I have been born and brought up in sannyas environment. Till the age of 28 I have been living in Osho’s communes in Oregon and Pune in an atmosphere of love and intimacy. I moved out in the year 98 as I started feeling that the commune was not going in the right direction. I started feeling a strong loss. For the first time I started missing Osho’s presence being in the Ashram itself. That radiance, that aliveness, that joy that I felt for years in the commune was missing, the commune that I knew as a meeting place of friends, a place for transformation and self-growth was not the same anymore.
My mother Neelam moved out of the commune a year after me. Since then whole controversy started around her and I have been labeled by the management team as her faithful and loyal daughter because I support her. I have been banned from the ashram just exclusively because of this reason. The ashram that has always been my home did not even think of me as a separate individual with my own perception and understanding. I agree, I am faithful and loyal, not towards Neelam but towards the truth. My leaving the commune has nothing to do with Neelam; it was my own decision.
The issues that she has been raising are not her personal issues; these are issues of every disciple who loves Osho. It is also my Buddha Hall that I care for. It is so obvious that the management team is lying when they say that Buddha Hall is an illegal structure. In India where Indians know the value of sacredness can never destroy Buddha Hall. Above all, Jayesh who has been known for bribing the politicians so heavily could not bribe to protect the Buddha Hall from being destroyed. There are many other buildings in the ashram, which are illegal like Osho Mirdad Pyramids, Osho House. Why not destroy them first? Why attack on Buddha Hall? I agree, that the roof of the Buddha Hall had to be taken off, but not the podium and the pagoda. Since we did the protest the Pune municipal commissioner has given the stay order to stop the demolition, which is a proof that nobody had asked them to demolish the structure, as it was considered as part of landscape, and it was not walled from four sides. They themselves wanted to do this destruction and they did it to hurt Osho lovers.
Another justification the management team has is that they are afraid that this place will become the holy shrine for Indians. Now I guess this could also mean then to destroy the Samadhi also so that it does not become a shrine. If we have come down from commune to a resort, what role a Samadhi could have in a resort? Samadhi is another expression of devotion towards the master. So if we apply the same logic of shrine, Samadhi would be the next target of destruction.
How can anyone coming from outside make anything into a shrine. It is always commune’s programme the participants come to do. You say Nadbrahma, Kundalini, Natraj, Vipassana etc will be happening from this hour to that hour—and they will participate. You say Kirtan and Music group will be happening—they participate in that. Nobody comes to do his own programme without commune’s permission. So it is a useless logic and unnecessary paranoia that Indians will turn anything into a shrine. The conclusion is that they are not sincere.
Yogendra made a statement in the New York Times regarding Osho’s photographs being taken off from the resort. "Someone comes in and there are like 1,000 pictures of this dead guy, and they're like 'Whoa, get me out of here,' " said D'arcy O'Byrne, who is part of the management team.
And I would like to ask Yogendra for this one percent people, would he take all Osho’s photographs out? What about the rest of the 99 percent who have come to Osho because they have been attracted to His photographs and His eyes? His photographs are not ordinary, His eyes are not ordinary eyes and He is not dead, He is very much alive. Osho was the most photographed man in this whole world. He enjoyed and loved doing photo sessions, as we all know. He loved to choose his own photographs for every cover page of his books. All his communes from Pune 1, to the Ranch to Pune 2 were always full of his photographs from the main gate to the back gate, in all the departments because that is how He always wanted.
His photographs are now being taken off from the Osho Times that makes the magazine so ordinary and with no soul. His books are being edited about 40% matter, which according to me is the biggest crime anyone can do to Osho. There are various deletions from The Book of Wisdom published by Element. Who is the management team to edit His books? Who gives you this authority? You think you are superior even to Osho to edit His words so that his books can fit into the society? Do we have to stoop down so low to fit Osho into the society or is it more intelligent that the society rises higher to come up to Osho’s vision? The humanity has to move upwards and not Osho, an enlightened mystic, a Buddha, has to be brought down to the level of a mere author and a teacher.
And by the way who is this management team and the inner circle? What are their functions?
I have heard Amrito say in the video “I leave you my dream”. “There is nothing special about the Inner Circle. It is simply a practical body designed to overview practical aspects of Osho’s work. It is not religious in any way, or are it’s members special in any way. Its function is to manage the mundane activities of the ashram for e.g. that the food comes on time in the cafeteria; the guards come at the gate on time. Its function is not to interfere in anyone’s spiritual life, that Osho said, “I will take care”. In spite of such clear instructions from Osho, Amrito and the management team not only insist but force sannyasins that Zen is the only way and devotion has no acceptance in the resort. A lot of the devotees have been pushed out of the commune or have been banned. In Pune alone there are 120 sannyasins banned. When Osho was in the body there was hardly anyone banned? It has never been His way.
