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Part VIII : Reaction in the Commune, and the end of Rajneeshism,
orange clothes and malas
Osho now addresses the reaction of sannyasins in the commune.
On 26 September 1985, Osho announces the end of Rajneeshism, and
withdraws orange clothes and malas:
First, you should all forgive me for being twenty minutes late.
This has happened because of you. You do not understand the meaning
of the word "responsibility."
And if you do not understand the meaning of that word, you are
going to create another Sheela, another fascist regime again.
And this time I will not be against it.
People are not turning up to their worship*. They are not doing
their work as well as they were doing before. They leave their
work earlier—as if they needed some dictatorship to do the
necessary work.
Responsibility means that you do your best, so that there is
no need for anybody to dictate to you.
Everybody wants to decide what should be done and what should
not be done. If five thousand people decide that way, do you think
anything can be done?
Poor Hasya is continuously pestered by many of you, that the work
should be done this way, or it should be done that way. To whom
is she going to listen?
People are approaching her, that about everything votes should
be taken. Do you want the whole time—day in, day out—for
each and every thing, voting? Is it a voting club?…
From the morning till twelve o'clock in the night, I am engaged
in unnecessary things. That's why I am twenty minutes late. You
are responsible for it. I have never been twenty minutes late,
ever.
But if you don't allow me to sleep, you don't give me a chance
to rest, then it is going to happen. So before I start answering
the question, the question of questions is: From today, can you
start working on your own, as fully, as totally, as intensively
as possible?
You have to prove to Sheela and all those who think in fascist
terms, that a loving commune can be more creative, can be more
productive, can be a more joyous phenomenon.
If you cannot prove that, then Sheela is right. Perhaps you
drove her into being a dictator.
Samya was there last night, tired. I have never seen her so tired
before—she is always laughing, joyous—because the
whole day you have been torturing her. One sannyasin will not
leave her office, because he wants to see all the books—what
has happened, what is going to happen. He wants to give his opinion
on every matter.
Do you think this man is behaving in any other way than dictatorial?
He has been persuaded three times to leave, and he will come back
again—he will not leave unless all his answers are being
accepted, and all his questions are being answered.
Is this the way of love?…
Samya and Hasya are trying in every possible way to reduce your
work hours, but not the quality of the work, not the outcome of
the work.
You were listening to me only on alternate days, and you were
happy. Hasya immediately changed that, and you are listening to
me every day. You have not thanked her.
Your complaint has been that your letters were not reaching
to me—that's true—that you were not certain whether
my answers were my answers or Sheela's own inventions. That is
also true.
She has done every criminal act. You will be surprised: even in
my videotapes—in the originals she has changed everything
that will go against her. There was no way for me to know what
they were doing. The editors would get the edited version of my
lecture. The videotapes around the world were reaching, not as
I had delivered them; they have taken out sentences, passages.
And you were perfectly happy with Sheela.
Now I have made an arrangement that all the heads of the corporations,
whenever they want, can come to me when Hasya comes to see me.
So it is not only Hasya who listens to what I say, other people
will also be present there. They will be witnesses to whether
Hasya has brought all your letters or not.
But remember, your letters are ninety-nine percent bullshit,
and I don't want to be drowned in bullshit. So write only that
which you feel is absolutely meaningful, essential, and write
it in as small a way as possible, because I don't want to hear
your opinions for five hours a day, every day. I am already crazy;
what do you want? So you have to be careful. Your letters will
reach, your response will be given to you; but you also have to
learn something.
I receive files of letters which are not possible for me to go
through. Don't make it impossible. Then naturally I have to leave
it to Hasya to look through those letters, and mark only the important
passages, and bring only the important letters.
So just your writing is not enough that it should reach to me.
You have to make it significant enough, carrying some meaning,
for it to reach to me. But everything will reach, so you need
not be afraid and worried.
