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November 25, 2010
Prayer
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OSHO, ACCORDING TO YOU, WOMEN ARE CLOSER TO THE WHOLE THAN MEN. HOW COME SO FEW WOMEN ATTAIN ENLIGHTENMENT THEN?
NOT SO FEW. Exactly the same number of women attain to enlightenment as men, but they don't fuss about it as much as men - that's all. They don't advertise it as much as men. They enjoy it.
That is how woman, the feminine being, is.
Man enjoys talking about his enlightenment more than enlightenment itself. He is interested in how many people have come to know that he has become enlightened. Women are not worried. They are not worried at all. If it has happened they enjoy it, they nourish it deep inside.
It becomes a pregnancy. They live with it; they don't talk about it. That's why you don't know many names. Only a few names are known and those are of women who had some quality of man in them, that's why you know. Otherwise you would not have known them.
In Kashmir there was a woman of the name Lalla. In Kashmir they-have a proverb: We know only two names - Allah and Lalla. Lalla was a rare woman, a Buddha, but she must have been not very feminine; she must have had a little more of a male mind than a female mind. She lived her whole life naked. She is the only woman in the whole world who did that. Many men have lived naked:
Mahavir, Diogenes, all the Jain teerthankaras, and thousands of others, but only one woman. It looks very unfeminine, because the very essence of the feminine mind is to hide, not to show - to hide in the inner cave. Lalla is known to be an enlightened woman; few other women are known to be enlightened.
woman, Maitreyi, is known in the days of the Upanishads, but she must have been a very male type.
It is said that the king Janak had called a great debate among all the learned people of his kingdom to decide the ultimate question: What is reality? It was going to be a great discussion and all the learned people, all the pundits of the country gathered together. And there was going to be a great prize for the winner - one thousand cows, the best of the country, with gold-covered horns, with jewelry around their necks. They were standing there outside the palace - one thousand cows.
Whosoever won the debate would take the cows.
Yagnawalkya came - one of the great learned men of those days - and at that time he must not have been enlightened, later on he became an enlightened sage. He came with his disciples - he was a great teacher - and he was so arrogant, as scholars are, that he told his disciples, "You take these cows. I will decide the matter later on, but you first take these cows because it is too hot and the cows are suffering from the heat." He must have been very arrogant - so certain.
Only ignorance is so certain. Wisdom is always hesitating because it is so vast - and how to decide the ultimate nature of reality? Who can decide it?
All the other scholars were offended but they couldn't say anything because they knew that they could not defeat this man in argument. In argument he was superb. And he argued, and he defeated all.
But a woman was sitting there; she was the only woman, and she had not said anything. She was Maitreyi. And then she stood at the end, when the debate was almost finished and he was going to be declared the winner. She said, "Wait. I have to ask a few questions." And she asked simple questions; but in fact simple questions cannot be answered.
She asked, "On what is this earth supported? Who is supporting this earth?"
The old Indian tradition says the earth is being supported by eight elephants, big white elephants.
So Yagnawalkya repeated the old tradition, that the earth is supported by eight elephants: "Are you absolutely illiterate, don't you know this much?"
The woman asked, "Then on whom are those elephants supported?"
Now Yagnawalkya suspected trouble. So he said, "On Brahma, on the God." And he was thinking that now she would stop.
But she said, "I would like to ask on whom is your God supported, on what?"
Yagnawalkya became angry, and he said, "Woman! Stop! Otherwise your head will fall off. You will be killed!"
This woman later on became enlightened. But she must have been a very male type. She argued and even got Yagnawalkya into trouble and in fact she remained silent but she was not defeated - anyone can see that. In fact Yagnawalkya was defeated. If I had been the judge, she would have won and the cows would have had to be given to her. Because this is no argument, to say that your head will fall off. This is no argument. Anger is no argument, violence is no argument; this way you can keep somebody silent but you have not won the debate.
This woman became enlightened but she must have been a male type. Otherwise no woman bothers to argue about such things.
Once I asked Mulla Nasruddin, "How are things going between you and your wife? I never see any arguments. "
He said, "On the first day we decided one thing and we have been following it, so everything is going very very well."
I said, "You tell me, because many people come to me for my advice about problems, so I can suggest it to them."
He said, "It is a simple law. We have decided that on ultimate questions, final questions, great problems, my advice will be final. And on small things, petty things, her advice will be final."So I said, "This is a very good decision. Then what problems do you call petty and what problems do you call great?"
He said, "For example, which movie we should go to see, what type of food we should eat, what type of restaurant we should visit, where we should send our children, to which college or to which university, what type of education should be given to them, what type of clothes should be purchased, what type of house and car - these are all petty things. She decides."
So I asked, "Then what are the great problems?"
He said, "Whether God exists or not. Great problems I decide!"
Women really are never interested in great problems because they know deep down they are foolish.
You can decide whether God exists or not, or how many angels can dance on one point of a pin - you can decide.
And Nasruddin told me, "This arrangement has been so good that not a single argument has arisen - I always decide great problems, she always decides small problems. And things are going well."
By and by every husband comes to know that he is free only to decide metaphysical problems - otherwordly. No woman is interested in writing scriptures. They have never written any. But that doesn't mean that women have not become enlightened - the same number have. Life follows a proportion. It should be so, otherwise the balance will be lost. Life completely follows a proportion.
I would like to tell you one thing; maybe that will suggest something to you. To every one hundred girls, one hundred fifteen boys are born. And this has been a problem for biologists. Why does it happen? Always - to a hundred girls a hundred fifteen boys are born, and by the time of the age of marriage fifteen boys have died. So the proportion remains the same, because boys are weaker than girls and more girls survive.
So nature has a balance: from the very beginning fifteen boys are extra, spare, because they will die. By the time the marriage season comes, one hundred girls will be there, and if only one hundred boys had been born then only eighty-five or eighty boys would be left, and twenty girls would be left without husbands. That's not a good arrangement.
One hundred fifteen boys are born so that by the time the marriage age comes the number is the same. This cannot be solved - how nature arranges this, by what method, how this proportion.
And then, in the two world wars another problem arose, because in wars the proportion becomes very disproportionate. After the first World War and after every war more children are born than ever.
That too is something. In war many people die; immediately nature has to make arrangements.
Some unknown force, some unconscious force goes on working. After the war many children are born, but that too is not difficult to understand because it can be explained in other ways - maybe soldiers come back home very starved for sex and they make love more. That may be the cause of it.
If that was the only thing, it could have been explained - but more boys are born than ever, and less girls are born, because in wars men die, women remain. More men die in wars than women, because all the soldiers are men, so the ordinary proportion of a hundred to a hundred fifteen changes. To a hundred girls almost three hundred boys are born.
There is a subtle balance somewhere. In fact, for each man a woman exists; for each woman a man exists - they are part of one whole. Whenever one man becomes enlightened, one woman has to become also.
Because one man is freed out of existence, now he will not be coming back; he will no more enter into a womb, into the world. Somewhere one woman has to be relieved of the bondage.
So this is my reading: as many men as women, the same number, have become enlightened, but women are not known because they don't make a fuss about it. They enjoy it.
NOT SO FEW. Exactly the same number of women attain to enlightenment as men, but they don't fuss about it as much as men - that's all. They don't advertise it as much as men. They enjoy it.
That is how woman, the feminine being, is.
Man enjoys talking about his enlightenment more than enlightenment itself. He is interested in how many people have come to know that he has become enlightened. Women are not worried. They are not worried at all. If it has happened they enjoy it, they nourish it deep inside.
It becomes a pregnancy. They live with it; they don't talk about it. That's why you don't know many names. Only a few names are known and those are of women who had some quality of man in them, that's why you know. Otherwise you would not have known them.
In Kashmir there was a woman of the name Lalla. In Kashmir they-have a proverb: We know only two names - Allah and Lalla. Lalla was a rare woman, a Buddha, but she must have been not very feminine; she must have had a little more of a male mind than a female mind. She lived her whole life naked. She is the only woman in the whole world who did that. Many men have lived naked:
Mahavir, Diogenes, all the Jain teerthankaras, and thousands of others, but only one woman. It looks very unfeminine, because the very essence of the feminine mind is to hide, not to show - to hide in the inner cave. Lalla is known to be an enlightened woman; few other women are known to be enlightened.
woman, Maitreyi, is known in the days of the Upanishads, but she must have been a very male type.
It is said that the king Janak had called a great debate among all the learned people of his kingdom to decide the ultimate question: What is reality? It was going to be a great discussion and all the learned people, all the pundits of the country gathered together. And there was going to be a great prize for the winner - one thousand cows, the best of the country, with gold-covered horns, with jewelry around their necks. They were standing there outside the palace - one thousand cows.
Whosoever won the debate would take the cows.
