Amrito replies to Critics
In the tradition now of over 20 years of being even handed in all the various disputes in that time between sannyasins, Sannyasnews is very happy to publish this exchange of points between Shantam Prem and Amrito. Amrito’s points certainly need to be carefully considered by those who quickly condemn the Resort Authorities.
Shantam Prem:
Jayesh and Amrito you both can have the alibi of being Osho’s closet disciples, so how it is granted to dismantle the Buddha Hall, the only place on this earth where on every square metre maximum number of seekers saw their inner journey taking wings.
Amrito’s reply:
I think the key to all these misunderstandings is one question I never hear asked: What was Osho’s wishes in this regard? As it happens the new auditorium was Osho’s request, first mooted by him in the 1960’s by the way, because the old one was illegal and unsafe and would need to be taken down. His decision. Not ours. And for your information, the place where he spoke the most, where he gave sannyas to thousands of seekers was Chuang Tzu which he himself redesigned, and the spot where he sat, one that most people would want to preserve, in the same way people want to preserve Buddha Hall, Osho had turned into a cleaning cupboard. Similarly when asked by Laxmi whether to preserve his Woodlands flat as some kind of dedicated space, he said no. And when asked if the sannyasins could turn his birthplace into some kind of dedicated space, he also said no. So please try and understand that the job we were given was to implement his wishes, not the wishes of others.
Shantam Prem:
When we look back, you both (Amrito and Jayesh) have changed the very DNA of His work. Photos, books, music, hugs, names, what not.
Amrito’s reply:
This is just not the case. We went to extensive lengths for example to find out if our habit of putting photos of Osho on every wall in the Meditation Resort was a request from him. It turns out that this was not the case. This was our doing, not his. And most often we had turned his photo in a kind of wall paper, not an opportunity for awareness. In fact such was the unawareness about this, one huge photo that was placed at the gate for six hours in 1990, was still there by default 10 years later and no one knew why. And when it was removed it took about six weeks before anybody even noticed. And every single night, as he specifically requested, we have the Osho videos playing, so anyone who wants to imbibe his spirit can, just as he has asked.
His books are more available and read around the world by a factor of about 100 plus since the time when Osho was in the body. Music? We have exactly the music Osho has asked for. Hugs? Who has ever said anything about hugging? Names, you keep the name you wish to keep, we keep the names we wish to keep. What is the issue here?
Shantam Prem:. Are you really sure about the concept of a Meditation Resort without any devotion to His energy.
Amrito’s reply: Firstly the concept of the Meditation Resort is from Osho. His choice which he articulated in public and which we have implemented. And devotion? Our only interest is to make sure that when new people come they understood Osho’s basic message that everyone has to walk the walk themselves and Osho wasn’t going to do it for them.
You are saying we have changed the very DNA of his work. Now how would you understand his statement about the evening meeting, when he very specifically told the old timers who said that they assumed he didn’t mean that they needed to go every night because they had read all his books and listened to all his talks? He answer was that these were not detective novels that you pick up read and throw away, but that “every time you go, your understanding will go deeper and deeper. So, now, after 20 years of doing exactly that, either we were asleep or our understanding has gone deeper and deeper just as he says. In which case, everything is going to change of course, with that deeper understanding.
Do you think we understood the following when we first heard it? No way:
“I want you to drop all games – worldly games, spiritual games, games that the whole of humanity has played up to now. These games keep you retarded. These games hinder you from growing into consciousness, into your own ultimate flowering. I want to cut away all this rubbish that prevents you.
I want to leave you alone, absolutely alone, so that you cannot take anybody’s help, so you cannot cling to any prophet, so that you cannot think that Gautam Buddha is going to save you. Left alone – utterly alone – you are bound to find your innermost center.
There is no way, nowhere to go, no advisor, no teacher, no master. It seems hard, it seems harsh, but I am doing it because I love you, and the people who have not done it have not loved you at all. They loved themselves and they loved to have a big crowd around themselves – the bigger the crowd, the more they feel nourished in their egos.
That’s why I called even enlightenment the last game. The sooner you drop it, the better. Why not just simply be? Why unnecessarily hurry here and there? You are what existence wants you to be. Just relax.”
And when this video was shown in the Osho Auditorium last week, it was received by people who really understand this. Not by the shocked audience when it was first spoken. What to do? Osho is an alive current, still moving as that understanding goes deeper. It is not some fixed thing stuck in the past. Osho? The past?
Shantam Prem:
I request you to restore the original version of His work, if not not before His 20th anniversary of leaving the body , than at least in your life time.
Amrito’s reply: Yes, the past is very attractive, but not Osho’s proposal.
Shantam Prem:
Please let the place be run by His 20 people in a transparent way.
Amrito’s reply: Again, it is your mind which mentions transparency. It was Osho’s request that this be done in secret.
Shantam Prem:
I hope once His “workshop of creating Buddhas” is run as it is mentioned in the documentary,” I leave you my dream”, it will be a spring of global spirituality in the age of ipods and face books.
Amrito’s reply
Of course it will. And that dream that Osho is leaving is only just at beginning. You will see.