Appendix. Poona Two
1. Timeline Poona Two. Made by Ma Deva Anando
2. Osho Lao Tzu Library / Ma Prem Kavisho. Unpublished manuscript. 1999. 6 pages.
3. Review of a Publishing Success Story: I Leave You My Dream / Lolita. 1997.
4. Thirty Years of Osho International Publishing. 1975-2005. January 2006.
5. Publishing and Editing 1990 – 2020. Excerpts and quotes. 34 pages.
6. On Paintings Osho Chooses / Ma Krishna Gopa and Sw Shivananda. 1992.
7. Books by and about Osho. Sales Figures 1988..
8. Journey of Osho’s Intellectual Property Rights from India to Europe. 2017.
9. A Spiritually Incorrect Mystic / Khushwant Singh. April 2014.
10. Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic. Review 2001.
11. Zen Masters Lineage Chart. All the Chan/Zen masters Osho has talked about.
12. The Photographer and the Master / Sw Sarjano. 2011.
13. Chronological Account of Evening Meetings. 1992.
14. Osho’s Meditation Technique. Evening Meeting. White Robe Brotherhood.
15. Welcome to Osho Commune International. Leaflet, 1989. Page 1-4
16. A Brief Chronology of the Name Changes of Osho. Factsheet, 1996..
17. Rajneesh Disappears Without Trace. Press Release, 15.09.1989.
18. Milind Kolhatkar. Two features in Indian Express, Poona. July 1989.
19. Introduction / Swami Anand Robin. In: ‘Kyozan. A True Man of Zen’ .1990.
20. Osho’s Medical History 1987-1990 / Sw Prem Amrito. 1990..
21. Osho’s Death Certificate. 19.01.1990.
22. Affidavit by Dr. Gokul Gokani. On Osho’s passing. 2015.
23. Illustrated Weekly of India. Obituary. February, 1990. 11 files.
24. Obituaries and Quotes on Osho. 6 pages.
1. Timeline Poona Two. Made by Ma Deva Anando
“Jan 4, 1987. Osho returns to Pune.
July, 1988. Osho begins, for the first time in 14 years to personally lead the meditation at the end of each evening’s discourse. He also introduces The Mystic Rose.
Jan 7, 1989. Name now Shree Rajneesh. Osho says we can now call him, “My Beloved Master’. He addresses us as ‘My friends’.
Jan 24, 1989. 4-hour discourse.
Feb 22, 1989. Osho stops coming for discourse, and starts dictating ‘Philousia’.
Mar 1, 1989. Osho now known as Osho Rajneesh.
Apr 2, 1989. Osho returns for discourses.
Apr 6, 1989. Inner Circle created.
Apr 9, 1989. First Inner Circle meeting.
Apr 10, 1989. Last discourse.
Jul 7, 1989. First meditation camp.
Jul 12, 1989. Osho visits Chuang Tzu.
Jul 14, 1989. Festival of the Full Moon starts. Osho comes to Buddha Hall for seven minutes. Our first appearance in white robes.
July 16, 1989. Osho comes out again.
Aug 11, 1989. First meditation camp. Osho comes out in the evening for ten minutes silence and showers flowers.
Aug 20, 1989. Dental session. Osho sees ‘OM’ sign. Announces he will be coming out every evening from tomorrow.
Aug 21, 1989. Osho resumes coming to Buddha Hall to sit in silence.
Aug 31, 1989. Osho moves to Chuang Tzu, stops coming to Buddha Hall.
Sep 12, 1989. Drops ‘Rajneesh’, now simply ‘Osho’.
Sep 14, 1989. Osho moves back into his old bedroom.
Sep 17, 1989. Osho returns to Buddha Auditorium.
Oct 5, 1989. Osho creates Born Again group.
Nov 11, 1989. Osho creates new group, ‘Talking to Body’.
Nov 17, 1989. Osho dictates words for his Samadhi. Says nobody will be his successor, the Inner Circle will be the successor.
Nov 29, 1989. Osho showers flowers on Japanese seeress (Tam-O-san).
Dec 2, 1989. Osho tells Anando, driving home from Buddha Hall, ‘The silence is becoming so solid you can almost touch it’.
Jan 16, 1990. Osho’s last meditation session in Buddha Hall.
Jan 17, 1990. Osho comes to Buddha Hall only to namaste.
Jan 18, 1990. Osho doesn’t come for evening meeting.
Jan 19, 1990. Osho leaves his body around 5pm.
Jan 21, 1990. Osho’s ashes are brought and placed in the Samadhi.”
2. Osho Lao Tzu Library / Ma Prem Kavisho. Unpublished manuscript. 1999. 6 pages.
3. Review of a Publishing Success Story: I Leave You My Dream / Ma Prem Lolita.
Osho Times International, December 1997, pp. 12-17.
4. Thirty Years of Osho International Publishing. 1975-2005.
Osho: “Make Me Available around the World”. In colour. Osho Times International, January 2006:6, pp. 34-41.
5. Publishing and Editing 1990 – 2020. Excerpts and quotes. 34 pages.
6. On Paintings Osho Chooses / Ma Krishna Gopa and Sw Shivananda. Interviewed by Ma Prem Garimo and Ma Prem Yuthika. Osho Times International, 1992:12. 16.06.1992. Two pages illustrated with six pieces of artwork in color.
“The way in which Osho advised and directed His book designers in the layout and design of His books, was nothing like anyone on the design staff at Osho Commune International had ever come across in the outside world.
Familiar with the moody atmosphere of a “regular” book design studio, designers Ma Krishna Gopa and Swami Shivananda talked to Osho Times International about their observation of the way in which Osho selected designs and illustrations for His books. The situation gave them the chance to watch their own reactions to some of His choices – a perfect opportunity to watch the rise and fall of personal judgment.
“For me, it’s something special to be guided by an enlightened master,” said Shivananda. “To know you are doing something that will go to Him, gave me a lot of extra energy to do my best.
“When we did a mock-up for a book cover, each one of us took tremendous care that it would really look like the actual product.
“And not having Western tools we had to do a lot of painstaking, perfect handwork.”
The designers could never anticipate Osho’s response to the trial mock-up.
Shivananda continued, “The amazing thing was, I never felt He had said, ‘No’ to any of the things we suggested. When He would want to have a change, He always went just that step further. For instance, He might want to have a larger typeface, or His picture bigger. It was always a step further.
“He never said, ‘No, that’s not possible.’ There was always a suggestion, an idea from Him that would make the design more rich. And I always liked it, even though my initial reaction to His comments was, ‘My God! I’ll have to do it all over again!”
“Once I put that aside, I began to realize that something better came out of it.”
“When we did mock ups of books and sent them to Osho, it was magical. It was such a joy,” Ma Krishna Gopa said. “If He wanted something changed, you never felt the way you would feel in the world if an art director told you to change something. There was never any issue of good or bad, of wrong or right. Always, what came from Him were simply suggestions.
“When we were producing ‘From Sex to Superconsciousness’, someone came from the West who had been working for a very fancy advertising company. He took one look at the book and said, ‘Wow, that book could be a bestseller if it had the right jacket and the right marketing.’ His suggestion was that we make a very slick, modern cover.
“Osho’s comment was that the slick cover was not rich and He chose the original cover we had made. It wasn’t a value judgment. It wasn’t anything to do with good or bad. It seemed that Osho had a vision which was about abundance, richness and flowing, not about knives and hardness and looking slick.”
