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Part VII : Persecution by Morarji Desai
In October 1978, Osho exposes Prime Minister Morarji Desai's
fanatical persecution
Just a few days ago, Maneesha asked a question: "Osho,
was the idea of moving to Kutch just a device?"
It was not, Maneesha. I wanted to move to Kutch, everything was
planned. But the politics of the country made it almost impossible
to move. It is because of the mischief of Morarji Desai that we
could not move. But why should the prime minister of this country
be interested where I am going, where my people are going, what
we are doing? We are not making any politics—my people are
the most non-political in the world; we think politics is just
stupidity.
But that's why. Suspicion arises, doubt arises: if I am right,
then they are all wrong. And if this idea spreads…and it
can spread like fire. Truth has a potential—even if you
crucify it, it spreads.
Jesus was not destroyed by crucifixion. In fact it helped: Jesus
became a great force in the world because of the crucifixion.
Truth cannot be killed. But it can be delayed.
People will be against you. Hence it is courageous to be with
me. And I cannot give you anything—except nothing. That's
what Ikkyu says: "I would like to give you everything, but
we Buddhas don't have anything else except nothing."
I can give you only nothing—that is my present. And you
will be risking your all. Your life, your respectability, your
family, your finance—you will be risking all. Risking all
for nothing? You must be crazy. easy213
You ask: Kindly let me know whether there is a law in India
prohibiting Indian citizens to inhabit, dwell or live in a house
or houses or an ashram in any part of India, to study and lead
a blissful human life for the growth of religion and science?
There is no law prohibiting us from establishing a commune.
But the people who are in power always think they are beyond law.
There is no law that goes against establishing a commune, an ashram.
But the people who are in power can always find ways to delay
it—that's what they are doing….
Mr Morarji Desai has been a deputy collector: he still functions
like a deputy collector. That's what is being done with us—just
delaying tactics. They go on asking about this, about that, and
there is no end to it.
For example, the Maharajah of Kutch donated four hundred acres
of land in Kutch. It is desert land, of no use; nothing can be
cultivated on it. That's why nobody has ever been interested in
purchasing it, that's why the Maharajah easily donated it to us.
Then the delaying started—it is almost one and a half
years ago now. First they said they had to study the case, because
the land is too close to Pakistan: in times of war they might
need it. In times of war—when that war is going to happen,
nobody knows—but in times of war they might need the land.
Somehow we convinced them that it was not likely. Then they
started writing letters saying that because there would be so
many foreigners and it is on the boundary of the country, it was
a question of safety and security: spies might enter.
We convinced them. Then they started telling us that just close
by it—not very close, thirty miles away—there is an
army camp. And they didn't want us to be so close to the army
camp.
Now there is no law, but you can always find these things. So
we dropped that idea. Still it is continuing, but we dropped the
idea because this seemed to be too much of a hassle.
So we purchased seven hundred and fifty acres of land (in Saswad),
just close to Poona—fifteen miles away. Now problems have
started—delaying tactics.
First they asked that we should produce a certificate from the
medical board as to whether the climate is such that people can
live there. Just fifteen miles from Poona! And just beside the
land, two miles away, there are villages, and people are living
there. Just close to the land, two hundred people are living.
So we produced a certificate. That took two or three months—because
the board consists of six members and unless those six members
meet and agree…. So they delayed and delayed; finally it
happened. Then they asked for another medical certificate to say
whether the water and the land are such that people can live there.
There is no law against it, but these are tricks and strategies.
They can't say no, they don't want to say yes.
We inquired. All the authorities said that this has never happened
before. Nobody ever asks about the water and the land and the
climate—but if they are asking then we have to fulfill their
requirements. So the paper work goes on and on.
Now we have managed that. The land is barren, no cultivation
has ever been done on it. But in their files it is mentioned as
agricultural land. Now they have created some new trouble: we
cannot construct on agricultural land; first we have to produce
a certificate stating that it is non-agricultural land. Nobody
has ever done any agriculture there; we took the officers to see,
it is barren land, anybody can come and see—rocky, barren,
absolutely useless. But they say that because in the file…
So first we have to apply to transfer the land from agricultural
to non-agricultural. That is taking time; now they are delaying
that. This could be done easily, within a single day—that
is how it is done. Four months have passed: all the officials
have been ordered to delay as long as they can. And when they
cannot delay any more and it becomes a legal problem over which
we could go to court—"Now you are delaying us too much"—then
that officer simply sends the file to a higher official. He says,
"Because it is such a complicated phenomenon and a political
issue, and your master is a controversial man; and I am such a
small official, I cannot decide it. Go higher."
