[SP] Osho, Bhagwan Rajneesh & Kebenaran yang Hilang (3/4)

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Osho, Bhagwan Rajneesh, and the Lost Truth <lanjutan>

Consciousness needs entertainment to survive and Rajneesh used his disciples as playthings for his own amusement. Rajneesh had no bankable power of his own. He could only gain material power by manipulating others to do his will. The equation was simple; the more disciples he attracted, the more power and wealth he obtained.

Rajneesh, on so many levels, was just an ordinary man. Sexually he was even less than ordinary. Pretending to be a great tantric in his early years, Rajneesh handed out ridiculously bad sexual advice at a time when he had very little first hand experience with sex himself. During his Bombay era, Rajneesh often grabbed the breasts of his young female disciples. On at least one occasion he asked a couple to have sex in front of him so he could watch. The couple wisely rejected his request.

Rajneesh often asked women half his age to strip in front of him so that he could "feel their chakras." To facilitate this practice, he installed an electric lock on his bedroom door that could be activated from his famous high-backed chair by his desk, where he spent most of his time. After Rajneesh started having sexual intercourse on a regular basis, the spiritual need for him to feel the chakras of his female disciples mysteriously vanished.

Rajneesh groped the breasts of two of my women friends and "felt the chakras" of a third. I soon began to realize that like so many other girl grabbing Indian gurus who had made the headlines, Rajneesh on the human level was just an ordinary sexually immature Indian male. My lady friend who suffered the charkra feeling incident was so put off that she never came back to see him. He had told her "Don't worry, you are mine now." That grasping statement had chilled her as much as the sexual exploitation. The young woman was a student of Indian music and had previously been sexually exploited by a famous Indian musician she had studied with. She knew first hand what many Indian men were like. Rajneesh proved himself to be predictably and disappointingly the same.

Rajneesh had much inside him that I wanted;...light, energy, and a vastly expanded state of being. Regrettably, he also had much inside him that I did not want or respect. I do not find fault with Rajneesh for having the same sexual desires that all men have. I do find fault when he was dishonest and cruel for selfish reasons.

While living in Bombay, Rajneesh made one young woman pregnant through an aggressive and unasked for seduction. The young woman was highly upset and forced by circumstance to have an abortion. Rajneesh, protecting his image as a great guru, lied about his involvement and claimed that she had imagined the whole affair. The young woman told the American Embassy her story and that incident marked the beginning of Rajneesh's troubles with the United States Government.

Most of Rajneesh's close disciples believed the young woman, not the much older "enlightened" man. Similarly, decades later many would believe a young White House intern, not a much older President Bill Clinton. Being president, or being "enlightened," does not always ensure good behavior.

Nature has provided human animals with a strong, virtually unstoppable sex drive to ensure reproduction of the species. Because of the overwhelming importance and power of sex, most gurus, enlightened or not, have maintained active sex lives which are often kept secret for purely political reasons. In his early years Rajneesh lied about his strong sexuality by claiming to be celibate. To be fair, this has to be understood in the context of a rigidly anti-sexual and highly hypocritical Indian social structure. Later on, after his position as a guru had become solidified, Rajneesh publicly bragged to the American media about having sex "with hundreds of women." All of Rajneesh's sex partners were his own female meditation students who were used as his personal harem.

All human beings are animals, specifically mammals. It has been proven that human DNA is at least 98% the same as chimpanzee DNA. World history, Asian mythology, politics, and the world of alpha male gurus makes allot more sense if you keep that unavoidable scientific fact in mind. Our most primal subconscious motivating forces come from the animal world, which we are still a part of.

The last time I visited the Rajneesh ashram in Poona, India, was in 1988. It was literally like a loud convention of German Brownshirts (storm troopers) by that point. Osho was still very popular in Germany, due in part to his comments in the German magazine Stern which were widely interpreted as being pro-Hitler. Many young Germans who were looking for a strong and charismatic leader were thrilled by his words. Those who lost loved ones during World War II were justifiably shocked.