Initially, Osho only selected the photographs that would be used in his books. Then he began choosing paintings for the back covers and end papers of the books. “I was amazed at the kinds of things He would choose,” Shivananda said. “My feeling was that there was always some kind of purpose behind what He chose. Often they were totally abstract and full of colors and that just gave me the courage to paint this way.”
Gopa recalls one incident which showed her the way in which her mind pre-judged some of the art work submitted to Osho for books.
“A few years ago Swami Satyakarma, who wasn’t trained as a painter, did a bunch of water colors of the gardens in Lao Tzu and around Buddha Hall,” she recalled. “When I looked at them, my classical art school trained mind said: “This man is talented, but he’s afraid of his colors and afraid to make a mess. His drawings are clumsy, but if he worked he could make beautiful paintings.”
Satyakarma’s illustrations were submitted to Osho, who chose them all for books. Gopa worked on the design of those books. “While I thought parts of them were beautiful, I didn’t like other parts. So I asked Satyakarma if I could just use some parts.”
She showed Satyakarma her choices, and he laughed and said: “Those are the good bits. You are cutting out the bad bits, aren’t you?”
Gopa asked him, “If you felt it was bad, how come you sent it in?” He said, “That’s why I did. He’s my master and I don’t want to pretend, do I?” “I was incredibly touched by his honesty,” Gopa remembered, and wondered if it had been that honesty that Osho had felt in Satyakarma’s paintings.
“I was looking at it through the eyes of generations of old-fashioned teachers. If I had felt something was ‘bad,’ I wouldn’t have sent it. It was a real lesson for me.”
Both Shivananda and Gopi felt they learned a great deal about working from a different dimension, while working with Osho on His books.
To Gopa, when she trusts herself enough, when “beautiful work is coming out of me”, she finds a moment comes “when I feel something just switches. I go to a place where there is a happening. It’s a very private thing. Whenever I sent something to Him that came from this space, no changes were ever asked for.”
Shivananda had a similar impression. “What I also noticed,” he added, “was that the things He chose were not good looking, or bad looking, but they had a kind of innocence and spontaneity to them.”
For Shivananda, working with Osho’s books was not like working at all. “I really learnt something there,” he said. “Something definitely happened. It wasn’t like working any more. I was so much into it. It was my life. The whole meaning of ‘work’ changed for me. Now, when I am in a situation that feels like ‘work’, I get allergic to it.
“Now I see that if I enjoy the moment, whether or not Osho accepted a design or whether it had to be changed, it didn’t matter. It was the same feeling.”
7. Books by and about Osho. Sales Figures: Recent Releases. Books by Osho: World Bestsellers. 1988. Two pages.
8. Journey of Osho’s Intellectual Property Rights from India to Europe. Flow chart made by Abhay Vaidya. (Vaidya 2017)
9. A Spiritually Incorrect Mystic / Khushwant Singh. Osho World Newsletter, April 2014. Reprinted from: The Tribune. Saturday, July 22, 2000.
“I am currently reading the autobiography of the late Acharya Rajneesh known to his disciples as Osho. It is entitled Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic. I try to read everything I can spoken by him on tape or taken down by his followers and printed in the weekly Osho Times and the numerous books containing his sermons. I do so because I regard him as a propounder of new ideas on existence, its purpose and whatever, if anything, remains of us after death. He was an iconoclast who held nothing sacred, questioned the veracity of religious dogma and cleared cobwebs of confused thinking from people’s minds. He was much the most erudite of world’s religious philosophers. He was witty, humourous and often ended his sermons with a dirty joke with four letter words. He was a rare phenomenon.
Rajneesh was very lucky to have broad-minded parents. Although they were Jains and his father did his best to conform to society’s norms, his mother rejected all customs and encouraged her son to question his school teachers, preachers of religion and think for himself. It is in their childhood that parents start brainwashing their children and make them incapable of breaking free from the mental chains in which they are bound from infancy. Writing about his mother, Rajneesh says: “Now I can say that women was really great, because as far as religion is concerned, everybody is lying. Christians, Jews, Jains, Mohammedans – everybody is lying. They all talk of God, heaven and hell, angels and all kinds of nonsense, without knowing anything at all. She was great, not because she knew, but because she was unable to lie to a child.”
“Nobody should lie – to a child at least – it is unforgivable. Children have been exploited for centuries just because they are willing to trust. You can lie to them very easily and they will trust you. If you are a father, a mother, they will think you are bound to be true. That’s how the whole of humanity lives in corruption, in a very slippery mud of lies told to children for centuries. If we can do just one thing, a simple thing – not lie to children and to confess to them our ignorance – then we will be religious and we will put them on the path of religion. Children are innocent: leave them not your so-called knowledge. But you yourself must first be innocent, unlying true.”
Rajneesh thought for himself. He rejected all religions as false. He rejected conventional notions of the man-woman relationship, love and marriage as based on false promises and preached the gospel of free-love. His disciples shed their inhibitions as they shed their clothes. He came to be maligned as a preacher of promiscuity and sex guru. Although I had vast admiration for Rajneesh, I did not accept all his ideas as he often said contradictory things and believed in re-birth after death, which has not been scientifically proved, and practiced meditation which I regard as a waste of time.
Once I visited Osho’s commune in Pune, I was charmed by the happy atmosphere that prevailed there: greenery, flowers, music, meditation, combined with a large library, reading rooms and people going about their daily chores with smiling faces. I did not see Rajneesh; he was unwell. I wondered how long his commune would last after he was gone. It has become big business with 750 meditation centres across 80 countries. Including 200 in India, 1500 books published in 40 languages with 3,5 million copies sold every year; tapes of music and sermons.I got to know some Osho disciples, notably his attractive lady secretary Ma Neelam and Chaitanya Keerti who looked after his press relations. Neelam was then living in the commune before she rented a flat nearby. She spent a better part of each morning in the meditation hall. Chaitanya Keerti looked after publications in Delhi. Both have now been banned from entering the Pune commune which was, to them, their Makka and Medina.
The Osho empire is split down the middle. The cause is greed. A group based in New York and Zürich has laid claims to having the copyright all of Osho’s works as well as his techniques of meditation. I could understand Americans trying to grab patent rights over Basmati rice and neem products – but how can anyone patent thought and meditation? Sounds preposterous. The attempt is also contrary to what Osho stood for. In his book Om Shanti Shanti Shanti, he wrote: “I have told Neelam, my secretary, to write to them. Things can be copyrighted, thoughts cannot be copyrighted, and certainly meditations cannot be copyrighted. They are not things of the marketplace. Nobody can monopolise anything. But perhaps the West cannot understand the difference between an objective commodity and an inner experience. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has copyrighted transcendental meditation and just underneath in a small circle you will find written TM – that means trademark! For ten thousand years the East has been meditating and nobody has put trademarks upon meditations. And above all, that transcendental meditation is neither transcendental nor meditation… just a trademark. I have told Neelam to reply to these people. You don’t understand what meditations. It is nobody’s belonging, possession. You cannot have any copyright. Perhaps if your country gives you trademarks and copyrights on things like meditation, it will be good to have a copyright on stupidity. That will help the whole world to be relieved… Only you will be stupid and nobody else can be stupid; it will be illegal.”
How can you catch the sea breeze in a net? The slogan of true Osho disciples is “Osho, everybody’s birthright; nobody’s copyright.””
10. Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic. Review of paperback edition 2001 by Gretchen Badami, University of Chicago.
11. Zen Masters Lineage Chart. All the Chan/Zen masters Osho has talked about. Colour.chart constructed by Swami Deva Sarlo..
