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Part VIII : Osho is kidnapped, tortured and ransomed by the US
Government
On 27 October 1985, Osho leaves the ranch by plane. At 1:30am
on 28 October, the plane stops to refuel in Charlotte NC, where
Osho and his attendants are held up at gunpoint, chained, and
incarcerated in Mecklenburg County Jail—without a warrant.
Photos of Osho in handcuffs and chains make world-wide news, and
nationwide TV coverage.
*Note: since no signed arrest warrant ever existed; the entire
process is criminal, see A Passage to America by Max Brecher (Book
Quest 1993)
I always left in the right time. That's what I say: existence
manages things if you leave it to existence. I left Rajneeshpuram
in America. The next day they (government agents) were going to
bring four helicopters—their helicopters were coming every
day to find my house, and from the helicopters they were going
to drop paratroopers to arrest me. Just a few hours before, I
left Rajneeshpuram to go to a beautiful mountain resort that belonged
to my sannyasins. They had been insisting for two years—it
is strange that on that day I decided that okay, two years were
enough. They had prepared the place; they just wanted me to rest
there. And the government was in shock—their whole program
had failed. mani14
You were unaware of the sealed indictment?
Absolutely. Absolutely, because they never informed me anything
about it. press06
For two years, the rumor was coming they want to arrest me, they
want to arrest me. It has become so routine that nobody cared
about it. It was certain that they have not guts enough to come
into the commune and arrest me.
They got the chance to arrest me, because I was going to visit
in Carolina one of my sannyasin's house in the mountains, just
for two three weeks and this was a good moment for them. As my
plane left there was a journalist present on the airport. He immediately
informed and we have the affidavit of the journalist that he was
the informer, to his press. But his press informed the government.
And they arrested me there; and that shows what cowardliness is.
Arresting a man who has nothing but a robe on his body with twelve
guns pointed at me, loaded at me. And they will not even answer,
that where is the arrest warrant, they will not answer why they
are arresting me, what crime I have committed. last428
I asked them what they are doing—they don't have any warrant,
they did not know for what they are arresting me, and they were
shouting, and I told them that "There is no need to shout.
You just tell me why you are arresting," and they will not
tell. They just handcuffed me.
I am not a criminal and nobody has ever treated me this way. I
am willing to come with you, wherever you want…and if you
want me to go back to Oregon, I can go back to Oregon, but I must
know what is the reason. press08
It became known later on that the United States Attorney had
asked the National Guard to arrest me. But they said, "Without
any evidence, without any order from the court, we cannot do it."
The U.S. Attorney General, Ed Meese, who has been accused of many
crimes and has had to retire in disgrace, had even asked the commander-in-chief
of the army…. And the commander-in-chief laughed. He said,
"Never in history has an army been sent against a single
individual. And not only that, but you don't have any evidence;
otherwise why don't you ask a court first to give an arrest warrant?"
They had nothing to persuade a court to arrest me.
And when I was arrested, I was arrested by twelve people with
loaded guns, and I asked, "Where is the arrest warrant?"
They had no arrest warrant. They had only a piece of paper on
which a few names were written. I told them, "These are not
the names of the people you are arresting. You can see our passports."
Six sannyasins were with me—they are here—not a single
name was on that paper. Still they would not listen. zenman09
When I was arrested in America, I was handcuffed, a heavy chain
around my waist, chains on my feet. I could not even walk. And
they were afraid that people would be there all over the street,
and I may raise my hands, so they put another chain that connected
my handcuffs to the chain around my waist so I could not move
my hands. And they rushed so madly in their car…and the
reason was that people were all around and they were waving and
giving me the sign of victory. Then I understood why they were
in such a hurry. Photographers were all around, press people were
all around, and if they see that people are greeting me and they
have arrested me without any arrest warrant, it will look like
the whole talk about democracy is simply nonsense. The continuous
propaganda about individuality, freedom of expression, is just
to deceive the whole world."
The U.S. Marshal who was sitting in front in the car taking me
inside the jail, told me, "Here, you are absolutely protected."