Yagnawalkya came - one of the great learned men of those days - and at that time he must not have been enlightened, later on he became an enlightened sage. He came with his disciples - he was a great teacher - and he was so arrogant, as scholars are, that he told his disciples, "You take these cows. I will decide the matter later on, but you first take these cows because it is too hot and the cows are suffering from the heat." He must have been very arrogant - so certain.
Only ignorance is so certain. Wisdom is always hesitating because it is so vast - and how to decide the ultimate nature of reality? Who can decide it?
All the other scholars were offended but they couldn't say anything because they knew that they could not defeat this man in argument. In argument he was superb. And he argued, and he defeated all.
But a woman was sitting there; she was the only woman, and she had not said anything. She was Maitreyi. And then she stood at the end, when the debate was almost finished and he was going to be declared the winner. She said, "Wait. I have to ask a few questions." And she asked simple questions; but in fact simple questions cannot be answered.
She asked, "On what is this earth supported? Who is supporting this earth?"
The old Indian tradition says the earth is being supported by eight elephants, big white elephants.
So Yagnawalkya repeated the old tradition, that the earth is supported by eight elephants: "Are you absolutely illiterate, don't you know this much?"
The woman asked, "Then on whom are those elephants supported?"
Now Yagnawalkya suspected trouble. So he said, "On Brahma, on the God." And he was thinking that now she would stop.
But she said, "I would like to ask on whom is your God supported, on what?"
Yagnawalkya became angry, and he said, "Woman! Stop! Otherwise your head will fall off. You will be killed!"
This woman later on became enlightened. But she must have been a very male type. She argued and even got Yagnawalkya into trouble and in fact she remained silent but she was not defeated - anyone can see that. In fact Yagnawalkya was defeated. If I had been the judge, she would have won and the cows would have had to be given to her. Because this is no argument, to say that your head will fall off. This is no argument. Anger is no argument, violence is no argument; this way you can keep somebody silent but you have not won the debate.
This woman became enlightened but she must have been a male type. Otherwise no woman bothers to argue about such things.
Once I asked Mulla Nasruddin, "How are things going between you and your wife? I never see any arguments. "
He said, "On the first day we decided one thing and we have been following it, so everything is going very very well."
I said, "You tell me, because many people come to me for my advice about problems, so I can suggest it to them."
He said, "It is a simple law. We have decided that on ultimate questions, final questions, great problems, my advice will be final. And on small things, petty things, her advice will be final."So I said, "This is a very good decision. Then what problems do you call petty and what problems do you call great?"
He said, "For example, which movie we should go to see, what type of food we should eat, what type of restaurant we should visit, where we should send our children, to which college or to which university, what type of education should be given to them, what type of clothes should be purchased, what type of house and car - these are all petty things. She decides."
So I asked, "Then what are the great problems?"
He said, "Whether God exists or not. Great problems I decide!"
Women really are never interested in great problems because they know deep down they are foolish.
You can decide whether God exists or not, or how many angels can dance on one point of a pin - you can decide.
And Nasruddin told me, "This arrangement has been so good that not a single argument has arisen - I always decide great problems, she always decides small problems. And things are going well."
By and by every husband comes to know that he is free only to decide metaphysical problems - otherwordly. No woman is interested in writing scriptures. They have never written any. But that doesn't mean that women have not become enlightened - the same number have. Life follows a proportion. It should be so, otherwise the balance will be lost. Life completely follows a proportion.
I would like to tell you one thing; maybe that will suggest something to you. To every one hundred girls, one hundred fifteen boys are born. And this has been a problem for biologists. Why does it happen? Always - to a hundred girls a hundred fifteen boys are born, and by the time of the age of marriage fifteen boys have died. So the proportion remains the same, because boys are weaker than girls and more girls survive.
So nature has a balance: from the very beginning fifteen boys are extra, spare, because they will die. By the time the marriage season comes, one hundred girls will be there, and if only one hundred boys had been born then only eighty-five or eighty boys would be left, and twenty girls would be left without husbands. That's not a good arrangement.
One hundred fifteen boys are born so that by the time the marriage age comes the number is the same. This cannot be solved - how nature arranges this, by what method, how this proportion.
And then, in the two world wars another problem arose, because in wars the proportion becomes very disproportionate. After the first World War and after every war more children are born than ever.
That too is something. In war many people die; immediately nature has to make arrangements.
Some unknown force, some unconscious force goes on working. After the war many children are born, but that too is not difficult to understand because it can be explained in other ways - maybe soldiers come back home very starved for sex and they make love more. That may be the cause of it.
If that was the only thing, it could have been explained - but more boys are born than ever, and less girls are born, because in wars men die, women remain. More men die in wars than women, because all the soldiers are men, so the ordinary proportion of a hundred to a hundred fifteen changes. To a hundred girls almost three hundred boys are born.
There is a subtle balance somewhere. In fact, for each man a woman exists; for each woman a man exists - they are part of one whole. Whenever one man becomes enlightened, one woman has to become also.
Because one man is freed out of existence, now he will not be coming back; he will no more enter into a womb, into the world. Somewhere one woman has to be relieved of the bondage.
So this is my reading: as many men as women, the same number, have become enlightened, but women are not known because they don't make a fuss about it. They enjoy it.
Osho: The energy of the cosmos is surrounding you. All that is needed is a certain emptiness in you.
The energy of the cosmos is surrounding you. All that is needed is a certain emptiness in you. So the emptiness is good; don’t fill it by beliefs, don’t fill it again by another kind of god, another philosophy, some existentialism. Don’t fill it. Leave it clean and fresh, and go deeper. Soon you will find from both sides, from outside and inside, a tremendous rush of energy, a tremendous rush of consciousness. Then you disappear, you are almost flooded with the cosmos. You are so small and the cosmos is so vast. You suddenly disappear into it, and that disappearance is the ultimate experience of enlightenment. Then you know you were neither an outsider, nor an insider; you are one with existence. Other than oneness with existence, nothing is going to help you. But that oneness is so easy, so obvious. Just a little relaxation, just a little turning in — not much effort, not much discipline, not much torture for yourself.
Man should be like a hollow bamboo, so that existence can pass through him. Man should be like a porous sponge — not hard — so that the doors and the windows of his being are open, and existence can pass from one end to another without any hindrance; in fact, finding no one inside. The winds blow — they come in from one window and they go out from another window of his being. This emptiness is the highest bliss possible. But you are like a hard, unporous rock, or like a hard steel rod. Nothing passes through you. You resist everything. You don’t allow. You go on fighting on all sides and in all directions as if you are in a great war with existence. There is no war going on, you are simply befooled by yourself. Nobody is there to destroy you. The whole supports you; the whole is the very earth on which you are standing, the very sky in which you breathe, you live. In fact, you are not — only the whole is. When one understands this, by and by one drops the inner hardness, there is no need for it. There is no enmity, the whole is friendly towards you. The whole cherishes you, loves you. Otherwise, why are you here? The whole brings you forth, like a tree is brought forth by the earth. The whole would like to participate in all your blessings, in all the celebrations that are possible. When you flower, the whole will flower through you; when you sing, the whole will sing through you; when you dance, the whole will dance with you. You are not separate.
Once you understand this, meditation becomes possible. Once you understand this, you relax. You throw off all the armour that you have created around you as a security. You are no longer afraid. Fear disappears and love arises. In this state of love, emptiness happens. Or, if you can allow emptiness to happen, love will flower in it. Love is a flower of emptiness, total emptiness — emptiness is the situation. It can work both ways
September 11, 2010
Heaven is here
Heaven is here -- you just have to know how to live it. And hell too is here, and you know perfectly well how to live it. It is only a question of changing your perspective, your approach towards life. The earth is beautiful. If you start living its beauty, enjoying its joys you are in paradise. If you condemn everything, then the same earth turns into a hell -- only for you. It depends on you where you live, it is a question of your own inner transformation. It is not a change of place, it is a change of inner space. Live joyously, guiltlessly, live totally. And then heaven is no more a metaphysical concept, it is your own experience. - OSHO
September 8, 2010
All identification is mental sickness.
Once you get identified with a certain idea, then you are sick. All identification is mental sickness. In fact, mind is your sickness. And to put the mind aside and just to see silently ? without any thought, without any prejudice ? into reality is a healthy way of being acquainted with reality.
OSHO
I’m often tortured by the idea that I have to do something special to realize myself.
Beloved Osho,
I’m often tortured by the idea that I have to do something special to realize myself. A few years ago, I was on the point of becoming a psychoanalyst. Fortunately, I dropped this idea and I took sannyas. I tried to work as a doctor, but I was getting so tense that I was no longer loving with the people who were coming to me. Now I do simple jobs but still the idea is there: am I wasting my time? Am I running away from my responsibility? On the other hand, every time this idea of doing was dropped, I experienced days of bliss. Can you please tell me something more about the difference between doing and being?
It is one of the most significant questions for a seeker: the difference between doing and being.
