:: BOOK OF THE MONTH ::

THE RAZOR'S EDGE

This series of discourses was spoken by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in the first months after His return to Poona, India. Nearly seven years before, Bhagwan had left the ashram in Poona - where in a few short years, His presence had drawn thousands of seekers from nearly every country in the world - and traveled to America. There, guided by Bhagwan's vision of a humanity living in harmony with nature, rich in both the material and the spiritual realms, His disciples created the commune-city of Rajneeshpuram, Oregon- history's most extraordinary experiment in human consciousness.

After five years of continuous harassment by the state and federal government, and a campaign of religious persecution orchestrated by fundamentalist Christian groups, Bhagwan was expelled from America and the commune was dispersed. In the year that followed, Bhagwan was refused entry into virtually every European country due to pressure from the American government and opposition from the leaders of traditional, orthodox religions. Finally, He returned to India - first to Bombay and then back to the Poona ashram. 

For many longtime disciples the return to Poona was like returning to a childhood home - so familiar and yet somehow utterly different; different perhaps because we had grown, changed, matured. In the first Poona phase many of us had totally left our lives in the west and had come to Poona to be here "forever". Suddenly, overnight, our cozy home had dissolved and with it, many childhood dreams. Then in Rajneeshpuram, the new commune, we began again with a new strength and in five years set down roots which might have lasted a lifetime; but they did not. Within a tumultuous few months, five thousand disciples were thrust from their nest, young wings flapping madly- a quick lesson in life's insistence upon change.

Bhagwan has said that life is a caravanserai - just an overnight stay, and in the morning we move on. This understanding He has given us through first-hand experience. To live as a disciple with a Master such as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is to live on the razor's edge; one simply never knows where the path will lead. In these pages He says: "The world of love, the world of meditation is pure insecurity; it is moving into the unknown with no maps in your hand, with no guidebook to lead you - not knowing where you are going, not knowing where you are going to land finally…"

"To be in love with a living master is always risky, dangerous…The living master is a changing phenomenon, you never know what turn he is going to take tomorrow."

But wherever we land with Bhagwan, we are participating in a living process, a true mystery school. Many of the discourses in this book are a window to that mysterious process that happens between master and disciple. He says, "If you can experience me, my presence, if you can open your heart with a silent welcome, it is more than one can expect - because it is not a school where you are taught philosophy, religion, psychology; its is an alchemist's workshop where you are transformed into new beings." With such love, such encouragement, Bhagwan urges us on into the unknown.