Four New Osho Communes birthed in Nepal.

By Swami Aatmo Neerav.

When Osho visited Nepal in 1986 he seemed to see much behind the smiles and welcoming eyes of the simple people of the country. For he was later to say that in just a few years the whole country would be colored red, and its streets would run over with the colours of his sannyasins. It seems that this prophesy is taking life.

With the already existing four active communes and 67 meditation centres, one is bound to meet a maroon clad, freely swanking his mala, and flowing around the cities of Nepal. Now the chance of meeting these maroon clad is only to grow as four more communes are to be added.

Local sannyasins have initiated four commune projects in different cities under the patronage of Swami Anand Arun, an old Osho disciple, and the Co-ordinator of Osho Tapoban.

In Lumbini, the birth place of Gautama Buddha 10.6 acre land has been purchased by sannyasins to build an international village known as Osho Chetban International Village. The purchased plot is at a distance of 1 km from Gautama Buddha’s birth place. Bordered by a river the purchased land has been divided into three units; meditation unit, residential unit and a community unit. The village will have 100 residential houses with the facility of a community hall and centre, a meditation hall and a forest area. As the land is protected by the Lord Buddha Trust, no commercial activities or structures can be built around this area. Foreign sannyasins can also acquire land on a lease basis of 99 years.

In the city of lakes, Pokhara, sannyasins have already purchased the half of the purposed 3.8 acre for an Osho International Commune. Bordered by two huge white water rivers the purchased island overlooks a green forest and is situated very close to the Himalayan ranges of Pokhara. The plot is at 4kms distance from the Pokhara airport.

In Eastern Nepal, the Dharan municipality has granted 5 acres of land to Osho Nirvana Centre for developing it into a full fledged active and residential Osho commune. With a river boundary on one side, the land also has a dense forest and an already existing small hall which can be used for immediate meditation. A committee of local sannyasins has been formed for developing the land. In Southern Nepal also; an Osho lover has donated 8 acres land near the East West Highway in Lahan for developing it into an Osho commune. Sannyasins have already started planting trees and a plan has been passed to build a house for twenty people.

The patron of these projects Swami Anand Arun said; “It will be very difficult for people to believe in such big news. But it is all true. The finance and the plans have already been developed for building these communes. Soon we will have four more Osho communes in Nepal.”
All the four communes are spiritually affiliated to Osho Tapoban.

Drop it from the mind.

If meditation has happened to you, just feel thankful to the divine and forget it. Just feel grateful, and remember well that you don't have any capacity to have it, you are not in any way authorized to have it; it has been a gift. It has been an overflowing of the divine. Forget it. Don't expect it; dont demand it. It will come next day again deeper, higher, greater. It will go on expanding, but everyday drop it from the mind. -OSHO

Swami Anand Arun: I am only an ardent lover of Osho. (interview)

Swami Anand Arun, a 65 year-old-engineer first saw Osho in 1969 and was tantalized by his physical grace and firing speech. He began spreading Osho’s message in Nepal in 1970 opening a meditation centre at his own residence. Today, Swami Anand Arun is the Co-ordinator of Osho Tapoban International Commune in Nepal which has been spreading Osho’s message and helping seekers throughout the world since last 18 years. Through Swami Arun’s efforts Tapoban has already opened 22 Osho centres and communes in USA, Canada, Russia, UK , Germany and five communes and 60 centres only in Nepal. We sat down and talked with Swami Arun to know more about his experience with Osho and the ever-growing neo-sannyas movement. Here is what he had to say.

Would you please say something about Osho’s life and work?

Sw Arun: It’s very difficult to talk about Osho. He cannot be defined in words. The life of mystics and enlightened masters is like an iceberg. Only a small portion of their life is visible and the major portion remains hidden. He says that first you should know who you are. You should know your centre, your soul. Then you can understand at least a fragment of somebody like Osho who has become oceanic. An easier way is also to love him madly. If you are madly in love with him and you trust him totally, then you may be able to understand some of the mysteries of his life, what he is and what he wants to do for us. So, you either become self realized or fall madly in love with him. I can talk about him and his life endlessly, but it is completely unnecessary. It does not define who he is.

It’s been almost forty years since you met Osho and have been actively working to spread his message. What inspired you to give so much of your life for this movement?