You are born as beings. In your mother’s womb, you are just a being. Then life begins to teach you how to do things: how to be successful, how to be rich, how to be famous, how to be powerful. There are a thousand and one “hows”, and you see around you a whole world engaged in doing something or other.
And in a way, there are things which can only be done. For example, if you want money, you will have to work hard for it – or you can go the easy way, but that will be criminal. If you want to be a powerful politician, you will forget all about morality, humanity. You have to forget all great values of life, you have to concentrate only on one thing: your ambition for power. And you have to do everything – right or wrong, good or bad, anything that helps you to achieve your ambition. You are not to be worried about means and ends; once you are successful, whatever you have done will be known as right. Your success changes the wrong means into right means, and your failure changes your right means into wrong means.
Seeing the situation, one starts following the ways of the world. One starts running for goals, for recognition, for respectability – one is ready to do anything. But the more one gets involved in doings, the more one starts going away from oneself.
Each act takes you away from yourself, and the further away the goal is, the further away you have gone from yourself.
No doing can help you to realize yourself, to know yourself, to be yourself. It is not a question of doing; you have to learn a totally different art than the arts which are based on doing. You have to learn just to be – silent, not running anywhere, no goal in the future, no desire to possess mundane things.
Relaxing into yourself – to such an extent that time stops, mind stops – you simply are. A kind of isness…this is your being. In its purity, it is the most beautiful flower in the whole existence. Lotuses and roses are very jealous of it.
The moment you have tasted just a little bit the nectar of being silent, cool, centered…your whole life is going to change from this moment. Because this taste is not something that anybody has ever been able to forget; on the contrary, this taste of your own being makes you forget the whole world.
From Osho, Sermons in Stones, Chapter 23
September 6, 2010
LIFE is in living. It is not a thing, it is a process.
LIFE is in living. It is not a thing, it is a process. There is no way to attain to life except
by living it, except by being alive, by flowing, streaming with it. If you are seeking the
meaning of life in some dogma, in some philosophy, in some theology, that Is the sure
way to miss life and meaning both.
Life is not somewhere waiting for you, it is happening in you. It is not in the future as a
goal to be arrived at, it is herenow, this very moment -- in your breathing, circulating in
your blood, beating in your heart.
- Osho
September 5, 2010
Beloved Osho, I am afraid of being Nobody.
Question - Beloved Osho, I am afraid of being Nobody. Would you please commend?
Osho - Shunyam Anukant, everybody is afraid of being nobody. Only very rare and extraordinary people are not afraid of being nobody. A Gautam Buddha is needed to be a nobody. A Nobody is not an ordinary phenomenon; it is one of the greatest experiences in life -- that you are and still you are not, that you are just pure existence with no name, with no address, with no boundaries... neither a sinner nor a saint, neither inferior nor superior, just a silence.
People are afraid because their whole personality will be gone; their name, their fame, their respectability, all will be gone; hence, the fear. But death is going to take them away from you anyway. Those who are wise allow these things to drop by themselves. Then nothing is left for death to take away. Then all fear disappears, because death cannot come to you; you don't have anything for death. Death cannot kill a nobody.
Once you feel your nobodiness you have become immortal. The experience of nobodiness is exactly the meaning of nirvana, of nothingness, of absolute undisturbed silence, with no ego, with no personality, with no hypocrisy -- just this silence... and these insects singing in the night. You are here in a way, and still you are not.
You are here because the old association with the body. But look within, and you are not. And this insight, where there is pure silence and pure isness, is your reality which death cannot destroy. This is your eternity, this is your immortality.
Shunyam Anukant, enjoy as much as you can moments of nobodiness. And it is such a simple, uncomplicated experience -- because you are nobody; you have just to sink within yourself a little deeper. Your personality is only on the surface. Inside is only a vast sky -- infinite.
Once you taste it without fear, you would love to go back again and again into the experience. Whenever you will have time, you would like to dive deep into your nobodiness. When you are nobody you are a Gautam Buddha. When you are nobody you are the whole existence.
There is nothing to fear. There is nothing to lose. And if you think anything is lost -- your name, your respectability, your fame -- they are worthless. They are playthings for children, not for mature people. It is time for you to be mature, it is time for you to be ripe, time for you, just to be.
Two drunks are walking down the streets of London with nothing to do, as all the pubs have closed long ago. They come by a street light and both stop to stare at it. After a few moments, one of them mumbles, "Is not the moon beautiful tonight?" The other one turns to him in surprise, and says, "The moon? That is the sun you are looking at."
They argue for a while, and just as they have decided to get an opinion, another drunk come stumbling around the corner. One of the first drunks asks him, "Excuse me, is that the sun or the moon?" The drunk shrugs his shoulders, and says, "Sorry, I don't know. I don't live around here."
All your name, and all your fame, and all your degrees and qualifications, and your richness, and your respectability and prestige, are nothing but different kinds of alcoholic beverages.
Only one who is nobody is not drunk. Only one who is nobody is fully awake, fully alert. And in his alertness he gains the whole world; in his nobodiness the whole universe can disappear. It is so vast. Your somebodiness is so small. The more you are somebody, the more small you are. The more you are nobody, the bigger.... Be absolutely nobody, and you are one with the existence itself.
Source - Osho Book "The Razor's Edge"
September 4, 2010
"The society wants you to have beautiful personalities; the society wants you to have personalities which are comfortable for the society, convenient for the society. But the person is not the real thing, the individual is the real thing. The individual is not necessarily always comfortable to the society -- in fact he is very inconvenient."
OSHO
Welcome...
One Taste with the Master
Dedicated to Osho in every possible way.
Dedicated to Osho in every possible way.
All are welcome and All are encouraged to enjoy.
July 17, 2010
CALLING ALL SANNYASINS!!!
The Final Call
Q: Namaste, beloved Mahadevi!
For a few days now certain thoughts come up in me again and again, and I want to share them with you.
When I was reading your book I felt you could become a guide to sannyasins. I thought by supporting us on our path, you will also save Osho’s legacy, but after reading your article on the Samadhi issue, although it is full of insights I am very disappointed….
Is it not very important to save it or is it not possible anymore?I don’t want to sit on this energy, I tried Dynamic, but the issue keeps coming back. Is there anything I can do? I am waiting for your answer!
Mahadevi:
Dear fellow Sannyasin, All the time I receive information and questions from sannyasins on this issue. Mostly they are very concerned about the Poona resort. But I preferred to remain a silent watcher for two reasons: Firstly, it is believed that Osho himself had chosen his commune leaders. Even though many old members have been ousted, or may have left of their own accord, some still hold their positions there.
The second reason is more severe: it is the state of sannyas. It is sad, but since the downfall of the Ranch, most sannyasins lack inner strength and lost their will to stand up for sannyas and for Osho.
Of course, everything about Osho is still important, but it is virtually impossible to save it – such is the state of sannyas today. Sannyasins would have to first change their attitudes and priorities drastically. It is challenging: Are they ready to do it?
In this regard I wholeheartedly value your attitude and love for Osho and that you want to do something. The rebel in you has not died and it is for you and all other Osho lovers that I want to share my views on this.
So firstly, how can you save Osho’s legacy and for what? Who is qualified to inherit it?
The question in itself arises only because sannyas has “failed.” So the problem is bigger and much more important than Osho’s legacy alone. His entire work including his sannyas is threatened, and from all sides!
I would like to illustrate the problems sannyas is encountering today with a situation I recently faced. A seeker, who is a mother, told me that she read Osho and felt attracted to his teachings, but when she saw a report on him in TV she changed her opinion. Osho’s work was presented in such a bad way, she felt sannyas was ugly and could eventually be harmful for her child.
This incident brought all underlying issues of sannyas to the surface and triggered many questions. Some of them I would like to put here before you.
Where does sannyas stand today and where is it going?
How strong still is the impact of Rajneeshpuram’s unlucky, short-lived history?
Are sannyasins again ready to stand up for sannyas, and how much?
What can be done to reanimate sannyas, so that it rejuvenates into a healthy presence?
How should Osho’s work be carried forward into a misinformed and therefore hostile society?
There is no doubt that Osho dedicated his entire life to waking people up. He strived to free them from their unconscious and to guide them onto a spiritual path. Aware of this, it was painful for me to see a seeker in need and in such a dilemma!
In my view, everything happening in sannyas and to sannyas affects each sannyasin individually.
So both the enthusiasm of Poona-1 and the downfall of Rajneeshpuram affected all the sannyasins deeply.
Until the disaster of the Ranch the sannyas community was united, and sannyasins were enthusiastically following one goal, so they were strong, and stood up unwaveringly for sannyas.
Then they were a solid pillar of Osho’s work, and as a result of this their own spiritual growth was nurtured!
