Osho on Samadhi
(Swami Keerti from Delhi gives his views on the Osho Samadhi dispute, followed by some words from Osho himself about Samadhis.)
The rumours about selling or leasing the Resort properties to the outsider business people do have some basis - and the rumours originate mainly from the resort itself. When the resort administrators meet Osho sannyasins outside the resort, they themselves talk about the financial problems of running the resort. And to the media and public they keep saying that the resort is attracting thousands of people daily. They are in a strange situation--difficult to live with lies!
So to some people they do confess that it is not working even though the entry fee is now ten times more than when Osho was in the body. If thousands of people are participating then money should not be a problem--they should be earning more money than ever before. But according to what they tell sannyasins the resort is not doing well. They want more rich western people and less Indians to come. Not all Indians can afford to pay.
When Osho was in the body one could notice large numbers of ordinary Indians also, and large numbers of ordinary western people also. But now the administrators are not interested in ordinary sannaysins. They do everything to discourage such people. For very petty reasons people are banned. And the number of such banned people keep increasing every day. And it is not really a good sign that such a large number of banned people hang around in this area.
The rich people do have money but don't have time to be there longer. With the ordianry Osho lovers in hundreds come to the commune, the place was vibrant and alive and coulourful - really a meeting place for friends. Now it is a very beautiful resort - but utterly without heart!
And businesswise it may not work also, because the new rich people do not have deep love - feeling for it as the sannyasins have or had. So how should the resort work? It is difficult to run it successfully when some times you give imperatives to sannyasins-- not to wear the mala, not to call yourself Ma or Swami, not to call Osho Samadhi--Samadhi...!And ban their entry...Then the administrators say it is not the commune--it is a resort - and keep behaving like commune or Vatican, issuing fatwas, dictates...Are you in your senses, administrators? Make up your mind, what you really are?
The administrators seem to be an utterly confused lot--directionless. And then through desperation and frustration they want to take the ruinous step of selling the Reosrt or leasing it to commercial groups who don't want any place with Samadhis. And Samadhi is not just one Samadhi. When Osho was in the body, he got samadhis for 4 of his people built - Swami Vimal Kirti, Osho's father Swami Devteerth Bharti, Swami Anand Maitreya, and Ma Anand Seeta. A few years after Osho left his body, his mother's Samadhi was also housed in the commune. It was a commune full of Samadhis. And now what do you do with these Samadhis?
To some people these spaces were meant for sitting in silence and in Meditation and not for commercial activities. My feeling is Osho got all these samadhis made so that the place remains spiritual in nature, and continues to be place for meditation and should not be for sale. He knew it fully, about our mind which would do anything out of greed. The world does need some sacred spaces for meditation, as there's no lack of resorts in the world.
There are thousands of resorts already in existence more beautiful and exotic where you can do whatever you like. Rich people have very rich choices. Osho lovers would like a Resort with Heart where they have a sense of brotherhood and belonging.
Below is an extract from Osho himself about Samadhis.
"In India I have visited a few places... The place where Gautam Buddha became enlightened is called Bodh Gaya. It is a small temple -- some follower made the temple as a memorial, by the side of the tree under which Buddha became enlightened. That tree still remembers something, and I came to know later on that the bodhi tree has a certain substance which no other tree has, and that is the substance which makes a man a genius. Only geniuses have that substance in their brain, and in the world of trees only the bodhi tree has that substance. Perhaps it is more perceptive, more receptive; it has a certain genius.
Buddha remained under that tree for many years. The whole area is still fragrant, and just by the side of the tree is the place where he used to walk. When he used to get tired of sitting and meditating then he would walk and meditate, so that place is marked by marble stones. But sitting under the tree or walking on those marble stones, you can feel you are not in this world, that this place has something which no other place has. Perhaps the moment Buddha became enlightened something exploded in him and was caught by everything that could catch it. We used to think before... but it is not the case. Now it is well proved that trees are very sensitive, more sensitive than man -- their sensitivity just has a different level.
One scientist was working on trees. He had put on the tree a certain mechanism, just like a cardiogram, that takes the graph of the feelings of the tree, and he was surprised that when the gardener came... He had told the gardener, "You go and cut one of the branches of the tree. I want to see the effect." But there was no need to cut the branch. As the gardener came with his axe, the graph was already going mad! The scientist said, "Don't do that -- the tree has already caught the idea that you are going to cut and hurt her." Later on he became more amazed, becausewhen you cut one tree, all the other trees in the surrounding area, their graphs go mad. When the same gardener comes to water the tree, the graph remains perfectly balanced -- it becomes even more harmonious. It seems the tree is able to catch your thoughts, your ideas.
Perhaps the same may be found about rocks, the earth, because they are all alive. Their life may be on a different level, but they are all alive -- and certainly they are more simple and more innocent. People have been keeping... In Tibet they have been keeping the bodies of enlightened people, because if the trees and the stones and the earth are impressed by the great experience, then certainly the body of the man, his bones, must be impressed -- they are closer.
Perhaps Tibetans were the first to understand it: they have covered ninety-nine great masters' bodies with gold. That used to be the most sacred place in Tibet. It is just... If you have seen the picture of Potala, the palace of the Dalai Lama, it is just underneath it. Potala is high in the mountains, and underneath there are many caves. One cave is devoted only to those ninety-nine bodies.
Why did they stop at ninety-nine? A strange figure! A hundred would have been more appropriate. They had to stop because the lineage of Dalai Lamas dropped from the height it used to be, and the country could not produce anybody worthy of taking the hundredth seat in the sacred, secret temple. It was opened once a year for the people, and just to pass through it was to pass through into another world.
Now it is completely closed so that the communists cannot find it -- because they will not be interested in the bodies; they will be interested in the gold. They will destroy those bodies and take the gold -- and it is a great quantity of gold. So before the Dalai Lama left Lhasa because of the communist invasion of the country, he sealed it in every possible way so that they cannot discover it. And they have not been able yet to discover it.
Slowly, slowly in all the countries where spirituality has flowered, people became aware that something happens... So people have preserved things that were used by these people, or just have made memorials of their bodies. In India bodies are burned, but you will be surprised to know that the remains left after burning a body are called "flowers".
Ordinary people's ashes are thrown into holy rivers, but enlightened people's "flowers" are preserved in samadhis - in beautiful marble memorials. Just to go and sit there is in itself a meditation. But the trouble is that the world is ruled by those who know nothing of this."
Beyond Psychology
Chapter #34
29 April,1986
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