12. The Photographer and the Master / Sw Sarjano. 4 pages.
www.oshonews.com 28.10.2011.
13. Chronological Account of Evening Meetings
Chronological account of evening meetings from the Mantra Salute on March 18, 1988 onwards. Excerpts from: Osho Meditation Center Handbook, January 1992:
March 18, 1988 First Salute
The first prototype of the Mantra Salute, “Yaa-Hoo!” Osho later says this is the new greeting between sannyasins all over the world.
April 1, 1988 A Spontaneous Let-Go
April 2, 1988 Let-Go Directions
April 3, 1988 Understanding the Let-Go Experience
May 26, 1988 First Gibberish in Gautama the Buddha Auditorium
“I am extremely sorry that I have not been physical here for many days, but I am also extremely happy that you never missed my presence…I was absent only for those who themselves are absent”
September 15, 1988 Spiritual Capital of the World
April 10, 1989 Osho’s last Discourse: The Zen Manifesto: Freedom from Oneself.
May 23, 1989 Silence
On the new meetings of silence, Osho sent this message: “The Buddhafield is at a new and higher level. Osho is not speaking any more so that you can understand the silence, the world of no-words. It is part of the whole scheme to bring people to their peaks. Simply feel the silence in the commune. Every tree will say something about Him. Every swan will say something about Him – if you just want His words, then it is enough to read the books and watch the videos.”
June 17, 1989 His Presence – His Absence
Amrito: “He asked us to remember that His presence is here, and that we should not take His absence for granted. His energy is here and He would like us to learn to feel His presence here all the time.”
July 14 and 18, 1989
After an absence of many months, Osho comes again to Gautama the Buddha Auditorium for two evening meetings of silence and music during this Osho Full Moon Celebration. We are gathered together for the first time in white robes.
August 18, 1989 Communion of Silence
Tonight, the first evening of three meetings with Osho in Gautama the Buddha Auditorium, Anando brings the following message from Osho: “Osho has been speaking for thirty years but very few people have got the message – they simply cling to the words. Now He wants us to drop all words. What happens here in these communions is the real message – no words can convey it. So He will not be using words but sharing His being with you. So then it is up to you how deep you can go. After the whole day of meditations, groups and working, these ten minutes will be the climax. What words cannot express, silence can. So this is a greater opportunity than hearing Him, it is a melting. These ten minutes of silence and deeply going into yourself is equal to eternity.”
Followed by video ‘This. This. A Thousand Times This’, from 7.6.1988.
“I have been speaking for thirty-five years continuously, searching for those who will understand. It has been a long search, but I have found all of you – and more around the earth – who have started to understand a little bit. But just a little bit is more than enough. Just a cup of tea, a little taste and then you can go on your own. You know the way, you have felt it. Even the bamboos are no longer commenting. When you are feeling it so solidy, there is no need for any moment. You are the very human beings on the earth today who are, at this moment, so much blessed, so much in tune with existence. This silence is just a simple proof.”
August 22, 1989 Highest Peak. Anando announcement.
August 24, 1989 Four Layers. Anando announcement + Osho message, Gurdjieff.
August 25, 1989 The Osho White Robe Brotherhood
September 12, 1989 OSHO
October 1989 Stop Exercises to Create Silence
October 15, 1989 Yaa-Hoo out. Osho in.
October 21, 1989 He is still with us. Amrito message.
October 22, 1989 Osho Mantra
November 1989 Celebration Robes
November 9, 1989 Silence
December 2, 1989 Solid Silence
December 12, 1989 Celebration
January 17, 1990 Watching the Video
In response to a question that people have already seen the videos before, Osho says, “That does not matter, there are many layers and each time you will find a new layer. The discourses are not novels to read and throw away.”
January 17, 1990 Announcement on the Evening Meetings
Amrito: “He has said that from tomorrow, anybody who does not want to stay for the whole meditation, His namaste, the music and silence, and the video should not come. Without exception, He said, everybody who comes must stay till the end.”
14. Osho’s Meditation Technique. Evening Meeting. White Robe Brotherhood.
About Meditation
Wear a plain white robe. Come freshly showered, in a clean robe, with no perfume. No coughing or sneezing in the auditorium. Please do not come if you have any infection. The meeting will end by 9 p.m. at the latest. (If you cannot sit that long or if you have a cough, please sit out of Meditation Hall, if you are doing this meditation at OSHO Meditation Center or Commune or Ashram).
Part 1: (Meditation)
This meeting starts with high-energy music for dancing with totality. Let the energy of celebration build up inside you. Don’t waste this energy in shouting or whistling or looking around at others. You can wear a blindfold if that helps. This period of dancing includes two or three shouts of “Osho” and ends with three shouts of “Osho.” This is a sound without meaning. It is simply using sound to reach the soundless silence. The raising of hands to the stars indicates the longing for higher consciousness. The shout should be really sharp. It has to be said exactly like the lion’s roar, which comes from the belly. It is not just from your tongue – not even from your throat or your heart. It hits just under your navel. That’s where you are coming from. The life center is just under your navel, two inches under the navel. You have to watch from what source it is coming. You have to go inwards to that source. It not only hits your center, your very being, it also brings in you a tremendous feeling of joy, laughter, dance. It is celebration.
The more totally you dance, the more easily you will be able to sit silently afterwards.
The three shouts of OSHO are followed by silent sitting.
This silent sitting begins with intermittent Indian music up until three drumbeats. First part of Meditation is over with three drumbeats.
Part 2 (Satsang)
After three drumbeats Osho Video or Osho Audio Discourse starts. During this you sit silently and just watch or listen to Osho Talks. This is called Satsang Part. Evening Satsang Meditation with dance and celebration or soft Indian music…
It ends with a few jokes and then a guided meditation, gibberish and let-go, led by Osho in total four stages.
Gibberish and Let-Go
First Stage: Gibberish
While sitting, close your eyes and begin to say nonsense sounds – any sounds or words, so long as they make no sense. Just speak any language that you don’t know! Allow yourself to express what ever needs to be expressed within you. Throw everything out. The mind thinks, always, in terms of words. Gibberish helps to break up this pattern of continual verbalization. Without suppressing your thoughts, you can throw them out. Let your body likewise be expressive.
Second Stage: Moving In
After some minutes of Gibberish, there is a drumbeat, at which point the Gibberish stops. Osho’s voice then guides the listener into a space of deep silence, stillness and relaxation, saying, for example, “Be silent, close your eyes…no movement of the body – feel frozen. Go inwards, deeper and deeper, just like an arrow. Penetrate all the layers and hit the center of your existence.”
Third Stage: Let-Go
Another drumbeat and, without arranging yourself, just allow yourself to fall down “like a bag of rice,” so you are lying, utterly still and relaxed, on your back as you are guided even more deeply into a silent stillness.
Fourth Stage: Coming Back
At the final drumbeat, Osho’s voice guides you back to a sitting position, with the reminder to carry the glimpse of silent awareness one may have had into everyday activities.” (Laheru 2012, pp. 182-186)
15. Welcome to Osho Commune International. Leaflet, 1989. Page 1-4. Information about Osho. Activities. Commune Facilities. Osho Global Connection. Friends of Osho.
16. A Brief Chronology of the Name Changes of Osho. Press Office, Osho Commune International, September 1996. Factsheet. Three pages.