But after the events at Rajneeshpuram strong anti-sannyas sentiments arose from everywhere, which suffocated the further development of sannyas and left sannyasins scattered and weak. It became a great opportunity for people who had wanted to see sannyas eradicated all along. Ever since then, they hammer on the crimes and other activities at Rajneeshpuram. They want the backbone of sannyas to be broken and sannyasins in a position where they never get together again. They have partly succeeded, sannyasins are not united anymore, have even become hostile to each other.
But by blaming and opposing each other or certain people, the situation will not change.
Sannyasins need to investigate into the matter with a fresh mind and not hang onto old perceptions; otherwise we will not come to the root cause of the problems. But if this is done, it will bring back the enthusiasm for spiritual and personal growth.
Once upon a time flourishing sannyas energy was like an ever lasting phenomenon, but unfortunately it is now as if we are going through a long winter. What has changed?
The prime reason certainly is the physical absence of the master. Without his guidelines sannyasins are unable to deal with sannyas and move forward. Without him, sannyas is scattered and has lead to the formation of splinter groups. Add to that the emotional injuries and internal disputes. I have heard harsh judgements from sannyasins about each other. They believe fellow sannyasins close themselves off and purposefully ignore anything they dislike or judge others with their big spiritual egos.
Lost in the jungle of Osho’s words, sannyasins resort to repeating him: “Osho said this, Osho said that…and so on.” They don’t bring Osho’s actions and teaching to the basic scientific understanding Osho wanted.
Are we sannyasins in a position to say or do things Osho did?
He had his views, his various reasons and goals on different occasions, so his statements are almost always contradictory to his previous statements. How then can somebody take any of his statements permanently for granted and make a philosophy out of it?
I remember one discourse: It was not long before Osho left for America, when he explained strongly and in detail why he would never leave India. But soon not only Osho, the whole ashram moved to America.
One can also see how Osho responded to situations, when he asked at a certain time to wear the robe and mala and at another time to drop it.
Why did Osho asked sannyasins to wear his mala and dress in the sannyas color?
It was because he had planned a master project, for which he eventually built the Rajneeshpuram commune. The color and the mala were energy agents for sannyasins and symbols of one unified goal!
Have you ever come to know what Rajneeshpuram was for, what Osho wanted to execute with it and how and why it was built in the US?
I looked through the writings of his personal staff; and even they did not have a clue to his true intentions! Osho was so secretive and careful with his work and such an extraordinary artist that, disguised in thousands of other words, he openly introduced his gigantic project, but still nobody has been able to understand him.
He was possessed by the project, it had his absolute priority, and everybody from top to bottom was there to function for it, including himself!
Then one day Osho permitted his people to drop the mala and the robes. He saw that his project and the Ranch had failed and many sannyasins withdrew themselves. They did not want to support his work anymore. So he freed them from their robes, freed them symbolically from the responsibilities of a disciple, so that they could feel free to move on.
Dropping robes was not at all a positive development, but the signal for his departure. Osho had not given up after the Rajneeshpuram disaster, because he expected it more than ninetynine percent, although it came earlier and was more disastrous than he had anticipated.
After the Ranch, so many sannyasins gave up their support, which made Osho leave his body early – without his project he had no reason to remain here anymore. This is one of the very sad facts behind Osho’s untimely death!
So be alert, sannyas is more than just the spiritual initiation of an individual. Our behaviour and perception that Osho is no longer accessible as a master indicate our disassociation with sannyas – and eventually portrays the message that Osho has failed.
So in my example, the matter is not just about robes and malas, it’s about our trust in Osho. It is about our responsibilities towards the Master, who nurtured us in his spiritual womb. And if we don’t pay importance even to the gestures of sannyas, neither will our spiritual growth be easy nor will we be able to become instruments for Osho’s work. Then what Gurudakshina, reverence will we be able to pay to our Master?
Osho had only limited time for his project, but so much to do on so many different levels.
Therefore he had to talk and talk and convince the people he needed. He knew it was dangerous for the spiritual growth and the mind of sannyasins, but he had no other way, so he warned again and again: “Don’t look at my finger, grasp the moon I am pointing at.” But unfortunately, most sannyasins received the enormous knowledge Osho poured out in topsyturvy style. This damaged their growth, they became stuck in the mind, and subsequently their energy became stagnant and stale. The worst thing that happened is that they now believe they are witnessing themselves and know who they are. What an unlucky obstacle they put up on their path?!
However, I also see a positive side to the whole situation. I have noticed spiritual developments in sannyasins, which in other people do not easily happen. It needs certain energy and a phenomenon like the buddhafield to bring about particular chemical changes in man, which can trigger an interdependent psychological and eventually spiritual development. Trust, love and an energetically charged atmosphere play a big role in letting go of old conditioning, of the known, and prepare the seeker to enter the unknown, the mysterious. Therefore Osho had created the awareness for his tremendously potent buddhafield, so his sannyasins could preserve and maintain it even after his disembodiment.
Sannyasins were tremendously lucky to experience the mysterious energy of his buddhafield. But its vibrations, undercurrents and frequencies have left a blueprint on the psyche of sannyasins, which drives them to look for substitutes for the lost commune. So I am not surprised when most of my sannyas friends share with me that they miss living in a commune. Those were the golden days of their lives!
What sannyasins have grasped is only a fraction of the divine energy that they actually absorbed. Everyone who soaked in Osho’s buddhafield is now charged with it. Sannyasins’ bodies have become temples and pieces of the buddhafield, so much so that if they are brought together the same magical energy field will be formed, like solved pieces of a puzzle make the picture appear. Should this happen, Osho’s omnipresent consciousness, his spirit, will be strongly perceived, filling the vacuum his death left behind. It will be like a rocket launcher, which will propel the consciousness of sannyasins to the sky, giving them a new and higher view of their own spiritual journey.
The mysterious energy of the buddhafield makes our love for Osho eternal and our connection to sannyas unbreakable. We feel most comfortable living together or close to sannyasins, therefore sannyasins kept themselves connected to Osho centres and the transmission of sannyas alive. Something is better than nothing!
The centres are not their own commune, instead they are islands controlled by the Poona resort, apparently giving them rules and regulations contributing nothing to their maintenance or prosperity. Obviously, there was hardly any growth in the sannyas centres for the past twenty years.
In this connection I want to add here an example of old times, which is topically still valid: Michael and other friends, who built and maintained the Far Out disco in Berlin told me that the disco was the most successful in the city. But the Rajneeshpuram fundraisers came regularly to empty the accounts and pockets of sannyasins. Slowly the disco had a hard time to keep up the maintenance and its image of the best disco in town. Sannyasins had built the disco alone and never received any help from the Rajneeshpuram commune. But the fund-collectors could not even see that if you don’t oil and maintain a money minting machine, it will break down one day.
The resort may not be draining the centres anymore financially, but it still sees sannyasins as objects to be used and not as members of one sannyas family.
The difference between Rajneeshpuram and Poona-2 is: the Ranch was a fascist dictatorship and the resort turned into an absolute monarchy, where a king dominates everything for his personal interest.
But what sannyasins need now exists nowhere: a commune by sannyasins and for sannyasins.
Everybody’s opinion should be heard and all contributions should be equally respected. This is absolutely necessary for a healthy sannyas – after such a long time without the physical presence of the Master.
Osho changed the commune leaderships and regularly shuffled people in positions around, be it for their spiritual growth or otherwise. It is a pity but also a fact that many weird people, who had no spiritual understanding or interest, came to sannyas for power, sex, or other reasons, and reached to powerful positions – because Osho tried to use their ambitions for his work. But as long as Osho was in the body the situation could come under control, sooner or later.
Unfortunately, there is no hope for this anymore!
In India Osho was defamed as “the guru for the rich,” but he sometimes refused even wealthy people with non-spiritual interests – when they were not needed for his work. I know such a person, he was an established Indian from Bombay and knew him from the early sixties and had talked to him personally on several occasions. As the man told me his story, he showed me a letter of Osho, still referring to him as acharyaji. After Osho had moved to America and the Rajneeshpuram commune had become popular, he wrote to Osho that he wanted to take sannyas.
Osho replied: “Now there is no need for you to become a sannyasin, my sannyasins are already here.” When Osho was talking about repression, in particular sexual repression, and offered his help by introducing modern meditations, he was strongly criticised and discriminated against. He did not get any cooperation for his work. It needed support from people who stood up for themselves or at least intellectually understood the value of his work. This was the main reason for introducing his sannyas and for sannyasins openly standing up for it. But then powerful people in India and also abroad shied away from taking sannyas. Later when Osho became world famous many of them wanted to take sannyas to gain position and power, to be on the list of who’s who – or to go to America.
Fortunately, those days have passed, but if you can still hear the call of the Master today, Osho’s work needs his sannyasins again – with energy, enthusiasm and rebellious fire. In his words: “When I leave my body, I will be in my sannyasins.” At that time Osho was standing alone against the vast majority, of the unconscious ritual-oriented humanity.