Sw Arun: When I first met Osho forty years ago I was in a totally defeated state. There was no hope or zeal in life and I didn’t want to live. Before I met Osho there was a big question in my mind; What’s the purpose of living? But after I fell in love with him I found my answer. I should live to spread his message and to share his love with the world. I should live to meditate and to celebrate. He has given me this life, its meaning and the reason to live. I have surrendered my life to him and as his disciple I just want to become his medium. It’s not my life and therefore I don’t have any plans for it. He will keep me as long as he wants and I will continue with the same madness.

You have initiated more than fifty thousand people from all over the world and seventy five
percent of them are below the age of thirty five. What attracts so many young people to Osho?

Sw Arun: I would like to correct you. I have not initiated anybody. Only a master can initiate. I only inspire people. It is their decision to take sanyass and its Osho’s energy and love that accepts them. I am just a medium. I can become an empty vessel and through me Osho initiates his disciples. You are asking why most of the people are young. Yes, when religion is alive, it attracts young people. All the great things done by great masters were done during their young age. Buddha left his palace at the age of 29 and became enlightened when he was 35. Shankaracharya became enlightened at the age of 16 and died at the age of 32. Vivekananda died at 39 and Jesus died at 33. They were young people and they have done miracles in the world. When you are young energy is alive and you are innocent. Old people become cunning and old minds become greedy. So when religion is young it always attracts young people. Only young people can create miracles. Only young people can be REALLY RELIGIOUS.

What is your opinion about the current global situation?

Sw Arun: The current global situation is very alarming. It looks like we are no more interested in life. We are heading towards total destruction. Global warming, over population, scarcity of water, rupture in the ozone layer are a few indicators to show that the world is moving towards destruction. Osho has said several times that it’s high time we corrected ourselves or we will have to vacate this beautiful planet. Enlightened masters have always been giving the indication but very few people listen to them. But now even sociologists, environmentalists and scientists have started saying that we are heading towards global suicide. It’s now very urgent to correct our mistakes. Osho is a messenger for this transformation; to show where we have made mistakes and how we can correct them.

Your efforts have culminated into numerous meditation centres and communes all over the world.How do you manage so much?

Sw Arun: People can build houses but they can’t build temples. I have been to several temples built by rich people. Architecturally, they are well planned and well decorated but most of them have no spiritual energy because this energy cannot be created by money. Our meditation centres are Buddha fields where spiritual energy is alive. I would like to give you an example of the centre (Osho Sambodhi) that was recently opened in London. It is just an ordinary house but if you sit there for five minutes you will be charged by a divine energy. I cannot create this energy. Osho centres are created by existence and they are running because existence wants them to. Yes! We can become facilitators, we can become mediums, and I feel very lucky that existence has given me this opportunity.

What do these centres contribute to the society?

Their contribution to society is indirect. These centres make good and joyful individuals. A happy individual can make a happy society. If individuals are unhappy, stressed and angry then the whole society gets affected. So, these centres make people relaxed and joyful. At Tapoban you can see that people are happy even if they are not affluent. A new person can instantly realize that people here are always laughing and cracking jokes. Yes! We are happy people and we love to share happiness. These centres are like oases that radiate happiness in the world. And if the world needs anything, it’s happiness, love and freedom. These three most essential things in people’s life are all available in these centres. Osho centres are a free space, nobody interferes in anybody’s personal life. People have total liberty. It’s their life and they live according to their own intelligence. Centre coordinators or anybody in the centre does not have any right to interfere in anybody’s life. An individual’s right is highly respected. The centre attracts people who love Osho or who love humanity. You are here because you love Osho, because you love me and I am here because I love you. So, the basic ingredient is love. Freedom, love and happiness are a rare combination in the world. These centres provide the environment for love and life.

Being one of the pioneers of the Osho movement what would you to like to say to those involved with it today?

Sw Arun: I don’t consider myself a pioneer. I am only an ardent lover of Osho. I am not alone. Thousands of people are working for the master according to their understanding and I am one of them. I always work with the understanding that I could also be wrong. So, when I advise someone I also remind him that he is free to do what his intelligence tells him to. I have this experience that working for the master is the greatest pleasure of my life. Nothing can give me more happiness, more satisfaction. My experience says that if you want to be happy, if you want satisfaction then become a medium of the master. When the master starts working through you the whole existence will bless you, the whole existence will love you. Lots of people think that they will work for Osho after five years, after ten years, after they complete their studies, their service and so on.
NO! If you are postponing, it is never going to happen. It has to happen from this moment, from now. It is the greatest illusion of the mind. Right it down in your diary that if you are not doing it today, you are not doing it tomorrow either. If you are not meditating today, you are not meditating tomorrow. If you don’t love Osho and become his medium today, there is less chance that you’ll become his medium tomorrow. In fact there’s NO CHANCE.

