sannyasnews

Alok John explores Liberal Democrat leader’s past

Following the inconclusive British election, Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, can choose, albeit within political constraints, whether the Conservatives or Labour will govern.

It has been reported in the British press that, as a young man, Nick Clegg was a devotee of the Maharishi’s transcendental meditation for six years.

Osho had a poor opinion of TM, and I have put some of his quotations about TM below. One would have more confidence if Nick Clegg had done dynamic meditation for six years or even six days. But I suppose if he had he wouldn’t be about to get into bed with Conservative leader David Cameron (perish the thought!)

Here are the quotations :

“Question - What do you think of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his Views on Transcendental Meditation
Osho - Transcendental meditation is neither transcendental nor meditation. But still what he is doing is good. What he is teaching in the name of meditation is only an ancient method of chanting. If you chant any word or any mantra continuously inside the mind, other thoughts stop because they don’t have any space. And this continuous chanting is a certain device of auto-hypnosis; it is not meditation. It does not lead you to any spiritual enlightenment, but it certainly gives you a good feeling of wellbeing and health. You will feel refreshed — just as you feel refreshed after a good shower; but a shower is not a transcendental meditation.
So there is nothing wrong with what he is doing. It cannot harm anybody. He is harmless, but he is misdirected. He is giving a toy which is not the real thing. If people enjoy toys — and many people enjoy toys — I have nothing against them. If they are happy, that’s perfectly good.”

“2. What Maharishi Mahesh Yogi calls Transcendental Meditation is only transcendental stupidity! Certainly it is transcendental — it is no ordinary stupidity, it is very sacred! — but stupidity is stupidity, and when it becomes transcendental it becomes more dangerous, more poisonous.
3. And all these people, like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi teaching transcendental meditation, are giving techniques which mind feels perfectly good with. The mind can use it. But there is not going to be any growth. The technique is not bad, but it simply gives you an illusory feeling of well-being — as if you are evolving… and you are standing where you have been; there is no evolution, no growth. All these people are exploiting humanity by giving techniques — and this is the worst exploitation because it stops evolution. I am against all techniques.”

“ The West is unnecessarily making tremendous effort in analyzing the mind — utterly useless unless they accept a transcendental state. And that’s why again and again they get cheated by frauds.
For example, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is cheating the whole of the West by any stupid thing. First it was transcendental meditation, then people became fed up with it because it was not meditation; it was mind repeating a mantra. You were not going beyond the mind, so what is transcendental in it?
So his earnings became very low; he had to invent something new. So he has invented spiritual yogic flying. First he started by spiritual levitation: you can meditate and become so light that you will start rising upwards! — and you can find idiots everywhere… And people were paying four hundred dollars for learning spiritual levitation. In the first place what are you going to do by… even if you levitate, what purpose is going to be served by it? In the second place nobody was levitating; people were hopping….
The West is being exploited by all kinds of frauds for the simple reason that the West has not looked into the matter of meditation itself. So any idiot goes and says anything, and gathers followers because they don’t know what meditation is. Neither will chanting a mantra nor hopping nor levitation…
These things have nothing to do with meditation. Meditation has only one meaning, and that is going beyond the mind and becoming a witness. In your witnessing is the miracle — the whole mystery of life.”

“And there are methods for grown-ups too, for example Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation. It is just a lullaby – a little sophisticated. It is meant for grown-ups, for adults. It is a process of auto-hypnosis. The mother is no more there and your wife certainly is not going to sing a lullaby to you. She can freak out, but she cannot sing a lullaby! She can throw pillows at you, but she cannot sing a lullaby! She will say, ”I am not your mother!” And you cannot ask her either, ”Please sing a lullaby,” because that will hurt your male chauvinist ego.

So you start repeating a mantra. It has to be in some dead language which you don’t understand – Sanskrit, Arabic, Latin, Greek, Chinese, anything that you don’t understand. If you understand you will not get into it. If you understand, doubts will arise. If I say, ”Just repeat ’Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola’,” you will repeat it two or three times, and then you will say, ”What nonsense I am doing!” But a Sanskrit mantra is just like ”Coca-Cola,” nothing special in it. But you don’t understand so you believe that there must be some secret in it, some great mystery in it, and you go on repeating it. You are singing a lullaby to yourself; soon you will fall into sleep.

Transcendental Meditation and methods such as it have become more important in the West for the simple reason that the West is losing the art of how to fall asleep. People are suffering from sleeplessness more and more; they have to depend on tranquillizers. Transcendental Meditation is a non-medicinal tranquillizer. And nothing is wrong if you know that you are using it as a tranquillizer, but if you think that you are doing something religious then you are stupid. If you think this is going to lead you to meditation you are a fool, an utter fool, just a simpleton.