Today, rather than isolating and limiting ourselves – or compromising with our backwardsociety- of-modern-make-up, we can still show that sannyas is the dynamic path (now highway) towards the ultimate freedom, which Buddha attained and Osho brought into our everyday life.
The truth of his message cannot be touched, because it is our own experience of the divine potential of man! We are thousands and if the sannyasins decide, we will again make a difference to the world.
We have already found the path towards home, but why are we unable to celebrate our sangha?
Why is our sannyas declining?
We are stronger than the people who stood against Osho. It takes courage to jump into the unknown ocean – to swim across it. We had the innocence and trust towards our master that we left a secure existence behind to walk on the rough path of sannyas.
Have we changed now or have we become weak? Where does Osho fall short that his rebels have lost the integrity of sannyas and started compromising?
Of course, in the spiritual sense we are not weak, but our strength is that of a flower, not that of Mohammad Ali, as Osho used to say. So if we remain individual and distant from each other, we and our sannyas will become more vulnerable to the harshness of anti-sannyas elements, outside as well as inside the sannyas world.
In this connection I remember the fateful day, when the pagoda over Osho’s podium in Poona was demolished. Why did existence make me a witness to that crime?!
It was during the white robe brotherhood and I was guarding the front gate of the commune. I was actually the caretaker for the Samadhi and guarded the gates only once a week for three hours, but that matched the time exactly.
Usually there were no work activities during the white robe meditation, because it was compulsory to participate in it. So when I heard noises inside the resort, I thought first that they came from the Sunderban Hotel next door. But after a while a truck arrived and I had to let it in. I wondered what urgent work was going on that it had to be done during the evening meditation. I asked the guard from Meera, the opposite gate, to take care of my position as I was going for a break. I went inside and was shocked to see that within half an hour the pagoda was half demolished. I have never seen work happening in India at that speed.
I sat down at the former entrance to Buddha Hall and held my head in my hands watching what was going on. For a few minutes I did not know what to do or say, and to whom. I felt absolutely helpless. But somehow I gathered myself and went close. Indian sannyasin Abhipsa was in charge of the demolition. I saw that there was nothing that I could do to prevent it at that point, but I felt like getting a piece of marble for myself. I asked Abhipsa if I could take a piece, but he refused. Then I asked him what was to be done with the debris, but he avoided giving me an answer.
A large number of workers were working relentlessly to bring the small pagoda down.
In less than two hours the whole work was done and before the meditation was over, the truck with debris was going out. As it came to the gates, Abhipsa helped me to open them. I quickly got a chance and picked a piece of marble off the truck, put it in my pocket. So if I could not manage to save the pagoda, at least I had a part of it secured. I can hold it to my heart – the living diamond that witnessed closely the beauty of a Buddha!
The incident as such contracted my chest severely, it became emotionally very painful. To get a little relief, after the guarding I rushed to the internet café to write to Michael. He had built Buddha Hall and maintained it for years, and he had never understood why they were so much in a hurry to take it down. When they wanted him to take it down, he had refused and preferred to leave for a new visa. He left to Thailand before the demolition work was scheduled.
Like everybody else, he had no information that the pagoda was also on the demolition list! He had clearly informed the resort that the marquee was structurally sound and that there was no urgency to demolish it. But, as if hypnotised, they were in a big hurry to demolish Buddha Hall. Their ruthless attitude was painful for him.
I still remember the last white robe meditation in Buddha Hall. Michael was sad and his tears were rolling throughout the discourse. When the meditation was over, he set himself aside and folded his legs to the chest like a child. Sitting close to him, my tears were also coming, because I could feel his pain. If it was so emotional for a young sannyasin like me, I could imagine how hard it must have been for him and other old sannyasins.
He was so quiet, I became concerned and stroked his head. Slowly he started to open his heart in a whisper. He had so many memories; they went way back to Poona-1, when he sat in Buddha Hall, freshly bathed, waiting for Osho to come for discourse. He could still hear the sound of the gravel, when Osho’s car rolled around Buddha Hall in the morning mist. He recollected when sometimes monkeys were running across the tin roof and the trains were honking long and loudly during Osho’s talks. He remembered one day when Laxmi drove Osho in his car in reverse gear away from the Buddha Hall after he was attacked with a knife by a local Hindu extremist. She nearly rammed into Michael, while he was carrying the breakfast teakettles on a bamboo stick. Luckily he managed to jump into the garden balancing the teakettles.
He relived his intense but beautiful memories with tears.
We and many other sannyasins remained in Buddha Hall for a long time, maybe until midnight, when a guard came to ask everybody to leave. Everybody was still sad, crying and remembering the precious moments with The Master.
The following day Michael left for Thailand, but in the resort the energy was down and I had to watch when people walked disrespectfully on the podium with their shoes on.
Every hundred meters in India one can find a temple, a church, a mosque or other religious places. Even in the middle of the highway they stand and nearly all of these structures are illegal. But no government will dare to demolish them, because it would hurt the religious feelings of the people worshipping at these places.
But Osho’s small pagoda on private property had to be demolished at any cost – because it was supposedly illegal. If the resort would have wanted, nobody would have created a problem. It was about a small building, smaller than the front gate. They could have kept it intact and the 8 government officials in a secular country would not have objected, because they would have to respect the devotional sentiments of sannyasins.
The place, where Osho sat for years and meditated was energetically charged – those lifeless marble-slates were now buzzing with life, they had been inseminated by the life energy of a living Buddha. It was no less sacred than the Kaaba in Mecca!
If small objects like Osho’s hair and nails were given to sannyasins as energy gifts from Osho, then one can see how much the big ones like the podium, pagoda or Samadhi must be charged, how alive they must be. But the resort has no respect for Osho, otherwise they would not let paid workers walk insensitively and with shoes over the podium or let them work in the Samadhi and misbehave there in ways they would never dare in their own temples!
These attacks on Osho’s Buddhafield were justified by the resort, arguing that Osho himself asked for a new Meditation Hall and a complete renovation of his private room after his death and therefore he would not mind other demolitions – even if he was in his body.
There is thin line between demolition and destruction and we all know Osho’s actions have been and still are a big mystery, so how could anybody jump to such conclusions?
But the disrespect of the resort did not end there; they purposefully continued destroying Osho’s work intentionally.
First it may have been more about dealing with the structures associated with Osho, but then the resort leaders began slowly to edge sannyasins out who as Osho lovers were maintaining the resort with love and care.
Sannyasins had their own experiences of Osho and his teaching and were not always ready to blindly follow orders. So the resort decided to replace them with cheap, paid Indian workers, who were not in a position to contradict them and were there only for the money. Many of them were very bad mannered, with no respect for Osho or sannyas.
I have overheard workers passing vulgar and mean comments about Osho and his sannyasins, referring to him as, “Wo budha bahut chalu tha!” meaning, “That old man (Osho) was a crook!” Coincidently, in Hindi budha means old man, but it is used only in disrespect. Or they passed lewd remarks mainly about sannyasin women, lustfully casting their eyes over their bodies. But the resort, having no sensitivity towards Osho or his sannyasins, did not mind these insults, as they were too determined to get the commune sannyasin-free.
Osho’s pictures and other objects which could keep memories of Osho alive were not tolerated and taken down.
This was not even fully implemented, when the next attack came. This time it was about the core of Osho’s work, his discourses. They started doing so much editing of his discourses that one can no longer recognise that they are his words. In his lifetime, Osho could have afforded the best editor, but for good reasons he allowed only proofreading and no editing.
Osho’s teachings and his sannyas are distorted and seekers are being misled from the path of sannyas. Even if temples are broken, a seeker should not be misinformed or misguided!
As sannyasins we have the responsibility to become instruments of Osho’s work, but the destructive resort, which has never understood Osho and therefore is not only incapable, but also has no real intention to carry his work forward.
Osho has repeatedly said his work is two hundred years in advance, so obviously there is no need for unconscious or subconscious people to try to improve on the work of a superconscious being or to remodel it.
If anything needs a remodelling then it is Osho’s administration. Instead of making changes to Osho’s work, his “administrators” should be replaced for new, fresh energy and brains to present it gracefully, to carry it forward rightly.
For us Osho’s teachings, his original work, his multimedia property, his Samadhi and his sannyas needs to be respected the way he always wanted. It would be too bad, if in 100 years only traces of Osho are left behind – when his work had been reduced to Osho Bibles, dictated by un(w)holy business interests.
These attacks are rapidly killing the soul of Osho’s work and sannyas. And it is obviously only the beginning. All those people who are executing the ideas of the resort are either brainwashed that they are doing what Osho has said or overly ambitious – doing anything for their positions. If sannyasins let them continue with their infamy then the forty years of work, in which Osho went through enormous physical pain and even went to prison, will be wasted. The resort neither believes in Osho’s enlightenment nor in his spiritual work and doesn’t give a damn, because they are not meditators – even for fashion.
