leader gave them permission.

We spotted the leader; he was sitting on the pavement surrounded by his lackeys. His face looked very serious and, for all the time we were there, he was staring at a pocket watch which he was swinging from his hand. We greeted him, “Hello sir, good afternoon sir.”

He wouldn’t even look at us and continued staring at the swinging watch. We continued and said, “We would like to have your friends come with us to our ranch in Oregon, where we have good facilities, food, etc.”

He did not say a single word… and kept staring at his watch. Then suddenly he said, “Take my photograph.”

How to take a picture? We had no camera with us; we hadn’t thought of needing one. I immediately told the other sannyasin, “You run to the store and buy a Polaroid camera.” That was the only way (in those days there were no mobile phones) – so we bought a camera and took his picture which came out nicely.

Then the leader ordered, “Give me fifty dollars for taking my picture!” We were quite surprised but then promptly ended up giving him the fifty dollars – and the photograph.

He took his time and – I can’t recollect what he did exactly, perhaps made a sign or gave a clue – but he did give his consent for them to come with us. People around him relaxed a bit. You can imagine the situation. These were people who had come out of prison, lunatic asylums, from all kinds of broken homes. They were murderers, burglars, you just name it. They were huge guys with dirty shabby clothes, lazing around on the street. As we began to sense that there indeed was a possibility of them coming with us, we told them that on Thursday five o’clock in the afternoon, a Greyhound bus would leave from there and take them to Oregon.

So Thursday came and there was the Greyhound bus. Slowly people started climbing into the bus with almost nothing else than a bundle of clothes. We had clear instructions that we were not to feed them anything non-vegetarian. And what would that be? We had only two choices – cheese sandwiches and peanut butter sandwiches. In addition, we had bottles of wine. That was the only way to keep them calm and make them go to sleep. Moreover, they enjoyed the wine.

Suddenly one guy, who carried a bundle in one hand and a cage with a small bird in the other, climbed into the bus and sat down. The moment he sat down, he lifted his cage and asked, “Hey birdie, do you want to go to Oregon?” As if hearing the bird answer, he said “No? No?… Okay. She does not want to go,” and got off the bus.

Somebody else asked “Where is Oregon? How far is it?” When we said it was three thousand miles, they became afraid that there was something wrong – some of them might not have travelled more than three miles in their whole life. Finally 40-50 people settled down and we started to move.

Now we crossed New York and as we entered Pennsylvania it must have started drizzling. There was oil on the road which made it slippery. Suddenly a car tried to cut in from one side and, although our driver was driving carefully, he hit the breaks forcefully in an attempt to avoid a crash. The bus went through a big jerk and the people sitting in the back seats bumped into each other.

They got so furious, these big guys came swearing to the front and took the driver by his neck. They were about to kill him! I was trying to save him, pleading with them, “Please sir, don’t do it, sir,” while the other sannyasin was stuck to his seat, shaking, unable to move. I was completely at a loss. How was I to stop these guys?

Finally they relented, “Because you are asking us, we are leaving this man alone, otherwise we would have killed him.” They would not have hesitated! They must have gone through many such situations before, even created on purpose…. The driver was completely shaken up but somehow kept his cool and continued driving.

If that was not enough, once on the road again, one guy got up and shouted, “Open the door, I want to leave!” I tried telling him that this is a highway, there is nothing here; where would he want to go?

“No!” he said, “you stop the bus or I will jump from the window.”

Finally the driver had to take a detour to reach a Greyhound stop where the man could be dropped off. It was late in the evening already and we had to knock on the door of the office to wake up the unhappy manager of the bus stop. We gave him money so that a ticket could be arranged for this man to go back to New York. And that is how this particular episode ended.

The next morning we reached Chicago. There were obviously a few men who didn’t have any intention of coming with us all the way to Oregon. About 10-12 people promptly got off and disappeared. Meanwhile, the bus driver had spread the word about the kind of people who were on the bus and how he almost got killed. The authorities of Greyhound in Chicago refused to take us any further. We were in a fix now, as we had clear instruction to bring them to the Ranch. So I called the Ranch and got connected to the lawyers. They in turn called the higher authorities at Greyhound and threatened to sue them for not fulfilling the contract to bring us to Oregon. That changed the situation and they were able to find a bus driver who was willing to come. So we continued the journey with about 35 people.

