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| :: FORTHCOMING EVENTS ::
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| AT OSHODHAM
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44, Jhatikra Road, Pandwala Khurd, New Delhi.
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April 6-8 : 3-day meditation camp conducted by Swami Vairagya Amrit
April 13-15: 3-day meditation camp conducted by
Swami Chaitanya Keerti
April 22-28 : 7-days "No Mind"
Meditation group conducted by
Swami Chaitanya Keerti
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| OSHO WORLD GALLERIA
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April 13: HAIKU : Summer Collection
of apparels and home textiles
April 20: Exhibition of “Vases”
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:: Media ::
When The Blind Lead the Blind
The Times of India, New Delhi
23 February 2007
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The Search for truth makes us look for a guru who can guide us in the right direction. But can we be sure that the guru knows where the truth lies?
Today, so many people feel frustration and hopelessness in their life that they are in a rush to find someone who can give them a mantra of hope, of happiness. Such people end up with pseudo-masters. Ninety percent of these so-called gurus are not real masters; they are pretenders. But they have huge followings, thanks to TV, where anyone can spend money and attract large crowds with false promises. This is the greatest crime in the name of religion and spirituality. About such people, Guru Nanak said: “Andha andha thelia, dono koop pedant” (“The blind lead the blind and both fall into the ditch.”)
Osho recounts a beautiful incident from Nanak’s life. the enlightened master was passing through Lahore. A pseudo-mystic, a false Sufi, a pretender there had a great following. When he saw Nanak, he was afraid, though there was nothing to be afraid of. Nanak was alone with his disciple Mardana. Mardana would play a musical instrument and Nanak would sing. They were innocent people.
An informer told the pseudo-teacher: “A great master has come. He is staying outside the city and many people have already started going to him.” The pseudo-Sufi was certainly worried. He sent a cup full of milk, so full you couldn’t put another drop into it. The disciple who had to take it to Nanak said, “What does this mean?”
The pseudo-Sufi said, “You don’t worry about the meaning. Take it to Nanak and let us see what happens.”
Nanak was offered the cup and told, “The Sufi master sends his salutations.” Nanak told Mardana, “Just there, nearby, are wildflowers. Pick one.” Mardana couldn’t understand what was happening. Nanak put that wildflower in the cup and gave it back to the messenger. All he said was, “Take this to your master.” Again, he said, “But I don’t understand!” Nanak said, “Your master will.”
The Sufi had sent the cup full of milk to say: “Here, there is no need for any other master. The place is full of Sufis. You are not welcome—go elsewhere!” But Nanak floated a flower in the cup, to say: “You need not be worried about me. I will not disturb anything. Even in a full cup, I will simply float like a flower. I am above—you need not worry. You can continue your shop, I will not take your customers.”
The Sufi was completely exposed to his disciples, because they could compare the presence of these two persons. They sat with Nanak and immediately, as if an arrow had penetrated their beings, some strange joy arose in them, which had never happened with that so-called Sufi. Soon, he himself came to Nanak to beg forgiveness.
And Nanak said, “Who am I to forgive you? Ask forgiveness from existence itself. You have been deceiving thousands, delaying their enlightenment. Your crime is great, though nobody will call it a crime because it is so invisible.”
-Swami Chaitanya Keerti
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Kabir: The Everest of Consciousness
The Times of India, New Delhi
30 February, 07
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A man of Consciousness has no enemies at all because he has no fear in his heart. Such a man alone can sing songs of love.
Kabir, the great mystic saint of India, was a real rebel. He sang songs of love and devotion, which did not appeal to the scholars because Kabir was not educated. He has the ultimate experience of self-realisation, the godliness. He blossomed into a unique individual. Kabir sings the songs of going alone on the path of truth.
He says: "One who walks alone, he alone finds truth." The real spiritual growth happens when one is capable of going alone. It is a flight of the alone to the alone. It is a journey of hansa (swan) to the maan-sarovar, the highest peak. It is not lonely on the top but one shines in aloneness, in full glory on the ‘Everest of Consciousness’. This is what happened to the mystic Kabir.
Kabir shared his wonderful songs with the people, but the pundits were afraid. They became his enemies, but as far as Kabir was concerned he knew no enemies. He couldn’t have any enemies, because there can be an enemy only as long as there is fear.