Osho’s vision embraced all the paths to truth. Devotion is one of them. He spoke volumes on Meera, Ramakrishna as much as he spoke on Zen. To reduce Osho to be just a Zen teacher and push and force his people that Zen is the only way is to limit His vision too narrow.
Osho said, "I leave you my dream" which I always thought meant his people becoming enlightened, growing in love, in meditation. His dream was for everyone and not for one sannyasin exclusively, Sw. Jayesh. His dream was not to have just black buildings and no individuals in them. His dream was not to have structures with no soul in them. His dream was not to kick out his longtime sannyasins to which Osho said would be my temples, my books, and my synagogues. He always wanted a balance of his old and new sannyasins in the commune. Now the focus is precisely on the new people because they will never rebel. It’s easy to dictate your terms on them.
Osho always wanted resort facilities in the commune but not the commune to be merely a resort. What else can be the misuse of his dream? Why would any Westerner come to a polluted city in India for a resort? The West offers better resorts but does not quench the spiritual thirst. If the ashram cannot provide a commune to quench this spiritual thirst I see less and less Westerners coming in the near future. Since the entry fee is gone up so much that only a particular class of Indians can afford to enter the resort. This is complete destruction of Osho’s commune.
Osho placed a wide variety of people in the original Inner Circle; people with various points of view and perspectives. In contrast, the current Inner Circle seems to have been selected on the basis of loyalty to a small faction of the original group, and the Inner Circle has allowed a small group of men to claim full control of all aspect of Osho's work. This, I believe, constitutes the greatest danger to Osho's work and is not according to His vision.
I heard Osho say at the ranch, “Sheela could only exist because all of you gave her the power to exist. She could exist because all of you did not speak.” I know many of my friends still living inside the Ashram; their phones are being tapped because they are friends with Neelam. I myself have been receiving threatening calls before the protest. Sheela who did all kinds of crimes under the pretext of Osho’s guidance, I see the similar history repeating itself in Jayesh’s resort.
Trademarks and the control of Osho's copyrights are legitimate issues of concern to all sannyasins and lovers of Osho and the use of fear to attempt to control people who raise these issues is also a legitimate issue of concern. I don't think that Neelam, Keerti and Tathagat, should have to take all the abuse for raising these issues.
I know many of my sannyasin friends who are afraid that if they speak out they will be personally attacked, demonized, banned or sued. We are acting like a dysfunctional family that turns to denial and deception to hide its problems. I don't believe this is Osho's way. I feel it is important to express your opinion with courage. Let’s be responsible towards Osho and Osho alone and not towards any Sheela or Jayesh.
Some of Osho’s chosen inner circle members were pushed out in a very cunning way the year after Osho left his body. Jayesh’s followers replaced these inner circle members. The best therapists left the multiversity in disgust, consequently the multiversity that made so much money is incurs losses now. Osho’s 880 signature paintings torn from his books and secretly taken to a London warehouse, publishing headquarters shifted to New York, removing Osho’s pictures from his commune, from Osho Times, his books, removing his chair during the evening “White Robe Brotherhood”, breaking the Buddha Hall where Osho had given thousands of discourses in the natural surroundings, trade marking Osho’s meditations in USA, editing his books, destruction of the commune and replacing it by a resort, increasing the entry fee, the streets of Koregaon park that were full of maroon robes and aliveness of sannyains are now empty and barren, all this cannot be Osho’s vision. This is a clear proof to make Osho evaporate from humanity, leaving no trace behind who this man Osho really was.
Just by making a new pyramid shaped auditorium and a guesthouse, which can be compared to any five star hotel is a very poor version of Osho’s dream. Any rich person can build a resort but are we capable of making another Osho’s commune? We could not even protect the existing one. A commune is too high an experiment. In the book “Hidden Mysteries” Osho speaks about the significance of the energy field where enlightened mystics have meditated, those places have charged fields around them. To break the podium of Buddha Hall and start doing gibberish and cleansing processes in Samadhi is an unpardonable act that cannot be forgiven by anyone who loves Osho. These places are to be preserved, not destroyed.