It is not going to take you into meditation because meditation means awareness. It is taking you towards just the opposite of awareness: it is taking you towards sleep. I am not against sleep – a good sleep is a healthy thing. And I prescribe TM for all those who suffer from sleeplessness, from insomnia. It is perfectly good, but remember that a good sleep has nothing spiritual about it. It is good for the body, it is good for the mind too, but it has nothing to do with the spiritual dimension. The spiritual dimension opens up only when you are awake, fully awake. And the only way to be awake is to drop all sleep and all dreaming.”

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GURU – Bhagwan, His former Secretary, His former Bodyguard: (and the stupidity of the human mind.)
A Review of the movie by Ramoda.

I had a chance this week to see the film GURU - Bhagwan, His Secretary & His Bodyguard.

Two former sannyasins Shiva (Huge Milne) and a former secretary of Osho during the early 80’s Sheela (Sheela Silverman) have teamed up with a group of Swiss documentary film makers who put this project together.

In short it seems to be a combination of two biographies - Sheela and Shiva - who decades after their involvement with Osho can still not let go; and need to justify their leaving by blaming Osho and his community, all for the public record. Over the last 20 years we have seen many attempts by Sheela to clear her name, and clearly she has not come to grips with her jail time for amongst other crimes, attempted murder – at least this she does not try to pin this on Osho – and in Milne’s case for the months he spent in a psychiatric hospital (not long after leaving the Oregon commune).

It was certainly one of the most boring movies I have seen in a long time. I would suggest to watch an Osho Talk instead; it will leave you in a much better space.

Shiva who talks with a voice as if he is on antidepressants, clearly never understood the point that Osho’s work is an ongoing process of change. He just could not get the point that “Poona 1” ended and that Osho like a real Zen master put his people to work in a new phase – “carrying water from the well, chopping wood” – the contemporary version of this was perhaps to build a city in the desert of Oregon – who knows. The film shows Shiva who dropped out of everything early and then created his own mini Poona 1 world – just this time creating himself in the role of a guru and healer with special abilities. Most of the last 25 years since he left the movement he has been busy with justifying why he left.

Sheela , like Milne has also recreated a community, this time unfortunately with mentally challenged adults, who are misused in this film as a background scenario presenting Sheela as the caring mom. Now she has surrounded herself with people who cannot question her, or don’t even understand how they are misused in this film for Sheela’s personal politics. It is pathetic to see that the institution for these handicapped people is filled with Pune 1 ‘Bhagwan’ photos and how Sheela explains that she is living Osho’s vision in this ‘commune’. Can it get more pathetic?

Unless the viewer is a sannyasin or has personal experience and some kind of involvement in the events at the time of this film, the film is without context– a wasted opportunity which has cost, according to the estimates, about 2-3 million US-Dollar – most of the money came from Swiss government film project funds and Swiss TV.

Two lost people who have completely missed the point of Osho, and cannot resist on the blame game, putting their poison out to the world. The political and personal accusations are not even worth mentioning here, nothing new, just the same old wine in a new bottle - an expensive film production.

The only redeeming feature is the archive footage of Osho, of joyful sannyasins and some footage from events and locations of the journey which seem to make up half of the film. Probably Sheela convinced the film makers to make this film about ‘her Bhagwan’ as she still calls him, frozen in the past. Shiva talks only about ‘Rajneesh’. Two people in a ‘Ground Hog Day’ time loop – a 25 year loop!.

The misunderstandings, minds and personalities of these two people put on display here confirm anything Osho ever said about Sheela and Shiva.

Osho said:
‘Shiva had been my bodyguard for years. Then he dropped sannyas. Then he started speaking, against me. He wrote articles in German magazines – Stern and other magazines – against me. But if he comes back and wants to be my bodyguard he will be again by my side. And I know perfectly well what he has done. That does not matter at all, it is his doing; he should be worried and concerned about it. As far as I am concerned, I have remained exactly the same. He can come again and be my bodyguard. Nobody else will accept him as a bodyguard, because that is the easiest place from which to kill a man…

… He has to take responsibility for whatsoever he is doing, whatsoever he has done; he has to take the whole responsibility for it. But it is none of my business to interfere in his doings. If he feels it right to write against me, perfectly good; if he feels happy to write against me, perfectly good. But for ten years he was sitting by my side. He must have a tremendously idiotic mind – in ten years he could not see anything wrong. It took ten years for him, and now, after dropping sannyas, he becomes suddenly articulate. So what was he doing for ten years – sleeping?

No, it is not against me that he is writing those articles. It is just to console himself that what he has done by dropping sannyas is right, because the man was wrong. He has to prove it to himself that “the man was wrong, that’s why I have dropped sannyas.” Otherwise it will continuously be a wound – that I loved him so much, trusted him so much, so unconditionally, and this is what he has done to me. I can understand his difficult situation. So writing against me, he is simply trying to cover up the wound that he has inflicted upon himself.’