Osho explains: A fearless consciousness knows no enemies. And when one has no enemies, everyone is a friend. Your friends are not true friends; your friendship is a political device. Your friends are friends because of some self-interest, because of some selfishness. When you die they will not accompany you. When you are in misery, well, they will be nowhere to be found.
The real test of friendship is in times of crisis. Life is so generous that it offers such critical opportunities in abundance that the friendship has to pass through a fire test. Friendship blossoms in unconditional love.
Mulla Nasruddin once told his wife that 50 per cent of his friends had abandoned him because he was on the verge of bankruptcy. His wife asked, verge of bankruptcy. His wife asked, “and why haven’ the other 50 per cent gone too?” The mulla replied, “ They do not know about it yet. Only those who know have left.”
Your friends stay with you in your prosperity. When they find thee are no more dinner parties, that you have become penniless, they will throw you away just like a stick of sugarcane from which all the sweetness has been sucked. What use is such friendship?
Osho talks about a Sufi fakir who always prayed to God saying, “O Lord, I shall settle things with my enemies myself, but please save me from my friends.” Friends are also secret enemies. But Kabir is not using the word in this sense when he says the whole world has become his friend.
As soon as fear leaves you, the whole world is your friend. As soon as you cease to fear death, the whole world is friendly. Until this happens there’s no such person as a real friend. Until then some people are bigger enemies, some lesser enemies. Some are close enemies, some are distant enemies. Some enemies are your own people, others are strangers—but all are enemies because they all seem to be destroying your life.
-Swami Chaitanya Keerti
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Find God in the World all Around You
The Times of India, New Delhi
2 March, 07
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Modernity enriches man with such wealth, such progress that even the gods may be envious. But it also takes away beautiful qualities, which made man human….
In the past, when a villager met a passer-by, they would greet each other: “Ram Ram!” This sounds rather primitives to the modern man who has replaced this greeting of recognizing God in every human being with so-called sophisticated greetings of “good morning, good afternoon”. And these greetings are uttered so mechanically and without any meaning, while “Ram Ram” did have a lot of feeling. It signified that we recognized and appreciated the divinity in every human becoming we encountered in life.
There’s a Hasidic parable: A young man asked an old rabbi, “In the past, in the golden days, we have heard that people used to see God with their own eyes, people used to encounter God. God used to walk on earth. God used to call people by their names. God was very close to men. What has happened now? Why is God not so close? Why can we not see him directly? Why is he hiding? Where has he gone? Why has he forgotten earth? Why does he not hold he hands of people stumbling in darkness? He used to do that earlier.”
The old rabbi looked at the disciple and said, “My son, he is still there where he used to be, but man has forgotten how to stoop low enough to see him.”
Osho explains: Man has forgotten how to stoop. Man stands very haughtily, very proudly, very erect—separate from God. Man has become an island, no longer part of the universal, the whole. God is exactly where he used to be—he is still trying to hold your hand but you are not willing to let him. He is still confronting you but you look sideways. He is still there, calling you by your own name but you are full of your own noise, the inner talk, the continuous chattering….
Man has forgotten to stoop, to bow down. In the course of struggling for technological progress, man has forgotten even the language of the divine. He has all the wealth at his feet and all the comforts provided by technological advancement to make him feel that he is living in heaven. But does he really live in heaven? He is more miserable than earlier. Why?
Because he has become more egoistic, haughtier. He has forgotten to bow down to the divine in every being. Otherwise it is very easy to see God, feel God, encounter God. God throbs in the heartbeat of all humans, birds animals. He grows in the trees and plants. He flows in the waterfalls, rivers and oceans. He is spread over in the rainbows around dark clouds in the vast sky. He shines in the stars, sun and moon. One does not need to go to any temple to pray. One could sit anywhere in nature and bow down—look within and without.
-Swami Chaitanya Keerti
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Be Original, Be Happy
The Times of India, New Delhi
9 March, 2007
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When you don’t long to do anything other than what you are, then your mind exists in the moment. Then you are at ease. Then you are in Dharma.
In India, it is common to see interesting message inscribed on vehicles, especially trucks. Once driving around Oregon in the US, I was amused to see a bumper sticker on a very small car: “When I grow up, I want to be a Rolls Royce.”