17. Rajneesh Disappears Without Trace. Press Release. 15.09.1989.
18. Milind Kolhatkar. Two features in Indian Express, Poona. A visitation of the Guru. 16.07.1989 A darshan under a full moon. 19.07.1989
19. Introduction / Swami Anand Robin. In: ‘Kyozan. A True Man of Zen’ (1990).
Introduction by Swami Anand Robin:
“These four discourses were delivered from December 3rd to 6th, 1988, between two long periods when Osho’s body was too sick to come to Gautama the Buddha Auditorium. He had stopped dancing with us on October 14th: “I have to express my apology to you that I could not join in your dance. The whole credit goes to President Ronald Reagan…” and he told us how he had been poisoned in American jails. “I have almost overcome the poison, just … in the bones and particularly in the joints it is still stuck. I have been dancing with you without bothering about it. I would have continued, but today the pain became too much. The pain is not the problem for me. The problem was: if I continue then perhaps I may have to stop speaking. So it is better to let this pain settle.”
We could see during these few days, as he walked to his chair, how frail his body was, and despite the strength of his voice and the power of his presence, many hearts and minds feared his body might not be with us much longer. It was no surprise when there was no discourse on December 7th and not yet again until December 26th, when he said:
“My Beloved Ones, I have been too long away from you… These few days and nights have been days and nights of a certain purification. The poison delivered to me by President Ronald Reagan and his staff… from all over the world experts in poison said that amongst all the poisons this is the one which cannot be detected in any way. It has been the practice of the CIA in America to give this poison, because there is no way to find it out. And if you cannot find it you cannot give any antidotes. Death has been almost certain.
“These long days and nights I had taken the challenge of the poison, just witnessing. The poison was a constant torture on every joint of the bones, but a miracle has happened. Slowly, slowly, from all joints it has disappeared. The last were the two arms. Today” – December 26 – “I am free from that too. I have a strong feeling that, although I was not physically present here, you have felt me in the air. You have felt me more strongly than ever before. And in your songs I was present. In your meditations, remember, I was more present than physical presence allows.”
When asked to talk about his sickness he said, “No… being sick is enough… And remember, my body can be sick, I am never sick. I watch everything, whatever happens. I will watch my death as I watched my life, and that’s my simple teaching to you.”
In the same discourse he dropped the name we had called him for twenty years, which we had loved, which had become part of us – though I wonder now, had we ever been totally at ease with it? He said he had used it to provoke the Hindus. “I hate the word. I don’t want to be called Bhagwan again. Enough is enough! The joke is over!”
The next night he said: “I am feeling so light by dropping a single word. I feel I can fly like a swan to the eternal snows of the Himalayas.” And it was obvious that his body was marvelously stronger – though not simply because of dropping a name. “For seven weeks I was fighting with the poison day and night. One night even my physician, Amrito, became suspicious that perhaps I cannot survive. He was taking my pulse rate and heartbeats on his cardiogram. Seven times I missed one heartbeat.
“The seventh time I missed a heartbeat it was natural for his scientific mind to think, ‘Now we are fighting a battle that is almost lost.’ But I said to him, “Don’t be worried. Your cardiogram can be wrong; it’s just a mechanical device. Trust in my witnessing. Don’t bother about my heartbeats.’
“On the last day of the seven weeks’ struggle when all pain from by body disappeared, Amrito could not believe it. It was happening almost like a miracle. Where has all the pain disappeared?”
So these few discourses islanded in those seven weeks of struggle against the poison have the fragility of a reprieve and also a delicacy, breathtaking like the tiny sky-blue speedwell flowers I saw recently, the first to appear after grass-burning, but strong with the life force – like silence itself, immensely strong and deep and easily broken. Here is the Zen paradox of delicate strength, a tremendous statement in a few light words.
He said at the start of the December 6th discourse: “It hurts me to disturb your silence by using words, but I hope a day will arrive when we will be sitting together allowing the silence to become deeper – because whatever can be said only touches the periphery. It never goes beyond the periphery; no word has ever reached to the center. You are not only hearing my words, you are also hearing me, and that is the true hearing, my heartbeat.”
In an earlier discourse: “The Zen encounter is not one of words.”… “The Zencounter is a communion in silence.”… “The silence here is so dense one feels a little afraid even to utter a word. It may disturb the silent lake of your consciousness. But always remember that in the wake of words, silence is deepened… The essential Zen is an effort to bring you to the language of existence that you have forgotten completely.” Swami Anand Robin M.A. (Cantab.)
20. Osho’s Medical History 1987-1990 / Swami Prem Amrito. Osho Times International (India), 1990:7.
“It has been alleged that Osho’s death was sudden and that the stated cause of death – heart disease – was unrelated to the poisoning by the US Government. This medical history compiled by Swami Prem Amrito, Osho’s personal physician, shows that His death was clearly the result of damage to His body caused by poisoning in America.
1987
After the already well-documented medical problems of His world tour in 1986, Osho arrived in Poona in early 1987, and during that year had to stop speaking eight times because of ill health. Still, He managed to give public discourses for most of the year. He suffered from increasing pains, particularly in the right shoulder, going into His arms, and also from repeated troublesome infections. Specifically, He contracted what normally is a simple ear infection, but which took nearly two and a half months to resolve, with repeated injections of antibiotics and local surgery by a Poona ear surgeon. It was at this time that His doctors were alerted to the possibility that he had indeed been poisoned.
Samples of Osho’s blood, hair and urine, together with X-rays and His medical history, were sent to London for examination by pathologists and experts. It was their opinion that the symptoms from which Osho had been suffering since being incarcerated by the US Government were consistent only with poisoning by a heavy metal such as thallium.
1988
Osho continued to suffer from infections which should have been minor but which failed to respond to treatment within the usual time period. These infections were exacerbated by an increase in asthma and symptoms of nerve damage, which is a further indication of thallium poisoning.
During 1988 He was forced to stop speaking twelve times, and yet He managed to speak for much of the year.
By now the pain in both His arms was considerably worse. At one point He said His arms felt “crippled.” He also had walking difficulties, and began an intense course of treatment for these pains. Throughout this time, the treatment of Osho’s pain was supervised by a leading Poona orthopedic surgeon. But weakness of His whole body continued to get worse, particularly on the right side. Eye problems forced Him to wear sunglasses at that time.
In May Osho also started suffering from syncopal episodes, “drop attacks,” suddenly falling to the ground, which raised the possibility of damage to His blood vessels, particularly in the heart.
In August Osho was diagnosed with a thyroid deficiency, which lent credence to an earlier suggestion that he could have been exposed to radiation while in jail.
As the year wore on, Osho’s health problems steadily increased, in spite of a wide range of treatments including allopathy, ayurveda, massage, acupuncture, injections, manipulations and much more.
In November Osho developed shortness of breath and chest pains, accompanied by uncharacteristic wheezing. A local Poona cardiologist who treated Osho confirmed that he was suffering from coronary heart disease. In addition, He was treated for symptoms of heart failure at this time.
In a public discourse on December 29 Osho said, “For seven weeks I was fighting with the poison day and night. One night, even my physician, Amrito, became suspicious that perhaps I cannot survive. He was taking my pulse rate and heartbeats on his cardiogram. Seven times I missed one heartbeat.”
Osho continued, “The seventh time I missed a heartbeat, it was natural for his scientific mind to think, “Now we are fighting a battle that is almost lost.” But I said to him, ‘Don’t be worried. Your cardiogram can go wrong; it is just a mechanical device. Trust in my witnessing. Don’t bother about my heartbeats.'”
Osho responded to treatment, but it became clear that the pains which had been restricted to His upper limbs were now equally severe in His lower limbs.
