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Part VIII : Osho’s Rolls Royces
Why do you like your Rolls Royces so much?
I have tried all kinds of cars; and even Rolls Royce has many
types and I have tried them too. Their best is the Corniche, but
it doesn't suit me. It is a question of my back. I need a certain
kind of chair—I use only this chair. It has been made by
my sannyasins exactly to give support to my back, because doctors
have said that they cannot do anything more.
Experts from England were called to India. They tried hard,
and they said, "It is impossible. You will have to live with
it." It was just a coincidence that one of the models of
Rolls Royce, Silver Spur, suited me. The driver's seat in that
car fits perfectly, gives me no trouble. Naturally, my people
love….
They don't belong to me, those cars—nothing belongs to
me. I am the poorest man in the whole world, living the richest
life possible. My people love me; they want to do something for
me. All those cars belong to the commune. They have made them
available to me for one hour each day. I don't know which car
they are bringing, but one thing is certain, that I can be comfortable
only in a Silver Spur. And they love me so much that they are
trying to have three hundred and sixty-five Rolls Royces, one
for every day. And I say, "Why not? A great idea!"…
They have arranged ninety Rolls Royces, and I know they will be
able to manage three hundred and sixty-five. last210
People are very much interested in your Rolls Royces. What do
You want to prove with this, so many cars and so much luxury around
You?
Why are people concerned? Then certainly they need it; then more
Rolls Royces will be here. Until they stop asking me, more and
more Rolls Royces are going to be here. Now it has to be seen
that it is a challenge: the day nobody asks me about Rolls Royces,
they will not be coming.
People's interest in Rolls Royces shows their mind. They are not
interested what is happening here. They don't ask about meditation,
they don't ask about sannyas, they don't ask about people's life,
love, the laughter that happens in this desert. They only ask
about Rolls Royces. That means I have touched some painful nerve.
And I will go on pressing it till they stop asking.
I am not a worshipper of poverty. That's what those Rolls Royces
prove. I respect wealth. Nobody before me had the guts to say
it. The pope cannot say that he respects wealth, although he is
the wealthiest man on the earth.
I am not a hypocrite. I am the poorest man on the earth. I don't
have a single cent with me. But I want to show these people what
attracts their mind. If there were no Rolls Royces here, perhaps
there would be nothing for the whole world ask about me, about
you, about meditation, about initiation into sannyas, about love,
about anything. It is for those idiots that I am keeping all those
Rolls Royces, because they cannot move their eyes away from those
Rolls Royces. And meanwhile I will go on pouring other things
in their minds. Without those Rolls Royces they would not have
asked a single question.
Those Rolls Royces are doing their work. Every idiot around the
world is interested in them. And I want them to be somehow interested—in
anything in Rajneeshpuram. Then we will manage about other things.
So tell those people—when anybody asks, tell them that "These
Rolls Royces are for you idiots. Otherwise you are not interested
in anything." Once they stop asking about Rolls Royces, then
I will have to think of something else, whether to have rockets
which are going to the moon…. I will have to think of something
else. last403
I received a letter from a bishop of Wasco County, who had been
for almost five years condemning my Rolls Royces. In every Sunday
sermon he was not preaching Jesus Christ, he was preaching me
and my Rolls Royces. The day I was leaving he wrote a letter to
me, "Now you are leaving, it will be great kindness on your
part if you can donate one Rolls Royce to this church." Now,
this shows the man….
I informed him, "Would you like all ninety-three, or only
one?"
And a letter came, "If you can give all ninety-three, that
is just the right thing. You are really great. I'm very sorry
that I condemned you for five years. You are a man to be worshiped."
It is a very strange world if you understand people: whatever
they are saying shows more about them than it shows about the
person they are talking about. pilgr12
Just the other day Anando was showing me one book published against
me in Australia by a couple who have been sannyasins for three
years and have been in the commune. But just looking at their
ideas, it seems they have never seen me. They are saying that
they were working, working hard, and with their work I was purchasing
Rolls Royces. You can see the absurdity: their work was not bringing
any money. Their work was making their own houses to live in,
the roads—which were needing money, not producing money.
But in their mind—and for all those three years also—they
must have been resentful.
Those Rolls Royces were not produced by the commune. They were
presents from outside, from all over the world. And I was not
their owner—I had given them to the commune. They were commune
property, and I have not brought any of them with me; I have left
them with the commune. Everything that I had has been left with
the commune. I never owned anything. But there must have been
the idea that they are earning money, and I am wasting money.
That is their resentment.
What money were you earning? In fact you needed money to make
houses, to make roads, to make a dam—a dam needed two and
a half million dollars to make. You were contributing your labor,
but we were not creating money out of it so that I could purchase
Rolls Royces, so that I could purchase anything. I have not purchased
anything from the money produced by the commune because the commune
never produced any money. The commune was absorbing money.
In fact all my royalties, all my books, all their profits were
going to the commune. The situation is just the opposite—that
I had given everything to the commune. Now, four hundred books
in different languages were bringing millions of dollars in royalties,
and those royalties were going to the commune.
If I had wanted to purchase Roll Royces, I could have purchased
my own Rolls Royces, as many as I wanted, just out of my royalties.
But the resentment, the anger, is blind. In the commune we invested
two hundred million dollars. Those sannyasins perhaps think they
had brought two hundred million dollars there! Without me and
the people who love me around the world, those two hundred million
dollars would not have been possible. psycho24
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