Even in the early 1970s in Bombay, Rajneesh made careless statements which could easily be interpreted as being pro-Hitler and pro-fascist. In one lecture on "esoteric groups" he claimed that Adolf Hitler had been telepathically propped up by an occult Buddhist group that Rajneesh himself was in contact with. During World War II it is well known that a number of Indian yogis and Japanese "Zen masters" had supported the Axis cause and the extermination of the "inferior races," so Rajneesh's claim was not entirely surprising, if not totally believable.

Years later in Poona, Rajneesh gave an infamous lecture in which he stated that Jews had given Hitler "no choice" but to try to exterminate them. In his last years Rajneesh stated that "I have fallen in love with this man (Adolf Hitler). He was crazy, but I am crazier still." Rajneesh said that he wanted his sannyasins "to take over the world" and that he had studied Hitler to gain insight into how to accomplish the task. For a man who portrayed himself as the world's smartest, highest, and greatest soul, such remarks were proof to me that his drug taking had destroyed the quality of his mind.

Rajneesh's comments about Hitler could be discounted as obnoxious but largely harmless hot air if it were not for the fact that he put many of Hitler's techniques into practice. Rajneesh used Hitler's big lie method of mind control very effectively and demanded total surrender from his troops (disciples), just as Hitler did. Rajneesh condoned illegal spying on his own disciples at the Oregon commune and used informants to weed out the disloyal. Sheela, his personal secretary, turned the tables on Rajneesh by bugging Rajneesh's trademark high-backed chair. The Oregon police later found Rajneesh's illegally taped conversations, but due to rules of evidence they could not be used against him in a court of law. The tapes were reported to be highly damning as to Rajneesh's culpability in much of the commune's illegal activity.

Rajneesh turned many of his disciples into the equivalent of armed Brownshirts. I have received letters from several of Rajneesh's former security guards who admitted they had fallen under the spell of fascism and now regretted their behavior and attitudes. One wrote that he did not know how to meditate and that the thrill of power was what kept him loyal to his great leader. In Poona, Rajneesh guards beat up an annoying local resident, his hands held behind his back as the guards pummeled him. In Oregon, Rajneesh guards were armed to the teeth with handguns and military style semi-automatic assault rifles. Rajneesh was never an admirer of the great Indian pacifist Mahatma Gandhi, but he did have a unhealthy fascination with Adolf Hitler, as well as the United States General George Patton. According to Shivamurti, Rajneesh watched the movie Patton over and over again on his big screen television at his ranch in Oregon.

Rajneesh's worst personal trait, in my opinion, was that he could dish it out, but he could not take it. He constantly put his disciples through great physical hardships which resulted in serious illness and even death for some, yet he himself lived in luxury and could not endure physical discomfort without complaining loudly like a baby. After his arrest, Rajneesh was interviewed in jail and began the interview by crying in a shrill voice about his less than royal accommodations in the slammer. His high pitched whining was so weird and annoying that a late night comedy show used the footage sarcastically as a joke about "God" complaining.

During Rajneesh's jailhouse appearance on the ABC television show Nightline, Rajneesh gave evasive and dishonest answers to all of Ted Koppel's questions and behaved as an unusually pompous and inept politician caught red handed at illegal activity. Rajneesh claimed that he was not responsible for any of the crimes committed at the commune because he was "in silence." In proven fact, although Rajneesh had stopped giving public lectures for a time, he had never stopped talking to Ma Anand Sheela and other close disciples. Rajneesh was always the ultimate authority at the commune, even though Sheela committed some of the most serious crimes behind his back. His Rolls Royce dealer stated that Rajneesh had spent hours on the phone talking to him about his often weekly purchases of new automobiles.

Rajneesh then pretended not to know that he was leaving the United States to escape an impending arrest warrant, thus secretly abandoning his disciples to face the music on their own. His own sannyasins did not know he had left the commune until they learned from the media of the arrest of Rajneesh and several followers at a North Carolina airport. Their luggage contained a bag of cash, a box of expensive jewel encrusted watches, and a handgun. Rajneesh's defense was that he was innocently sleeping when police boarded the private jet he had hired to escape to Bermuda. Rajneesh claimed he thought Bermuda was just another American state and that he was going on vacation for a rest and to escape "death threats." The authorities later learned that a Rajneesh disciple with ties to the United States Justice Department had tipped off Rajneesh about his impending arrest on immigration fraud.