I said, "What about you? If being handcuffed, chained, is
protection—then first give it to your president, to your
governors, because their lives are in constant danger. In America,
twenty percent of the presidents have been assassinated. It is
not a small number. Keep all your presidents in jail! But don't
talk nonsense to me." mess105
I have never seen my passport. My people take care of it.
When I was in jail in America I had no phone numbers of my attorneys,
or of the commune, or of my secretaries—because in my whole
life I have never phoned. The U.S. Marshal was surprised and asked,
"Who should we inform that you have been arrested?"
I said, "Whomsoever you like. As far as I am concerned, I
don't know anybody. You can inform your wife; she may enjoy hearing
what her husband is doing—arresting innocent people without
any warrant."
I have such a different way of life that it sometimes looks unbelievable.
I don't know where my passport is right now. Somebody must be
carrying it somewhere. socrat16
I was not allowed to inform my attorney, because they were worried:
if the attorney comes then immediately the first question is bound
to be, "Where is the arrest warrant?"
And I heard the U.S. marshal whispering in the ear of the driver
who was to take me to the jail, "Remember, do whatever you
want to do but don't do it directly. The man is known world-wide,
and the whole news media is watching. If anything happens to him,
it will be a condemnation of American democracy." upan17
In the first jail the sheriff of the jail asked me, "Perhaps
you would never have thought that you would be in a jail."
I said, "I keep my future open. I can be anywhere…even
in hell I will not be disturbed."
He took me to my cell. He said, "It is unjust. You have been
arrested without any warrant, without even giving you any calls—you
have not been allowed to inform your attorneys. This is simply
unjust. In my whole life I have never seen something like this
happening."
I said, "This is a good experience for you. Things like this
can happen. To me it makes no difference whether the arrest warrant
was there or not, I would have been here anyway. And these days
I will be in the jail are going to give me a new experience and
a new perspective of life which I would have missed."
He said, "You seem to be a little bit of a strange type."
I said, "I am. This is only the beginning. We will come to
know each other more." socrat22
In jail Osho is put in a cell with another inmate. After the
second day he is allowed to use the medical ward.
The first night in jail I was given a steel bench, without any
mattress. They knew my back is in a bad condition, that I could
not lie down on that steel bench. Neither can I sit the whole
night; they would not supply even a pillow just to support my
back. They refused—"That's all you can get."
The whole night I was sitting. Sleeping was out of the question.
Sitting was difficult; my back was hurting tremendously. upan17
When I was in the first American jail, in my cell I had one Negro
partner. He was a very pious fellow, although he was charged with
murder and rape and all kinds of things. Pious people do all kinds
of things.
He used to put his head on the Bible every morning, every evening.
He would put the Bible on the bed, kneel down on the ground and
put his head on the Bible. He was not educated, so he could not
read. And just above the Bible he had all kinds of nude women
in all kinds of insane postures which he had cut from magazines.
The whole wall was covered with nude women.
I asked him, "Do you bow down to these nude women?"
He said, "No, I have the Bible."
I said, "You don't know how to read?"
He said, "No, I don't know."
"Who told you that this is a Bible?"
He said, "The jail authorities have given it to me."
"And what do you do when you kneel down?"
He said, "I pray to God."
And I said, "I have been watching you for three days continuously.
The nude women laugh."
He said, "They laugh?"
I said, "I have been watching. Because you are putting your
head on the Bible with closed eyes, you can't see—and it
is only at that time that they all laugh!" He looked at me.
I said, "What kind of religion is this?"
He said, "I am a devout Catholic."
I said, "Great. These are Catholic saints?"
He said, "I am sorry for that."
And I said, "You have been doing both things together. Every
day I see you cutting some picture from some magazine—Playboy,
Playgirl, Penthouse—and you go on putting them up. Don't
you see the contradiction—that this is your repressed sexuality?"
A repressed sexuality can never be prayerful; the prayer will
be polluted with repressed sex. A sexually repressed human being
can never be in meditation. Those sexual pictures will arise from
the unconscious. yaku01
The first three days in the American jail and the sheriff of
the jail came to see me. He wondered what kind of man I am, because
the inmates had become my disciples! I was talking to them about
meditation. The nurses and the doctor—because I was in the
hospital section—had also joined. Finally, the sheriff brought
his wife and his children also: "We may not be able to see
this man again, and what he is saying makes sense."