1989
By the end of February He was too exhausted to continue speaking. More eye problems followed. He now felt weaker than at any previous time. The wide range of treatments that had seemed to help earlier now seemed only to exacerbate His condition.
On April 2 Osho attempted to begin discourses again, but on April 10 He left the hall abruptly, unable to continue. He said He felt terrible. His final words of His last discourse were: “The last word of Buddha was sammasati. Remember you are a buddha – sammasati.”
Osho decided that only rest would allow His body to recover, and He began to spend most of His day in His bed, in a state of samadhi.
In May he suffered a further episode of severe chest pains, indicative of worsening heart disease.
On May 19 He sent a public message to His people that He felt that He was not going to be able to speak again regularly as He had done in the past. He never spoke in public again.
By now His right side had begun to give Him more trouble – especially the ear, eye and teeth on the right side, in addition to worsening pain in His right shoulder. An eye specialist was flown in from Germany. By mid-summer, He was suffering from continuous pain in His arms and legs.
A brief respite in early August allowed Him to take a daily jacuzzi again, but soon after that He developed serious teeth problems with intense pain in the lower right jaw, culminating in the removal of all teeth on the lower right side.
A Poona consultant oral surgeon said that X-rays of Osho’s teeth and their failure to heal was similar to cases of radiation poisoning. Circumstances surrounding a particular night in jail in Oklahoma in 1985 suggest that Osho may have slept on a mattress containing radioactive material, situated at the level of His right jaw, shoulder, ear and eye. This would explain His severe problems in these areas.
Extraction of one tooth resulted in failure to heal, intractable infection, inability to eat and total debilitation, bringing Osho close to death for seven weeks. He needed insulin therapy and antibiotics the whole time. It was not until the rest of the teeth had been extracted from the lower right side that His health began to improve. He felt that some “poisoned tissue” had been removed.
Then Osho came out to sit silently with His disciples for the last period of time. He asked for a liquids-only diet, which He continued until He left His body. He was so weak and in such pain that He felt only staying in bed all day would allow Him enough strength to be with His people for twenty minutes in the evening.
1990
By January 17 the pain was so great that He decided that He could come only to namaste His people. He could not remain even for the whole twenty minutes.
On January 18 He was unable to do even that.
On January 19 He left His body.
A detailed account of Osho’s last hours has already been released. The points that need to be emphasized are these:
The poisoning by the US Government created a process of degeneration and tissue destruction in Osho’s body. As a diabetic, Osho’s heart tissue was the most vulnerable to this degeneration.
In the course of His last day, when His pulse began to weaken, the coronary artery disease prevented oxygenated blood from reaching the conducting tissue of His heart. This affected the rhythm of the heart, which in turn affected its pumping action, which further reduced the amount of oxygenerated blood available to the heart. It was a vicious cycle, ending eventually in the death of His body.”
– Mohan Jog’s report on Osho’s health is in: Jesus Crucified Again (1988), p. 261. Here are also four references to papers on thallium poisoning in medical journals.
January 19, 1990 – Re: Osho leaving His body celebration
Amrito announces:
Osho left the body this evening at 5 o’clock. Before He died He said to tell you that we should have our celebration this night. He specifically said that His body should be brought to the podium for ten minutes and then taken to the ghats.
The celebration will begin now and the body will be arriving here at 8 o’clock.
After Osho’s ten minute visit with us here in the hall, His body will be carried to the front gate where it will wait. So there is no need to rush. Please stay in the hall until His body has passed.
The order of procession will be first His immediate family, then the Inner Circle, then the musicians, and then all of us in celebration. Let us make this celebration in keeping with the grace and beauty that always surrounds Him. He is with us watching.
January 19, 1990 (2) – Re: Osho leaving His body
Amrito’s second announcement:
Osho asked that I make this announcement:
He said to tell you all that since His days in the Marshal’s cell in Charlotte, in America, His body has been gradually deteriorating. He said that He has kept His pain to Himself but living in this body had become a hell.
He also said: “Never speak of me in the past tense, my presence here will be many times greater without the burden of my tortured body. Remind my people that they will feel much more, they will know immediately.”
He looked into Jayesh’s eyes and said: “I leave you my dream.”
As He was dying I asked Him how we should celebrate His death. He said: “You take me to the Buddha Hall for ten minutes and then take me off to the burning ghats.”
He said that His samadhi will be Chuang Tzu.
There are other things that He said, that we will let you know tomorrow, but for now, let me just say that in death He was just as you would have expected. When I held His hand and started crying, He just looked at me and said: “No, no, that is not the way.” I immediately stopped. He just replied with a beautiful smile.
We are with the most beautiful being. We are all blessed. He is here with us now, and as always He will be delighted to join in our celebration. So let us give our Beloved Osho a send-off in death that is appropriate for someone who has lived His life as fully as any man who has ever lived.
January 20, 1990 – Re: Osho leaving His body
Amrito’s third announcement:
As you know, over these last few days, Osho’s body has been becoming noticeably weaker. What you may not know is that He has also been in considerable pain. By the night of 18th, the pain in His legs was so severe that He was not able even to come and stand on the podium with us.
Over that night He became weaker and weaker. Every movement of the body was obviously agonizing. Yesterday morning I noticed that His pulse was also weak and slightly irregular. I said I thought He was dying. He nodded. I asked Him if we could call in the cardiologists and prepare for cardiac resuscitation. He said, “No, just let me go. Existence decides its timing.”
I was helping him to the bathroom when He said: “And you put wall-to-wall carpet in here, just like this bath mat.”
Then He insisted on walking over to His chair. He sat down and made arrangements for the few items that He has in His room. “Who should this go to?” He said, pointing to His small stereo. “It is audio? Nirupa would like it?”, He asked. Nirupa has cleaned His room for so many years.
And then He went carefully around the room and left instructions for every item. “Those you take out,” He said, pointing to the dehumidifiers which He had found too noisy recently. “And always make sure one air conditioner is on,” He continued.
It was incredible. Very simply, in a very matter-of-fact and precise way, He looked at everything. He was so relaxed, as if He were going for the weekend.
He sat on the bed and I asked what we should do for His samadhi. “You just put my ashes in Chuang Tzu, under the bed. And then people can come in and meditate there,” He said.
“And what about this room?”, I asked. “This would be good for the samadhi?” He asked. “No,” I said, “Chuang Tzu will be beautiful.” I said we would like to keep His present bedroom as it is. “So you make it nice,” He said. And then He said He would like it marbled.
“And what about the celebration?” I asked. “Just take me to Buddha Hall for ten minutes,” He said, “and then take me to the burning ghats and put my hat and socks on me before you take my body.”
I asked Him what I should say to you all. He said to tell you that since His days in the marshal’s cell in Charlotte, North Carolina, in America, His body has been deteriorating. He said that in Oklahoma jail they poisoned him with thallium and exposed Him to radiation, which we only came to know when the medical experts were consulted. He said they had poisoned Him “in such a way that would leave no proof. My crippled body is the work of the Christian fundamentalists in the United States government,” He said. He said that He had kept His pain to Himself, but living in this body has become a hell.
He lay down and rested again. I went and told Jayesh what was happening and that He was obviously leaving His body. When He called again, I told Him Jayesh was here and He said for Jayesh to come in. We sat on the bed and He gave us His final words.
“Never speak of me in the past tense,” He said. “My presence here will be many times greater without the burden of my tortured body. Remind my people that they will feel much more – they know immediately.”
At one point I was holding His hand and I started to cry. He looked at me, almost sternly. “No, no,” He said, “That is not the way.” I immediately stopped and He just smiled beautifully.
