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Part VII : New Phase: Osho and Public Relations
Osho uses new technology to send his message world-wide. Discourses
are video-taped. The Press Office expands. Osho's address to the
World Symposium of Humanity is televised in Britain, Canada and
USA. A full-length feature film, Bhagwan, wins an award at Miami
and Cannes International Film Festivals. Osho's meditations feature
on a BBC Radio education program. The BBC refers to the ashram
as the 'largest growth centre in the world'
You ask: Why should there be a Press Office in the ashram?
Why not?
You know I am an ancient Jew—I answer a question with another
question; that is an ancient Jewish habit….
I am a modern man—in fact a little ahead of my time! I am
going to use every possible means to spread the truth: newspapers,
video, tape recorders, films, radio, television, satellite transmission,
everything.
Buddha had to go to every village. You didn't ask him, "Why
do you go on walking from one village to another village?"
That is a primitive way of spreading the message. For forty-two
years he was travelling and travelling. Now to do that would be
foolish.
I can be in my room, and I can fill the whole earth with my
message. It would be very unintelligent to go on walking from
one village to another village. Buddha was helpless. If I had
been there in Buddha's time, I would have done the same. If Buddha
were here now he would do the same.
The Press Office creates a question in many people's minds. They
think truth need not be declared. It needs to be declared! Jesus
said to his disciples, "Go in every direction and shout from
the housetops! Only then will people hear, because people are
deaf."
I will not tell you to go and shout from every housetop; better
means are available. Man has invented great technology. Everybody
else is using that technology, but when it is used for truth,
questions start arising. If you use it for business, good, if
you use it for politics, good, if you use it for evil, perfectly
right, but if you use it for God, then questions start arising.
I am going to use all kinds of media. guest09
You ask: Don't you have enough disciples? What is the need for
videotapes of you and your commune?
I have got only one hundred fifty thousand sannyasins in the world—that
is just a drop in the ocean of humanity. And if you want to transform
the consciousness of man it is nothing; it is just the beginning,
it is just a seed. We have to go on spreading this new message—new
in a sense, because of the so-called religions, and yet the ancientmost,
because whenever anybody has known he has known the same truth.
Truth never changes; it is always the same. Who knows it makes
no difference, when one knows it makes no difference. Time and
space don't matter.
And this is a very special moment in the history of humanity:
either man will destroy himself totally or a new man will be born.
It has never been so important to transform the consciousness
of man, to bring a radical change in the very vision of man as
it is today. And we have to do it quickly because time is short.
The politicians are piling up atom bombs, hydrogen bombs and whatnot.
Just within ten years the power to destroy man has increased seven
hundred times. Ten years ago it was enough to destroy humanity;
now it is enough to destroy seven hundred earths of the same size.
It seems to be simply mad. What is the point?—because we
don't know any other earths yet. Yes, scientists say there are
fifty thousand planets with life, but that is only a hypothesis.
We may never reach them—we have only reached the moon….
In such a mad world where mad politicians are so powerful, meditation
can be the only way to defend life on earth. The inner revolution
has to be spread as quickly and as fast as possible. Moreover,
I am a twentieth-century man—I don't believe in bullock
carts. You can see my Rolls Royce!…
I don't go anywhere; there is no need now—that is out
of date. I cannot reach many people by traveling, but now we have
the media available. My word can go to the farthest corner of
the earth—it is reaching already. Books are also old ways
of reaching people; their days are also over. New methods have
been evolved.
A videotape is a far better way to reach people because they
can hear me the same way as you are hearing me. And just hearing
the word without seeing the person is one thing; seeing the person
also makes a lot of difference. It is totally different because
when you are listening to me on a tape recording or on records
you will not be able to see my hand, which says more than I can
say with my words. You will not be looking at my eyes, which have
much more to say than words can convey. Something will be missing,
something of immense. A videotape is a far better way to reach
people because they can hear me the same way as you are hearing
me. And just hearing the word without seeing the person is one
thing; seeing the person also makes a lot of difference. It is
totally different because when you are listening to me on a tape
recording or on records you will not be able to see my hand, which
says more than I can say with my words. You will not be looking
at my eyes, which have much more to say than words can convey.
Something will be missing, something of immense value—the
person will be missing. You will be hearing only a ghostly voice.
I will use films, television, videotapes, tapes, every modern
technique to spread the message. I belong to the twentieth century
totally, wholeheartedly. And I love this century; I am not against
it. I love science and its technology. It is in the wrong hands,
but that always happens. Whenever something significant is discovered
it always falls into the wrong hands first for the simple reason
that they are very quick people, cunning people….
Science has released tremendous power, but it has fallen into
the wrong hands and the right hands are not there. We have to
create the right hands; we have to create the right consciousness
for that.
Hence, I will go on working with all the modern media to reach
as many people as possible. I am already reaching. You can see
here people from almost every country. There is not a single country
in the world now where my sannyasins are not. And they are creating
a stir everywhere. They are bound to create a stir, they are bound
to create a new kind of revolution—the real revolution.
Political revolutions are not revolutions; only spiritual revolutions
are revolutions because unless the inner being changes, no outer
change is going to help.
And, remember it, I am not an old type of saint: "Why bother
about disciples and why bother about reaching many people?"
It is not a question of bothering at all—I am enjoying it
tremendously! It is not in any way work for me; it is play. And
it is urgently needed, too. ggate104
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