Their expertise is how to use, misuse and discard people useless to them. That’s why Osho brought them there and to that position! To oppose them individually and directly is naïve and a waste of energy.
However, everything of Osho can be saved – if sannyasins want it and commit themselves. For our own sake, the supreme secrets of spirituality which Osho left behind should be protected.
There are spiritually coded secrets in Osho’s work which should remain intact – at any cost.
They are the real diamonds of his teaching – for his disciples to discover. They are vital help in crucial moments on the spiritual path!
I see only two possible ways to save everything Osho left behind and a third one is more of a miracle, which is unlikely to happen. So which of the two possible ways sannyasins will prefer, needs to be decided first. They are both extremely challenging and demand everybody’s equal participation. If sannyas attains to a sufficient strength and integrity, I will explore the details of this.
First one has to realize that to save sannyas and Osho’s spiritual property, with all the internal and external problems that this entails, it is not an ordinary job to be done by an individual or even by a centre. It demands a huge amount of energy, much effort and master planning. But in our current sannyas situation, we are too weak to deal even with the smallest issues. Now the right things need to be done, or if not, then it is better not to waste the time and energy and harm oneself in the process!
If the entire sannyas community is organised, it can handle all these issues. We are also in need of a central commune to bring as many sannyasins as possible together. So far there are only centres, but no central commune of sannyasins.
In India there is a parable to display the strength of unity: if we make a bundle of sticks they are difficult to break, but individual sticks can be easily broken. When sannyasins are totally united, sannyas will be rejuvenated and it will have the strength to face the anti-sannyas elements, and to save Osho’s property, including sannyas. Sannyas is also Osho’s property and nobody has the right to alter it!
A sannyasin is like pollen to Osho’s work, and every sannyasin is a vital aspect of it. So it is important that we are centralised and at the same time reach out to the furthest corners of the world.
We need to proceed from a space of abundance, express our love towards our fellow sannyasins and support them when they are in need. This new attitude will also contribute to sannyasins’ social wellbeing.
I have heard, for instance of sannyasins who are fatally ill and have no other support than a few friends, who in turn have to beg for money to give a decent life or farewell to a poor fellow traveller.
Just a few weeks ago, I received an email about Swami Rupesh, who is very sick. He was working for years in the ashram and was one of the passionate drummers of Osho. In his love to Osho, he devoted his life and love towards the beauty of the ashram, but now in a critical health, he is left without money for his treatment. His friends are supporting him, but alone they could not afford the treatment, so they had to “beg” for money through the internet. I don’t know whether it worked out… my best wishes go to him and his friends!
It was very painful to see a fellow sannyasin in such situation!
Some sannyasins have misjudged their future social situation, but that should not be a reason to dump them and let them vegetate – they need to be supported to live and die in dignity and love.
These are simply personal calamities and we should not turn our heads away from them!
For all our issues we have an urgent need for an organisation, which should take care of everything impartially as well as bring the entire sannyas community under one roof. It can organise regular sannyas festivals for greater transmission of energy and to boost the spiritual growth of sannyasins, as well as to encourage new seekers.
For this funds will be needed, so we will have to contribute financially towards a united sannyas. As we have already been burned, there should be a legal body to supervise all monetary activities and whose only responsibility is towards all the sannyasins who appoint them.
Sannyas is our pride, we are reborn and nurtured in Osho’s Buddhafield, let us stand up for it.
Sannyas is our roots, and if our roots are cut, our personal growth will be like that of a bonsai and our stand will be vulnerable, wavering. We have to make our roots sturdy to stand firm and expand further and deeper to grow higher.
Sannyasins are our family and we need to support and take care of it now. I know your hearts are buried under the ruins of Rajneeshpuram. But the youth and career you gave to the commune have yet to bear fruit. So if your spirits are not aged with your bones, for once and all revive your deepest energy reserves and bring again a new rebellion.
The beginning of a new era is essential for the climax of your spiritual journey. It will also help future generations to rightly understand Osho and his teachings. It will be a landmark for millions of people still stumbling in the dark to come to sannyas, just as we did.
After his enlightenment, had Osho disappeared into the Himalayas, we would not have experienced a fulfilment and would probably still be stumbling, desperate and unconscious in the dark somewhere. So, he won’t forgive us if we remain aloof and silently watch sannyas declining and his work disappearing.
Dear fellow sannyasin, your great karmas brought you to the most dynamic, but also the most dangerous and difficult Master, so from personal experience I know your life is not easy.
Remember, after Rajneeshpuram fell apart, Osho blamed sannyasins for not supporting him and not standing up against the fascist gang. This should not happen again. Now we should have learned. Otherwise, again sannyasins will be responsible for the actions of his commune leaders, appointed by him.
That’s the style of a Master like Osho: he asks his disciples to meditate and not to interfere in his home, then he puts the fire in his own home, and pretends to be asleep, to test them – what will do they? And if one hair of his beard is burned, he will take hell out on them, even if he is out of the body – you (will) see!
This is a Koan Osho left for his sannyasins to work on!
As time demands, I clearly see that Osho made the right arrangements: if we can prove that we deserve his spiritual legacy, it will be saved automatically – because it is important for his work to continue. Otherwise, he wanted it to be washed away by giving it into the hands of destroyers.
Finally sannyasins will suffer the loss, and it may take lives to realise it!
It is a crucial moment – sannyas has given us a new life, here and beyond, but now it’s time that we give ourselves back to it.
Osho’s work and the spiritual growth of a sannyasin depend on the strength of sannyas. These three aspects are interdependent, and howsoever aloof a sannyasin is they will affect him, spiritually and otherwise.
When we needed Osho, our master, guide and lover, he was with us every moment. Today for his work to continue his sannyasins are needed. After all what we have been experiencing through him, it will be very ungrateful not to listen to his call.
The Eastern scriptures say, if the Master does not receive his gurudakshina, his teachings do not fruit in the disciples. An anecdote in Mahabharatha says, Eklavya, the best archer disciple of Dronacharya, donated even the thumb of his right hand to his master, when it was asked for.
But are we sannyasins now ready to pay the gurudakshina Osho asked for?
Sannyasins who are afraid of losing their routine lives, their families or their positions in the centres or in the resort should understand that the people who value them and their needs will not oust them. So don’t fear.
Let the once rebellious fire, which is now but glowing embers, discover new oxygen and let the flames reach into the sky in full glory. Let our laughter and passion infect others and show them the path to nirvana.
It is not the time to ignore the moment otherwise we will lose everything, and be remembered as obscure followers of a Sex Guru, members of a cult.
But we know better, we have seen glimpses of the beyond! We can again live what we are, the Bodhisatvas of our supreme Buddha. The choice is ours!
For our own sake, I ask all Osho sannyasins – including those who are already in groups, to come forward to build ONE organisation and take the initiative for a new Global sannyas commune – regenerate the groundwork of Osho’s vision.
It is a very arduous task and cannot be done by one or few sannyasins. We all have to come together to work it out!
Transcend any negative emotions towards the sannyas past, they will cause only hindrances. The winter has been long enough. Now it is more than time to allow spring into the garden of our Beloved.
Let us unite and rebuild the Sangha of our Buddha, not for others, but for our own dignity.
Disoriented after the Ranch, we may have “lost” our master twenty years ago, but looking back he has always been close to us as he promised he would be.
On the twentieth anniversary of Osho’s Disembodiment, what can be a better gift to our beloved Master than his sannyasins dropping the minds and starting a new sannyas era?!
Our experiences of living in Osho and his Buddhafield are priceless, but we have to instil a new trust into what seemed to be slowly fading away.
Let’s become again a conscious pillar to Osho’s Sangha, so that the days will soon come, when people want to wear robe and mala out of gratitude and feel privileged to become sannyasins.
Let the time come, when people appreciate Osho’s efforts and teaching for what it is. When enemies realise how hateful they were when they displaced his innocent disciples by demolishing their commune and scattering their sannyas family. When they feel ashamed for misbehaving with Osho, they were so blind that they rejected his offer to turn their miseries into eternal satisfaction and when they feel sorry that they organised his death!
Osho risked his life and the trust of his sannyasins; he suffered in prison, and was finally killed for his vision and courage. He suffered for us and for a dream of a better world. A big injustice has been done!
But we are lucky to be here today. We can rejoin the pieces of Osho’s Buddhafield. Then his life which he gave to wake up humanity will not go in vain and our own spirituality will flower.
Yes, we can do it!
My Osho, my Sannyas!
My Buddha, my Sangha!
Mahadevi
Note: Please forward this article to as many sannyasins and Osho lovers as possible.