It was a very intense moment, in the sense that several things were happening simultaneously. First of all we had to make sure that the men were calm and quiet. We gave them wine and served them food, pacified them and treated them with respect. Moreover, it was a challenge to stay awake all the while. I was always afraid that if I dosed off and something went wrong, I wouldn’t have the time to do anything about it. I was sitting right next to the driver and for three thousand miles, which is three nights and four days, I did not sleep. I don’t know how I managed to stay awake all this time.

Meanwhile, the men on board started to become restless. They were completely fed up with cheese sandwiches. How can you have the same food day in and day out? I could understand their frustration but what could I do? I did not have much money on me. By the time we reached Salt Lake City in Utah, it was clear that they were going to create a mutiny or run away. So we stopped in the early morning at a restaurant. However, seeing the men get off the bus, the restaurant owner refused to let them in. I had to negotiate and offer to pay double to make him finally agree to feed them.

While this was happening, suddenly one man took his bundle and started to run away. I ran after him and somehow persuaded him to come with us to Oregon, promising him a return ticket back to New York. Meanwhile our men had a wonderful breakfast with omelets, sausages and everything else you can find on an American breakfast menu. In the process all the money that I had on me was gone. I called the Ranch for more funds and was told that money would be arranged for us to pick up at the Idaho bus stop.

When we reached Idaho, a couple of sannyasins were waiting for us. When I saw them, they appeared to me like angels that had come down from heaven. I hugged them with so much joy! To hear them talk was like music in my ears in contrast to the screaming, shouting and swearing that had been around me for the last couple of days. They gave us some money and told us not to worry. After all, the Ranch was not too far from Idaho.

In the end we finally made it to the Ranch and now the next step was for other sannyasins to take care of them – arranging their accommodation, giving them clothes, feeding them and helping them to settle in. This was the second bus to arrive with homeless people. After that many more buses came from different parts of the country.

The point is that all along our life’s journey, every situation challenges us to see where we are and where we stand. It demands awareness, the alertness and ability to shift from normal gear to a new gear, where we are completely neutral, where we are not reacting against this or that, simply accepting the reality as it is rather than projecting and questioning why a situation is the way it is. I was doing my best to take care of my men but still they were the way they were. They did not know how to relate to me. It was a challenge for me to understand and learn to relate to them.

This is how, in a multi-level framework I was given the opportunity to check my reality – with me as a human being, the work that was going on, and the love for the master and his vision.

This article first appeared in Oshonews without comment.

or more technically, bhakti yoga vs. jnana yoga (inquiry) — Ramana Maharshi used to recommend inquiry, but did allow that for one not cut out for that path, bhakti yoga (surrender) was good also. In inquiry, one seeks to realise the Self. In devotionalism/surrender, one surrenders to the divine, be that in the form of a symbol, or a living guru.

There was clearly a problem with the latter approach however, and it seemed to me that Osho was trying to address that problem near the end of his life. I recall him saying in Poona I, many times, ‘surrender to me’. But after the Ranch, that approach was dropped — in Poona II I recall him saying, ‘don’t surrender your ego to me — what am I going to do with all these egos at my feet?’ The whole emphasis on Zen, and meditation, in the last few years of his life seemed to underscore that point.

Ramana said that ‘total surrender’ to the divine is impossible in the beginning, but can eventually lead to a total surrender, which he claimed was good enough for dropping identification with physical form and ‘escaping rebirth’ (which I imagine can be understood as metaphor). But he always recommended vicara (inquiry) first. When Harilal Poonja went to him, he was having ecstatic visions of Krishna. Ramana basically told him to drop it and focus on his own consciousness instead — ‘find the one who seeks Krishna’.

In my view, the problem with devotionalism is that it can only really be done by a mature seeker. An immature seeker just ends up transferring unfinished parental business onto the ‘divine’ or guru — turning them into a glorified father/mother. In the Ranch years most of us were still relatively immature seekers, and so the devotionalism expressed then was probably not very mature. That could explain why so many of us fell hook, line, and sinker for the fiasco that happened under our noses.