And whatever people are now in place of the old fascist regime,
they have been chosen by different councils on my advice. They
will take care that no democratic. And whatever people are now
in place of the old fascist regime, they have been chosen by different
councils on my advice. They will take care that no democratic
value is destroyed. Finally they are just servants of the commune.
And you have to learn to behave in a democratic way too. Democracy
cannot exist only because a few people are in power who are democratic.
If you are accustomed to being dictated to, ordered, then the
whole commune will fall apart.
You have to learn that if they advise you to do something, do
it. Do it to your best. And now I am available, and I am going
to speak to my very last breath. But don't become a burden. You
have to make the people who are managing unburdened, light, joyous,
so they can feel happy with you. Don't torture them.
There have been sannyasins at my house, and they were forcing
their way against the guards. Now, if five thousand people come
to see me every day, I will have to escape from this place. I
am accustomed to living in isolation and silence. I don't want
you to disturb me. Everything that is a problem to you should
come through the proper people. I don't hold any post. I cannot
do anything right away, immediately. I have no power.
Even if you reach me with a demand, the demand has to go to Hasya,
Anuradha, John—the people who will be running the commune.
So why bother me? Why should you not take your demand directly
to them? And your demand has to be rational, legitimate. bond06
*Note: Sheela called commune departments 'temples', and work 'worship'
Hasya has removed the bodyguards, and she was thinking slowly
to remove the guns from the commune. They don't fit with our approach
to life. We don't want to harm anybody. We want to create a loving
atmosphere.
But just one day after she had removed the bodyguards, one idiot
immediately jumped up. Now she has to put the bodyguards back
again. And now the security will be more strict. bond09
Now a few people are angry at me. Why did I not stop it?…But
I am not omniscient; I didn't know what was happening. I don't
know even what is happening in the other room. I can just hear
the noise; what is cooking, I don't know. Something must be cooking.
But I don't pretend to be an omniscient father; neither am I a
peeping tom, that I should go on looking into everybody's bathroom
keyhole watching what is happening, who is doing what. I never
go out of my own room.
They are angry. The reason is that they must have been unconsciously
projecting the father figure on me. Please, don't make me a curtain
to project anything you want. I am nobody's curtain. I am not
a screen, that you can project any idea on me and then feel angry
because I am not behaving according to you. When had I said to
you that I will behave according to you? I don't expect you to
behave according to me, neither do I want you to expect me to
behave according to you. Here we are agreed only on one point,
and that is the independence of everybody; there is no other agreement.
last301
I don't have any power. I don't hold any position. The commune
has several corporations, so power is divided. Every corporation
has its own work afield. I don't take any active part.
My only active part is to answer my sannyasins' questions about
their personal growth, about their problems, about the commune
if they feel there is some difficulty.
If I am available then there is no question. And this time I will
do everything.
For example, I am withdrawing the book, Rajneeshism. It is not
my book. Sheela managed to compile it according to her ideas.
She has taken my sentences from other books, but the idea and
the whole pattern is like a catechism of a Catholic. I am withdrawing
it. last304
I have been always against all isms because they all become prisons
sooner or later. I wanted my people to be free from any ism, individuals
not cogs in a wheel, not part of any organization but just lovingly
living together not because they are ideologically believe in
the same God, in the same philosophy, no, but simply because they
are all seekers of truth. And everybody is searching his own truth
in his own way.
So I had called this a school of seekers, searchers. But I never
wanted it to be an organized religion.
Sheela managed to make it an organized religion. She became the
high priestess. She even made a dress like a high priestess should
have, like the pope. She was going even to the assembly of Oregon
when it starts its session and all religions can pray. She was
going to pray there. She was praying there.
I don't have any prayer because I don't have any God. Whom you
can pray? And we are not a religion. last327
I am going to destroy everything so history never repeats again.
I will not be always with you—one day I will have to go.
