‘Osho’ and his WordsAt present the words of Osho, and even his name are the subject of strict copyright by Osho Foundation International.
An Open Letter from Swami Anand Parmartha Formerly Editor of Here and Now Magazine, London
The words of the truly enlightened are not their words, they come from existence, from source, from God… whatever you want to call it. They have just got out of the way, hollow bamboos through which God plays his flute. We all have moments when we are not there. When something happens through us, even words. It’s just... it is not a continuous thing with most of us. And on whose authority is this said. Not mine. Just read Osho, listen to Rumi, hear Jesus, absorb the heart sutra of Buddha... they all say it is not them speaking. The sentences “I am speaking, I am writing” are redundant for someone who has no ‘I’ left, who has become possessed of God.
And are the words of Jesus, of Rumi, of Buddha the subject of copyright? No, And thank God, because otherwise many of us would not have heard them. I never heard of such a thing being broached as copyrighting what in essence are the words of God.
But now not only are Osho’s words the subject of copyright, even his name has become the subject of copyright by the Poona Ashram. I remember sitting in Buddha hall one day in 1980 at an inspirational lecture by Osho when he said it was now time for his words to reach every nook and cranny of the world, every nation, every tribe, however remote, every hamlet, every hermitage, everywhere. That is not going to happen if his words are crippled by copyright and its twin of business profit.
There are now six billion people on the earth, most of them have never really heard of Osho, or tasted the ecstasy of sannyas that lightens the whole burden of the world, they should get his words, his satsang, free.
An E-mail from Keerti
Greetings from
Swami Chaitanya Keerti
www.meditate-celebrate.com
“Things can becopyrighted, thoughts cannot be copyrighted, and certainly meditationcannot be copyrighted. They are not things of the marketplace.” Nobody can monopolize anything. But perhaps the West cannot understand the difference between an objective commodity and an inner experience. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has copyrighted transcendental meditation and just underneath in a small circle you will find written TM—that means trademark!For ten thousand years the East has been meditating and nobody has put trademarks upon meditations. And above all, that transcendental meditation is neither transcendental nor meditation… just a trademark. I have told Neelam to reply to these people, “You don’t understand what meditation is. It is nobody’s belonging, possession. You cannot have any copyright. Perhaps if your country gives you trademarks and copyrights on things like meditation, then it will be good to have a copyright on stupidity. That will help the whole world to be relieved… Only you will be stupid and nobody else can be stupid; it will be illegal.”
Om Shanthi Shanthi Shanti Chapter 26 Question 1