Shantam states:
As one looks at the period of Sannyas during Osho´s life time, the large majority of people who took sannyas were from the developed countries of the world, especially at that time when the drift between developed and under developed countries was oceans apart. In defining developed countries I mean; not just their strong currencies,  but because of the highest level of their democratic institutions,  and societies where human liberties were cherished as part of the new ten commandments. I think most of the people who took sannyas then took these liberties and democratic system as granted, the way teenagers now think about Ipods and pads, as if these things were always with us.
The hypothetical question which I would consider is:
Let us imagine, Europe and America reverts back to autocracy, there are no elections, and kings and queens and dictators chose their ministers from their courtesans. But at the same time – personal freedom like choosing the vocation, sexual inclination and religious choice is not curtained – they remain the same as it is now. It means a France where Sarkosy does not relinquish his position this week,  yet everything else remains the same.
My koan is whether meditative and aware citizens, let us say for the sake of argument Sannyasins and Advatists  of those countries,  will take part in protest demonstrations and marches or will simply shrug their shoulders with a  smile, “ Why to waste energy in irrelevant and mundane issues; what does it matter whether it is autocracy or democracy; my work is to remain happy, healthy and prosperous and yes…go on meditating”… …

1. To what extent do you see Sheela as villain/ victim?

Sheela was a victim of stress and the ego.  She did not start out as the person she became.  The one that betrayed the ideas of the commune and of involvement of consciousness was a totally different person to the earlier Sheela.

2. Do you believe Osho used her, or was he working on her and getting something done that he wanted doing. Working on her and through her ?

Of course, Osho used all of us, as sannyasins, to work on ourselves and to serve the commune.

3) Do you have any insight into why Sheela had Osho’s room bugged around 1983/85?

She was resentful of Osho choosing to communicate with other members of the community.  She want to control all aspects of his life and the commune.

4) Do you feel that Sheela was guilty of crimes as ordinarily understood.

Yes,  her rational was it was for the better good of the commune. In reality it was to justify her actions.  It was to cement her control -  remove any impediment to her total domination of the community.

For example the poisoning of the Dalles -  was in order to elect members of the community to the governing board of the county.  This would have removed the hold on the community’s ability to issue building permits. This in its turn was brought about when she insisted on building the Hotel on land we had previously zoned for exclusive farm use.  That action had caused the county and state to lift our ability to self rule.  That further justified her planning and carrying out the burning of the county’s planing office where the proof of her actions were documented.  This was of course very futile, as there were copies in numerous files resting in lawyer’s offices around the state.

the attempted murder of Amrito,(also Vevek)

She wanted through removing Amrito and Vivek to control Lao Tzu with her own people……

etc.

Can any of these crimes be put down to Osho’s promoting or instruction?

Not a chance.

5) Sheela had never had any executive position in ordinary life as we understand it, would it have helped if someone had been Secretary with previous experience of such organizational power?

NO

6)  Was Osho’s apparent Trust in Sheela a family thing? Osho’s father and Sheela’s father having
had apparently some fairly close connection in the past?

NO

7) Do you feel like describing how it was to be Sheela’s husband, or was this just a perfunctory function? Do you consider her mental health as usually understood dipped badly from 1982 from your personal experience?

Long declining story. Worthy of comment which Niren documented via video which will be archived in Pune and perhaps in Oregon.

Do you have any insight over what happened with Sheela’s first husband?

He died in Pune in early 79.  Later that year was when we got together.  She was still grieving when I met her in November of 79.

9) Niren, Osho’s then lawyer during the Ranch period is gathering an archive of  Sheela’s rise to power, and her years in power. Do you have any knowledge of where this will be lodged and can be accessed?

Certainly in Pune.  Where else has not been decided.

10) Was the appointment of Sheela as Osho’s Secretary to replace Laxmi a sort of random happening based on Sheela’s ambition, or did Osho want to finish Laxmi’s tenure. She had seemed to do a good job up until her demise?