– Osho (From Unconsciousness to Consciousness #6)

And of Sheela Osho said:

‘…the problem was that Sheela was never inclined towards spirituality, towards any inner growth, towards meditation…from the very beginning. If she would have been inclined, then I would have immediately detected the change. She was never a meditator, she never meditated. She has other qualities: she was very pragmatic, very practical, and very strong.

Sheela seems to be really insane. In fact all power-oriented people are a little insane. A sane person would not like to enslave anybody. Just today I have come to know that Sheela and her group tried even to poison my physician. They wanted to poison other persons who were close to me, for the simple reason that nobody should be close to me except Sheela…

… I was simply sad – sad that a woman from whom we expect a more loving heart, should think in terms of killing people. I was simply sad – sad for Sheela, that she must be in a mess. The very idea is sickening. I am not angry at her, because I can understand these things can happen to power-oriented people.

..Sheela never wanted anybody to be close to me in any way. She never wanted anybody even to talk to me, so that I don’t know what is going on. Three persons she was trying to kill. The people before whom she discussed the plan are here. One was my physician, one was my dentist, one was my caretaker.

First, my caretaker was given poison while she was visiting Sheela’s house and took a cup of tea – but nobody suspected. We thought some illness has happened. She was immediately taken to the hospital. She remained few days in the hospital, got well, and nobody even thought, nobody could even conceive that.

Then my physician one day was taking coffee at Sheela’s house and he came…. But because he is a physician, with the best qualifications from England, he could feel that there was some poison in the coffee. But everybody laughed at the idea that, “You must be mad! Who will put poison in your coffee and for what?”

He remained sick for few days and while he was sick, he was here in the medical clinic and Sheela’s accomplice in all these crimes was Puja, who was a trained nurse and knew everything about medicine, drugs, poisons. She injected him again with a poison. Since then he has been feeling weak, for no reason at all.

And third time, just in the last celebration – here in a meeting – a woman who was the third in Sheela’s group, Shanti B., she injected him while he was sitting in the meeting. And he immediately thought that something has been pushed. He took over his robe and called people to see: there was blood and something has been injected.

He was taken to the clinic, but he refused to go to this clinic, because now he was afraid. If these people can do it in a public meeting where fifteen to seventeen thousand people were present, what they can do in the medical clinic? And Puja was a dominant figure in the medical corporation. So he insisted to go to Bend. He was taken to Bend. His wife, Hasya, was with him there. …Today, one sannyasin has come on his own and he said, “I am an eye witness. In front of me, Shanti B. has injected Devaraj, but I was keeping silent: if they can kill Osho’s physician so easily – I am a poor sannyasin – they can kill me any time.”

- Osho (The Last Testament)

Here,15 years after Osho spoke these words … his timeless review of this film.

As for the film producers — a project like this with public funding could have been a fantastic opportunity to present to this messed up world a new vision of meditation and living on this planet with reverence for life — instead they have chosen to go the usual political way – the controversy – the usual political opposition and sensationally pushed up film presentation. Trapped in the usual mind pattern they are probably convinced they have done a great job.

It looks like we will all still have to wait a bit longer before a film is made actually presenting Osho’s vision through his own understanding rather than through countless misunderstandings of unenlightened people.

Until then, luckily we all can enjoy Osho’s books and talks in video and audio format. Just by looking for these quotes from Osho I found out that the complete OSHO Library with all his English talks is now available for free on www.osho.com/library.
Love,
Ramoda

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The previous post was a letter of apology to Osho International Foundation (OIF) from the former Director of Osho Boulder Meditation Centre in the United States. Below Sangeet answers his main points. (Ed.)

Dear Jamie,
This is an open letter in response to your letter (of apology to OIF). I’m sorry to hear that you feel you have been out of integrity in recent years. I always hope that Osho’s people will have the strength and courage to be in our truth, in spite of any opposition we might face.

I understand that after Suvarna was subpoenaed (required) to testify in the US trademark case, and gave completely honest testimony, the people from OIF (the Swiss nonprofit) were instrumental in having all the board members from the Boulder centre banned from the Pune Resort. I can’t help but suspect that this “apology” of yours is really a way for you to get your ban lifted or is a response to some other pressure. By the way, after all the years you spent running the Boulder center with Suvarna, playing music with her, and (she thought) being her friend, you could at least get her sannyas name right in your letter. But then, you didn’t really write that letter, did you?

If your motivation for signing the letter is to get your ban lifted or to get someone’s approval I’m very sorry, because you must feel pretty rotten at some level for letting yourself down this way. On the other hand, I could be wrong, and if you really are sincere, then I congratulate you for coming into your integrity. Osho said we were all His successors but it is very difficult to pull that off. It is difficult to respect people with different points of view, yet I think it’s essential. Osho said this has never been done before, but He believes we can do it. I believe we can do it too.