June 10, 2010
Aarati for AMMA
om jaya jaya jagad jananī vande amrtānandamayīmangala ārati mātah bhavāni amrtānandamayimātā amrtānandamayī
[Om. Victory! Victory! Prostrations to the Jagad Janani, the embodiment of immortal bliss.Auspicious ārati to Mātā Bhavāni, Amrtānandamayi.Mātā Amrtānandamayi.]
[Om. Victory! Victory! Prostrations to the Jagad Janani, the embodiment of immortal bliss.Auspicious ārati to Mātā Bhavāni, Amrtānandamayi.Mātā Amrtānandamayi.]
jana mana nija sukha-dāyini mātā amrtānandamayīmangala kārini vande janani amrtānandamayimātā amrtānandamayī
[The mother who bestows eternal happiness upon mankind, AmritānandamayiProstrations to the cause of auspiciousness, the Mother, Amritānandamayi.Mātā Amritānandamayi.]
sakalagama-nigamadisucarite amrtanandamayinikhilamayahara janani vande amrtanandamayimata amrtanandamayi
[The one explained in all the Agamas, Nigamas and other scriptures, Amritanandamayi.Prostrations to the mother who completely destroys all sorrows, Amritanandamayi.Mata Amritanandamayi.]
prema-rasamrta-varshini mata amrtanandamayiprema bhakti sandayini mata amrtanandamayimata amrtanandamayi
[The mother who rains forth love, which is of the nature of immortality, Amritanandamayi.The mother who bestows love and devotion, Amrtanandamayi.Mata Amrtanandamayi.]
sama-dama-dayini mana-laya karini amrtanandamayisatatam mama hrdi vasatam devì amrtanandamayi mata amrtanandamayi
[The bestower of mental and sense control, the cause of the dissolution of the mind, Amritanandamayi.Devi, please always dwell in my heart, Amrtanandamayi.Mata Amrtanandamayi.]
patitodhara nirantara hrdaye amrtanandamayiparamahamsa pada nilaye devi amrtanandamayimata amrtanandamayi
[The one whose heart's eternal desire is to uplift the fallen.The goddess who resides in the state of a paramahamsa, Amritanandamayi.Mata Amritanandamayi]
he janani jani marana nivarini amrtanandamayihe srita jana paripalini jayatam amrtanandamayìmata amrtanandamayi
[O mother who puts a stop to the cycle of birth and death, Amritanandamayi.O Mother, may you who protects those who seek refuge, be victorious, Amritanandamayi.Mata Amrtanandamayi.]
sura jana pujita jaya jagadamba amrtanandamayisahaja samadhi sudhanye devì amrtanandamayìmata amrtanandamayi
[The one who is worshipped by the gods! Victory to Jagadamba! AmritanandamayiO blessed goddess who is established in sahaja samadhi, Amritanandamayi.Mata Amrtanandamayi.]
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Arati
Arati
The Sanskrit word ārati literally means "cessation" or "coming to an end." This is because it is typically the final act in a ritual worship. At Amritapuri, ārati is performed both at the conclusion of the morning arcana and at the conclusion of the evening bhajans. The later ārati is accompanied by the singing of a special composition written by Amma's disciples years ago. This song is also referred to as "Ārati."
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om jaya jaya jagad jananī vande amrtānandamayīmangala ārati mātah bhavāni amrtānandamayimātā amrtānandamayī
[Om. Victory! Victory! Prostrations to the Jagad Janani, the embodiment of immortal bliss.Auspicious ārati to Mātā Bhavāni, Amrtānandamayi.Mātā Amrtānandamayi.]
The ārati is begun with the chanting of Om. Om is Brahman, the Absolute, pure consciousness that is everyone's true nature.
The song next proclaims Amma's victory and offers prostrations at her feet. Amma's victory is the victory of every Satguru—the victory of true knowledge over ignorance. Just as in the presence of sunlight, darkness stands no chance, so too for one who has surrendered at the feet of a Satguru the days of Self-ignorance are numbered. This victory is also the victory of dharma [righteousness] over adharma [unrighteousness], as Amma is redirecting the course of the world, leading mankind back to the path of truth, compassion, selflessness and other noble virtues.
In this first verse, Amma is referred to by three names: Mātā Amritānandamayi, Jagad Janani, and Mātā Bhavāni.
Mātā Amritānandamayi, of course, is the name given to Amma by her disciples. It literally means "the mother who is the embodiment of immortal bliss." Mrtu means "death," and a-mrta, therefore, means "deathless." Amma's name points not only to her true nature, but also to the true nature of us all. The only difference being that Amma is fully aware of being immortal bliss, whereas the majority of mankind either believes his nature to be just the opposite—one of suffering and mortality—or, at best, only has an intellectual understanding of his true nature. Mātā means mother. Amma believes that the only thing that can truly help today's world—both in terms of providing a proper role model and of bestowing the love and compassion for which people are starving—is a Mother. Thus, for the benefit of the world, Amma has assumed the bhāva [mode, feeling, role] of the Divine Mother. We can also look at Amma's name as pointing to the fact that only through following the teachings of a Satguru like Amma is it possible for a disciple to awaken to his true nature; thus for the disciple the guru is "the mother" of immortal bliss.
Jagad Janani means "mother of the world." This can be looked at in two different ways. First, as Amma has chosen to assume the bhāva of a mother, she therefore sees every person, plant and animal in creation as her child. Just as an ordinary mother lives to love and nurture her biological children, so too Amma is concerned with the welfare of society at large. From another perspective, Brahman, in its conditioned form, is considered both the intelligent and material cause—"the mother"—of the universe.
Similarly, bhava means "being, existing, living." Mātā Bhavāni therefore means "the mother of existence.”
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jana mana nija sukha-dāyini mātā amrtānandamayīmangala kārini vande janani amrtānandamayimātā amrtānandamayī
In this verse, prostrations are offered to jana mana nija sukha-dāyini mātā: "the mother who bestows eternal happiness upon mankind." Happiness is man's true nature—not the limited happiness that comes and goes with the attainments and losses of life, but the immortal bliss born out the sense of completeness that comes from realising our oneness with the Divine. As Amma is guiding her disciples and devotees towards this realisation, the song says that she is bestowing eternal happiness upon them.
Mangala kārini means "she who causes auspiciousness." A mahātma like Amma is said to be a wish-fulfilling tree, one who can obtain for his devotees any boons they desire. Also, when one becomes a devotee of a mahātma, the mahātma takes upon himself much of the devotee's negative karma, reducing his suffering. And serving a mahātma brings not only mental refinement but also material prosperity. How many devotees tell stories of Amma helping them gain employment, get promotions, arrange marriages, bringing children and grandchildren, etc.
But there is also a deeper meaning to this name for Amma. The Upanishads say that the Self is śāntam, śivam, advaitam: peaceful, auspicious and non-dual. Currently we think in terms of auspicious and inauspicious because we fail to recognise the divinity that in truth is the essential nature of every aspect of the world around us. In our superficial assessment of creation, we label some things as good and others as bad, but in truth everything—the so-called auspicious and so-called inauspicious alike—are nothing but God. It is only our thoughts—which are based upon our preconceived notions—that colour things as auspicious and inauspicious. The Guru removes the scales from our eyes, as it were, allowing us to see this truth for ourselves, and thus is credited as "the cause of auspiciousness."
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sakalāgama-nigamādisucarite amrtānandamayīnikhilāmayahara jananī vande amrtānandamayimātā amrtānandamayī
[The one explained in all the Āgamas, Nigamas and other scriptures, Amritānandamayi.Prostrations to the mother who completely destroys all sorrows, Amritānandamayi.Mātā Amritānandamayi.]
In this ārati, Nigama means śruti, "that which is heard," the Vedas, the eternal scriptural mantras that were revealed to the Rishis in their meditations millennia ago. These mantras are said to have originated with God himself and have been handed down since through an unbroken succession of gurus and disciples. These can be further divided into two sections—one dealing with rituals and one dealing with knowledge of the Absolute. Āgama in this ārati means smrti, the scriptures written by Rishis in order to elaborate on the sruti. (Examples include the 18 major purānas—Vishnu Purāna, Srīmad Bhagavatam, etc.—and itihāsas—Rāmāyana and Mahābhārata, the latter of which includes the Bhagavad Gīta).
Amma is said to be the one explained in the Āgamas and Nigamas, etc. By "etc," the arati means all other scriptures. This includes the sutra literature, such as the Brahmasutra, which support the reasoning of the sruti and smrti using logic, as well as prakaranam, the innumerable texts written by various ācāryas in the guru-disciple parampara. Thus the song is saying that Amma is one with the Truth that all these texts proclaim together with one voice. “Etc” also includes scriptures from Tantra. (From the viewpoint of Tantra, which has text such as Rudra Āgama and Śiva Āgama, Āgama is considered sruti, as it was received directly from Lord Śiva.)
