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Part VIII : Portland court, Alford Plea. Ransom and order to leave
the USA
On 8 November, after his release on bail, Osho flies to Rajneeshpuram.
He rested quietly at home until 14 November, when he attends the
Portland court. His attorneys have arranged an Alford Plea. Osho
is fined $400,000, and ordered to leave the US immediately.
They had no crime against me. They knew it—the judge knew
it, everybody was aware that they had no crime against me. And
all the crimes that they are talking about—there were mainly
two.
One was that I helped people to get married, and those marriages
were just to get residence in America. It was absolutely false
because for three and a half years I had been silent and I had
not been meeting with any sannyasin. It was true that people had
married just to remain in America, but it was not my arrangement;
I was not guilty of it. I had not told anybody, not a single person,
to get married to somebody. I was not seeing people at all; I
was in isolation and in silence.
And the whole house—twenty people who were taking care
of me—they were witnesses that nobody entered in the house
and I didn't go anywhere. So it was absolutely absurd.
Their second charge was that before coming to America I had
an intention to remain there forever. I told my attorneys, "This
is absolutely absurd, because unless they can read somebody's
mind, I don't think the judge or the U.S. attorney or anybody….
I am standing here in the court: can they say what I am going
to do next? Then I will hit the U.S. attorney.
"If he cannot see my intention right in front of him, on
what grounds can he say that I had that intention? You can talk
about actions because actions can have witnesses; but intentions
don't have witnesses. Intentions cannot be punished." light07
Because they had no evidence against me—I have not committed
any crime—they blackmailed my attorneys, the best in America.
The United States attorneys told my attorneys, "If you are
interested in Bhagwan's life, it is better not to go for trial,
because you know and we know that he has not committed anything,
that all thirty-four charges are false. But in no case will the
government of America be willing to be defeated in the court by
a single individual."
They had named the case United States of America versus Bhagwan
Shree Rajneesh. Now the greatest nation in the world, the greatest
power in history, naturally would not like to be defeated in the
court by a powerless individual.
My attorneys came to me with tears in their eyes. They said,
"We are here to protect you, but it seems impossible. We
cannot take the risk to go for trial, because we have been told
very directly that your life is at risk. So we have agreed on
your behalf to accept two nominal charges, just to give the American
government a face-saving device, so that they can fine you and
deport you."
This was just ten minutes before the court was to start, and
in the Federal Court, Judge Leavy asked me just about those two
charges that had been chosen by my attorneys to be accepted because
they were just formalities. It was strange that out of thirty-four
charges, Judge Leavy immediately asked me only about those two:
"Are you guilty of those two crimes or not?" It is clear
that Judge Leavy was also part of the whole conspiracy.
But I am a crazy man of my own type. I simply said, "I
am." And my attorney, Jack Ransom immediately added—he
was standing by my side—"guilty." So on the court
record it has become the full sentence, "I am guilty."
I have not said that at all. I would rather be crucified than
to accept a false charge.
Outside of the court Jack Ransom told me, "You created such
a strange situation. It is good that Judge Leavy has not taken
note of it."
He immediately pronounced his judgment. That too is a strange
thing. The judgment has to be written after my acceptance or denial,
but the judgment was ready-made. It was there on the table, he
simply read it out. Perhaps the judgment was not even written
by him. Perhaps it was just given to him.
The judgment was that I was to be fined four hundred thousand
dollars. My attorneys were shocked; they could not believe that
for those two formal charges, which are false, more than half
a crore rupees are fined; deportation from America, for five years
no entry, and if I should enter then ten years suspended jail
sentence would have to be served. And I was told that I had to
take my clothes from the jail immediately and my plane is waiting
at the airport. I have to leave American immediately, so that
I cannot appeal in a higher court….
Another one of my attorneys—Bob McCrea, a beautiful man
with some understanding of what was happening—told Vivek,
my caretaker, after my last appearance in court, "It seems
and feels to me that they have done it again. They have crucified
Jesus again. I'm sorry and I feel so helpless."…
It is certainly of tremendous importance that even after twenty
centuries a man like Jesus will be crucified by Christians themselves.
It was a conspiracy of the fundamentalist Christians of America
and Ronald Reagan. crucif
Were you changed by your experiences in America?
I am the center of the cyclone, so whatever happens around me
makes no difference to me. It may be turmoil or it may be the
beautiful sound of running water; I am just a witness to both,
and that witnessing remains the same. As far as my innermost being
is concerned, in every situation I am just the same. This is my
whole teaching: that things may change, but your consciousness
should remain absolutely unchanging.
Things are going to change—that is their nature. One day
you succeed, one day you fail; one day you are at the top, another
day you are at the bottom. But something in you is always exactly
the same, and that something is your reality. I live in my reality,
not in all the dreams and nightmares that surround reality. last423
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