For myself, I feel very much in integrity with my understanding of the situation. I heard Osho say that he did not want any religion, institution, or organization formed around His work. He spoke of religiousness versus religion and organism versus organization. I understood Him to say that an organization would be the ultimate threat to His work. Disciples at some point down the line always want to become respectable; they always want to be accepted. No one with an authentic religious teaching can ever be respectable, so authenticity has to be watered down. If we create an institution where people have the power to water down or suppress Osho’s real teachings, we’ve destroyed Osho’s work. It might not happen in our lifetime, but it will happen.

I heard Osho say to each one of us, “This has happened to every major religious teacher. Please don’t let it happen to My work.” I didn’t think much about it at the time, but 30 years ago, when I first heard Him ask this, I said in my heart, “Yes. I won’t let that happen.” When the time came for me to put up or shut up, I resisted. I had a life I wanted to live, blah, blah, blah. But in the end I knew I really wanted to keep my promise, and I would continue to keep that promise. (I think Existence listens in to promises made to the Master, and it’s pretty hard to weasel out.)

Near the end of Osho’s life I was working in His library one day when Anando came back from seeing Osho. She said that He had spent the whole session that day telling her why it was important that the Inner Circle and Presidium, which He was in the process of setting up, should never interfere with the centres. He told Anando how much damage Sheela had done to His work by interfering with the centres and said that it was important to the success of His work that the centres be left alone. Maybe it was delusions of grandeur, but I said to myself, “I’ll make sure that never happens again.”

By legal definition, if there really was an Osho trademark, as OIF claims, OIF would be required to exercise direct control over the centres or the word Osho would no longer be a trademark. That means that if OIF really didn’t control the centres and OIF ever wanted to enforce the trademark, it wouldn’t be able to. Without control a trademark would mean nothing. In the US case Vatayana testified under oath, several times, that OIF already actively controls all the Osho centres in the world. She specifically mentioned how she had personally exercised control over the Boulder centre.

Since this is exactly what I understand Osho to have asked us not to do, I have done everything possible to prevent this from happening. If you sincerely disagree, I have no problem with that.

I think it’s important to say that in the US trademark case the three-member board ruled unanimously, in a very strongly worded opinion, that there never had been an Osho trademark. OIF was really stretching to try and create the illusion of one. This is important, because if you aren’t trying to push the river, to create fantasy in the face of reality, then there’s no reason to be angry or vengeful if someone like Suvarna simply tells the truth. If you aren’t living a lie, there’s no reason to fear the truth. And let’s face it, it takes a tremendous amount of energy to try and prop up a lie. What a waste!

If you, the people from OIF, and other likeminded souls want to form some kind of a voluntary organization that will preserve what you think is a “golden” form of Osho’s teaching, go for it. No one is stopping you. Every religious or philosophical faction through time has always believed that its interpretation is “golden,” but that’s your freedom. This would at least be an honest approach to the issue of preserving Osho’s teachings, and there would be no need to try and intimidate anyone else into going along.

On the other hand, if you want to force legal control and your “golden” interpretation on other successors of Osho who choose to be independent, that’s not OK at all. Osho spoke about the difference between persuasion and coercion. Persuade away, but if you coerce, threaten, or bully, expect to find some of Osho’s people facing you and saying calmly, “Back off. This is not going to happen.”

In my understanding, Osho’s teaching is about individuals. It’s a wildfire burning out of control, because that’s the nature of truth. When the individual is consumed by the wildfire, that person’s own individual teaching happens inside. There’s nothing for anyone else to keep “golden.” In fact, there’s nothing that is anyone else’s business.

But that’s just me. If you disagree sincerely and respectfully about this, then I respect and support you in living your truth. I do not respect or support bullying, name-calling, threats, or intimidation.

So, Jamie, if your “apology” was just a wank to get back into the Resort or please someone else, that’s pretty pathetic. On the other hand, if you are sincere, then I hope you’ll continue to stand up for what you think is right. If we disagree forever, so be it. For me the most important thing about being with Osho is to live our integrity and truth—disagreement is not very important.
Love,

Sangeet 4/17/2010

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Sannyasnews think this letter, though a public document, has not been discussed, and is little known in sannyas circles. We will publish Sangeet’s reply to Vidoha in the next 48 hours.

TO OSHO GLOBAL CONNECTIONS, PUNE AND OSHO INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION

Dear Friends,
I am writing this letter of apology to all lovers of Osho and his work. I used to be a Director of the Osho Centre in Boulder, Colorado (USA) and in 1998 as part of Osho International’s work to protect Osho’s name and to keep his work 24 karat gold we were asked to sign a Letter of Understanding (LOU) reconfirming our basic understanding and support.

