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Part VIII : First bail hearing
On 31st October, a Bail Hearing is held for Osho, charged with
arranging 16 sham marriages, and lying to the INS
I wondered that America is thought to be a democracy, and here
people are being arrested without any arrest warrant from any
court, without any reason or rhyme.
And I wondered at my own attorneys, because when they started
asking for bail in the court… One of my attorneys was a
sannyasin. I told him, "You are starting from the wrong point.
First you should ask on what grounds we have been arrested: `You
don't have any arrest warrant, and the paper you have does not
have any of the names of the people you are arresting. The question
of bail does not arise.'"
But the sannyasin was a young attorney, and he had called the
best attorneys he knew. This is how bureaucracy works. He told
me, "We will do everything. You simply be silent, because
any word from you may cause trouble. Right now they don't have
any evidence against you."
I still think it was wrong of my attorneys to start by asking
for bail. The first question should have been, "Why have
these people been arrested?" The people who arrested me should
have been punished. The question about bail should not have arisen.
But they started from a wrong question, and discussed bail. The
six sannyasins were bailed out—everyone except me. zenman09
In the morning when they took me to the court…I have never
seen such driving.
I am myself a reckless driver. In my whole life I have committed
only two crimes, and those were speeding. But it was not speeding,
it was a totally new kind of driving. The U.S. marshal himself
was driving. He would drive the car at full speed, beyond the
limits, and then suddenly stop—for no reason at all, just
to give me a jerk. My hands were cuffed, my legs were chained—and
they had instructions where to put a chain on my waist, exactly
where my back is giving me the trouble. And this would happen
each five minutes: suddenly fast, suddenly stopping, just to give
as much pain to my back as possible. And nobody could say, "You
are harming him."
I just said to the marshal, "You are a unique driver—but
remember I enjoyed the whole drive." And he took me for almost
one hour. I thought perhaps this was the distance from the jail
to the court. The court was underneath the jail. The jail was
on the upper story and the court was on the lower story; there
was no need of any car. I had just to go in an elevator, and it
was not even one minute's distance. This one hour tour was just
to give me as much pain as possible, to break the vertebrae of
the backbone.
The marshal had to leave for some other work, so when the court
was finished his assistant simply took me by the elevator to the
jail. Then I came to know that that one-hour drive was simply
a device; there was no need. When I saw him I told him, "You
take a real interest in the health of your prisoners. That one
hour open-air drive, and with such a unique way of driving—I
will remember it." upan17
In the court when the magistrate comes, they declare that the
magistrate is coming, "Stand up"—so everybody
stands up. When the magistrate sits on the chair, then everybody
is allowed to sit. When I was coming into the court, people were
standing up on their own. There was no declaration—you don't
declare for a prisoner.
And that was a clear humiliation of the magistrate and all the
police officials and all the court people, that all the people…even
those who were not sannyasins, even those who had never seen me,
had never heard of me except that just then they had seen me on
the television and seen the brutality of the American government.
They tried in every way. They were thinking that I would be
humiliated; but whenever the press inquired of me, I said, "I
am feeling great. As far as I am concerned, I am feeling perfectly
great. They can torture my body, but they cannot touch me."
transm34
In the first court where I was brought after my arrest in America,
I had some hope, because the magistrate was a woman. But I forgot
completely that a woman is more hungry for power, more hungry
for prestige, more hungry to rise on the ladder of success, because
for centuries she has been denied. I simply thought, she is a
woman and she will understand.
But she was bribed by the White House, and this was related
to me by the highest law authorities in Carolina. The U.S. Marshal
who was taking me back and forth from the court to the jail told
me on the way: "It is absolutely unjust what is happening,
but you will have to tolerate it. It is only a question of a few
days. They cannot manage more than a week to keep you in the jail,
because the pressure from all over the world is increasing. And
all the news media all over the world are focused only on one
question—why you have been arrested and where you are being
kept."
And why was I not brought to Oregon, to Portland where the court
was going to decide whether I should be bailed out or not? Why
was I moved for twelve days continuously from one jail to another?