Now the whole process starts again with the higher official.
It was to be done by the Tahsildar, the lowest. It moved to the
S.D.O. Now the S.D.O. has taken his time; now his time is finished
and it has moved to the collector. And the people in the collector's
office say that it is going to move to the commissioner. And the
commissioner is very friendly, he says it is beyond his power
to do it: "You will have to ask the revenue minister of Maharashtra."
Now the revenue minister says, "Your master is so controversial
that I cannot take the risk of deciding anything, for or against,
because there will be political repercussions from it. And I don't
want to lose my chair, so you had better decide with the chief
minister." And he said, "Even the chief minister cannot
decide on his own; he will have to ask the whole cabinet."
And my feeling is that they will say, "This cannot be decided
by the Maharashtra government, it has to be decided by the central
government in Delhi."
And I am not only a nationally controversial figure, I am an internationally
controversial figure. So my fear is that this will have to be
decided by U.N.O.! So now as to when it will be decided, nothing
can be said. These are delaying tactics and strategies. If they
say no they can be caught immediately, because it is illegal to
say no. But they don't say no.
I can understand your anxiety, your problem. That is the anxiety
of every sannyasin. It is becoming so difficult here, the space
is so small. And thousands and thousands more are going to come:
I have given the invitation to them, they are on the way.
Even this land we are sitting on: we have been here for five
years, and have still not yet legalized it. We are already here,
they cannot throw us out, but they have not legalized it. We don't
have the papers with us, the papers are with the government. They
go on saying, "We are going to do it, we are going to do
it"—but it never happens.
This is how Morarji Desai is behaving, in a fascist way—but
very legally; you cannot find any legal flaw….
But if because of his personal disagreement he obstructs my work
in such cunning and vicarious ways, then he is destroying democracy
from the very roots. And then independence is simply a slogan,
not a reality.
I have not yet thought of leaving this country. But if this
continues and the work becomes impossible, I will have to leave
this country. And they should know perfectly well that once I
leave this country it will prove to the whole world that this
country only claims to be a democracy—it is not. And my
leaving the country will not be only a single individual leaving:
thousands will leave with me. That will show the whole world that
the Indian claim of being the greatest democracy in the world
is just hocus pocus.
If I decide any day to leave this country—which they are
forcing me to decide—that will be a calamity. Because my
millions of sannyasins all around the world will become the living
proof that this country is not independent, and this country is
not democratic either.
Thirty years ago, when India became independent, Winston Churchill
said in the British parliament: "What we are doing is not
right. Although it is every human being's birthright to be free,
to give freedom to India is not right, because the time is not
ripe. And within thirty years it will fall a victim to rogues,
scoundrels and thugs."
And I wonder—thirty years have passed: it seems Churchill's
prophecy has come true. unio204
One government officer, one S.D.O. had come to investigate the
morality of my sannyasins, and Sheela was showing him around the
ashram. When he found that Sheela and he were alone he asked Sheela,
"Can I kiss you?" And he had come to investigate the
morality of the ashram! And because Sheela reacted and shouted
at him he had written a very nasty and wrong report about the
ashram, and he has been one of the causes that we could not get
the Saswad land for the commune. He created every possible trouble.
And he was sending messages that "If Sheela comes to me,
then I will help you!"
Now these are the people…! Buddha had to work with these
people, and Jesus, and Mahavira. They can be forgiven. They wanted
to help man and woman both, but the trouble was the society. ithat08
While Morarji Desai was prime minister*, he was phoning almost
three times a week to the chief minister of Maharashtra, early
in the morning, at six o'clock, saying "Do something—Osho's
work should be stopped; his ashram should be somehow destroyed.
Create legal problems—do anything that you can."