And the doctor—a woman, very beautiful woman—used
to come to the hospital section only one time in seven days; otherwise
she was engaged in other parts of the jail. It has seven hundred
inmates. But for those three days, all the nurses were there,
the doctor was there, the whole staff was there. The doctor said
to me, "It has never happened. You have turned my office
into your class! Otherwise my office is always empty."
Because my cell was very small…it was meant only for two
persons. And there were twelve inmates in the hospital section.
They all wanted to be with me as much as possible—six nurses,
four staff people, the sheriff, the assistant sheriff, the doctor—so
they moved me to the doctor's room. And she told me, "You
need not use the bathroom that is meant for the prisoners. My
bathroom is for you as long as you are here." splend21
The head nurse has never gone in her life to purchase things
for the prisoners; they come on a fixed routine basis. But for
me she used to go every day—and she was an old woman—to
purchase fruits, vegetables, anything that was vegetarian. I asked
her, "You are unnecessarily taking trouble. Things come,
they are perfectly good. If they are good for other human beings,
they are good for me too. Just take care because I am a vegetarian."
She said, "No, those things come mixed with non-vegetarian
food. And you are here only for a few days." pilgr08
My attorneys who used to come there—Niren was my chief
attorney; he is here—they could not believe I was looking
so happy and so at ease and at home. I said, "I have never
been able to rest so much. The inmates are taking care, the nurses
are taking care, the doctor is taking care. And they are all interested
in only one thing: the moment I am released and I go back to the
commune, they all want to stay in the commune for a few days."…
"If you are allowed to be here for three or four months this
will be your commune. You are really dangerous because all the
people of my staff are coming with their wives and with their
children to have a photograph taken with you."
The poor prisoners could not manage. They were coming with photographs
cut from newspapers just to get my signature: "We will remember
our whole lives that for three days we were with you, and in three
days we have felt a change." People were not making noise.
Everybody was saying, "Don't make noise, he will be disturbed."
I have never felt uncomfortable anywhere.
The question, basically is to accept yourself. It is a inner feeling,
nothing to do with anything outside you. splend21
On 29 October, Osho gives three press interviews from inside
jail with Nightwatch TV; Ted Koppel of ABC News Nightline TV,
Washington, DC; and Channel 6 TV
It happened in America in the first jail where I was—the
sheriff of the jail immediately fell in love with me. He was a
really nice and beautiful old man. And when the court denied bail
to me he said to me, "This is absolutely unjust—to
keep somebody in jail whose crime is not proved; whose crime is
not even tried: there has been no trial. And to refuse bail—it
is just political, unjust."
I asked him, "Would you help me a little?"
He said, "I will help you all the way. What do you want me
to do?"
I said, "I would like a press conference in the jail."
He said, "It has never happened in history—a press
conference in jail by a prisoner."
I said, "Then let it happen, let it be a precedent! And if
you feel it was unjust, then do something." He agreed. The
press conference was called, but my hands were cuffed, and I told
him, "It will be impossible for me to speak with my hands
in chains." And not only were they in chains; they put a
chain belt around my waist, and they locked the handcuffs to the
belt, so you could not move more than this….
So I said, "I will not be able to speak at all. You have
done a great favor to call the press conference"—and
almost one hundred press people were there, all the television
and radio stations and all the big newspapers. "Now, do me
a favor—because I am not going to escape. I have chains
on my legs; you can keep the chain on my waist. You can put chains
all over my body, but leave my hands free. It is impossible for
me to speak a single word without my hands being in harmony with
what I am speaking."
He understood. He said, "I have seen you on the television,
and I have loved your hands and I have loved it that they certainly
express something." light07
I said, "Listen, if the government comes to know, you will
be in trouble."
He said, "I don't care because I'm going to be retired soon."
