I was at the ranch for four years. I lived in a trailer close to the cafeteria because of my physical disability. A wonderful, elderly, beloved Indian woman also lived in that trailer, Sita Ma, and she was regularly visited in the evenings by the other Indian sannyasin living on the ranch. I tell you this by way of background for the anecdote I’d like to share. I was reminded of it while reading the comments on the issue of to have or not to have another commune.

The days following Bhagwan’s disclosures of the crimes that had been committed were filled with confusion, uncertainty and much, much more. During a gathering of the Indian sannyasin in our trailer one evening, I heard Ma Taru say that what’s happening is the fulfillment of the gacchhamis. The first gacchhami, I Go to the Feet of the Awakened One, is fulfilled when an individual becomes a disciple; the second gacchami, I Go to the Feet of the Commune of the Awakened One, was being fulfilled while in Poona and at the ranch; it was now time for the third gacchami, I Go to the Feet of the Ultimate Truth of the Awakened One, to begin. We will be dispersed into the world to live our lives with the consciousness we gained as a result of the first two gacchhamis. What form that takes will be unique to each individual.

I was strongly opposed to adopting the gacchhamis and I performed the ritual grudgingly each day.* That evening I found value in them for the first time. I didn’t read Bhagawati’s letter so I can’t speak to what she said directly, but with Bhagwan no longer in a physical body, the best any of us can do is live what we learned from our experience of him in the way that best matches each one of us. In other words, anyone wanting to live communally according to his teachings should go ahead and set one up, and those of us who prefer to live what we learned in the world at large should do that too.

Remembering Thomas Wolfe’s sentiment, You Can’t Go Home Again, seems apt under the circumstances.

With love,
Ma Prem Sambodhi

*For a fuller understanding of my attitude, I invite you to read my book, recommended in Persephone’s newsletter, #16.

Note from Persephone – Sambodhi’s book is well worth searching for. You can read about it in my review from March 4th called ‘Persephone’s Book Review: A Surprise Life by Susan M. Clare’ Go to the Archive section at the bottom of the right hand column on any page on the web site, click on Book Reviews and you will find it there.

Just be clear about one thing. Osho is still very firmly in my heart. You write: ” . . . you apparently consider that Osho and sannyas existed only for you alone and, once you have had enough, then that can be the end of Osho and sannyas. To put it another way – having ruled yourself out of sannyas you wish to rule everybody else out too. . .”

If you had taken the trouble to read anything on my website you would know that is not true. My remarks were not meant to discourage others finding their way to Osho – far from it. I wrote about my unease at the hidden suggestion in the original letter I received, about the new commune, that there was someone already in waiting to ‘take Osho’s chair’ – to be some sort of successor.

Thousands are continuing to find Osho – all on their own, through his books and in centres all over the world. There is an organic growth of new sannyasins finding their own ways and with their own companions on those ways. There is no need for hullabaloo of any kind, and there is certainly no need for an Osho dynasty, Osho himself is more than enough!

I recently read a beautiful lecture given by him in 1967, in it he stated, with crystal clarity, that there should be no organisation, no cult. He said he wanted there to be a ‘gathering of friends’ – this is what is happening now I am glad to say. I consider myself to be one of those friends. To download the lecture, please click here.

Did you not know that many thousands of people have arrived lately? You are saying “I have done it – it was of value – but I will oppose offereing this value to anybody else.”

That is absurd. I’d have thought that, with all that gratitude and love for Osho, you’d have moved to make sure that the same experience was available now and for centuries – that you’d offer your experience gladly to help raise awareness of these “mistakes” so that they do not become destructive.

Because, after all, you say that “This is what does happen when thousands of people get together – as has been proven over and over again in all walks of life – globally.”

Perfectly true – yet London is still functioning after 2000 years.

I am sad to see hear that you apparently consider that Osho and sannyas existed only for you alone and, once you have had enough, then that can be the end of Osho and sannyas.

To put it another way – having ruled yourself out of sannyas you wish to rule everybody else out too. But sannyas has been refined. All those buffoons have left! The new people are far better, and there is no idiot therapist herd-think to give them problems.

James E. Bonser also wrote:

However, I am sure that no re-forming, re-establishing, re-grouping, or for that matter trying to fulfill whatever the dream was, will bring that energy back.

He is also living in the distant past.

Osho came into my life at the begining of 1980 and I took sannyas in Belgium. There were a few Belgian sannyasins, but the connection with the master was the most important to me. It was then, is still now, and will be there with me for ever. I saw him in Rajneeshpuram for 2 visits.

I will be always be grateful for the heart-opening, lessons and growth that he gave me and still does. I never had any desire to live in a commune. I like my freedom. His work continues. I feel always happy when I see how he can open and touch again the hearts of young people today from all over the world.

I feel myself as an ambassador of his teachings and spreading his work for those who are in search or need.
I like to share his world and love with people who are open to it. And, when occasionaly there is some meeting with sannyasins, it is such a unique joy to celebrate it with his people.

In 2006 he called me to come to him when I was in Glastonburry. In 2007 I went to Poona for the 1st time after all these years. And even ‘though I missed poona 1 and heard criticisms of the resort, it felt like a magical world. For me he is the greatest master of all. I travelled in india and visited other ashrams but his place is my home and the best. Every Monday I meditate in a group and if I sit there, or in Poona, it is all the same as sitting in samadhi in Poona. One stargate to other dimensions….Let us focus on essentials, heart and soul energy connected with existence and not lose ourselves into the illusions of the temporal form and his changes.

Thank you for sharing your vision, beautiful wisdom and experience.

I take your point about the living loose connection – aided by the Internet – that now exists, but don’t see that Osho would have been against another commune. One can get very cosy living in one’s own space, with a few chosen friends, with one’s choice of when and how one integrates with others and – while of course it’s true that awareness can be practiced in all kinds of situations – it’s sometimes the “shock” of events outside one’s comfortably known realm that are the great teachers.

Nothing needs to be done to be aware, to be awake – but this simple understanding and practice takes for many of us (perhaps most) a tool and the instruction in using that tool that comes from a non-controlled (by our minds) direction. As you know I too was in the Ashram by 1973 and led groups and got hurt (emotionally) and hurt others (blindly unintentionally) and started the first “Osho oriented” ashram outside India (in Ibiza) and saw that too fall apart…and all of this IS the teaching. The ego is the issue and the many ways of investigating the ego and realising the essential Self, is the way.

Communes provide – at a particular phase in peoples lives – both much needed support in investigation and the “outside needling” that can lead to a pricking of our conditioned attitudes about who we are. So I dont feel we should say “no” to their creation. What we do need to do of course is be aware of the pitfalls in any human enterprise – and especially where there is money and power over other peoples lives at stake. But these too are features to be investigated – we need to know the darkness as well as the light of our minds to ultimately know their illusionary nature.

Osho chose to teach through the tool of communes, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (“I Am That”) that I was also grateful to be with in the late 1970′s, did not. He simply sat in the corner of his room in Mumbai and, simply WAS and spoke directly from that place of detachment, that witnessing, that was a joy. N didnt touch diectly upon the emotional confusion that existed within most of Osho’s Sanyassins – so few went to him. What they wanted was the rub of bodies, feelings and minds…and we all got that! Via Holistic Psychotheraputa…

There’s still a place for both, and more…
with love, Satprem