Comments on: Letter from Sarlo as he reconsiders the Sheela Era

By: satyadeva

satyadeva — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 11:50:11 +0000

Perhaps in the past one or two might have fitted such a description, although how can anyone be certain? But, AJ, to say that of current contributors is bordering on paranoia, as far as I can see anyway.

By: alokjohn

alokjohn — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 11:10:35 +0000

@SD….. ” I wonder at your apparently rock-solid conviction that people who write at SN are somehow committed to opposing Osho and his efforts to create a more conscious humanity….This is certainly not true of myself, nor of anyone else here, as far as I can judge.”

I dunno, SD. There is so much anti-Osho bias on this site, that sometimes I wonder if some contributors are working for MI5 or the CIA, with an agenda to damage Osho’s work.

By: Lokesh

Lokesh — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 00:09:57 +0000

Too late, Sarlo. The duck is out! We all know you are working for Amrito.

By: Sarlo

Sarlo — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 23:54:30 +0000

Okay, i am replying to Honeysucklerose but the reply button is way up above, after my first post in this sub-thread, so let’s see where this ends up. The point is only that Lokesh raised the issue of 14-year-olds being sterilized, so that is what i was addressing. That sub-sub-thread is not about adults. It is about teenagers being pressured.

By: Sarlo

Sarlo — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 21:33:18 +0000

FWIW, the reply button last night was supplied as i said, so i wrote what i did, but when my comment (any reply to that?) was “posted,” ie up in place but still awaiting moderation and uneditable, it appeared in the right place after Lokesh’s post. So Parmartha is right but somewhere in the communication between SN and my computer, it displayed weirdly

By: honeysucklerose

honeysucklerose — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 21:23:42 +0000

they were adults Sarlo, quite capable of making rational decisions for themselves- so blame no one(if there is any blame) except themselves.. that’s life- no laying trips on others because the supposedly “forced” their way upon them.. they aren’t 7 year olds, nor 15 year olds.

By: frank

frank — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 17:55:20 +0000

no chance mate.
zygote.

By: Lokesh

Lokesh — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 17:42:38 +0000

Evil white-skin Sarlo is trying to undermine Lokesh’s work by stating the following,,,,” Perhaps this is another way he arranges to have the last word …’
I don’t need to arrange anything to have the last word because I already have it.
Say three hail Marys and look in the mirror and all will be forgiven. My compassion is infinite.

By: Sarlo

Sarlo — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 05:32:35 +0000

Mysteriously, there is no “reply” button below Lokesh’s post below, so this apparent reply to my own post is really to his below. Perhaps this is another way he arranges to have the last word …

(ED: PLEASE CHECK YOUR COMPUTER, SARLO!)

If you’re asking about the teenagers getting sterilized, i can honestly say i don’t know. Life is too short to bother having opinions on everything, and this issue is not simple. If you’re asking about sterilization in general, i can easily say that it’s a good idea, having undergone the procedure myself before i ever heard of Osho.

The thing worth discussing here imo is peer pressure, and i wouldn’t call it coercion either fwiw, that being another no-options deal. Peer pressure is tough, yes, and is one of the many things we have to learn to deal with in life. That it should be generated among sannyasins, who “should” know better … ha ha! Of course it was generated, just like the proto/crypto-fascism that happened at the ranch. These unseemly things happened because they need to happen in RL. We cannot process our unconscious tendencies just by listening to Osho speak about them. We listen, nod sagely and … nothing happens! So peer pressure happens, and sometimes it’s misguided, sannyasins as a group fuck up. Just like at the ranch. So what! Learn from it. Grow from it.

About the teenagers, they wanted to experiment with sex. There’s nothing wrong with that. Period. Except … Quite possibly in a number of cases, they did not get adequate guidance, mentoring, whatever you want to call it, especially in the atmosphere of anything goes (on the one hand) and everyone is your aunt and uncle (so no one takes responsibility otoh). So a few kids fell between the cracks in “the system” and couldn’t cope with pedophiles, a few of whom showed up and took advantage of the situation. Some kids were abused and plied with drugs and their lives spun out of control. (I have heard.) Such casualties exist also in the mainstream society but they were imo largely avoidable if parents and we collectively had been more proactive, not in laying a trip on them but just being available.

Measured against that, a few “inappropriate” sterilizations don’t look so bad imo, given that no one should ever die from a tubal pregnancy in this day and age, but i wouldn’t want to say it was a good idea either. I don’t know, and teenagers will have the hardest time resisting peer pressure and shouldn’t have to in such “important” decisions. IMO probably the biggest factor if any teenage sterilization was inappropriate was parental neglect, rather than some folks’ zealotry.

By: Lokesh

Lokesh — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 11:59:00 +0000

Good post, Sarlo. I’m afraid I do not agree with you about how much pressure was being applied. I worked in the groups department at the time and I underwent a lot of presure because of my resistance to getting steralised. Mexican Rupesh, RIP, was one of my mates at the time and after surgery he experienced a lot of pain for about a year. I was labelled unsurrendered, resistant and all that shit, just because I said no, I don’t want to do that. Yes, press-ganged is exaggerated…coerced is more accurate(I forgot the right word and just chucked press-ganged in because I was too lazy to come up with something more accurate). Thanks for correcting me, you are right to do so. I am correct in saying teenagers as young as fourteen underwent the procedure. Sarlo, can you honestly say that was a good idea?