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Part VII : Osho flies to America for Medical Treatment
Osho's health becomes more fragile. Besides his allergies he now
has severe back pains. A specialist is brought from London to
examine him; he recommends a treatment which is only available
in the West. Osho is invited by his sannyasins in the United States
of America to visit them. On 1st June 1981, he flies from Bombay
to New York.
When, in India, my back started giving trouble to me, they started
giving me traction. I told them—Devaraj (my physician) was
there—"Do you know from where the word traction comes,
and what you are doing to me?"
He said, "No. Traction is a perfectly good medical device
and it is used everywhere."
I said, "It was invented by Christians in the Middle Ages
to torture people. It was a Christian device to torture people!
You pull their hands at one end, their legs at the other end,
and naturally, if you want any confession they will have to confess.
If you want the woman to accept that she is a witch, on traction
she is going to accept it because there is a point where she sees,
'Now my hands are going to be pulled off my body, my legs are
going to be pulled off my body. It is better to say, "Yes,
I am a witch," and get finished with this traction.' But
once she has accepted she is a witch she is going to be burned
alive."
It was a torture device. It was just by coincidence it was found….
person04
You ask: You left India and went to America for health reasons?
Even before my going there, the American sannyasins were trying
to find a place for a commune. When I reached there, they thought
it will be better that the commune should be in such a place which
would be healthful for me as long as I stay there. And it will
help them also to consolidate the commune.
But I had not gone there to stay. The problems with my health
are such that no cure is possible. All that can be done is, a
controlled environment, so I am protected. For example, I have
allergies for few things. If they don't come close to me there
is no problem, and there is no disease. For example, perfume,
dust, any kind of strong smell; now they can be avoided. So for
four years in America it was possible to avoid them in the commune.
It is difficult to avoid them in any other city. You cannot tell
everybody not to use perfume. It was not said to the commune either,
but people understood it.
The allergy triggers coughing, sneezing, cold, and finally asthmatic
attacks. And then it becomes a longer fit. Then it may take few
days to get over it. Then I cannot sleep the whole night, the
breathing is difficult. Humidity can cause it. The American sannyasins
have chosen a place which was not humid, but still cold, dry.
I have a bad back, and everything that can be done has been
done. But whatever is done to make it better, it becomes worse.
Finally we called one of the experts, Dr. Syriax from England,
who worked for two days. He is a miracle worker. He has treated
people—his hands have a magic touch—and his whole
life; he must have been nearabout eighty when he came to see me.
For two days he worked, and finally he said to me that, "You
will have to live with it. All that can be done is that you should
sit in a certain posture, in a certain chair, so you will not
feel the pain. The pain can be avoided just by maintaining a certain
posture and a certain chair, a certain angle to the body; but
it cannot be cured. So there was no question of going to America
for cure.
We had been asking here for a palace in Kutch….
Coincidentally, the Maharaja of Kutch had exactly the same problems,
and that palace was made for him, to give him a controlled atmosphere—dry,
non-humid, cool, and far away from society, city; and he lived
in that palace as long as he lived. And he lived without any troubles;
all troubles disappeared. Since he has died, nobody has used that
palace.
But Morarji Desai was prime minister at that time, and we have
been fighting on each point, for almost thirty years….
When I saw that they will not allow any place to me in India where
I can live without unnecessary suffering from allergies, back
pain, asthma, it was at that point that I decided that it is better
to look somewhere else. America had a good number of sannyasins,
and they were already looking for a place to make a commune, so
it was very reasonable to tell them to look for a place with all
these conditions. And they found in Oregon desert exactly the
same conditions as exist in Kutch.
But I had not gone to stay there forever. They had given me
visa for few months as a tourist. last429
When we were leaving Poona, there was so much preparation—particularly
for Vivek, because she had to be concerned with my body, my food,
and small details like that. I don't think she could sleep the
whole time, she was so concerned that nothing should be left behind,
and that everything should be available on the journey. Vivek
was right when she told me, "Osho, you are like a huge mountain
of gold which has to be taken from one place to another."
I said to her, "That is true, exactly true. Just one thing
has to be remembered: that the mountain, although golden, is alive
and conscious too. So be very careful." glimps22
When Osho travelled to the States, he gave gifts to his sannyasins:
The other morning, when you mentioned about a pocket watch being
the last present for people who retire, I was amazed, because
when you left for America I was at my village, and I received
by mail a unique present from you—a very beautiful Seiko
pocket watch! I was delighted by this rare gift, but today I feel
a bit shaky!
Sardar Gurudayal Singh, I remember the pocket watch that I have
sent you. I have been giving watches to hundreds of my sannyasins.
The significance is simple, so you need not be worried by what
I said yesterday.
It was not a retirement gift; a sannyasin is never retired! He
becomes enlightened, but retirement is not possible neither before
enlightenment nor after enlightenment. Retirement does not exist
in the world of a sannyasin, so you can drop your fear and worry;
it was not a retirement gift. I have been giving watches to many
people because my whole message is: Be watchful!
So don't misunderstand me….
But when I have given watches—and I go on giving—that
does not mean that you are retired. That does not mean that your
days are finished, 'Just count the hours on your watch.'
It means: Be watchful, be aware and alert. Every moment is full
of danger and full of ecstasy. If you can use it for awareness
and watchfulness, it becomes a great ecstasy, the juiciest experience
of life. invita22
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