When Laxmi was unable to find land for an expansion of the commune in India he turned to Sheela and I.   By spring of 80 he had turned over all Laxmi’s affairs to Sheela willingly,  and with the belief the Sheela could be more helpful than Laxmi. (in America).  He further kept Laxmi busy in India for as long as he could,  until reluctantly she was invited to the Ranch.  However he did not give her any work,  but she was told to relax and enjoy meditation,  and that it was not necessary to become involved in Commune affairs there.

11) Any Osho involvement in what happened?

During 1980,81,82 I often accompanied Sheela on her nightly visits to Osho.  I sat in on many of these sessions. I heard about many of the sessions that I did not attend up to the end of the Ranch.  In all this I never saw Osho’s hand or knowledge in what amounted to Sheela’s dirty tricks.

Her strident behaviour was related to, and known to Osho ,,,  – but when she explained her actions and causes to  Osho -  she made it to appear that she was defending the community and sannyasins from threats coming from outside.  When in reality it was her actions that too often were precipitating and magnifying the threats from the outside. When the outside world did not bow down to the demands and requests she was making, she would represent it to Osho as an attack on our community and or on sannyasins.  Those who lived there and enjoyed the Ranch soon learned it was Sheela’s way,  or the highway.  The outside world never learned that lesson,  and it turned out that we all had to hit the highway.

John “Jay” Shelfer

Society is the sum of its parts. An enlightened society means that enlightenment is the highest value and everyone is consciously working towards spiritual awakening.

This was the case for the 4,000 years of the last age of enlightenment in India. In this golden age everyone had developed the third body to be responsible and almost everyone had access to the fourth body in meditation. The result was a flowering of creativity, spirituality and social development. There was little violence until the great war at the end of the cycle.
The absence of violence and abuse is essential, but it is not enough. When social and economic injustice exist, conflict is certain to follow. Most wars have been fought over control of land and resources. Ancient India had excessive private wealth, which bred the conflict that eventually led to the great war, the Mahabharat.

In the age of conscious civilization resources will be shared more equitably. There will be no poverty and there will be limits to personal wealth. Everyone will enjoy an abundant and comfortable lifestyle and the gap between  rich and poor will be less than it is today. Everybody will be free to choose their work according to individual interest and capacity. Those with greater responsibility will enjoy a higher standard of living. But the difference between the living standard of a manager and a cleaner will not be as significant as it is today. There will be an abundance of material necessities for all to enjoy.

Enlightened ones will monitor those who are entrusted with responsibility to ensure there is no abuse of power. Spiritual growth will be given a high priority. Everyone will benefit from a lifestyle that supports the inner quest for awakening and freedom from suffering. Enlightened ones will meditate with seekers every day in a climate of love, awareness and playfulness.

Soon this utopian vision will be reality and our present violent, greedy and unjust society will be but a memory of the Kali Yuga, the age of darkness.

Maitreya

www.ishwara.com

It shows you dont have to be the Secretary if asked!  Pity some of the later ones who filled this role also knew this….

Once in Ahmadabad, Osho was having his afternoon tea. He just asked me, “Will you become my Secretary?” I spontaneously replied, “I can’t take care of my own work, I’m so lazy that I need a secretary myself. How can I be your secretary?” He laughed and said, “You don’t know my laziness, your laziness is nothing compared to my laziness.”

One of the stories he told me then, went like this:

A master and his disciple lived in a small hut in the forest. Both of them were very lazy. One night, after both of them were lying on their mattresses ready to sleep, the master asked the disciple, “Go and see if it is raining outside.”

The disciple, not moving from his bed, replied, “No, it is not raining. A cat came from outside and I patted her and she was not wet. It is not raining.”

Then the master asked the disciple to close the door before falling asleep. The disciple responded, “What is the need to close the door, fresh air is coming in, we have no fear of anyone entering the house while we are asleep. And anyway, we have nothing here that anyone can steal.”

The master said, “Ok, but do turn off the lights.” The disciple said, “Master, out of all the work you are giving me, I have already done two. Now this third one you should do.”

Osho used to make us laugh all the time with these small stories. He then concluded the story by appreciating lazy people, saying that lazy people are very good. Active people create a lot of chaos in the world. He mentioned that if Hitler had been a little bit lazy, there would have been no second world war !