Rather than listening to the reasons for this document put forward by Osho Global Connections and Osho International we decided against signing the LOU because we decided that we should be “neutral”! It seems that I did not understand that OIF protects the Osho mark for all of us involved in the work.

Instead of supporting the people doing this work we did nothing, and in doing nothing we ended up actually supporting Neelam and Keerti and Sangeet, the people most responsible for bringing a legal action against OIF in the USA against the registration of the OSHO marks related to Osho’s active meditations. These same people are also responsible for the campaign to destroy Osho’s copyright. And my support for them was in spite of the fact that by my previous dealing with Osho International I had recognised the existence of that same copyright.

Sangeet and these people convinced one of our Board members, Ma Jivan Suvarna, to join in their legal action against the Foundation and she even gave testimony against the Foundation and the Inner Circle and its members. Suvarna also joined Sangeet, a former lawyer involved in Osho’s work, on the Board of Viha Connection magazine which for years had attacked OIF at every possible turn. I did nothing about this, no objection of any kind.

At no time did I make any attempt to reach out to anyone from Global Connections or Osho International to discuss the matter. I also want to be clear that never once did OIF or Osho Global Connections ever interfere in the operation of the Boulder Centre and, on the contrary. they only offered to support us in any way they could, listing us on Osho Centre lists website under places to meditate, keeping us informed of goings on in the Pune Resort and of Osho’s work going on around the world, and inviting us to the annual centre leader’s conferences in their office in Pune. Vatayana even travelled from Pune to visit our centre on 3 separate occasions and was always available to discuss our questions we had related in relation to the operation of our centre.

In addition, as Director I supported the use of lawyers to oppose Osho International in its action to defend the Osho trademarks. By our fence sitting and by refusing to sign the LOU we forced Osho International into a legal action against the Osho Boulder Centre adding more expense and work to an already expensive and time consuming litigation.

Countless times Osho Global Connections and Osho International contacted us to explain the situation and we continually avoided these contacts and in effect kept our heads buried in the sand. And we were always warmly welcomed into the (Pune) meditation Resort in our visits. And I knew by our behaviour that we were undermining the work of the Inner Circle by our inaction, and in spite of this support we then removed all references to the trademarks and copyrights of OIF from our website - information that we had up there for years before, and in doing so threw further support to Sangeet and company.

Finally I am embarrassed to say that some 8 years later I finally got the point that OIF, and Osho Global Connections and the Inner Circle are not in any way trying to stop people from doing Osho meditations or spreading Osho’s vision. On the contrary, as anyone who has walked into almost any bookstore can see. Never have Osho publications been more available in the world than now. And these people who we failed to support when they needed our support, work round the clock to make all this happen.

I have now resigned from the Board of the Boulder Osho Centre.

Once again my sincerest apologies to anyone who has been hurt by my actions and most especially apologies to Osho and his work,

Vidhoa Jamie (James St Clair).

Pune 4/02/2010

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(Editorial context)
The English Sunday Observer, a newspaper with what is called a “good” reputation, published a front cover story about Tim Guest (previously Yogesh) a couple of weeks ago. (March 28th). In the article Osho and his movement were derided in a scurrilous and misinformed way. A number of sannyasins took the time to reply, but nothing was published, and nothing acknowledged. We ourselves therefore publish Rashid’s reply to the article here which pins down the article for a number of falsities.

To the Editor, The Observer

Who needs to practice character assassination? Someone who feels wounded? Someone who feels threatened? Your writer Elizabeth Day had so many slurs and untruths in her cover story last week that perhaps she need to ask herself some questions.

Ms. Day makes her bedrock position clear when she belittles as “an escape” from “the very isolating pressures of capitalism” Tim Guest’s work as a writer on virtual communities and his mother Anne’s decision to take sannyas. Also she calls an interviewee “oddly out of kilter” for not adjusting to life outside the communes when he finds people “very guarded.” This prejudice is backed by lies: the boy did not hang himself: the coroner found misadventure: Osho did not give sermons from a dentist’s chair under nitrous oxide: he did not own any Rolls Royces or even have money of his own, nor was he an ascetic. She peppers her “story” with loaded cliché words like “bizarre ashram, strange commune, sinister, warped, sullied reality, etc”.

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh also known as Osho is acknowledged by many as one of the most inspiring, insightful and enriching sages of recent times. In the seventies and eighties he was offering workable solutions to the flaws in our cultural, political, educational, environmental and religious practices that were then impending, and are now present, crises.

We all have a right, even a duty to be sceptical. Ms Day quotes a number of people saying that Tim Guest “wasn’t always quite honest” around drugs. Yet she takes his book at face value. What about researching a bit deeper? Has she checked what Osho actually said and did? Also, how about paying attention to what Tim Guest told his mother; “that he felt lucky to have had that kind of upbringing.”

