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Part VII : Reactions to Osho’s and his ashram
At this time there is an increase in harassment of foreign sannyasins
by local people, police and local government, eg assaults on sannyasins,
building permits rescinded.
In those seven years (in Poona), by and by Indians disappeared
from my vision. People from all over the world started coming.
We had become, in India, an island where you could find Chinese,
Japanese, Koreans, Americans, Germans, Italians, French, English,
Swiss, Dutch; even people from Soviet Russia—even they are
here.
But Indians simply disappeared, for the simple reason that I
was not consolidating their beliefs. I was destroying their beliefs,
and I was creating a totally new vision of meditation which needs
no belief system as a support.
That's why people from all over the world who had an inquiring
mind, who were fed up with their religions, with their priests,
with their churches, synagogues—they started coming there.
They were ready—because there was no question of believing
anything—just experimenting. And the more they experimented,
by and by they started feeling a new energy arising in them. Who
bothers about God? And who bothers about paradise? We can create
paradise here. And when you are in deep silence and meditation,
you are a god, not a bit less—a little more, because God
is just a fiction and you are a reality.
But I could see that India had come to a point where perhaps it
could not accept any living truth. dless16
An Indian friend asks: Many times when I see our friends hugging,
kissing passionately, and caressing each other's bodies, I feel
that it is this sight which offends Indian society in general
and creates great misunderstandings about you and your teachings.
With this particular type of behavior, if the society is offended
and great difficulties are created for the world of our Master,
why shouldn't we simply correct our behavior when we are in society,
whether in India, America, or Germany?
This is what I have been talking about: the rotten mind.
What is wrong in hugging a person you love, in kissing a person
you love? Don't enforce your hug on anybody, that's true; then
it is ugly—and that's what the Indians go on doing. And
my women sannyasins are aware of it.
If you are there in the marketplace, then Indians behave really
in an ugly way. They will pinch your bottoms. Now, that is ugly.
They will rub their bodies against your body. That is ugly. They
will look at you as if they would like to eat you. That is ugly.
They will look at you as if they would like to see how you are
behind your clothes. That is ugly, but that is accepted, that
is perfectly good.
If you love a person and you hold hands and you hug each other
and you kiss each other, it should be nobody's business. Why should
others feel offended? If they feel offended, then something is
wrong with them. Maybe they are feeling jealous, but they cannot
show their jealousy, so they become angry. Maybe they would also
like to hug somebody, but they don't have the courage; they are
afraid of the society. Hence they feel very angry at you. What
they cannot do, they would not like anybody else to do either.
And, because they are so sexually repressed, whenever they see
somebody hugging, kissing, holding hands, showering so much love
on each other, their repressed sexuality starts surfacing. They
become afraid of themselves.
They are not offended by your behavior; they are offended by
their own unconscious tendencies because they suddenly start surfacing!
All their repressed sexuality starts coming up, and they become
frightened that, if it is allowed, they may do something. They
are somehow controlling themselves. Now, here is a person who
provokes them. Here are two persons in such a deep hug, they start
losing control.
The Indian mind has lived in control, discipline, character.
It is a hypocritical mind. On the surface is control, deep down
there are all kinds of things boiling. And when you provoke them
they are offended—not against you: they are offended by
their own unconscious, but they are not aware of that at all.
They throw the responsibility wholly on you, that you are doing
something wrong.
And although you are my sannyasin, still the Indian mind continues
in you. It is a very deep-rooted thing, centuries and centuries
of conditioning.
You say, "Many times when I see our friends hugging, kissing
passionately, and caressing each other's bodies, I feel that it
is this sight which offends Indian society in general and creates
great misunderstandings about you and your teachings."
No, it is not creating any misunderstanding. Exactly, precisely,
this is my teaching! It is love that I teach. It is loving behavior
that I teach. You are not going against me when you are doing
it.
I would like the whole country to be in a hugging, kissing atmosphere.
That climate is needed. People have forgotten how it feels to
hug others' bodies. People have forgotten the warmth, the flow
of energy that comes from the other's body. Indians have completely
lost roots in their own bodies.
Even husbands and wives make love so quickly, so fast, that
there is no hugging, caressing at all. It is done almost as if
it is a sin, in secrecy, nobody should know about it. Indians
live as if there is no sex in their life. This has become their
patterned way of existence; now you are disrupting it. I would
also like them to learn a few ways of how to be loving. Love is
not obscene, but that's how they think: they think love is obscene.
If two persons are fighting on the road, no Indian thinks it
is obscene. Even if they murder each other, nobody thinks it is
obscene. In fact, the crowd will gather to watch what is happening
and they will be very much thrilled. And if nothing happens, they
will go away very sad, that "Nothing happened, and we waited
so long." It was a kind of free entertainment. They are not
offended. Even if knives are drawn, they are not offended. If
blood flows, they are not offended; it is not obscene.
