taresaal chariss saedea
Olympia Brackin
One of my friends, Shri Gunubhai Shah, told me that on that day Acharya Shri Rajneesh (as Osho was then known) would be giving a discourse at Cross Maidan, near Dhobi Talao, Mumbai. He asked me to accompany him. I thought that Acharya Rajneesh might be a Jain Monk or something like that. I was not interested in religious or spiritual matters at that time, so tried hard to avoid going with him. However, he insisted and took me with him to the discourse.
When I saw Osho there, I realised that he was not a Jain Monk. I heard that he lived in Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh, India) and was a professor in a college there. The students of the college used to address him as Acharyashri, and that was the reason he was known as Acharya Rajneeshji.
When I saw and heard him, I realized that he was not an ordinary orator or a monk or a sannyasin. I felt he was some divine, revolutionary, powerful person. His dress, a white khadi (hand-woven cotton) dhoti, a khadi shawl on this shoulders, and a khadi handkerchief in one hand, his impressive face, his physical beauty, his long arms, his compassionate and magnetic eyes and his style of sitting, attracted me very much.
There must have been about five thousand people in that gathering. When he started his discourse there was complete silence. It felt as if an uninterrupted current of some divine sweet music was flowing.
He spoke in Hindi. I did not understand what he was saying or what he wanted us to understand. However, his voice was hypnotizing, and I felt as if some divine voice was calling me through him, and I was drowning in its flow. I felt as if I had become completely blank.
At that time Osho was a guest at the Bungalow of Shri Dhanpatibhai, also known as Kakubhai, at Vachha Gandhi Road, Vachha Vila, Mumbai. When I entered his room, some friends were sitting around Osho and a conversation was going on. I paid obeisance to him and sat there silently.
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"Whatever I say to you, you need not believe it. You have just to be available to it, so that you can decide. The decision has to be yours. And if it suits you, suddenly if it rings a bell in your heart, then I am no longer responsible for it: the bell is ringing in your heart. But if it doesn't suit you, my love for you remains the same, because it is not based on converting you.
And, in fact, each individual has to be unique. That is the prerogative of human beings -- to be unique. And all the religions, all the political ideologies, they have all tried to destroy that privilege. I want to encourage your privilege. On no account should your individuality be interfered with. Your freedom is absolute, and the highest value."
"The whole effort of a Jesus or a Buddha or a Bodhidharma is nothing but how to undo that which society has done to you. These are the most antisocial people in the world. They destroy whatsoever the society has created around you, all the fences around you, all the defenses around you, all the walls around you -- they destroy, they go on destroying. They are great nihilists. They simply destroy -- because that which is, need not be created. It is already there. It has not to be invented, it has only to be discovered."
Satsanga... just to be with the master.... But for the West it is difficult; hence I speak to you. These questions and answers are really just a game to help you to get rid of words, thoughts. Slowly, slowly you are finding it more and more difficult: what to ask?"
"Once you are silent, utterly silent, then there is no need to ask anything; there is nothing to ask, there is nothing to answer.
Silence is the question.
Silence is the answer.
Silence is the ultimate truth.
In silence we meet with existence -- words, languages, all create barriers. And to be silent means to be a hollow bamboo. And the miracle is, the moment you are a hollow bamboo, a music descends through you which is not your own. It comes through you; it belongs to the whole. Its beauty is tremendous, its ecstasy immeasurable."
Use logic to destroy logic. And when you have destroyed logic and language from your mind, then use meditation to invite silence. Then each moment becomes so tremendously beautiful, so ecstatic, that one does not care whether he can say it or not. But one can show it always!
"I am speaking with great love for the victims, but I cannot speak with love for the murderers in the name of God -- pious murderers, virtuous murderers. Yes, I am bitter -- because I see the crime that religions have been committing against humanity. I speak with love for humanity, but I cannot be in favor of the criminals.
My situation is simple and clear. With whoever has harmed humanity, I am bitter; and whoever has been harmed, I am full of love for him. For all those women you called witches and burned them alive, I have tremendous love. For all those people you killed because they were Mohammedans, they were Jews, I have tremendous love and respect -- but not for the criminals.