I am in touch with many children, including my own, who were in the communes and have made for themselves bright and successful careers in the world. To generalise from the particular of one unhappy life in order to belittle thousands and titillate other thousands is, it seems to me, poor journalism and dishonours the Observer.

Yours Sincerely

Rashid Maxwell

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Terrorists behind Pune blast identified

Mumbai, Apr 7

The suspects behind the German Bakery bombing in Pune on February 13 face imminent arrest.

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Wednesday submitted its report on the investigations into the blast, which killed 17 people, to the state home ministry, identifying the Indian Mujahideen (IM) as the perpetrators.

It also named the persons involved in planning and executing the blast, although details were not revealed to the media for obvious security reasons.

The report was formally presented by the newly appointed ATS chief Rakesh Maria to the home department which has forwarded it to the Indian Central government.

Only recently, the Central government froze over a dozen bank accounts of the IM suspects in Pune. The chief suspect is Mohsin Chaudhary, a Pune resident and one of the founder members of the IM. He has since disappeared from Pune.

The investigators are on a lookout for Mohsin and other IM terrorists suspected to be behind the blast. The others are IM founder Riyaz Bhatkal who had lived in Pune for four years before settling in Pakistan, Abdus Subhan Qureshi and Riyaz’s brother Iqbal Bhatkal. The fifth suspect is Mohammad Amjad Khwaja from Hyderabad, who was arrested in January by the Andhra Pradesh police. He had told investigators that he was shown videos of the Osho Ashram in Pune, which is close to the Bakery.

While the Bhatkal brothers are believed to be hiding in Karachi, a massive manhunt has been launched for Mohsin Chaudhary and Abdus Subhan Qureshi.

The blast in Pune was reportedly triggered as part of what is called the Karachi Project, planned by the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), which was behind the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, and its front organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawa.

The details of the alleged Karachi Project were revealed by the LeT operative David Headley to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, to whom the Indian investigators are seeking access for questioning him.

The charge sheet against Headley quoted him as saying that the brothers, Riyaz and Iqbal, were being sheltered by the LeT in Karachi. Headley himself had visited Pune twice and conducted a recce of the Osho Commune and other places in the vicinity. He had stayed at the Surya Villa, close to the German Bakery.

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The Natural Mind by Khabira

(This article first appeared In Viha Connection (http://www.oshoviha.org) and is republished with permission.)

Two years ago, I started studying psychology at the university again. I start with that statement because studying again is such a radical change for me. As a sannyasin, I used to think that the mind should not be nourished, not be used, that intellect and academics are stupid and misleading. I had started studying psychology at the university in 1977 when I was 17, and stopped it to go to Pune in 1978. Now, at the age of 50, I am back at it. What happened?

After going through years of commune experience, therapy, and meditation, I am starting to use the mind extensively again. I remember Osho saying to use the mind, but not be used by it. I seem to have forgotten the first part of the sentence for many years. Now, having become a naturopath and training in psychology, I know that any parts of the body-mind that are not used atrophy; they shrink and degenerate. When you do not use your muscles, they shrink, and soon they will not be able to carry you any more. The same goes for the mind: Pathways of nerves and junctions between nerve cells (synapses) that are not used degenerate, and soon will not be able to carry information any longer.

What is so bad about a mind that does not function very well? Well, in order to live an intelligent life, we need to plan, evaluate, and figure things out. And we’d better be able to do it well, otherwise we can easily mess up things. Also, mind does not get less through not using it; it just gets more stupid. Looking back, I see quite a few stupid things that I have done because of being stuck in what I now perceive as sannyas conditioning. The mind can get conditioned with anything. As long as we are not fully aware or enlightened, we have to be very watchful of what kind of stuff is put in the mind. And it does not matter whether it is stuff from the society or stuff from the sannyas community.

And sannyas conditioning is so much harder to detect because we are much more identified with it, thinking this is the way to Truth. The sannyas community creates a group mind of its own. Here is how Jack Kornfield describes this:

Unfortunately, the spiritual world can become as confining and narrow-minded as the rest of the culture; it seems that almost every religious community has its unconscious “group think”, its “in-group” behavior. (After the Ecstasy, the Laundry)

If having a mind is natural and it needs to be used, the only thing that can be done is disidentification. The need to disidentify from the mind, rather than not use it, got even clearer for me after I read the book Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) by Hayes, Strosahl, and Wilson. In modern psychology, the need for awareness, which is called mindfulness, and acceptance is being recognized more and more. I used to think that whatever goes on in the West about meditation is only second class, not first class like what we did in Pune, but I am finding that this is not true. It is getting clearer to me how natural it is to have a mind, and that the natural function of the mind is planning and evaluating. This is why evolution has created a mind in human beings.

