Osho Times to stop Publication
Osho Commune runs out of energy for the Osho Times
According to Swami Chaitanya Keerti, former founding Editor of the Osho Times, the magazine founded by Osho in 1975 to propagate his views will cease publication from August. in addition he believes that the Osho International Commune is doing its best to keep Indians at bay. asserting the two are linked.
“The main reason for closing down the magazine is that the Osho International Resort, that has its headquarters in Zurich and its publishing headquarters in New York, is least interested in Indians.”
Keerti, who was the spokesperson of the commune before he parted ways with the management after a bitter fight years ago, said, “It is shocking and painful for Oshoites in India that the magazine will shut down after 34 years. I had started the magazine in January 1975 with Osho. I could never imagine that the Osho Times that had a circulation of over 60,000 copies at one point of time would shut down. The magazine was a hot favourite among Indians.”
Ma Sadhana, spokesperson of the Osho International Resort and the editor of Osho Times, confirmed that the magazine was closing down, but denied allegations that the commune was against Indians.
“The allegations that we want to keep Indians out of reach is baseless and are spread by people with a negative agenda. Someone seems to be planting these stories to spoil our name.
The fact that I, an Indian, is working in the commune is testimony to the fact that we are not against any Indians,” said Sadhana.
She said going digital is environmentally friendly and makes sense in today’s fast-paced world. “We need to cut trees to make paper and publish a magazine.
By going digital, we will save these trees from being axed. We will make the content of Osho Times available to readers in the form of a monthly newsletter and on our website. Thus, we can reach out to millions of people across the globe,” added Sadhana.
However Ma Yoga Neelam, who was Osho’s personal secretary, had a different view, “It’s shocking that they’re going to close Osho Times. This goes against the very tenets of Osho who believed in expansion and not downsizing. Indians will be very upset with the move.”
Keerti and Neelam are members of Osho Friends International, an international organisation said to represent Osho sannyasins and disciples world wide. This organisation seems to compete with the mainstream Osho organisation in Pune, New York and Zurich. Keerti’s says their aim is to make Osho freely available to the entire world. In contrast they also claim that The Osho International Resort organisation is patenting Osho’s works and motivated by profit.
Osho magazines and newspapers are said to be available to more than 100 million people every month. It is believed that the number of hits to the new osho.com will increase from 10 to 20 million overnight because of its easy-to-use search engine when the Osho Times closes.