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Part VII : Attempted Assassination of Osho by Hindu fanatic
During morning discourse on 22nd May 1980, a Hindu tries to assassinate
Osho
A man threw a knife at me in the morning meeting…And it
seems it was an absolute conspiracy, because just before the meeting,
fifteen minutes before, the police informed the office, "Today
there is a danger; a man is going to throw a knife at Osho. So
twenty police officers should be allowed in."
Now, this is stupid. If they knew that a certain man was going
to commit a crime, they should have arrested him. Rather than
that, they informed the office. As the story went on it became
clear that it was absolutely a conspiracy. Those twenty police
officers with loaded guns surrounded that man. The sannyasins
thought that perhaps they were for our protection—that was
wrong. They were for the protection of the man who was going to
throw the knife. They were afraid that ten thousand sannyasins
would kill that man if anything happened.
And that man shouted—which is on record—"Shree
Rajneesh, you are against Hinduism and we cannot tolerate your
existence anymore." And he threw the knife at me. Because
he was shouting I stopped and listened to him, what he was saying.
It is on tape. He threw the knife from just fifteen feet away
and it was strange, that the knife fell away from me—eight
feet away. Not only did it not touch me, it did not even touch
anyone in the crowded Buddha Hall; nobody was touched by the knife.
And then the police said, "It is a police case. We will
arrest this man and bring him to the court."
This was all strategy. You can see how politicians work—cunningly,
inhumanely. They prevented us from putting a case against the
man. They said, "There is no need. Ten thousand witnesses,
his words are recorded, even the sound of the falling knife is
recorded, and twenty police officers of high rank are witnesses—you
need not be worried. It is going to be a police case. We will
take him and produce him in the court."
They took him away, presented him before the court, and the
court released him, saying, "Such a thing has not happened
at all." And because we had not put any case against him,
then it was too late. The police managed it in such a way that
they did not insist that the case happened.
But I have been thinking about it: in such a crowded place even
if a blind man throws a knife it is going to hit somebody. The
knife behaved exactly like the rock and the elephant.* It was
a police conspiracy and you can see the justice. When twenty police
officers are present, when ten thousand people are ready to be
witnesses; the knife is there, his shout is recorded, the sound
of the knife falling on the floor is recorded….
And what was the judge's reason to reject the case? The reason
was, "If it was an attempt on Osho's life then why have they
not brought the case? Why have they not reported the case to the
police? And secondly, if a man was trying to murder Osho, those
ten thousand sannyasins would not have let him go so easily."
And we had not done anything because the police had prevented
us, saying, "There is no need."
Still, one of the most important criminal advocates of the supreme
court of India, Ram Jethmalani was there—we had asked him
to be present. He wanted to say something; the judge said, "You
cannot speak, it is not your case." And certainly it was
not our case. hari08
*Note: refers to two attempts on Buddha's life which miraculously
did not harm him.
The Poona magistrate has given his judgment concerning the case
of one madman who had thrown a dagger at me, obviously intentionally
to kill me. He has freed him, and the reason that he has freed
him, the most basic reason that he has given, is really worth
consideration. I laughed at it, I enjoyed it!
The reason that he has freed him is that if it was an attempt
to murder me, then I would not have continued my discourse! Who
can continue talking when somebody is trying to murder you? But
he does not know me. I would have continued even if I had died—I
would not have finished before ten!
But he cannot understand, and I can understand him—he
cannot understand. When somebody is trying to kill you, can you
go on speaking the same way? His argument seems to be very valid.
So what to say about the ordinary masses?—even an educated
magistrate thinks in the same way. ithat08
The magistrate must have felt guilty, seeing the whole thing.
It was absolutely certain—his own police officers were saying
it, and ten thousand witnesses were there. The knife was there
that the man had thrown. On the knife you could have found his
fingerprints—but nothing was done. No witness was called.
The case was dismissed.
The magistrate must have felt guilty.
Through a common friend he informed me, "Please forgive me.
There is so much political pressure and so much religious pressure
on me, because that man belongs to a fanatic Hindu group and he
has immense political power.
"I am a poor man, and my promotion is due. If I do anything
against him my promotion will be postponed forever. And they will
send me to the ugliest, dirtiest place they can possibly find."
In India you can find everything. There is a place, Cherapunji,
where it rains five hundred inches in a year. You cannot get out
of the house—it is always raining! Five hundred inches—that
is the record in the whole world! Nowhere else does it rain so
much. It simply rains the whole year! Nothing can be done. And
whenever they want to punish somebody, they send him to Cherapunji.
So he asked my forgiveness. I told the intermediary, "Tell
him, don't feel guilty. I can understand—even without his
saying—that the man who has tried to kill me has the support
of the politicians, of the religious leaders. And don't lose your
promotion—I have not lost my life! Don't be worried, you
just get your promotion, get a better salary.
"And as far as I am concerned, it does not matter whether
I am killed or not. I have lived my live. I have enjoyed each
moment of it, I have relished everything. I have never repressed
any desire. What more can tomorrow bring me? There is no promotion
for me.
"I have experienced the ultimate; now, nothing more can
happen. So life or death, both have become the same. And one day
anyway I will have to die. This is far better."
Ninety-nine percent of people die on their beds. That is the most
dangerous place—just looked at mathematically, a simple
calculation. Never sleep on the bed! Sleep on the ground. Ninety-nine
percent of people have died on the bed—don't take the risk.
But wherever you sleep, you will die—death is certain from
the very moment one is born.
And in fact, I am a nonserious man. I would love the drama—somebody
killing me. dless29
And the people of Poona are so orthodox, so prejudiced, so fanatic.
It was not a coincidence that it was a man from Poona who assassinated
Mahatma Gandhi. Only Poona was capable to do that. Poona tried
to assassinate me too. last610
Just a few days ago a man threw a knife at me to kill me. Now,
such a knife can be thrown only in India! When it fell just in
front of me I thought it was a stone. My eyes are not bad, I don't
need glasses yet: I can see very clearly. I thought it was just
a stone—it looked so dirty! And when I saw the pictures
of it I was very much puzzled—you could not even cut vegetables
with it! This is the beauty of being in India. Now, in America
or in Germany they would have done it with more sophisticated
means. India is the best place at the moment to do my work, my
kind of work. theolo02
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