Before that I want to destroy every possibility. I don't want
any popes behind me, any high priestess, any Ayatollah Khomeini…no,
I want to leave you alone, so content and fulfilled that you don't
need anybody between you and the truth of existence. press05
Sheela created the word "Rajneeshee." You have to drop
that word; otherwise, what is the difference between a Christian,
a Jew and a Rajneeshee? I want you to be yourself, not a Rajneeshee.
You love me—that does not mean that you have to become a
Rajneeshee. You can love me without becoming a Rajneeshee. And
what these Rajneeshees have done, this gang of twenty Rajneeshees,
is enough to condemn the word.
So now, there are no longer any Rajneeshees. You are individuals,
totally free individuals. Out of your freedom and love you are
here. There is no bondage, there is no contract. There is no surrender,
there is no faith.
And today I would like to declare something immensely important,
because I feel perhaps this helped Sheela and her people to exploit
you. I don't know whether tomorrow I will be here or not, so it
is better to do it while I am here and make you free from any
other possibility of such a fascist regime.
That is, from today, you are free to use any color of clothes.
If you feel like using red clothes, that is up to you. And this
message has to be sent all over the world to all the communes.
It will be more beautiful to have all the colors. I had always
dreamed of seeing you in all the colors of the rainbow.
Today we claim the rainbow to be our colors.
The second thing: you return your malas—unless you wish
otherwise. That is your choice, but it is not a necessity anymore.
You return your malas to President Hasya. But if you want to keep
it, it is up to you.
The third thing: from now onwards, anybody who wants initiation
into sannyas will not be given a mala and will not be told to
change to red clothes—so we can take over the world more
easily! bond12
On Monday we are going to have a big world press conference,
and we are going to have a bonfire—with dancing and rejoicing—to
burn that book (Rajneeshism)…because I am always against
the word "ism." Humanity has suffered enough….
I have called a big press conference. So get ready with all the
rainbow colors. The press should see that something tremendously
new has happened to you as individuals.
You love me, that's enough. There is no need for adoration.
Just last night, a press reporter was asking, "Then it is
going to be very difficult. What are we going to call your people?"
I said, "Just call them my people, they are my people. They
are not Rajneeshees. So call them friends of Rajneesh—but
more than that is not needed."
And then, outside the temple, we will be having a bonfire to burn
all the books on Rajneeshism, all the stationery that belongs
to the Academy of Rajneeshism.
That "ism" is an ugly and dirty word, and I don't want
it to be associated with me. Now it will be called Rajneesh Academy;
in short, RA. Ra is an ancient Egyptian word which means "the
highest experience of consciousness."
We are going to change the plaque before the Mandir, because here
also they have put "Academy of Rajneeshism." That will
be changed before Monday. We have to clean up all the rubbish
that they have done here.
The air is already fresh, people are already breathing happily.
I can feel your joy, your freedom.
You have again come back to life! bond13
At the burning this evening, I asked a sannyasin what the deep
meaning of this ceremony was, and he said, "Well, it's all
a big joke."
That's right! That is right because I consider sense of humor
as one of the most important religious qualities. press05
Is it just a coincidence that You started the Neo-Sannyas movement
on September 26 and stopped it on the same day after fifteen years?
I have not stopped the sannyas movement; I have stopped it becoming
a religion. A movement is a flux; that's the meaning of movement—it
is moving, it is growing….
I used to have another corporation just like Rajneesh Foundation
International: Neo-Sannyas International. Sheela dropped it. I
came to know only when I came out of silence, that now Neo-Sannyas
International does not exist—and that has been my whole
life's work!
I am going to revive Neo-Sannyas International. That is a movement;
anybody can join it, and I have made it wider, I have given it
a wide base. There are millions of people who love me, who love
my insights, but cannot become sannyasins because they have to
change their clothes—that creates trouble in their family,
in their job, with their friends, in the society. I have withdrawn
it.