The Rajneesh cult had little luck winning over American television viewers. Ma Anand Sheela also disgraced herself on Nightline weeks earlier by bursting into loud obscenities, forcing Ted Koppel to take her off the air. The NBC television show Saturday Night Live climbed on the Rajneesh comedy bandwagon by doing a skit about an auction with actor Randy Quaid selling off "the Bhagwan's" nearly 100 Rolls Royces. The FOX network cartoon show The Simpsons produced a wonderfully funny spoof of Rajneesh, depicting a white gloved guru driving his Rolls Royce down a dusty commune road as his disciples felt joy at eating his road dust. In the cartoon, the great guru tried to escape the commune with bags of cash in a homemade peddle driven flying machine.

During my last visit to the Poona ashram in 1988, Rajneesh was in silence because he was angry at his own disciples. He wanted his sannyasins to demonstrate in the streets against some Indian officials who had spoken out against him. Wisely, no one was interested in creating a new confrontation. This spell of sanity among the flock irritated Rajneesh, who canceled public talks as punishment. I was thus only able to see him on video tape.

On the taped lecture Rajneesh was ranting emotionally, and factually incorrectly, about how the police in the United States had stolen his collection of jewel encrusted ladies' watches. He said they would never be able to wear them in public because his sannyasins would see the watches on their wrists, at airports etc., and start screaming out loudly that "you stole Bhagwan's watch!" His words and manner were so childishly irrational that he reminded me of Jim Jones. This crazy old man, now called "Osho," was a far cry from the serene, dignified, and highly eloquent Acharya Rajneesh I had met years earlier.

"When it comes to gurus, take the best and leave the rest." Ramamurti Mishra

Some may be horrified that an enlightened man could become a convicted felon, but that has not stopped me from seeking the ultimate existential truth. Rajneesh's life is a lesson for us all to practice what we preach. Rajneesh gave great advice but he could not heed his own wise words. He is also a reminder not to take what people say very seriously. It is better to observe how people live and put less emphasis on what they speak. Talk is cheap. Actions are more costly and telling.

Do enlightened men have egos? In my younger idealistic years I would have said the answer is no. Rajneesh, Gurdjieff, and even J. Krishnamurti prove to me that they do. I became convinced that Rajneesh had an ego when I saw him on television in chains being transported from jail to an Oregon courthouse. In response to a reporter's question he looked into the television camera and spoke to his disciples saying "Don't worry. I'll be back." It was not what he said, but the look in his eyes that was positive proof for me. I could see his ego in action, calculating and manipulating. Once you see something that clearly no rationalizations can cover up the basic truth. Rajneesh was magnificently enlightened but he was also profoundly egotistical.

For ordinary humans the ego is the center of awareness and the Void is perceived only at the periphery. People look at a picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and they see the Void as an outside object, not as a personal identity. When you become enlightened, either temporarily in a satori or permanently as a Buddha, the situation is reversed. Now the Void is your center of awareness and the ego is at the periphery. Ego does not die, it just no longer takes the center stage of your attention.
Enlightenment is a functional and desirable disassociation of identity which is rooted in subtle body development and in physical brain function. The human brain is a biologically created thinking machine that has evolved for both personal self-preservation and the survival of the human species. The ego, which is a selfish motivating force, is needed to protect our colony of living cells, the physical body, from danger and to keep our cells replenished with food and water. If you did not have an ego you would not be able to think, speak, or find food, shelter, and clothing. The ego function is so vital for survival that the human brain evolved with two potential ego mechanisms, one a centralized ego and the second a larger and more diffuse backup system utilizing less central portions of the brain.

If the body and brain becomes physically ill with high fever and the centralized ego center is damaged, the backup ego mechanism may temporarily take over its function. This is ego displacement without enlightenment. The backup self-maintenance system keeps sleep walkers out of danger and helps enlightened human animals find food and the basics of life, so they do not physically die as a result of their own deep meditation.