So I say his statement is right, but he is wrong. Do you understand what I mean? The statement is right because I am speaking with love on the one hand, and on the other hand I am speaking with great bitterness for all those people who have been preventing human evolution towards buddhahood. I cannot forgive them, neither can I forget them."
"I don't think anybody has spoken really spontaneously the way I am speaking. And I was not aware that my spontaneity would have such a tremendous effect on people. I am not an orator; I have never been trained for oratory.
But with me it is a totally different matter. You are not idiots. I am speaking to people who are potentially enlightened beings; I am speaking with immense respect and love. And I have never felt any kind of nervousness because I am not an orator, I am just conversing with you. Hence, many times it is bound to happen: I will tell only half a story, and then, wherever the wind blows, my cloud starts moving. I have never made any effort that things should be otherwise.
"I am not a master orator. I have never learned oratory. I just know how to communicate simply, straightforwardly, with human beings. I am simply talking to you. I am not an orator. Orators are politicians; orators are missionaries. I am not a missionary; I am not trying to convince anything; I am not trying to attract voters to me. I am simply talking to you. And I know that if you can talk heart to heart, it reaches to the deepest core of human beings. But I am not an orator."
Sitting with me in these discourses is nothing but creating more and more meditativeness in you. I don't speak to teach something; I speak to create something. These are not lectures; these are simply a device for you to become silent, because if you are told to become silent without making any effort you will find great difficulty."
"I am using words just to create silent gaps. The words are secondary; the silences between those words are primary. This is simply a device to give you a glimpse of meditation. And once you know that it is possible for you, you have traveled far in the direction of your own being."
"I am speaking to you and I am fully aware from where these words are coming they are coming from my nothingness. I don't find any other place from where they are coming. Nothingness is not nothing. Nothingness is all. And to recognize nothingness as all, as an experience, is the only way to find your unity with the universe. In life, in death, there is no fear."
The timeline presents all events where Osho was holding discourse, writing letters, giving interviews etc. Each event-name links to a page with details on that event.
Information about sources, and about doubtful dates, places etc. is provided via ** links.
Rajneesh experienced a spiritual awakening in 1953 at the age of 21.[6] Following several years in academia, in 1966 Rajneesh resigned his post at the University of Jabalpur and began traveling throughout India, becoming known as a vocal critic of the orthodoxy of mainstream religions,[1][10][11][7] as well as of mainstream political ideologies and of Mahatma Gandhi.[12][13][14] In 1970, Rajneesh spent time in Mumbai initiating followers known as "neo-sannyasins".[1] During this period, he expanded his spiritual teachings and commented extensively in discourses on the writings of religious traditions, mystics, bhakti poets, and philosophers from around the world. In 1974, Rajneesh relocated to Pune, where an ashram was established and a variety of therapies, incorporating methods first developed by the Human Potential Movement, were offered to a growing Western following.[15][16] By the late 1970s, the tension between the ruling Janata Party government of Morarji Desai and the movement led to a curbing of the ashram's development and a back tax claim estimated at $5 million.[17]
In 1981, the Rajneesh movement's efforts refocused on activities in the United States and Rajneesh relocated to a facility known as Rajneeshpuram in Wasco County, Oregon. The movement ran into conflict with county residents and the state government, and a succession of legal battles concerning the ashram's construction and continued development curtailed its success. In 1985, Rajneesh publicly asked local authorities to investigate his personal secretary Ma Anand Sheela and her close supporters for a number of crimes, including a 1984 mass food-poisoning attack intended to influence county elections, an aborted assassination plot on U.S. attorney Charles H. Turner, the attempted murder of Rajneesh's personal physician, and the bugging of his own living quarters; authorities later convicted several members of the ashram, including Sheela.[18] That year, Rajneesh was deported from the United States on separate immigration-related charges in accordance with an Alford plea.[19][20][21] After his deportation, 21 countries denied him entry.[22]
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