I have withdrawn the mala. It has significance in India, because
in India the red clothes and mala have been used for thousands
of years by all the religions as symbolic of a sannyasin. I wanted
to destroy that traditional idea of sannyas, because the sannyasin
has to be celibate, the sannyasin has not to touch a woman, not
to talk to a woman. The sannyasin cannot stay in a household,
he has to stay in a temple. He has to eat only once a day, he
has to fast continuously again and again. He has to torture himself.
This is sick.
I wanted to destroy this image, that's why I had chosen the red
color. And I had almost three hundred thousand sannyasins in India.
My sannyasins created tremendous trouble amongst the traditional
sannyasins, because there was no way to know who is who. My sannyasins
would be walking on the road and people would touch their feet,
not knowing that these are not celibates; they have their girlfriends.
They eat two times a day, they eat everything that is the best—whether
it is Italian or Chinese or Japanese, it does not matter. These
people belong to the twenty-first century, and old sannyasins
were very angry because I have destroyed their image.
With our coming to the West, now red clothes and the mala are
no longer needed, because in the West they have never been symbolic
of religion. They have done their work in India. They have made
their point, that a sannyasin can be with a wife, with children;
that he need not be a parasite on the society, he can work, he
can create, he can earn; that he need not be worshipped.
But in the West there is no need. I was going to withdraw the
mala and the color anyway, but Sheela made it more urgent; you
have to be grateful to her. All her crimes made it absolutely
necessary that now sannyasins should be absolutely normal human
beings, so you can live in the society without creating any kind
of hostility or embarrassment for yourself, for your family, or
difficulties in your job.
And, more specifically, you are now completely devoid of all outer
symbols. All that is left is the essential core of religiousness,
the inward journey, which only you can do. I cannot do it for
you, nobody can do it for you.
So now there is left only the essential quality, the most fundamental
quality of religiousness.
That is meditation.
You have to go inwards.
I have been teaching you all the methods of meditation. You can
choose any method that suits you. There are only one hundred and
twelve methods; there is no possibility of adding more. It is
exhaustive. All the methods possible have been explored. The simplest
is witnessing.
So now that you no longer have any outer symbols, it is good,
if you want to be a sannyasin, for you to remember only one thing:
how to go into the discipline of witnessing; otherwise there is
a possibility that wearing red clothes and the mala you are completely
satisfied that you are a sannyasin. You are not. Clothes don't
make anybody change, neither does the mala make anybody go through
a transformation. But you can deceive yourself.
Now I am taking all that away from you, and leaving only one simple
thing. You cannot deceive: either you do it or you don't do it.
Without doing it, you are not a sannyasin. So the movement has
come to its purest state, the most essential stage; it has not
been dropped.
But it is a good coincidence that on the same date I had started
the sannyas movement, and on the same date I have made it absolutely
purified of all unnecessary, nonessential things. But it is purely
a coincidence, because I am not good about dates, days, years.
Forgive me for that.
I live in a timeless space. I don't know what day it is, I don't
know what date it is. I use the watch only for you—in the
morning discourse, in the evening interviews for the press—otherwise,
the whole day I don't use it. I don't have any need to know what
the time is. What am I going to do with the time?
Just for your sake…because I am such a crazy man that I
may go on speaking and speaking—three hours, four hours,
five hours—the watch prevents me. It is simply for your
sake, a compassionate gesture. bond17
Do you think that your sannyasi and friends have now learned
the lesson about the danger of an organized religion?
They certainly have. I have been telling to them my whole life
the dangers of organized religion. But just telling is not enough.
They need something practical. I gave them a practical situation.
They have learnt it…they have burnt their fingers in learning
it—they will never forget it, they will never repeat the
same mistake again.
I am happy. Once in a while people need something actual, not
theoretical. last529
It is a mystic commune, a commune of people who are individually
searching and seeking their inner being. It is a way of religiousness,
but it is not an organized religion.
I am a friend, a guide, a philosopher. last313
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