Enlightened humans do not feel their more diffuse ego and thus they feel as free as space (the Void) itself. In actuality ego is still present and working, just as our autonomic nervous system keeps on working whether we are aware of its function or not. You do not have to consciously tell your heart to beat 70 times a minute because it will keep on beating regardless of your awareness. The brain function that controls heart rate is automatic (autonomic) and does not need our consciousness to make it work.
Some enlightened human animals have become fooled by the phenomena of ego displacement and thought they no longer had any personal selfishness that could cause trouble. Meher Baba spent much of his life bragging about how great he was, yet at his center he felt perfectly egoless. In truth he was very egoistic and should have realized that even enlightenment is no excuse for bragging.

The same fundamental misjudgment plagued Acharya Rajneesh. He became fooled into thinking that he was above arrogance, but that was simply not the case. The ego is an integral part of the structure of the human brain. It is not simply psychological, but neurological and hard wired into our neural pathways (see the scientific study of 'self''). The self-survival, self-defense mechanism we call 'ego' cannot be destroyed unless the physical body dies.

Even enlightened humans have to mind their manners and realize that the Atman is the wondrous phenomena they should promote, not their own fallible and temporary personalities. Ramana Maharshi had the right approach in this regard, and that is one reason he is still beloved by all. Ramana Maharshi promoted the Atman, the universal cosmic consciousness, but never his own mortal body and mind.
Despite his corruption, his poor judgment, and his disastrous last years, everyone who experienced Acharya Rajneesh's oceanic energy still loves at least the memory of his spiritual presence. Through it all, the good, the bad, and the horrific, Rajneesh's spiritual vibrations were always magnificent. Rajneesh's most powerful teaching method was to astrally project himself into the body of those disciples he felt were ready for the ultimate experience. When an enlightened soul literally shares the same space with a disciple, the student gets a glimpse of the teacher's enlightenment that is far beyond any possible description.

Visitors to the Osho ashram in India often feel a giant wave of consciousness there. That wave is but the vibrational remnant of what we called Rajneesh. The body has been turned to ashes but the wave can still be felt. In the same way J. Krishnamurti's presence remains a powerful force at Arya Vihara, his former home in Ojai, California.

Rajneesh's spectacular energy was proof that he was 'enlightened' in the Eastern esoteric sense of the word. The Eastern esoteric definition is an energy phenomena, gained only by those who are totally open to the infinite power of the universe. The Western meaning of 'enlightenment' simply means to be a very wise man, which Rajneesh, in my opinion, was not.

It is because I value the truth above all that I write what I believe are essential criticisms. If we cannot analyze our mistakes then our suffering was a waste of time. The ongoing cover-up of Bhagwan's frailties by his establishment disciples will only destroy the possibility of learning from his tragedy. Osho worshippers can destroy the tapes and physical evidence of his insane behavior, but they cannot change what actually happened.

I miss Acharya Rajneesh, never Osho, because he was at his finest when he had no manipulating political organization surrounding him. When Acharya Rajneesh was just a man in an apartment with one old Chevrolet, not dozens of Rolls Royces, he was more honest and true. When he became his own political establishment things started to go wrong and that is often the case with men of great power.

The Rajneesh scandal exposed the unconscious slavery of Bhakti Yoga and the underlying fraudulence and corruption of "lefthanded Tantra." What is needed is an honest path, built on self-observation, self-reliance, and respect for truth. The days of the know-it-all guru are over. It is time to realize the source of all things directly.

It would be wonderful to believe that enlightened men were perfect in every way. That would make life simpler and sweeter, but it would be fiction, not fact. In a way Rajneesh's tragedy has given me more hope. If we have to become perfect human beings to become enlightened then who among us will ever reach that goal? If we realize that enlightenment is just a gradual progression of expansion of consciousness then the goal is attainable by all of us given enough time. If we work for hundreds of years, through many births and deaths, with a simple goal of just going a little deeper every day, then with scientific certainty I believe those who seek enlightenment will attain it in time. All of the enlightened men I have known or read about have made that statement in their own words. I believe that is a fact that can be trusted.

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