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Part V : Osho's impressions on Hippies
About this time Osho comes into contact with Western hippies,
many of whom become his disciples. In March 1969, Osho gives a
discourse entitled: The Hippie Rebellion
The hippie refuses to play the role of a yes-man. He believes
in doing whatever he feels is right. It undoubtedly creates difficulties,
but in a way the hippie can be called a sannyasin. Truly speaking,
the sannyasin must have been a sort of a hippie at some time.
He had also refused to tow the common line. He was a non-citizen
and a run-away from society just like Mahavir who stood naked.
The day Mahavir would have stood naked in Bihar discarding clothes,
I do not think the orthodox people would have accepted this strange
person without any protest. whatr01
The view point of the hippies is quite dear to me. They say,
"We would like to live like natural men and women, as we
really are, without deceiving. We will practise neither deception
nor hypocrisy. We know that our path will be strewn with troubles,
but we would put up with all these and try to live as we are."
If a hippie feels that he should tell somebody that he is becoming
angry with him and feels like abusing him, he would go to him
and quite plainly speak out his mind without any hesitation or
reservation. I think it is a great human quality. And he will
not come afterwards to apologize until he really feels its necessity,
because he will argue that he had a mind to abuse, so he abused,
and he was now ready to face the consequences. But he refuses
to be a hypocrite and to don a smile on his lips while his heart
feels like abusing. But as far as we are concerned our exterior
is not the same as our inner feelings. We are harbouring all sorts
of hellish ideas within whereas our exterior betrays a completely
different picture of us. Every man is, so to say, a personification
of untruth. whatr01
The second thing which the hippies say is "We are as we
are. We do not wish to obstruct our natural behaviour. We do not
wish to conceal anything." One of my friends had an occasion
to live for a few days with the hippies in a small village inhabited
by them, and he reported to me that to live there is quite perturbing
because they cast aside all the masks imposed on humanity and
civilization. There, a young man, instead of saying all sorts
of round-about things in poetical language or flowery words to
a maiden to plead for her love, goes to her and straight-away
tells her that he has a desire to sleep with her. He argues that
when behind all this jugglery of words the central idea is sex,
then why not express it frankly and plainly, and why it should
be concealed behind the facade of flowery language. He can very
well say to a girl in simple words that he wishes to sleep with
her.
It may appear quite disturbing to us, but according to hippies,
if after all this talk of poetry, music and love, the same thing
is going to happen ultimately, it is quite proper to say it straight-away
so that at least no one may be deceived. If the girl is not willing
to oblige him, she can very well beg to be excused....
The second principle of the hippies is "natural living" - to
be as one is. But it is a terrible thing to be as one is. It is
indeed a very difficult thing because artificiality has gripped
us to such an extent, and we have travelled so far in the domain
of pretending that for us to return to our original state of naturalness
has become well nigh impossible. whatr01
Another stand point of the hippie is expansion of consciousness.
He is seeking how to expand his consciousness, and for this purpose
is making all sorts of experiments - consuming ganja, opium,
bhang, hashish, LSD, mescaline, marijuana, and even taking refuge
in yoga and meditation. He is trying all these in his endeavour
to expand his consciousness, to attain expansion of the contracted
consciousness. Therefore, he makes use of chemical drugs: LSD,
mescaline etc. Through the help of which his consciousness travels
to another plane for at least a short time.
The law opposes it. As a matter of fact law takes up a cudgels
against anything new because a law gets enacted at a particular
time, and though ages roll by yet it remains static. So naturally
there has to be opposition on its part to the use of drugs. The
law condemns LSD as sin. I at least fail to comprehend how it
is so. whatr01
I was staying in a house. On the roof of that house, few Westerners - their
two families were staying. Whenever I used to stay in that house,
they would say, "Westerners are very materialistic. They
know nothing except eating, drinking, dancing and singing, they
are absolutely materialistic."
Whenever I visited them they would say the same thing: "They
dance till 12 o'clock in the night. Just eating, drinking and
dancing. This is their whole life."
Once again I happened to stay in that house. But it was quiet
upstairs, so I enquired whether they had left. The housewife said,
"They have gone. But they were strange people, they distributed
all their possessions." The woman continued, "They gave
all their utensils to the woman who washed dishes, and the utensils
were all stainless steel, pure steel. There was radio, radiogram.
They distributed everything. They were strange people."
I asked the woman, "You always used to say that they were
very materialistic people, they just danced and sang, ate and
drank and did nothing else." Dekh Kabira Roya
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