| 
Part IX : World Tour - Kulu Manali, India
On 17 November Osho arrives in Delhi where thousands of Indian
sannyasins greet him. He gives a press conference, and then continues
to Kulu Manali. Osho stays in Span Resort on the condition he
does not hold large meetings, so he greets visiting sannyasins
only on his daily walks. On 19th November, Osho begins regular
press interviews.
In Manali seventeen years ago you spoke. Was that one of your
first meetings?
Not my first meetings but the first time I started the movement
of sannyas. And it seems we have come round the whole circle.
Is that what drew you back to this place?
Yes, I love this place. last502
When seventeen years before I had a camp here and started sannyas
here, I had liked the place, so when we were coming and it was
a question where, I told them find out something in the Himalayas
just for a few weeks to rest before you find a permanent place.
And they found this Span Resort was good. So it was just a coincidence.
last506
In your thirty years of constant touring and talking to people,
what is it you have achieved? What is your legacy?
I am leaving behind millions of people who are meditative.
In their terms, what did they achieve?
That is the greatest achievement possible. If their meditation
grows they will know who they are—and that is the greatest
ecstasy you can have. I have given them a sense of individuality,
integrity. I have not made them slaves to any god, to any religion.
I have not made them slaves to any holy book, to any priesthood.
I have made them completely independent, a religious consciousness
on their own. last407
Neither can I give you anything in this life nor can I promise
you anything in other lives. I don't have any opium for anybody.
But I can make this very moment a tremendously beautiful moment,
without giving anything to you, without anything visible passing
from my hands to you.
But there are invisible things. We accept x-rays without any trouble,
why can't we accept that love also has its own rays and silence
has its own rays, its own radiation.
And of course, enlightenment has a tremendous force to transform
a person. It is a miracle. last516
Has there been any change in your ideas in recent years?
No. It has been growing. I don't believe that anything in existence
comes to a full stop, everything goes on growing. The moment something
comes to a full stop that means it is dead.
So if by change you mean that I have dropped some ideas, that
is not right. If you mean that my ideas have been growing, that
is true. But they are the same ideas.
This big tree is from the same seed. It will go on growing, it
will bring new leaves, it will bring new fruits. You could not
have seen those leaves, those fruits, those flowers, in the seed.
So I have been evolving rather than changing, because change gives
a wrong idea—as if I have abandoned something and moved
to some other standpoint. No.
I am a continuous flow—broadening, becoming bigger, flowering,
covering more and more sky, spreading my wings as far as I can;
so there is evolution, and it will continue until my last breath.
last417
Could you tell us something about your routine over here?
Coming to India, I have not started my work yet, otherwise it
was too much for twenty-four hours to contain. Before it starts
again, there is in fact no routine. I am sleeping from seven in
the evening to eight in the morning, then taking my bath. At nine
visitors come just to see me. That is one of the conditions of
Span that I cannot hold meetings here, so they just stand on the
gate and I go and receive them. And for half an hour I go around
just for a walk. Nine-thirty to eleven is given to news media,
because from all over the world people are coming, so it is for
their interviews. Eleven I take my lunch, and eleven-thirty I
go back to sleep. At three I wake up. Three to three-thirty is
for photographers, and just a walk around the ground, and then
again an interview with the press. Five to six I listen to some
classical music. Six I take my supper, and seven I go to sleep
again. So it is not much of a routine, mostly I am sleeping. last506
You are living now without a commune. How does that affect your
sannyasins?
I have always lived without commune, even when I was living near
the commune, I was an outsider. I was never a member of any commune,
never a part of any commune. It does not make…whether the
distance is one mile, or one thousand miles. And I have my communes
all over the world. I am surrounded by my communes, so I never
feel that I am missing anything.
And are the sannyasins missing you?
They certainly are missing me.
How would you actually describe yourself now?
Just the same as I always have been: a friend who is available
to anybody who wants to grow spiritually. So whether I am here
or anywhere else, people will always be coming to me. They are
not my followers, I am not their leader. I am just a fellow traveler….
What is your task now? How do you feel you could give to the world
now?
Just the same as I have been doing all my life. I have sharing
my love, my understanding, my clarity. Wherever I have been, people
start feeling something which they cannot describe, but which
attracts them towards me; a magnetic pull. And if they are open,
available, not closed, then miracles can happen in their life.
They have happened in millions of people's lives.
And I am doing the same, and I will go on doing the same wherever
I am. last427
What happened to those four thousand people or so who were living
in Rajneeshpuram? Are they being accommodated in your communes
all over the world?
They are being accommodated in other communes, or they are making
small groups and arranging themselves and waiting if I can manage
somewhere, then they will be immediately coming. last506
What about those many people—hundreds come to you here
for darshan at this resort: have you got any program for them?—because
they are coming to you with a need.
I know, they are coming, but my conditions of staying here are
such that I will not be even talking to any gatherings, any meetings,
so I cannot talk to them. But they are happy enough just to see
me safe. They can see me, they can cry, they can weep and they
can hold my hand—and they are happy.
This condition will not last. We are searching all over the world,
but this time we are being very much clear about any conditions
that may arise later on. So first we are trying to find an island
which is independent, which belongs to no government; and we have
located two islands which are tremendously beautiful…. last506
I told sannyasins not to come to Kulu Manali because we wanted
to purchase land and houses in Kulu Manali, and if thousands of
sannyasins had started coming, immediately the orthodox, the old-fashioned
people would have started freaking out. And the politicians are
always looking for an opportunity…
Those few days that I was not with my sannyasins, not talking
to them, not looking in their eyes, not looking at their faces,
not listening to their laughter, I felt undernourished. socrat04
Your meditation in America is printing a newsletter. Do you have
a message for your sannyasins there?
Just remember one thing: the sannyas movement has entered a critical
stage. It is a good sign; it will bring maturity, strength, togetherness.
What is to be remembered is that this strength, this togetherness
does not become an organization. It remains the movement of individuals
who are together because their experience is similar. They are
not part of a religion, they are not a church; their individuality
is absolutely intact….
So remain continuously aware and make your readers remember
in different ways in different times, that my message is for the
individual, and I stand for absolute freedom, individuality. If
we are together and if we are fighting together our aim is to
fight for individuality and freedom. We are not going to become
unconsciously a church, an organization.
That has happened to all the religions in the past. It was a
calamity. Avoid the calamity. light03
|