Osho then spoke to Jayesh and talked about how He wanted the expansion of the work to continue. He said that now that He was leaving His body, many more people would come; many more people’s interest would show, and His work would expand incredibly beyond our ideas.
Then He said: “I leave you my dream.”
Then He whispered so quietly that Jayesh had to put His ear very close to Him, and Osho said: “And remember, Anando is my messenger.” Then He paused, and said: “No, Anando will be my medium.” At that point Jayesh moved to one side, and Osho said to me, “medium will be the right word?”
I hadn’t heard what had preceded it, so I didn’t understand. “Meeting?” I said. “No,” He replied: “For Anando, medium – she will be my medium.”
He lay back quietly and we sat with Him while I held His pulse. Slowly it faded. When I could hardly feel it, I said: “Osho, I think this is it.” He just nodded gently, and closed His eyes for the last time.
Osho has given some very specific guidance for His work:
About nine months ago, Osho formed “The Inner Circle”, a group of sannyasins now numbering twenty. Osho said He would have no successor, the Inner Circle would be His successor. The function of the Inner Circle is – in Osho’s words – “to reach unanimous decisions about the continued functioning and expansion of the commune and Osho’s work.” Anando is preparing a full account of Osho’s guidance on the workings of this group and who is in it. It will be available for you all to read tomorrow.
We are preparing in the next Osho Times all that Osho has said about what will happen when He leaves His body. I have two of these beautiful pieces for you.
Ten years ago, in answer to the question: What happens when you leave your body? He replied:
“I will be dissolved in my people. Just as you can taste the sea from any place and it is salty, you will be able to taste any of my sannyasins and you will find the same taste: the taste of the Blessed One.
I am preparing my people to live joyously, ecstatically. So when I am not in my body, it won’t make any difference to them. They will still live the same way – and maybe my death will bring them more intensity .”
About six months ago, He responded to a question from Italian TV about what would happen after His death, by saying:
“I believe and trust absolutely in existence. If there is any truth in what I am saying, it will survive. The people who remain interested in my work will be simply carrying the torch, but not imposing anything on anyone, either by sword or bread. I will remain a source of inspiration to my people, and that is what most sannyasins will feel. I want them to grow on their own. Qualities like love, around which no church can be created, like awareness, qualities which are nobody’s monopoly, like celebration, rejoicing, and maintaining childlike, fresh eyes. I want people to know themselves, not be according to someone else, and the way is in.”
I hope I have conveyed to you what, throughout all these months of ill health and impending death, has been most striking about what Osho has been saying. And that is that when His work continues without His having to be in the body, then this is the flowering of His dream. Let me repeat His exact words in reference to His leaving the body:
“My presence here will be many times greater…. “Remind my people that they will feel much more, they will know immediately.”
He said: My work is going really well, the commune is running beautifully, and after my death, many many more people will be coming here.”
One of the things Osho always said is: “Always make room for sannyasins to contribute to my work.”
I think you can take it that there is going to be a lot for us all to do. In some inexplicable way it feels, not that His work is over, but that it has just begun.
It feels that His whole life has been a preparation for the moment when His people can sit in silence and feel His presence without His having to do the work of carrying His body. He always says He is a lazy man. Two nights ago, for the very first time, that happened. For the first time, we ALL sat together in silent communion without His physical presence.
It is already gone 7 o’clock. He will be waiting for us now, for that to happen again.
Amrito’s account in Buddha Hall 20.01.1990 of Osho’s last hours was recorded on video, ‘I Leave You My Dream’, and the transcribed text first printed in a commemorative supplement to Osho Times International. Vol. III, 1990:3/4 (01.02.1990), and in Yes Osho Computer Newsletter. Vol. IV, No. 25. (20.01.1990). See also text in Poona Two 7.14, Niranjan 2012, p. 252, and Vaidya 2017.
Video 2. Swani Amrito in Buddha Hall annoucement 20.01.1990: I Leave You My Dream.
21. Osho’s Death Certificate. 19.01.1990. (Vaidya 2017)
22. Affidavit by Dr. Gokul Gokani (Sw Anand Krishna) at Vadodara, Gujarat, India. 14.12.2015. Four pages. Vaidya 2017.
23. Illustrated Weekly of India. February, 1990. 11 pages.
24. Orbituaries and Quotes on Osho. 6 pages.
Including: Tributes to Osho in the World Press. January 1990. Editorial in: Osho Times International (India), 1990:5. 01.03.1990.
See also: Volume I / Appendix / Indian and International Quotes and Comments on Osho.
“There has never been anyone like him before. It is doubtful whether there will be anyone like him again. Anyone who can turn over two dozen governments against him must have something in him. One suspects it is intellectual honesty of a rare kind.
“There have been others like him at different times… iconoclasts in their own way and with an abundance of talent. But they, even while they paid a certain price, knew where to stop. Osho pulls all stops. He is freedom without end.” (M.V. Kamath, former Editor, Illustrated Weekly, The Book Review. March, 1988)
Heading: Bhagwan of the godless. By Khushwant Singh
“I was truly grieved to hear of the passing of Acharya Rajneesh. In my opinion, for whatever it is worth, he was the most original thinker that India has produced: the most erudite, the most clear-headed and the most innovative. And, in addition, he had an inborn gift for words, spoken and written. We will not see the like of him for decades to come.
Rajneesh’s gimmickry created a totally false picture of him as a person and a philosopher. High-living with fleets of Rolls Royces, free sex, frequent changes of titles: Acharya to Bhagwan to Maitreyi Buddha to Osho. All that is of little consequence. He has to be judged as a thinker, and as a thinker he will rank amongst the giants.
Although dubbed as a godman, Rajneesh did not believe in God. “God”, he wrote “is the most meaningless word in the human language.” Neither Jain Mahavira nor the Buddha believed in God: only some of their stupid followers do so. Rajneesh did not believe in any religion. “All the religions have reduced humanity into beggars. They call it prayer, they call it worship – beautiful names to hide an ugly reality,” he wrote. “All beliefs are blind, all beliefs are false. They do not let you grow up, they only help you to kneel down like a slave before dead statues, rotten scriptures, primitive philosophies,” he wrote. He did not believe in life before birth or life after death. “This is the only planet we have, and this is the only life we have,” he wrote. So make the best of it, get the most you can out of it. Meditating on these problems will help you to clear the cobwebs of irrationality and bring you peace of mind.
