‘They want to sell Osho ashram’
‘They want to wind up Osho’s Pune operation, take the money and move out of India.’
Osho followers stage a protest against the proposed sale of the ashram’s properties in Pune, outside the charities commissioner’s office in Mumbai.
When Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, better known as Osho, died in January 1990, his spokesman Swami Chaitanya Keerti announced it to the world.
Thirty-three years later, the situation has changed so much that the same Chaitanya Keerti is not even permitted to enter the Osho Ashram in Pune to which he dedicated his whole life.
Osho had settled down in Pune after he was deported from the United States in 1985. And 33 years after his death, some of Osho’s disciples today are fighting for control of the ashram which he set up in 1985.
The situation turned for the worse when there was violence in the ashram on March 22 and the Pune police had to intervene to stop the sanyasis fighting each other.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com spoke to Chaitanya Keerti about the incident and what happened at the ashram that led to violence.