Interviewed by: Swami Aatmo Neerav.

Swami Chaitanya Keerti meets Osho for the first time

[Standing before Osho's secretary Laxmi for the first time] I asked Laxmi if she could arrange a time for me to meet Osho.

"Have you heard his discourses?” she asked.
"I have been reading his books.” I replied.
"Then it would be better,” she said if you first attended his discourses in the Patkar Hall, before coming for Darshan.”
"No,” I replied, "I have read his books and feel ready to see him right away. There is no need for me to wait for some days.”
"No,” she retorted, "you can’t see him right away.”
But I was determined that I should see him there and then, so I just sat there and waited.
"Who is this secretary who is preventing me from seeing him?” I kept asking myself. "When he comes out of his room I will catch him.”
I waited until 4 o’ clock. The afternoon meeting was over. Then suddenly I had an idea.
"Please give me a note-pad,” I said to Laxmi. "I will write him a note to read.”
Laxmi gave me a note-pad and I wrote this to him in Hindi:
"Bhagwan Shree I have come from so far away and there was no problem. Now I am sitting here and you are sitting there — a few yards away. What are these walls between us? What is this distance? Why I have come, I can’t express — I won’t be able to express. I have come — this is my expression.”
I am unable to remember the exact words.
Laxmi took the message in without reading it, and very quickly returned saying, "He is calling you. Just go into that room.”
Now! The full stop to all the struggle! I was so used to the mind struggling and keep saying, "No.” I was used to it. But the mind doesn’t know how to react to a positive invitation that comes like a lightning. The mind simply stops. To me it seemed the right thing for the mind to stop before one going in to see the Master.
In that state — something the mind and no-mind I took a few steps nearer the room where the Master was sitting. Laxmi had not accompanied me. Very softly I opened the door.
Then I SEE HIM!
The Master sitting there in his revolving chair. There is a glass wall behind him, the sun is shining and He is aglow. The chair is simple and small. He is sitting in it, but he is really all over the room. The empty room is filled, vibrating with His glowing presence. GRACE is all there is — nothing else.
Looking at me He says softly, in a flower-like voice, "Chale Aao, Chale Aao! Main tumhara intezar kar raha tha.”("Come in! come in! Come, I was waiting for you.”)
It feels as if there is something within me has already reached him and surrendered at his feet. Very softly I take a few steps, go close to him and sit there with my head bending down looking at his feet.
"Kaise Aana Hua?” I hear him say softly. "What brought you here?”
I was looking down, unable to speak.
He asked the question again : "Kaise Aana Hua?”
I felt as if I should be saying something. In the train I had been thinking of all the things I would be asking him. But now, what happened to all those things? Where were all my questions? Mustering all my courage, I answered: "I have come to be with you”
"Here! With Me!”
There is a long pause. Then the Master laughs — I hear this laugh so loud as if filling the whole cosmos.
Then he says, "Oh you want to take Sannyas?”
"Yes,” I replied, "whatever the way to be with you......”
"Have you any responsibilities at home?” he asked.
"No, none,” I said, ‘Forget about my home.’
After asking me questions about my education and listening to my reply he called Madhu through the intercom:
"Madhu, mala lao.” ("Madhu, bring a mala.”)
He turned and took up his paper. I looked up at him, but immediately looked down as he turned back, and looking towards me. Suddenly Madhu was there with a mala. He takes it, and garlands my neck saying:
"I give you a new name, Swami Chaitanya Keerti.”
He introduces me to Ma Anand Madhu. She was coordinating the Kirtan Mandali that was due to leave the next day, travelling around Gujarat, and arriving the following month at Mount Abu for the next meditation camp."You join this group, sing and dance with this group and we will meet in Mount Abu next month,” he said.
I go to Ma Madhu to touch her feet.
"You touch only his feet.” She says.
Then after Osho has told Madhu to fetch me orange clothes I leave with her and was given instructions on how to find the Kirtan Mandali. Ma Laxmi welcomes me with a cup of chai (tea). I knew that now that I had been accepted and blessed by the Master that I was looking a different person. With the mala around my neck, my eyes had an otherworldly glow. I remember a poem to describe something of the experience:
Amazing grace!
How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see.
Utterly thrilled and blessed I came out of the Woodland Apartment and found the whole of Bombay celebrating... dum dum dum loud drum-beats. People were carrying Lord Ganesha idols and there were processions after processions — very crazy and very colourful.
I found myself dancing with them — I had met the ultimate in human form and my happiness knew no bounds. I was not a dancer. I was a very serious person. Osho had filled me a new consciousness that made me dance — an unknown dance. And the journey of dance had begun.