With evaluating, there is also judgment. I have been fighting against judgment for many years, thinking it is bad and should not be done. Now I am coming to a very different conclusion, that judgment is one of the things the mind does naturally, and will always do. My job is to disidentify, not take it seriously, and be clear and honest about it, rather than trying to reshuffle the furniture in the mind. If I try to reshuffle, things just get messed up even more. In my relationship, I am finding that disidentification works. Sometimes I may yell at my boyfriend, “You are an arrogant asshole!”, and he may yell back at me, “And you are a whining wimp!” And then we just laugh at each other, enjoying the strong energy that is dancing between us. He may even be right, I may be a whining wimp sometimes – so what?

Another advantage of using the mind extensively is that after exercising the mind for a few hours, the mind gets really tired and meditation comes more easily. Maybe this is some kind of Dynamic Meditation for old age? Rather than catharting through the body first, we can cathart through the mind before going into silence.

For anybody who after reading my article now says “but Osho has said …”, here are two quotes of Osho:

“I do not have any teaching. My life is that of a rebel. I do not have a doctrine, a philosophy, a theology to teach you. I have only my own experience of rebellion to share, to infect you with rebelliousness. And when you are a rebel you will not be a copy of me; you will be an unique phenomenon in yourself.”
Osho, The Rebellious Spirit #11

“And then you say, “I like your teaching.” Have you ever thought what is my teaching? The question of liking or not liking does not arise — there is no teaching at all! Neither is there a teaching nor is there a teacher. I am not preaching a certain doctrine to you, a certain system of beliefs, a philosophy or theology. I am not a teacher and I don’t have any teaching, because I don’t have any belief: no God, no heaven, no hell. Just this universe, which is not a belief — which is your experience, my experience, everybody’s experience.”
Osho, Om Mani Padme Hum #29”

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Sannyasnews has become aware recently that there is still widespread confusion about trademark and copyright issues around Osho amongst sannyasins. A big legal case in the United States made it clear last year that no-one could claim Osho as their own trademark.
However the copyright issue is still not settled at all, as far as we know. Below is the recent 2010 statement put out by Osho International on copyright.

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First Publication Copyright© 1953, OSHO International Foundation.
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OSHO International Foundation is the sole and registered owner of all of the copyrights to all the published and unpublished words and works of Osho, as author in all mediums, including audio, video, electronic, multimedia, and written forms, which were the sole original works created by the Author, as well as photographs of the Author, and is the owner of the copyright to various derivative works and other writings, music, art, and other products created or otherwise associated with the Author.

The word “copyright” means the entire copyright and design right, visual rights, sound recording rights, and any and all analogous rights subsisting under international treaties and the laws of each and every jurisdiction throughout the world.

You may not copy, reproduce, sell, distribute, publish, display, perform, modify, create derivative works, transmit, or in any way exploit any material, works or intellectual property owned by the OSHO International Foundation without explicit permission.

OSHO International Foundation is actively publishing and licensing these works throughout the world. If you are interested in any of the material or works, permission for reprint or any other format of use or publishing or licensing:
For reprint information, publishing requests, copyright or trademark questions outside of India please contact:

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For reprint information, publishing requests, copyright or trademark questions inside of India please contact:

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In 2007 Christopher Hitchins wrote a book called “God is not Great”. Sadly it is still widely read and quoted. In that book was a Chapter on Osho indicating a number of falsehoods. Krishnaprem who was the Press Officer in Pune one at the time of Hitchin’s visit, and met him a number of times in that visit replied to his Chapter on Osho in the telling letter below. Hitchins never replied. Sadly since that time Krishnaprem has died, but his words have even more resonance. One wonders if Hitchins was so far away from the truth where Osho is concerned, how far he may be away from the truth in the rest of his lazy book. (Parmartha: Editor Sannyasnews ).

Christopher Hitchens
I am writing in relation to a particular chapter in your book God is not Great – the chapter entitled There Is No “Eastern” Solution. I wish to point out, more to your publisher than to you – who should be aware of the fabrications and fallacies it contains – of how dishonest this chapter truly is.

Let’s get right down to it.

You say you donned “orange garb” to attend the ashram of a “celebrated guru”, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh “in order to help make a documentary film for the BBC” which, you also say, “did have a standard of fairness and my mandate was to absorb as much as I could.”

I remember your visit well. At that time I was ashram Press Officer. I am also blessed with near-photographic memory recall, and here is what I remember about your visit “to absorb as much as I could”:

I was in the press office with my colleague Vadan when one of the receptionists ushered you in. You informed us the BBC’s Tony Isaacs, whom I had met, had asked you to script a show on us for The World About Us. You certainly weren’t wearing orange.

For the next hour or so, Vadan and I filled you in on ashram activities. By morning tea time, I noticed one of your hands was shaking. I asked if there was something I could get for you.

“I have a little confession to make,” you said. “This is the first time in ten years I haven’t downed a fifth of scotch by this time. What I really need is a drink.”