Personally I have always been confused, and was when I first met Osho,  as to some of his  own reflections on “Health”.

According to Osho himself his own health was never the same after his enlightenment experience which was in 1953. His period of residence, 1970 to 74 in Bombay was said to be particularly difficult and his asthma, diabetes, and allergies,  got worse due to the humidity of that place.  There are pictures of Osho in wrestling mode where he looks pretty healthy, but no one I know is sure what year they were taken,  but one imagines in Jalwalpur sometime when he was a student there.
When I met him first in December, 1974 in Pune, he was certainly not well. He appeared in a weak condition physically, and walked by resting his arm on Vivek coming into and out of darshan.
Before leaving India in 1981 he was in real bad health and unable to get up,  and  his talks were discontinued.
One of the reasons that some PR people around Osho gave out for the selection of a “desert” for his next residence in Oregon was that desert air was very helpful to those with asthma.  I happen to know that this is true as my own father suffered badly from asthma, but always said it improved greatly in the Sahara,  when he was with the British army when they were pursuing Rommel in 1942.  Anyway for whatever reason Osho’s health did seem to improve during the Ranch period.

Osho spoke many times generally about health, but very little about his own.  Amrito his personal Doctor made a point of collecting many things that Osho said about health in a compilation first published in the UK by C W Daniel Company in 1996.  it was called “From Medication to Meditation”.  It has been republished five times, so presumably there is considerable demand for such tomes, though many disciples of Osho, like myself, feel he left instructions that “compilations” were not to be countenanced.

Health seems to me to be a very big mystery. Allopathic and naturopathic “cures” often fail in equal measure. Osho himself seemed like many Indians to have greater faith in allopathic medicine than many westerners. … Though he seemed to be genuinely unimpressed by surgery and said the ancient Hindus knew all about it 5,000 years ago, but gave it up as one of the most unsuccessful forms of medicine.

To look on the body as a wonderful space suit seems to be a good idea, it leads to a feeling of being which helps one to dissociate from it.  The body continues its work, “YOU” are not digesting, “You” are not getting cancer, but the wonderful gift the existence has made of a body is.
The universe is hostile to life as we know it, and the human condition has always been one of pain and difficulties with that vehicle called the body, the art has to be to simply ‘watch’ it, and also care for it without being obsessed.

Any views?

Parmartha

Subhuti says: “When Osho died in January 1990, I knew I wanted to write a book on him and about the fourteen years I spent with him as a disciple. The adventure had been so intense, with so many unexpected twists and turns. For 20 years I kept postponing, I did not know how to write my story in a way that would make sense to readers as I did not want to write only for sannyasins like me.”.
The book, he says, is a collection of short anecdotes as he wanted to avoid long chronology of events. The first edition of the book was released in the United Kingdom a year ago. “I launched the same in India in 2011 but refrained from publicising it,” said Subhuti, who continued writing and collecting interesting information about Osho after the first book and hence, decided to write a second edition.

Sharing one such instance, he says, “I came across an interview that Osho gave in July 1985. Talking to an Australian radio reporter, Howard Sattler, he said he speaks candidly about his personal life and that he was not celibate.”
Other highlights of the second book include the chapter ‘The Illusionist’ that explores high risk financial aspects of building the Oregon Ranch, the place in Wasco County, Oregon, that housed close Osho disciples during the 1980s.

‘The Art of Whirling’ talks about Subhuti’s sense of turmoil at the end of the Oregon Ranch and ‘The Waiting Room’ reveals Subhuti’s returning to normal life in 1986 after being a part of  a Rajneesh Commune for nine years.

“The chapter ‘The Hitler Greeting’ covers Osho’s final acts of provocation before his death,” said Subhuti.
These last three chapters are all additions to the first edition.
Subhuti says the title My Dance with a Madman has been controversial. “My book is a reminder of how much controversy Osho created during his life, and how difficult it was for people to accept him. Either you loved him, or you hated him, and that was the way he wanted it. He loved provoking people and fighting traditions, organised religions and politicians,” Subhuti elucidates.