(excerpted from Keerti's site, Meditate-Celebrate. This piece is a major part of Chapter 43 of his book, Allah to Zen, personal impressions of Osho)Sw Chaitanya Keerti, Indian, long-time editor in Osho Commune

A meeting with Ma Anand Madhu, first initiated disciple of Osho.

On the last day of our 3 days retreat in Rishikesh, my doctor friend Swami Dhyan Saurav and I found a good looking papaya from our recently discovered leisure stroll on the bank of Ganges. We decided to buy it for Arun Swami and took it to the Ashram where we were staying. When we arrived at the Ashram with the fruit, an unknown man above Swamijee’s room told us that he had left in a car with a sannyasin.

A car on the Ashram side of the Ram jhula (the bridge) was already a rare sight and Swamijee leaving in it made us curious. We inquired of the other sannyasins, and came to know that he had left to see Ma Anand Madhu, the first initiated disciple of Osho. After waiting for hours, two Swamis arrived at the Ashram to tell us that Arun Swamijee had called us to see Madhu Ma. A 30 minutes tempo ride to the main city of Rishikesh brought us to the city chowk, where our maroon clad convoy scattered to buy their presents for this long waited meeting.

I decided to go empty hand, firstly, because I had no money and secondly, because I was too overwhelmed to think of a present. When we finally arrived at the Ashram where she resided, my pre-imaginations were satisfied with the settings of the location, very close to the Ganges and on the brink of the town. The cemented stairs took us to her room and we entered a scene where a beautiful old lady in orange Saree and shawl was waiting.

Madhu Ma portrayed divinity as a personal bearing, the innocent smile, the simple gesture and the comfortable ambience around her was plainly clear even to a bystander like me who was having his first experience with her. The way she greeted us with the word Osho, only spoke of her undying gratitude and love for the Master. The interest and joy she showed even in the minutest of things reflected her love of life. We could not help being influenced by her strong presence that embraced each of us that were present there. Looking around at the face of the sannyasins, I realized that all of us were having the same experience, overpowered by the grace of utmost simplicity.

Madhu Ma was innocence in flowering which only demands innocence in return. Her presence allowed each of us the comfort of being ourselves. She joked about everything and her laughter seemed to honour life as never before. With a childlike adoration she praised Arun Swami for his lifetime devotion in bringing Osho into the lives of many and called him her beloved son.
Like an old grandmother she told us the story about how Osho had chosen Arun to color Nepal red and repeated the words used by the Master to instruct him. And as she spoke, it seemed that Arun Swami and Madhu Ma were again living those poignant moments, giving tears and smiles to most of us watching these beautiful beings.

When the stories had been told, Madhu Ma called her caretaker and asked her to bring some sweets and snacks. She stubbornly wanted us to finish each bit and then sing a song for her. Like a child playing with her dolls, she divided us into four groups and gave us the sweets to eat and to take home, which each of us eagerly devoured and pocketed. She demanded that if we didn’t sing she would go back to sleep. We joyfully obeyed for none of us wanted to miss this beautiful opportunity of being with her. As we started singing old Osho kirtans, Madhu Ma closed her eyes as she merged into the purity of love for our beloved Master.

Mystcism lives in Madhu Ma in the most human form. So human like and yet so divine. Although grounded into the depths of life, her being lives in the open sky of boundless freedom. Ma Anand Madhu is a presence that can only be understood when one understands the absence that surrounds her. This visit has helped me understand at least a fragment of what Swami Arun frequently repeats, “reality is stronger than poetry” I also realized that it is much more beautiful!

As Madhu Ma unexpectedly ordered us to leave, she gifted each of us a memory of the most beautiful things, the simplicity in her eyes, the gratitude in her smile, and the love of her being.

Swami Aatmo Neerav

beautiful beloved bhagwaan

MEVLANA BHAGWAAN!