Osho International Foundation and its Tunnel Vision

In their recent rejoinder about the ongoing issue of the sale of Osho Basho, the Osho International Foundation said something quite strange which undermines Osho’s multi-dimensional vision of meditation, love, and devotion, as Osho shared with the world, talking about various mystics, such as Krishna, Jesus, Mohammad, Guru Nanak, Kabir, Meera, Rabiya, Daya-Sahajo, and so many Sufi and Hassid mystics.

In their letter to the Governor of Maharashtra, Mukesh Sarda writes: “The Osho International Meditation Resort is an educational foundation and is not a place for pujas. The development control rules of Koregaon Park would never allow a puja facility, and in any case, this would be totally contrary to Osho’s guidance.”

Living with Osho in Rajneeshpuram, USA, and in Pune, the sannyasins were taught by Osho that working in the commune is a real worship, for which the Hindi word is puja. We sannyasins do not know any other kind of puja of incense burning in front of any idol. Whenever we inquired from each other, we would ask “what worship do you do?” and another sannyasin would respond “I do vegetable chopping” meaning that this was his worship at the moment. Or some sannyasin worker would ask the other “what is your work-meditation”? And he would get the answer “guarding is my work-meditation at the moment”, or “washing dishes is my work-meditation”

Now this word puja is being condemned by OIF after hiring Sodexo company’s paid workers .

Mukesh writes further: “We are in effect a meditation school that uses the techniques from India’s meditation heritage and also some new meditation techniques that Osho has created for the contemporary person.”

And he forgot to mention that we are mainly “a mystery school”, which is the term used by Osho in so many discourses.

https://oshoworld.com/the-mystery-school

Osho says: “My beloved ones…

You are blessed to be here today, because we are starting a new series of talks between the master and the disciple. It is not only a birth of a new book, it is also a declaration of a new phase. Today, this moment: 7:00 pm, Saturday, the sixteenth of August of the year 1986 — one day this moment will be remembered as a historical moment, and you are blessed because you are participating in it. You are creating it; without you, it cannot happen.

“Books can be written, can be dictated to a machine, but what I am going to start is totally different. It is an UPANISHAD. Long forgotten, one of the most beautiful words in any language, a very living word, ‘Upanishad’ means sitting at the feet of the master. It says nothing more: just to be in the presence of the master, just to allow him to take you in, in his own light, in his own blissfulness, in his own world. And that’s exactly the work of a mystery school.”

After misleading the sannyas world and Government authorities, they have used such terms as “would never allow a puja facility”, but only meditation techniques.

The most significant question is wish to ask: Is the contribution of Osho, the enlightened mystic ( in the words of OIF is a teacher and an author for the western market) only the meditation techniques? What about his thousands of discourses on Krishna’s Bhagwadgeeta, Songs of Meera and Kabir, Ek Omkar Satnam of Guru Nanak dev, Songs of Sahajo and Daya Bai, Narad Bhakti Sutra, Shandilya’s Athato Bhakti Jigyasa, Adi Shankaracharya’s Bhaj Govindam etc. from Ashtavakra to Zarathusthra which are not just the meditation methods.

https://www.osho.com/hi/osho-hindi-online-library/the-books

Did Osho waste his years giving commentaries on all the other mystics who have not talked about any method of meditation?

I suggest to OIF: Please do some homework before replying and do not confine Osho to your tunnel vision.

Swami Chaitanya Keerti