And the world news media wanted to interview me in the jail. He
said, "This is unprecedented, but I will allow the world
press conference." And he allowed it…in the jail were
one hundred journalists: television people, radio people, newspaper
people, magazine people, cable television people.
And he said, "I'm going to be retired. They can retire me
a little earlier at the most. What else can they do? And there
is no prohibition in the jail code saying that no press conference
can be held inside the jail. So there is no problem."
I said, "That's perfectly good."
He enjoyed the press conference so much, and whatever I said to
the press people. His whole staff was there to listen: the doctor,
the nurses, everybody was there. And from the next day on they
started bringing their families to see me. I said, "What?"
And their children started bringing their autograph books!
The nurses could not find anything for me to sign, but in the
newspapers there were many pictures of me, so they started bringing
cuttings of photographs from the newspapers: "We will remember
that once you have been here for three days. This will be our
memory…the most cherished memory. In these three days this
place has not been a jail at all."
The nurses were coming even on the day which was their day off.
They said, "We will lose that day, but you may go any moment
and we don't want to miss any time." dawn17
The sheriffs…became very friendly and he told me, "I
should not tell you, but thousands of telegrams, thousands of
phone calls, thousands of flowers from all over the world, thousands
of protests…the government is shaken.
"They had not expected that, in touching a single man, they
were playing with fire. So one thing I can tell you—they
cannot harm you. They will not even touch your body. On the contrary,
instructions are that you should be given absolute security, that
nothing should happen to you; otherwise we will not be able to
show our face to the world."
And it was strange that they had to give me the same kind of security
as they give to the president of America: five cars following
me, five motorcycles following, and the roads blocked. They were
afraid that anybody could do any harm to me under their protection—they
would be responsible for it.
This man said to me, "This is for the first time in my life
that we are not concerned about your escaping. We are concerned
that nobody harms you, otherwise that harm will be on our heads."
On the first day—just two or three hours after I had arrived—somebody
from Australia called him: "You must be worried because so
many phone calls will be coming, telegrams coming."
The sheriff said to the man, "No, we are accustomed…this
is a very special jail and we have had people of importance, of
cabinet standing—that is, from the highest political structure.
So there is not much of problem."
But after three days, with tears, he apologized to me. He said,
"What I said to that man will remain heavy on my heart. I
don't know his number; otherwise I would have apologized to him.
You had been here only two or three hours, so I did not know about
you. But now, after three days, I can say with absolute certainty
that we have never had such a man in the jail. The whole jail
is for you! Five hundred inmates are for you, the whole hospital
department is for you—I am for you. And the whole world
is focused on you. If something happens to you it will be really
dangerous for America's image.
"So I want you to forgive me for telling that man that we
have had many very important people. That was wrong. We have never
had such a person, about whom the whole world is concerned. We
have had people of cabinet standing; they were, at the most, of
national importance, but nobody who had any international importance,
and so much love."
The second day he asked me, "What are we going to do with
the flowers? So many flowers are coming, and in this big jail,
we don't have space."
So I told him, "Send the flowers to all the schools, colleges
and universities, from me." He did that, and the response
was immense. When I was taken from the jail to the airport again,
all along the way were students throwing flowers.
In fact, the government must have been repenting that they made
a stupid mistake. They unnecessarily made our silent movement
a world-famous phenomenon. Now it is a household name around the
world, in all the languages. light02
Among the many phone calls and telegrams I received, one phone
call was from a Zen master in Japan. He had phoned the president,
he had phoned the jailer, and he had told the jailer that he would
like just a word with me.
He told the jailer, "You have committed one of the greatest
crimes of the century, because we teach Zen through his books
in our monastery. Although I am an enlightened master, I am not
articulate. Whatever he says I know is right; but the way he says
it, only he can say it—I cannot."
The jailer gave the phone to me, and the old man—I don't
know him—simply said, "I know that wherever you are,
you will be in bliss, so it is pointless to ask you, `How are
you?' I just wanted to convey to you that those who know, are
with you; and those who do not know, don't count."