“Apart from the bar at the Blue Diamond Hotel,” I said, “I doubt if you’ll find a bottle of scotch for miles.”

“Some in my room,” you muttered. “So if you chaps don’t mind, I’ll toddle off now and come back tomorrow.” You held up the literature we’d given you.”Enough homework to keep me busy until then.”

The next day we waited for you, but you didn’t show. The following day either. By the third afternoon it was apparent you weren’t coming back at all. So much for absorbing as much as you could.

Secondly, you say we were urged “to part with all material possessions,” and that this money went to purchasing a “fleet of Rolls-Royce motorcars.” Absolute fabrication. How deeply you delved into the Pune commune is clear from this single statement. Where was the fleet housed on that overcrowded six acres? The only time there was a Rolls-Royce on that property was at the very end of our first stay in Pune when, following an assassination attempt on Osho by a Hindu fundamentalist, we imported a metal detector and an ancient bullet-proof Rolls. The fleet came a lot later, in America.

Next, you talk about the film by Wolfgang Dobrowolny – or Veet Artho as we knew him – that was shot in “secret.” More invention on your part. Laxmi, Osho’s secretary and the Foundation’s managing trustee, fell for Veet Artho’s sweet talk and, despite repeated and vociferous warnings from me and others that it would come back to haunt us, gave him permission to shoot footage of an encounter group in which physical expression was allowed – an initiative of encounter group leader Teertha which Osho immediately instructed be dropped as soon as someone got hurt.

Laxmi’s mandate was, as she put it, that “word (of Osho’s availability in Pune) must reach all the corners of the world” and in her naivety (she’d never been outside India) she thought people would see how liberating it was to free themselves from repressed emotions and traumas and flock to Pune. It came as a shock to her to learn that the majority of people back in the 1970s, when faced with a reflux of suppressed emotion or childhood pain chose, rather than dealing with it, to have another fag and pour another couple of stiff drinks.

By the way, Dobrowolny never owned the rights to the film. They were retained by the Foundation, and the BBC’s use of the footage was illegal.

I also found your insinuation extremely offensive that a “German princeling of the House of Windsor” met a shady end as a result of participating in a therapy group. Vimalkirti, as we knew him, collapsed suddenly one morning, doing his daily martial arts exercise routine on his own, from an aneurysm in the brain – hereditary I gather. He was taken immediately to an intensive care facility at Jehangir Nursing Home in Pune where he died, without recovering consciousness, a few days later. There was nothing suspicious, as you imply. Imagine how his wife, who is still involved with our worldwide community, and his daughter will feel when/if they read what you’ve written. Shame on you.

Finally, I find it odd that of all the supporters of organized religions on the vast Indian spiritual scene, you pick the one man who consistently criticized the religions for the damage they have done – through promoting blind belief, blind faith and generating blind fear – down the ages. Osho’s attacks on Mother Teresa of Calcutta (is that where you got the idea for your book?) and her boss, whom he called “The Polack Pope” are well documented. His series of talks in America so often focused on the dangers of Christian fundamentalism that today they seem prophetic. Among the last series of talks he gave in public, two titles come to mind — Christianity, the Greatest Poison and Zen, the Antidote to All Poisons – as well as a series illustrating where Nietzsche and other atheists missed the boat, God is Dead: Now Zen is the Only Living Truth.

To illustrate your premise that “there is no Eastern solution,” why pick a mystic who, his entire life, through discourses and books, tried to alert mankind to the fact, as you say, that “religion poisons everything.” And why pick one who left his body in 1990? Did he have that big an impact on you, or was it because you couldn’t be bothered updating the “research” – and I use the term facetiously – you pretend to have conducted 30 years ago?

In closing, permit me a footnote. After your completely unprofessional behaviour and lack of integrity in Pune all those years ago I often wondered whether I would have a chance one day to tell the truth about your visit and to expose the shallowness of the effort you put into the documentary for the BBC.

Whether anyone else but you and your publisher read this letter, I am pleased that, at long last, I’ve had an opportunity to say what really happened. It’s comforting to know that even after 30 years, chickens still come home to roost.

Jack Allanach/Krishna Prem
cc: Jonathan Karp, Publisher and Editor-in Chief, TWELVE
cc: Osho International Foundation, Bahnhofstr. 52, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland
cc: Osho International, 80 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011

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A Living Master ?

I read on “Sannyas” news this funny comment: “I need deconditioning from sannyas conditionings, perhaps I should try ‘family constellation therapy’ to see why I belong to this dysfunctional crazy crowd of individual freaks. It must be my grandfather’s fault.”

Of course our grandfathers were at fault and we have to love and hate them for that. Because it happened; That’s all, and there is no more than that….. We don’t own life.

Vigyano (Michiel) Dorenbosch, Netherlands.

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