It is impossible to do justice to this great man in a few words. I would exhort my readers to read his sermons now printed in hundreds of books. With the going of Rajneesh, India has lost one of its greatest sons. India’s loss will be shared by all who have an open mind throughout the world.” (Khuswant Singh. Sunday Midday, Bombay. 28.01.1990)
“Let there be no doubt on this point. I still do recognize Rajneesh [Osho] as one of the greatest figures of this century – he was a man of spirit, energy and playfulness; we will never again see anyone like him.” (Peter Sloterdijk. German professor and philosopher, 1996)
“He has to be judged as a thinker, and as a thinker he will rank amongst the giants… It is a religion for the irreligious, for the agnostic, for the unbeliever, for the rationalist.” (Khushwant Singh, author and editor)
“Osho gave his country and the world a vision, which one can be proud of.” (Chandra Shekhar, former Indian prime minister)
“Osho has a unique identity of his own. Our worldly life can become more fruitful through meditation and people can evolve towards a better society with the help of Osho’s wisdom.” (Rt. Hon’ble Shri Girija Prasad Koirala, prime minister of Nepal)
“Osho is such a vision that stands for the welfare of the whole of humanity, transcending the narrow boundaries of religions. Though today’s man is so caught up in his myriad problems, all of Osho’s books and discourses suggest simple and easy ways for man’s liberation.” (Lokendra Bahadur Chand, former prime minster of Nepal)
“Osho speaks the language of today’s Yug Bhasha. His message is for the whole world.” (Shri Krishnakant, vice-president of India)
“Osho is unquestionably one of the greatest performers of our time – whose true impact, I believe, will be discovered decades later, when the history of this era will be written.” (Pritish Nandy. The Illustrated Weekly of India. January 17, 1988)
“Few people have understood India like Osho. It was an understanding at many levels. The philosophical, the historic, the purely emotional – and even the political and the literary, the wanton and the spiritual. His was a holistic understanding. An understanding that went beyond words, into the unchartered terrain of true love. For love was at the core of everything that Osho believed. It was the ultimate message he left for us. To discover, experience, savour life through love…
He had provided us a rare insight into our lives and times. He has ridiculed us, pushed us… hurt us, and thereby, made richer human beings out of us. He made us think for ourselves; forced us to reject him, and by that act of rejection, brought us closer to him – and in a strange kind of way, closer to ourselves.” (Pritish Nandy, editor and publisher)
“Osho is not trying to purvey information but a truth that bypasses conscious thought and all that belongs to it, just as the most important activities of human beings bypass the mind.” (Bernard Levin, journalist and writer)
“Osho is a fountain of wisdom that never goes dry. This most original mind has created a new world for us humans to revel in, enjoy and remain ourselves through the pathway of love. Here is the quintessence of the wisdom of ages, the pure nectar of essential knowledge for mortal to acquaint with immortality.” (V.N. Narayanan, editor)
“With Osho, words flow endlessly. Provocatively. Challengingly. In a hundred years more copies of Osho’s works will have been printed that the Bible itself, till now the outstanding best-seller.” (M.V. Kamath, editor)
“I have heard Shree Rajneesh and have been inspired by his talks. His works are sublime and seek to liberate the soul of humans. Indeed his presentation is unique, his goal is great and his success in liberating each person from the mafia surrounding the soul is rewarding reading. The message that he had to deliver must reach everywhere. Ultimately salvation comes when one attains freedom from oneself. That, I believe, is the consummation which exposure to Osho may help.” (V.R. Krishna Iyer, former supreme court judge)
“Osho makes you free from the existing mind set… he is inclusive, not exclusive.” (Mr. Nair, The High Commissioner for India to Singapore)
“He is the rarest and most talented religionist to appear this century.” (Kazuyoshi Kino, professor of Buddhist studies)
“I have never heard anyone so beautifully and playfully integrate and then dissolve the psychological problems which, for generations, have sapped our human energies.” (Rev. Cain, chaplain, Churchill College, Cambridge)
“The Upanishads talk about ultimate wisdom, Osho tells you how to live it.” (R.E. Gussner, professor of religion, University of Vermont, USA)
“As you savor the chapters, you’ll discover that Osho is like a Zen archer. Almost poetically he circles his target, surveying it over and over again from many positions before he draws back his bow and lets the arrow fly…
Osho is one of the most important educators and philosophical and religious leaders in the late 20th century… I firmly believe that hundreds and thousands… would be thrilled, delighted and gain a new perspective on life by reading his books.” (Robert Rimmer, author)
“Indian mystic Osho has been one of the most successful mixers of Eastern philosophies with Western therapeutic techniques.” (Russel Chandler, author)
“Osho is the most dangerous man since Jesus Christ… He’s obviously a very effective man, otherwise he wouldn’t be such a threat. He’s saying the same things that nobosdy else has the courage to say. A man who has all kinds of ideas, they’re not only inflammatory – they also have a resonance of truth that scares the pants off the control freaks…
Wit and playfulness are a tremendously serious transcendence of evil, and this is one thing that Osho understood better than any contemporary teacher that I can think of. Gurdjieff had an element of that in his teachings, but certainly in the past fifty years there has not existed a teacher in the world who understood the value of playfulness and wit quite so well as Osho.” (Tom Robbins, author)
“I recognize the emerald breeze when it rattles my shutters. And Osho is like a hard, sweet wind, circling the planet, blowing the beanies off of rabbits and popes, scattering the lies on the desks of the bureaucrats, stampeding the jackasses in the stables of the powerful, lifting the skirts of the pathologically prudish and tickling the spiritually dead back to life.”
“Jesus had his parables, Buddha his sutras, Mohammed his fantasies of the Arabian night. Osho has something more appropriate for a species crippled by greed, fear, ignorance and superstition: he has cosmic comedy.”
“What Osho is out to do, it seems to me, is pierce our disguises, shatter our illusions, cure our addictions and demonstrate the self-limiting and often tragic folly of taking ourselves too seriously.” (Tom Robbins. http://www.osho.com/magazine/ 20.10.2004)
“I have read most of [Osho’s] books and listened to tapes of his talks, and I am convinced that in the spiritual tradition, here is a mind of intellectual brilliance and persuasive ability as an author.” (James Broughton, author and poet)
“These books are really what people are looking for… they are even more relevant now than when they were spoken.” (Michael Mann, chairman of Element Books)
“No one is more qualified to introduce the mystics than Osho, a man who stands out even in their exalted company. He speaks from his own experience, bringing his mystic predecessors to life, making them his contemporaries.” (John Lilly, author)
“As a result of reading The Golden Future (and many other works by Osho) I would like to let you know that I completely and heartily support the vision of Osho. As a writer I hope that his words will reach the hearts of those who need them most. I have every faith in this result, because the words of Osho are loaded with the power of love.” (Drouwe de Groot, writer)
“When I wrote and prepared for shooting Vanilla sky, I constantly checked in with Osho’s insights. It is not so easy to present the unconscious mind with images and a story. Osho is the only one who can perfectly explain it all, the inner and the outer and that helped me and my team immensely.” (Tom Cruise, actor)
“”Through my friend Deepak Chopra I came across Osho’s books which gave me another deeper shift in my life. I regret I did not meet him in person, and I feel sorry the US Government missed such an opportunity back in ’86.” (Madonna, singer and performer)
“I really got into Osho’s books. I have always loved his books. They were top notch.” (Marianne Williamson, author)
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“In my opinion, for whatever it is worth, he was the most original thinker that India has produced: the most erudite, the most clearheaded and the most innovative. And, in addition, he had an inborn gift for words, spoken and written. We will not see the likes of him for decades to come.
It is impossible to do justice to this great man in a few words. I would exhort my readers to read his sermons, now printed in hundreds of books. With the going of Rajneesh, India has lost one of its greatest sons. India’s loss will be shared by all who have an open mind throughout the world.
Within a few years from now, his message will be heard all over the world.