By the evening the phone calls had become so many that they had
to put two or three other phone operators on. The telegrams were
so many that they had to arrange a few more clerks. And the jailer,
in the night, told me, "You have created such a chaos in
the jail! In this jail there have been cabinet ministers, candidates
for the presidency, but we have never seen such love pouring in
from all over the world. You can be certain that no government
can harm you—the whole world's eyes are watching. They can
harass you, but nobody can harm you—they cannot take the
risk."
When that old voice said to me on the phone, "Those who know,
are with you, and those who do not know, do not count," all
these people—Bodhidharma and Mahakashyap and Gautam Buddha—were
whispering in the voice of that old man. He is a living line.
He has sent his disciples to India also, and one of his nuns used
to come every year to the commune festivals in America.
Zen is still a living current, and it is the only living current.
transm12
The Zen people are so much interested in me that there are many
Zen masters in Japan—they have big monasteries, and they
are teaching Zen through my books.
When I was in jail I received thousands of telegrams and telephone
messages and letters. Many Zen masters protested, but not a single
Hindu religious leader protested. Many Sufis protested. In India,
Ajmer is the headquarters of the Sufis because the grave of one
of the great Sufis—Nijamuddin Chisti is there. He was of
such eminence that his name has not remained just that of an individual.
Chisti has become a school, a specialist school of Sufis. And
the man who is the head of Nijamuddin's Dargaha in Ajmer sent
me a telegram—he had never seen me. He quoted a Sufi saying.
I don't know what the word baaj is in English—you will have
to find it out. `Baaj' is one of the strongest words—he
who flies the highest in the world—the saying says that.
It is an ancient saying. He simply quoted the saying—that
was the whole telegram. He wrote to me, "It is not the crows
who are being caught and imprisoned, chained, it is the baaj who
has the highest flight. It is difficult to catch him, but once
he is caught then he is chained, imprisoned. So it is a blessing
they have recognized that the baaj is in you."
I received letters from Hassid rabbis saying, "We are with
you." But I did not receive anything from any Christian religious
leader or any Hindu religious leader, and I can see the reason
why they could not. They cannot have a rapport with me; they are
dead and rotten. sword20
One of my attorneys in America—one of the best; he is the
head of the law department at the University of California. He
used to come every day to see me in all those jails where they
went on taking me—six jails in all. The first day he came
to see me, I was behind the bars sitting on a chair. Outside the
bars was a chair for him—Peter Schey is his name, a very
beautiful man. I felt that he was very tense physically, in his
chair.
I asked, "What is the matter, Peter?"
He said, "Strange, I have never felt in my life such a thing.
If you don't mind, can I sit on the floor?"
I said, "Peter Schey, you are a great attorney, dean of the
faculty of law in a famous university. Why should you ask such
a thing?"
He said, "That's what I have been asking myself—but
allow me. Something happens when I come to see you that I feel
it is not right for me to sit on a chair, I just want to sit on
the floor."
I said, "If that makes you happy, sit on the floor."
The third or fourth day he asked me: "What is the magic?
Because since I have been sitting on the floor in front of you
just for five or seven minutes, I feel so relaxed the whole day.
I have never known anything of silence. I'm a man of law, I have
never felt my heart. For the first time, I have heard that my
heart also beats. For the first time, love has come to me."
I said, "Peter Schey, you have become a sannyasin!"
He said, "You have stolen my words, I was just going to say
that."
There are things which are invisible. You can't see the air
but you can't live without it. You can't see what transpires when
a disciple becomes silent sitting by the side of the master. Once
he has tasted that sweetness, he may not be able to convince anybody,
but that is meaningless—he is convinced.
I asked Peter Schey, "Can you convince my other attorneys?"
He said, "That is impossible, because even I cannot believe
what is happening. I don't have any logic for it, any reason for
it. Perhaps your enemies are right who say, that you hypnotize
people."
I said, "Perhaps they are right!" Because hypnosis,
if it is done, becomes an ordinary thing—a street magician
does it. But if hypnosis happens on its own accord, then it is
of a totally different category. If you are feeling relaxed and
silent, no other logic is needed. If you are feeling loving…love
belongs to a higher order, to the highest order of law. mess103
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