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Part VII : Osho in the World Press
A sensation in the press precipitates Osho into the world news.
In October 1978, Osho responds:
One German film actress (Eva Renzi) had come to India to my commune
there. Her image in Germany was falling down; she was getting
fewer and fewer films to work in. She wanted some attention so
she could again become a great star.
She came to my commune, She did a few groups, meditated, and
then suddenly—not saying anything to anybody—she disappeared.
And while leaving Bombay airport, she gave a press conference
in which everything that she said was a lie: that she has been
beaten, she has been raped, that they were going to kill her;
somehow she has escaped. In Germany, she became again a great
famous star.
Her husband wrote a letter to me. I want you to know what was
in that letter. Her husband wrote, "I don't believe what
my wife is talking about, because every day she goes on adding
more and more against you and your commune. I don't believe that
any such thing has happened to her. If it had happened, she should
have gone to the police department nearest to your commune. There
was no need to go to Bombay, one hundred miles away, give the
press conference and get into her plane."
But he said, "I don't believe any of these things have
happened, but if they have happened I am immensely pleased, because
this is what I have always wanted to do to her but I could not
gather courage. She is a bitch!"
What kind of life are people living if the husband carries such
ideas about his own wife? And the wife must be doing things to
him; otherwise, why should he carry these ideas in his mind? dless10
This is part of the human mind: anything written and people
believe it. The written or the printed word has a hypnotic power
over people. I say something: if it goes against your scripture
you come immediately to me to say that it is not written in the
Bible—as if just by writing something it becomes true. If
it is not written in the Bible, so what? So it is not written
in the Bible! Improve upon the Bible—write it. At least
you can write it in your own copy.
But people believe the written word very much; it is almost
hypnotic. That's why you can go on believing even stupid newspapers,
because a printed thing, a written thing?—then it must be
true. All kinds of falsities and lies go on being circulated.
Just the other day I was reading one German newspaper. It says
I have two wives, one Indian, one Western. Looks very relevant…because
that's why I say "the meeting of the East and the West"!
And the more amazing thing is that the picture that he has chosen
to show of my two wives—one of them is Shiva! Shiva has
long hairs; he is standing with his back towards the camera, so
he is my Indian wife! It is really nice of these people….
The other newspaper I was reading has written that I fly in a
helicopter. I liked it. I never leave my room…and I fly
in helicopters? True, I fly, but I fly without helicopters! And
even a greater discovery is there—that I eat only eggs,
meat, lobsters, and nothing else! Now millions of people in Germany
will believe it: a written thing is a written thing after all.
Another newspaper has a report that the reporter came to the
ashram early in the morning, at five-thirty. He knocked on the
door. A naked, utterly beautiful woman opened the door, hugged
him, welcomed him, "Come in," plucked a fruit from this
tree—looked like an apple—gave the fruit to the reporter,
and told the reporter, "Eat it. It rejuvenates sexual energy."
And you will be surprised—letters have started arriving.
One man writes from Austria: "I am sixty and I have a young
wife. Please, Osho, be kind to me. I can come to India. I have
heard that in India things like that happen. Can you give me that
fruit?"
It is believed, and all kinds of rubbish, all kinds of falsities
and lies go on being written. And many believe. secret11
From Germany my friends have written that you should be alert,
because so much of this kind of false information is spreading
here, its effect will be that all kinds of mentally ill people,
psychological insane people will start reaching the ashram. death10
A journalist asks: You are still regarded as the guru of free
sex in many parts of the world. Is that a misnomer?
It is simply a misnomer; I have never been a guru of sex. On
the contrary, I am the only person in the whole world who has
been trying to transform people's sexual energy into spiritual
energy. I am against repression because repression of sexual energy
means there is no chance of spiritual growth.
The people who have been with me have become less and less sexual,
and have become more and more spiritual. Those who have been with
me longer have lost all interest in sex.