(Khushwant Singh. Senior journalist and author) [This article appeared in 50 Indian newspapers of different languages]
“Perhaps for decades people will still be reading his books – all 650 of them, and connecting with him through radio and video tapes, making him the world’s first remorte control guru.” (Amrita Shah. The Illustrated Weekly of India. January 28, 1990)
“I think he was one of the most original thinkers and one of the most exciting performers of our times. The tragedy is that we never saw him for what he was.” (Pritish Nand. Editor. Illustrated Weekly of India and The Independent)
“There are some who happen to be geniuses in the field of philosophy, art and science and occasionally the world honours them. But Rajneesh is unique, unmatched: he is one whose very existence has honored this world, has honored this country.” (Amrita Pritam. World famous Punjabi poetess, author and member of Rajyasabha (Upper House of the Indian Parliament))
“The world has lost a great provocateur who demolished many myths and helped man to liberate himself from this bondage of wornout thoughts and useless life-styles. India is poorer today.” (Madhu Mehta. Hindustani Andolan, Bombay)
“Osho was born before this time, and will live forever. Even though he was extraordinary, he lived like an ordinary man. He helped people solve their problems like a brother, like a friend. Future generations will certainly value his teachings.” (Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. World famous flautist)
“I consider Osho a great artist. I was inspired by him always. One who can inspire an artist, he himself must be a great artist.” (Ustad Usman Khan, sitar player)
A condolence meeting was held under the auspices of the Indian Writers Forum, Aligarh, of poets, writers and intelligentsia, to pay homage to the sudden and untimely death of Osho. It was presided over by Shree Gopaldas Neeraj, the renowned poet. The main speakers – Dr. Ravindar Bhramar, Dr. Buddhasen Neehar, Dr. Narendra Tiwari, poet Suresh Kumar and Shree Neeraj – offered their humble respects to Osho. The following resolution was unanimously passed:
“Hearing of the departure of [Osho] has given a deep shock to the whole humaity. Osho was the twentieth century’s most radical thinker, most revolutionary mystic and the leading light of the spiritual world. His original insight has created a spiritual revolution in the world. He is an invaluable link in the line of mystics such as Socrates, Zarathustra, Lao Tzu, Mahavir and Buddha. According to His vision of life, birth and death are two sides of the same coin. It will not, therefore, be appropriate to say that “He has died”; liberated from the confinement of the body He has become one with the universal consciousness. We are sad in His Mahaparinirvana because now our eyes are unable to have the pleasure of seeing Him. He was immortal, He is immortal and He will always be immortal. He was with us physically, now He is always present in His vision, His philosophy.
This assembly of writers and intelligentsia of Aligarh feels deeply sad and realizes that Osho’s departure has created a vacuum in the spiritual world of this Earth which cannot possibly be filled in the near future.”
Signed, Neehar, Neeraj, Narendra, Tiwari, Suresh, Kumar. Hindustani Lekhak Sanga (Indian Writers Forum)(A literary and cultural forum dedicated to the emotional integrity of the nation)
“He has to suffer everything that this caliber of enlightened person has suffered before. Drinking poison and sharing nectar – this is the invariable fate of every great revolutionary seer. Human society cannot put up with one who wants to move ahead of his time.” (Gopaldas Neeraj, poet)
“Osho was born before his time and will live forever. He helped people solve their problems like a brother, like a friend. Future generations will certainly value his teachings.” (Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, flutist)
“Osho’s beauty is breathtaking. When I gaze at him my heart calls out.” (Pandit Birju Kaharaj, khathak dancer)
“I have enormous respect for his world vision and the kind of international communities he is building. I have always felt his influence in my life.” (Kabir Bedi, film actor)
“He had a sense of humor. It was frequently exercised, though not everyone always got the joke. Neither did he mind humor leveled at himself, another rarity among spiritual leaders… But beneath the levity and the circus there was an attitude that authorities instinctively recognized and disliked. [Osho] was an anarchist… He mocked the US president, Queen Elizabeth II, organized religions, tha national leaders who variously showed him the door af their countries, tax authorities, his own Indian government, academics and media pundits.” (Christopher Reed, Sunday Age, Melbourne. January 21, 1990)
“Osho had a tremendous spiritual power to go into such a variety of subjects including Geeta, Nanak, Meera, Kabir, Sufism, Tantra, Yoga and Zen. He has given a new vision and direction to humanity.” (Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, santoor player)
“Osho is an important achievement of the world. Only his meditations will save humanity.” (Dr. Giriya Vyas, poetess and parliamentarian)
“The fleet of Rolls-Royces was just wonderful… Of course [Osho] knew he would make himself into a caricature of a guru with this Rolls-show. That he did it only proves his greatness.” (Die Tageszeitung, Berlin. January 23, 1990)
“[Osho] is dead. The most wonderful of all saints of our day died at the age of 58 in the Indian City of Poona.” (Kölner Stadtanzeiger, Cologne. January 20, 1990)
“Life will be duller with the passing of [Osho]. Whether he directed his acerbic wit at his fellow godman the Maharishi Yogi and his transcendental meditation as the cure for the world’s ills or the more pedestrian panacea offered by Mr. Morarji Desai, [Osho] could be counted upon to stir up a controversy. And he loved it, for he was the self-styled proponent of chaos. He lived his life as flamboyantly as his utterances… His collection of disciples was equally impressive, for he managed to draw to his ashram incredible talent from the Western world, including an heir to the Ford corporate empire as well as some equally high profile Indian followers. There must have been more than the sexual liberation the propounded to attract them… [Osho] was a uniquely charismatic phenomenon and a courageous one… He was a refreshing change from the sanctimonious stance of saffron. He stripped philosophy of cant, Hinduism of holier-than-thouness, threw conventional vehicles of worship out of what was termed the “gateless gate” of his ashram, and enjoined his followers to “laugh their way to god.” (The Times of India. Editorial. January 22, 1990)
“[Osho] is no more. But what he has said is of lasting value. He is often misquoted or misinterpreted on his views on sex. He never advocated indulgence. On the contrary, he always talked about transcendence above all forms of attachment.
His is the pathless path of compassion and love and humane action born out of it. He has unmasked all the hypocrisies and artificialities which have imprisoned us within the bounds of society.
Such heretics are rarely found. The sooner persons like [Osho] and J. Krishnamurti are understood, the better for humanity. Society will not progress unless people change.” (Indian Express. January 26, 1990)
“The tragedy of India is that it cannot appreciate healthy thinking. Buddha taught Indians but Chinese, Japanese and others learnt from him. However, in the case of [Osho], foreigners already appreciate him. God knows how long it will take Indians to eulogize his thoughts. This gem of a man endeavored to show the people on earth the right meaning of life but in return got humiliation.” (The Indian Post. January 26, 1990)
“No one is more qualified to introduce the mystics than Osho, a man who stands out even in their exalted company. He speaks from his own experience, bringing his mystic predecessors to life, making them his contemporaries.” (John Lilly. Scientist and author)
“I was inspired by Osho’s wisdom when I wrote the song ‘How fragile we all are’. Reading his books gave me hope for humanity. It is a must for everybody to have a look into his words.” (Sting)
“But what did He do? He got 93 Rolls-Royces and sent Sheela out into the world; and she trashed this superior image so perfectly, making me cringe with her actions and behavior on TV. Why? Because her behavior did not match the standard I had set for us disciples of an enlightened being, chosen to change the world for the better. She destroyed that image, an image I was part of, was identified with.
The old religions all started out the same way as we did, with an enlightened being at the core – Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Muhammad – with truths to transform the individual into a conscious being. But as soon as the awakened one has left the body, the truths get corrupted and turned into rules and commandments by the unconscious mind that has no interest in waking up. In the end, unconsciousness always wins in big movements, because the majority of minds are unconscious; the individual is alone.
I believe our Master did not want us to go down the same road. He destroyed that religious image Himself, He destroyed His own movement to save the essence for those who can understand and can stand alone and be a light unto themselves.
We inherited a contradictory legacy that no one can satisfactorily explain to outsiders; not even we as insiders have made sense of it all yet, what it is all about – and we never will. The image is too stained to ever turn it into a religion, at least for now in our time. Later, who knows what will happen?” (Dayanand Bharati. Viha Connection, 2019:1)
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