In Indian films, murder is allowed, suicide is allowed; kissing
is not allowed. Just think and see the whole absurdity of it.
Murder is allowed. Kissing is far more dangerous, far more dangerous
than murder? What kind of valuation is this? Suicide is allowed.
All kinds of sadistic, masochistic tortures are allowed, but kissing
is not allowed. A certain distance has to be maintained between
the lips—six inches, I think. Lips should not come more
than six inches closer; otherwise there will be an atomic explosion!
It is just a very repressive society.
There is no misunderstanding about me. I am very simple and
plain. Whatsoever I say, I say, and I say it the way it is. I
call a spade a spade. Then whatsoever happens, it's good. But
I have decided to be utterly honest and truthful—whatsoever
the cost. So don't think that "great difficulties" are
created for me. Nobody can create difficulties for me. But if
I have to say the truth, difficulties are bound to be there.
And do you think if you stop kissing and hugging on the roads,
streets, people will not have anything against me? Then why were
they against Jesus? His disciples were not kissing and hugging.
Why did they crucify him? Why were they against Socrates? Why
did they poison him? Why were they against Al Hillaj Mansoor?
Why did they kill him? These are excuses. Don't be deceived by
the excuses that people find. If they cannot find this excuse,
they will find another. And whatsoever I am saying is such—it
is explosive, it is dynamite.
In that way, you need not bother about what you do—whatsoever
you do is okay: even if you become absolute saints according to
Indians, then too they will be against me because what I am saying
and what I am trying to do is utter rebellion. It has never been
done that way, it has never been spoken that way—but people
find excuses. If one excuse is dropped, they will find another.
The Western disciples have come only recently. Seven years before,
you were not here, and people were against me as they are against
me today. I only had Indian disciples, but still they were against
me. So it is not you, it is I who is creating trouble for himself.
You are not responsible at all. You are just an excuse, and they
go on finding excuses, and my every statement can become an excuse.
In fact, your hugging and kissing and your caressing each other,
embracing each other, has been a great help to me. Because of
that they have forgotten everything else that I say! It is a protection.
Now, I have even been seeing editorials written in which it is
said that what Osho says is right; his disciples are wrong…and
I am so grateful to you. If you were not here, I would be wrong!
Now at least because of your behavior I am becoming prestigious,
respectable.
Go on doing it. Soon they will throw the whole responsibility
on you and I will be completely free of blame!
Even the Municipal Corporation of Poona has passed a resolution
in which it is said that, "We are not against Osho's teachings—his
teachings are perfectly true and right—but we are against
the behavior of his disciples." So beautiful! I enjoy how
stupid people can be. They cannot fight with me, they cannot argue
with me, they feel impotent against me; now they are finding scapegoats,
now they are finding other excuses.
Continue doing whatsoever you are doing. This is going to help
my work.
And I am not here to compromise. Whether the difficulties are
there or not, I am not here to compromise—not an iota of
compromise. Even if they make my life impossible here, that is
perfectly okay, but no compromise.
And you say, "With this particular type of behavior, if
the society is offended…." Society is going to be offended
if we want to change the society, if we want to change the mind
of the society. People don't leave their old minds easily. They
have invested so much in it, how can they leave it so easily?
They will be offended. And you ask me, "…why shouldn't
we simply correct our behavior…?" Your behavior is
already correct. And if they are suffering, they have to correct
their minds. If they are suffering, that is their problem. They
will have to reconsider.
I would like many more and many more sannyasins roaming around
the country, hugging, kissing, loving. Make it a problem everywhere,
so they have to understand that something has to be done. In the
beginning they are always offended. Nobody wants to change. Even
if it is for your benefit, nobody wants to change.
Love is a religious phenomenon, the greatest religious phenomenon
there is. It is love that becomes prayer.
Sufis say…a great Master is reported to have said:
I must empty myself to others
in tears and in kisses, in hugs and smiles.
That is the way one becomes empty
and ready for God to enter in.
In a moment, when one is empty, suddenly all becomes full of
God. When you kiss somebody with deep love, you are emptying yourself
into the other. When you hug somebody ecstatically, you are pouring
yourself into the other. This is the way of emptying yourself.
And when you are utterly empty, God comes in. To be empty is to
be in meditation. secret16
Others were getting disturbed, because my meditations are one
hundred and twelve, in which a few are chaotic, dynamic, active.
The people have to throw out all their screams, shout, throw out
their anger, dance, jump, jog. Naturally the neighbors would be
disturbed in the early morning, and every day the police were
there saying that the neighbors are complaining. So I told my
people that we have to find a place where there are no neighbors.
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