If you want to call me something, I am the guru who is absolutely
anti-sex. But you know third-rate journalism which thrives on
sensationalism—they created the misnomer. last408
Strange things they go on saying—and not only saying,
but believing. And now it is not only in India that they are saying
hard words about me, it is almost all over the world.
Just yesterday I received an article published in London. They
say that I brainwash people here and when their brains are washed
away completely, then the men are sent for smuggling jobs and
the women are sent for prostitution. That's what I am doing to
you, so beware! Once your brain is washed completely these two
alternatives are left. And the man who writes it, writes it with
great confidence as if he knows.
Just the other day I received a news from Bombay. A sannyasin
has come across a few photographs in a studio. The sannyasin could
see in the pictures somebody who looks like me. At the first glance
he was shocked; when he looked closely then he could see that
it was somebody else, but with some similarity. Now, they have
bribed this man to be naked among naked women, and they have taken
his pictures, and now they are going to publish them all over
the world. Great idea! I really loved it. Some imagination.
But this is how they have been doing always. And I am not saying
that they do it knowingly. No, they may be thinking that they
are serving humanity, they are making people aware of the danger
that I am. They may have every good intention behind all these
things; that makes it more complex. They are simply servants of
humanity. dh0903
Just the other day, I was reading a report in the Indian Express.
Their journalist had come here for just two or three days. He
writes in his report that thousands of people were sitting so
silently that you could hear the birds chirping in the trees.
They were so silent, it was as if there was nobody there.
And what is his conclusion? He thought it was all managed, that
it was a performance. He thought it was a performance to impress
the poor journalist from the Indian Express! He could not believe
it, because he knows Indians, and he knows Indian meetings….
That Indian journalist must have seen many many such meetings.
So, seeing three thousand people sitting silently here, nobody
stirring, nobody talking with each other, it was natural to conclude
that it was just to impress him.
When I was leaving that day, I saw two persons sitting here
who looked absolutely out of place. And when I bowed down to you,
they did not respond. Now, if many such people are here around
me, nonresponsive, I will not be able to pour out my heart; it
will be impossible. wisdom06
A small anecdote:
A little boy and his father are in front of the lion's cage
at the zoo. Suddenly the little boy comes too close to the cage
and the lion is almost on the boy.
A man standing by with a swift movement grabs the boy and saves
him.
A journalist happens to be among the crowd, so he decides to write
an article about the man's courageous act. Among other questions
he asks him, "What religion do you belong to?"
"I am agnostic," replies the man.
The next day the newspaper carries the following headline: "Pinko
Commie snatches lunch from hungry African immigrant." ggate209
Perhaps Satyananda is here. He came as a journalist from Stern
magazine in Germany. He was one of their topmost journalists,
but he wanted to feel it—the meditations, the groups, silent
sittings with me, discourses…he remained there for a few
weeks. He wanted an inside story, not just a story from an outsider.
He collected so much material and he was so happy when he went…before
leaving he became a sannyasin, too. But as he reached the Stern
office they started laughing. They said, "He is completely
hypnotized! Look at his red clothes, mala…he is not the
man we sent."
When they saw his report they simply said, "Not a single
word from this report can be published. You have been brainwashed,
you don't know what you are writing. You are under hypnosis, you
are being used as a medium; you don't know what you are doing."
He said, "What nonsense are you talking? I have not been
hypnotized."
But what can he do? The report belongs to Stern, not to the
writer. The writer is paid for it.
He went on struggling, negotiating—"This much you can
cut…this much you can cut…. " And finally only
one sixth remained. They distorted his whole beautiful article.
But he was disillusioned completely—this freedom of expression,
all these democratic JUSTIFY">But he was disillusioned
completely—this freedom of expression, all these democratic
values are just words. He resigned his position on the grounds
that they had been printing things which were not true, and because
they had inserted whatever they wanted into his article.
He told them, "I cannot serve here like a slave anymore.
You have not purchased my mind."
He wrote a book, which became a best seller in Germany. He came
back to live in India, and then he was in America with me. sermon11
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