This was reported to me by the chief minister himself: "What
can I do? Three, four times every week, at six o'clock, I hear
the phone. I know it is about you and your ashram. Whether he
sleeps or not, whether he goes on the whole night thinking about
you and your ashram…. It seems that if your ashram is destroyed,
India will have no problems at all; you are the only problem."
He created as many problems as possible. zara103
*Note: Morarji Desai was Prime Minister from August 1977 to
January 1980
In fact, in Poona our commune attracted thousands of people from
the world, and the government of Maharashtra would not allow me
to leave Poona and move the commune to another place in India.
They forced the central government that I should not be allowed
to purchase any quantity of land anywhere, because "If these
people move, then our whole tourism will flop." And that's
what happened. When we moved, their whole tourism simply flopped.
We were bringing in so much money to them, and we had made such
a beautiful place that every day thousands of people were coming
just to see the place. last226
A journalist asks: There are reports that the Poona ashram owes
the government something like 1.5 crores of rupees in unpaid taxes.
Is this true? Are your tax hassles over, or has there been some
kind of understanding with the government?
Two things. One: those taxes have nothing to do with me because
I have never been a part of any commune. And I don't have any
post in the commune so any income tax or anything has nothing
to do with me. I have always been a guest in every commune. I
am not even a member. So there is no question of me being arrested.
Secondly, those 1.5 crore—that is the creation of Morarji
Desai. Morarji Desai has been against me for as long as I remember,
for the simple reason that I am against Gandhism and he thinks
he is the successor of Gandhi. He wants to be Mahatma Morarji
Desai….
When he became prime minister he immediately took away the tax-exempt
status of the ashram in Poona. That created the trouble. Once
the tax-exempt status was taken away, then income tax started
arising. The Poona commune has been fighting for tax-exempt status,
but as time goes on the income tax goes on growing. It is a legal
matter, and it will be solved—it has nothing to do with
me. last412
Morarji Desai has been against me all along. The conflict has
continued at least for fifteen years, but because he was not in
power, he could not do a thing. Now he is in power, so the fascist
in him surfaces….
He said, somewhere, just a few days before, that he is willing
to appoint a commission to inquire into the activities of my ashram,
of this commune, but he said, "That is not going to profit
Rajneesh and his work." Now what kind of commission will
this be if he has already decided that that is not going to profit
the ashram? A commission means an open inquiry. If the decision
has already been taken, if he has already concluded that this
is not going to help my work, that this is going to harm my work,
what kind of inquiry will this be?
That's what he is doing with other people, with Indira. He has
already decided, and then a commission is made. The commission
only goes through empty gestures; the conclusion has already been
reached. The commission has only to make a show that justice is
being done.
This is not the way of a democratic person. This is the way of
a fascist. secret10
You say: The Navabharat Times of October 13th carried a news
item from Surat, Gujarat, according, to which the Prime Minister,
Morarji Desai, said that he had read the book From Sex to Superconsciousness
by Acharya Rajneesh and found it indecent and distasteful.
Shree Morarji Desai is a very repressed person as far as sex
is concerned. Now, this seems very strange. My discourses have
been collected in two hundred books, books on Vedanta, books on
Tao, books on Yoga, books on Sufism, books on the Upanishadas,
books on the Geeta, the Bible, the Tao Te Ching, but he has been
reading only one book—From Sex to Superconsciousness. An
eighty-three-year-old man, has remained celibate for almost fifty
years, why should he be interested in the book From Sex to Superconsciousness?
Certainly he is not interested in superconsciousness, because
I have written two hundred books on superconsciousness. His interest
seems to be sex. That's how it happens. secret04
The Australian TV was coming to film the ashram, they were stopped.
The BBC people had come, they had filmed half, and now they have
been stopped by the government and they cannot film. And people
call this the greatest democracy in the world.
Journalists are being prevented from coming here—the world
should not know what is happening here, people should not come
here. But the reason is clear, obvious. The reason is: whatsoever
they have been thinking is religion, I say is not religion. In
fact, what they say is religion is exactly anti-religion.
I am teaching you a new religion, a new dispensation, new in the
sense that the priests have not allowed you to see it up to now—old
and the ancientmost in another sense, because those who have awakened
have always taught the same. easy203
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