NP, in your opinion, what does spirituality mean in the twenty-first century?
Why would spirituality mean something other in the twenty-first century than what it meant in previous centuries?

You wrote, “The idea of a whole city where people live and worship in a spiritual life is well ahead of its time.”
And I wrote in response that what you wrote is untrue.

Paradoxically, a tradition like the Christian one was born because a son rebelled against his father’s religion to love his fellow sinners, whom his father’s law stoned.

Yet, in the end, Jesus became bait for the same system of power that had crucified him, in the name of a stern father’s law, and had dominated for centuries the lives of naive sheep who, identifying with Jesus, the rebellious son, ended up kissing the ass of the priest, who had become as demanding as a rabbi, in the name of the father.

Slowly, through guillotine blows and the crackling of the pyre, a subterranean cultural tradition emerged, disenchanted and angry with the clergy, one that betrayed the spirit of the rebellious son in favor of the father’s law and its gratifying exercise.

As Swami Shanti already wrote in the February 2024 post, where you shared the passing of your-our beloved Yatri, in 1981 the future Pope Ratzinger became the boss of the former Holy Inquisition, identifying Buddhism as the true danger to Christianity, calling it “spiritual autoeroticism.”

A spirituality that not only repudiates the cruel father but also the half-rebellious son seeking a better father must be a real pain in the ass for pastors of souls.

The German cardinal’s Holy Inquisition wanted Osho out of the US, and possibly out of many other countries where the Roman Church and the Pentagon had influence.

Only someone with a mind formatted with the criteria that later inspired MK-Ultra could consider the historical reading of documents about the powers that coordinated against Osho implausible.

The Holy Spirit, which for the Catholic Church is the son’s love for the Father-God, is the birthright of every human being; addressing it to a father who sacrifices his children is an act that invites blasphemy.

I am opposed not only to female genital mutilation in the name of God, but also to male genital mutilation. In Italy, only one of the two is prohibited. Who knows which?

I believe such a shock leaves a profound mark on children’s minds, predisposing them to a life of cynical suspicion, seeking refuge in the protection of their father, their family, their own tribe, marked by the same destiny of being children of Kronos, a cult at the height of its popularity today.

I would like to tell the Kronos children, filled with resentment for their father, that before killing the Buddha they must break the Middle Eastern pact, enduring all the insecurity of opposing a vengeful god.

Using a Boy Scout knife against a scapegoat like Osho is the sad story of someone who lacked the courage to use it against their father, the one who, with a knife thrust, when they were most vulnerable and needed to nurture trust, opened their minds and closed their hearts.

That is, assuming some utopian future in which all mankind acquires a spiritual flavour… which admittedly does seem far off.

The concept of large spiritual communities is an old one. One only needs to refer to The Bible to read about the holy city of Zion.
The apostle Peter writes, “In keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13, NIV). Yet, while this city is something believers look forward to inheriting, there’s a sense in which they’ve already become part of it (Heb. 12:22).

When we grasp Jerusalem’s significance as the goal of God’s creative and redemptive activity, it’s easy to understand why Newton concludes his hymn with the words “Solid joys and lasting treasures, none but Zion’s children know.”

“Holy Mount Zion
Jah sitteth in Mount Zion
And rules all creation.” Bob Marley
And so it goes.

More recently, Sri Aurobindo’s dream became manifest in the sixties, when Auroville was inaugurated. Today, a few thousand people live there, forming a large community of spiritually inclined people.

In my opinion, the world needs people to talk about Osho, about what spirituality means in the twenty-first century, about the meaning of existence away from the reductionist materialist paradigm.

That Osho inspired so many people with his stories of Eastern philosophy, religiousness, enlightenment is a very good thing. The idea of a whole city where people live and worship in a spiritual life is well ahead of its time…

https://sandipa.com.au/

I think there are always different ways of looking at the same events, even among eyewitnesses, and Deeksha’s talk about Osho’s dark energy is a good illustration of this.

My stepfather, Swami Anand Yatri, was very close to Osho in his time during Poona One. He was one of the few sannyasins who was allowed to go see him anytime, often on business as Yatri was head of the design of the books (as well as doing the cartoons for The Rajneesh Times).

One of the stories Yatri used to tell was how he’d come in with a big batch of photos and ideas for a book cover, and how Osho would go over everything and make suggestions, and in the end would say “Or just do it as you would like it!”

For every Deeksha talking of ‘dark energy’ there is a Yatri, a devoted sannyasin close to Osho who often thought of Osho as The Master and himself as The Fool.