The root cause was that fat woman, who must have been feeling
guilty, because she never looked at me eye to eye. And she must
have been feeling afraid, too, because she told the marshal: "Tell
Osho he cannot use his cap in the court because in America it
is thought to be a contempt of the court."
I told the U.S. Marshal, "I will wear my cap, and if she
has guts she should ask me in the court. It is a question which
has to be decided, whether the cap is a respect for the court
or a contempt."
He became very nervous. He went inside, told the woman. She
said, "Don't disturb him. I will not raise the question at
all, he can wear the cap." Perhaps I am the first man who
has used his cap in the American court, because it is a "contempt
of the court."
I was prepared to fight—I was not bothered about the bail
or all the law and the crimes that they were finding against me.
One hundred and thirty-six crimes—I was not concerned. I
wanted to face the woman directly, and I wanted to see how much
guts she had. I wanted to listen to how the cap can be called
a contempt of the court. Then why is my robe not a contempt of
the court? I will remove both together, just to give respect to
the court!
She understood, that it is better not to get entangled with this
man. The U.S. Marshal came running and he said, "You can
use it, there is no problem. Don't be worried about it."
I said, "What happened? Has the law changed in America?"
And the same marshal told me on the way to jail—because
I was refused bail…. It is a strange case, a historical
phenomenon, because the U.S. Attorney argued for three days continuously
and could not prove that I had committed a single crime. And finally
he himself accepted it: "I have not been able to prove anything
against him, but still I want the magistrate to know that the
government is not in favor of bail being allowed for him."
And all over the world they go on saying that the Department
of Justice is not under the government, that the government cannot
interfere.
The marshal told me, "The reality behind the scenes is that
the woman has been bribed. She has been told that if she does
not give you bail she will be made a federal judge." She
was only a state magistrate, and that was her great ambition.
I said, "If she had asked me, I would not have even bothered
about the bail. I would have told my attorneys, `Don't argue.
If my being in the jail for few days helps a poor woman to become
a federal judge, let it be so."'
Justice is a by-product of love.
But neither man knows nor woman; they have all forgotten what
love is. Only the word remains, just like "God"…utterly
empty. You open the word "God" and inside there is nothing.
The same is the case with the word "love."
Love arises only in those who know themselves.
Love is the light that fills the meditative heart.
Love is the flame that arises in you when you make space for it.
Your thoughts must be thrown out, your prejudices must be thrown
out. And then there is no problem about justice—you cannot
be unjust to anybody. Even to your enemies you cannot be unjust.
mess119
I have not committed any crime. I was absolutely free to come
to Carolina or anywhere in America, and for three days in the
court in Carolina they could not prove a single thing against
me. Even the U.S. Attorney accepted the fact in his final summarizing
statement, that we have not been able to prove anything; neither
the other party has been able to prove anything.
Now this is hilarious. The other party need not have to prove
anything. It has just to disprove you that you are inventing crimes
which have not been committed. Innocence cannot be proved. Only
guilt can be proved or disproved. You have not been able to prove
any crime, but still the U.S. Attorney wanted—six other
my sannyasins were with me, he was willing to bail them out—but
he insisted that my bail should be given in Oregon, because I
am a dangerous man. I have unaccountable sources of money, and
I have thousands of friends who can do anything for me.
These were my crimes, that was I cannot be bailed out; that
I have thousands of friends, that they can do anything for me,
that I have unaccountable money sources. So it is better that
I should be sent back under police custody to Oregon, and in Oregon
court we should decide about the bail.
If there has been any fair-minded judge, he could have seen
that these are not crimes. That means no rich man can be bailed
out. In fact, if this man has so many friends, that proves that
this man cannot be a criminal. And, if so many people love him
that they can do anything, even if they have to die they can die,
then you cannot call this man dangerous. If so many people are
loving him that is enough. In fact this man's signature will be
enough a guarantee.
But the judge was not a real judge. She was a woman, and only
a magistrate. And she was waiting for her promotion to be a judge.
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