Amma is then referred to as nikhila-āmaya-hara janani, "the mother who completely destroys suffering." In spirituality there is only one source of suffering: the disease of ignorance—ignorance of the fact that our true nature is the eternal, non-dual blissful consciousness that pervades all creation. Though the disease is one, it has many symptoms, a series of delusions, the sum total of which can be called samsāra.
When one is ignorant of his true nature, the door is left wide open for the first delusion: "I am the body, the mind and intellect." When one believes himself to be this three-fold contraption, he fails to experience his innate happiness, which awakens the desire in him to attain happiness from the objects of the world. Engaging in activities to obtain this happiness, the delusion "I am the doer" also manifests. Once one believes himself to be the doer, he also believes himself to be the enjoyer/sufferer of the fruits of his actions. This leads only to sorrow—the pain of the struggle to obtain the objects, the pain of the struggle to maintain objects and the pain that comes after their inevitable loss. Thus a viscous cycle of ignorance-desire-action has been created. And until one stops and looks back to their Self for happiness, one will never escape. The only cure for this cyclical disease is the medicine of knowledge, and the only doctor who can administer it correctly is the Guru. Once the disease is cured, all the symptoms go away.
Removing our suffering is Amma's sole reason for taking birth. Teaching the world about the nature of the world and the mind, Amma is leading mankind from a life steeped in misery to one of peace and happiness. And in Amma's presence, we get a taste of true happiness. Due to her grace, we are able to temporarily forget about our sorrows and experience the bliss the overflows from her.
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prema-rasāmrta-varshini mātā amrtānandamayīprema bhakti sandāyini mātā amrtānandamayimātā amrtānandamayī
[The mother who rains forth love, which is of the nature of immortality, Amritānandamayi.The mother who bestows love and devotion, Amrtānandamayi.Mātā Amrtānandamayi.]
Here, Amma is said to be "the mother who rains forth love, which is of the essence of immortality." Amma is also said to be "the mother who bestows prema [divine, unconditional love] and bhakti [devotion]." The idea is that love and devotion are awakened by Amma herself. Part of Amma's greatness is that she does not reserve herself for uttama adhikaris [top disciples] only. She is available to one and all. As such, she pulls people up from an utterly worldly existence and puts them on the path to realizing the Self. How many stories are there of people whom had no interest in spiritual life, but then after receiving Amma's darshan dedicated their life to imbibing her teachings and selflessly serving the world? Out of her compassion, Amma plants the seed of bhakti within those who come to her, waters them and brings them to full flower.
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śama-dama-dāyini mana-laya kārini amrtānandamayīsatatam mama hrdi vasatām devì amrtānandamayi mātā amrtānandamayī
[The bestower of mental and sense control, the cause of the dissolution of the mind, Amritānandamayi.Devi, please always dwell in my heart, Amrtānandamayi.Mātā Amrtānandamayi.]
Just as Amma cultivates bhakti and prema in her devotees, she also helps them to acquire other qualifications that the scriptures say a disciple needs. Though the song only mentions śama and dama, we can take these two as representative of the entire sādhana catushtayam, the four-fold qualifications one needs to be an ideal student of a Guru.
Śama means mental mastery—a peaceful, poised, tranquil and stress-free mind. Dama is control over the sense organs—the eyes, the ears, the skin, the tongue and the nose. One must be able to intelligently choose what his senses take in and what they turn away from. The sense organs are the gateways connecting our mind with the outside world. Nothing potentially disturbing should be allowed to enter the mind of a spiritual aspirant, particularly in the early stages of his spiritual practices.
Amma is also called mana-laya-kārini: "the cause of mental dissolution." In reality, the mind is not the sentient entity that we believe it to be. As Amma says, "It is nothing but a flow of thoughts." When one gets concentration in meditation, the flow stops and one experiences what is known as mana-laya, a temporary dissolution of the mind. At times like these we will get a taste of the bliss that is our true nature. A mahātma's mind is so peaceful that the peace overflows, as it were, and pervades the surrounding area. Thus many find it very easy to attain deep meditation in their presence.
The ārati then requests Amma to live in our hearts. Amma herself says, "I have no particular place to dwell; I reside in your heart." Though the pure consciousness that is our true nature is in fact all-pervading, while we are living in this body, our particular plug-point, as it were, is in the heart or mind. Thus the scriptures say that God, or consciousness, is "realised in the heart." This can also be taken as a request that Amma never allow us to feel separate from her, and that we become so steeped in her teachings of dharma, love, compassion and selflessness that they inform our every thought, word and deed.
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patitodhāra nirantara hrdaye amrtānandamayīparamahamsa pada nilaye devī amrtānandamayimātā amrtānandamayī
For the sake of mankind Amma has taken the self-imposed desire of uplifting those suffering materially and spiritually. Unlike the desires of man, which enslave him, the desires of a mahatma are self-chosen. In truth, mahātmas like Amma have nothing to attain, so established they are in their fundamental oneness with the Absolute. Yet they chose to act for the benefit of the world. As Śrī Krishna says to Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gīta: "In all the three worlds, I have nothing to attain, but still I perform actions for the benefit of the world." From the pinnacle of ultimate knowledge where the mahātmas revel, it can be said that this world is an illusion and does not even exist. Yet out of their infinite compassion, realized ones like Amma come down to our level in order to lift us up to their height. This can also be looked at from the perspective of dharma. Whenever mankind becomes mired in selfishness and unrighteousness, a mahātma like Amma takes birth in order to set the world back on course. Śrī Krishna says as much to Arjuna the Gīta. In fact, Amma's whole life is dedicated to lifting up those whose happiness has fallen. How many tears has Amma wiped over the years! Her darshan itself is only a manifestation of her desire to make others happy.
Amma is then said to reside in the state of a paramahamsa. Another name for a mahātma, paramahamsa literally means "supreme swan." The meaning is taken from the myth that swans have the ability extract only the milk from a mixture of milk and water. Similarly, a mahātma is one who has the supreme discrimination to be able to extract the essential nature of the world, Brahman, from the unessential, the eternally shifting and ultimately pointless names and forms.
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he jananī jani marana nivārini amrtānandamayīhe śrita jana paripālini jayatām amrtānandamayìmātā amrtānandamayī
[O mother who puts a stop to the cycle of birth and death, Amritanāndamayi.O Mother, may you who protects those who seek refuge, be victorious, Amritānandamayi.Mātā Amrtānandamayi.]
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sura jana pūjita jaya jagadambā amrtānandamayīsahaja samādhi sudhanye devì amrtānandamayìmātā amrtānandamayī
In this final verse, it is said that Amma is worshipped by the gods themselves. She is also referred to as Jagadamba, "the mother of all creation, and said to reside in the state of sahaja samādhi.
The scriptures say that if one acquires enough merit through various actions it is possible to be born as a deva, or demigod, in their next life. Sura is another name for deva. Spiritual aspirants are not supposed to be interested in such attainments as, however subtle and high such attainments may seem to us, they still fall within the scope of unreality, and pale in comparison to the bliss of the Self. They are also temporary. When the merit that transformed us into the god is used up, we have to come back to the earthly plane. When a prime minister or a president's term in office comes to an end, he often suffers from depression. Imagine then the depression that would result from losing your term as a divine being with all the heavenly pleasures at your disposal! The gods of such worlds know that the attainment of a Satguru, who has realised his True Nature, is in fact much higher than theirs; therefore they are said to worship Amma.
The gods worship Amma because she is established in sahaja-samādhi. There are several different types of samādhi mentioned in the scriptures, and no other term has caused more confusion in the minds of spiritual aspirants. Samādhi is a term from the yoga scriptures that has to do with meditation. It is the eighth step of Sage Patanjali's eight-limbed system of yoga, and it means absorption in meditation.
The main two types of samādhi are nirvikalpa and savikalpa (without and with division). In nirvikalpa samadhi, one becomes completely absorbed in the object of meditation, verily becoming one with it. All distinction between mediator and object of meditation fall away. In savikalpaka samādhi, a division remains wherein the meditator still considers himself as separate from the object of meditation. These mental states may last for a few minutes, a few hours or a few days.
Sahaja samādhi means total, natural and effortless absorption in the Supreme Truth that everything inside and out is nothing but Brahman. One who abides in sahaja samādhi may "demonstrate" nirvikalpa or savikalpa samādhi to inspire his disciples in their meditation practices. But whether such a one is meditating, walking, talking, eating or sleeping, the Supreme Truth that they are "amrtānandamaya" never leaves them. As Amma says, "One who is established in this state sees the Divine principle in everything. Everywhere he perceives only pure consciousness, free from the taint of maya. Just as a sculptor sees in a stone only the image that can be chiselled from it, mahātmas see in everything only the all-pervading Divinity." Sahaja samādhi is verily Self-realisation, and this is the samādhi in which Amma ever abides.
—Vedarat
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