I started pondering over it. This was not just a joke. It was indeed a very profound statement about human beings too. Everybody in this world is not happy or content with what he is; he always wants to be something which he cannot be. Our school education also teaches us to be something, it gives us great ideals to follow. Ask any school-going child what he or she wants to become, and there comes the answer: “I want to become Mahatma Gandhi” or “I want to become Mother Teresa”.
These answers do make us happy and proud, but the fact is that life does not want carbon copies. Life believes in originals. Life, existence, god would like every human being to flower in his original way, to become something that he, and he alone, is supposed to become. Then there’s no tension. Tension arises when a rose wants to become a lotus.
Explains Osho in The Psychology Of The Esoteric: “The Original source of all tension is becoming. One is always trying to be something; no one is at ease with himself as he is. The being is not accepted, the being is denied, and something else is taken as an ideal to become. So the basic tension is always between that which you are and that which you long to become. You desire to become something. Tension means that you are not really pleased with what you are not. Tension is created between these two. What you desire to become is irrelevant. If you want to become wealthy, famous, powerful or even if you want to be free, liberated, to be divine, immortal, even if you long for salvation and moksha, then too the tension will be there.
Anything that is desire as something to be fulfilled in the future, against you as you are, creates tension. The more impossible the ideal is, the more tension there will be. So a person who is a materialist is ordinarily not so tense as one who is religious, because the religious person is longing for the impossible, the far-off. The distance is so great that only a great tension can fill the gap.
Tension means a gap between what you are and what you want to be. If the gap is great, the tension will be great. If the gap is small, the tension will be small. And if there is no gap at all, it means you are satisfied with what you are. In other words, you do not long to be anything other than what you are. Then your mind exists in the moment. There is nothing to be tense about; you are at ease with yourself. You are in the Tao. To me, if there is no gap you are religious; you are in Dharma.”
-Swami Chaitanya Keerti
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Life: Mystery Beyond Perfection
The Times of India, New Delhi
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For perfectionists, life is a puzzle to be solved. But for the wise, life is a mystery to be lived with a sense of wonder….
The wise tell us that the world is perfect as is. You cannot ask for more. But some people are never satisfied. They want to improve things. They are so obsessed with their idea of perfection that they would improve upon God’s creation too. Their obsession drives others crazy. Not only are perfectionists mad themselves, but they also make others mad!
Here’s an interesting anecdote. A king, passing through a small town, saw what he took to be indications of amazing marksmanship. On trees, barns and fences there were many bull’s-eyes, each with a bullet hole in the exact center. He could not believe his eyes. It was almost a miracle of achievement. He himself was a good marksman and had known many great marksmen life, but never seen anything like this. He wanted to meet the expert shot. It turned out to be a madman. “This is sensational! How in the world do you do it?” he asked the madman. “I am a good shot too, but cannot compare to your skill. Please tell me!”
“Easy as pie!” said the madman, laughing uproariously. “I shoot first and draw the circles in later!”
Osho tells us not to be perfectionists. He says, “Perfectionism is the root cause of all neurosis. Unless humanity gets rid of the very idea of perfection, it will never ever be sane. The very idea of perfection has driven the whole of mankind to a state of utter madness. To think in terms of perfection means that you are thinking in terms of ideology, goals, values, shoulds, should-not… you have a certain pattern to fulfil, else you feel immensely guilty. And the pattern is bound to be such that you cannot achieve it. If you do achieve it, then it will not be of much value to your ego!”
Perfectionism is a neurotic idea. An intelligent person will understand that life is an adventure, a constant exploration. That is its very joy! Perfection means a full stop. Perfection means ultimate death. There is no way to go beyond it. Perfectionists take life as a puzzle and look for solutions. But for the wise, life is a mystery to be lived with a sense of wonder.
Osho says, “You should be perfectly and acutely aware of the difference between a mystery and a problem. A problem is something created by the mind but a mystery is something which is already there. A problem has some ugliness in it, like a disease. A mystery, on the other hand, is beautiful. With a problem, fights arise. Something is wrong and you have to put it right; something is missing and you must supply the missing link. With a mystery, there is no question of a fight. The moon arises in the night—that is not a problem, it is a mystery. You live with it. You dance with it. You sing with it. You dance with it. You sing with it. Or you can be silent with it. Mystery surrounds you.”
-Swami Chaitanya Keerti
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Brit journo swirls into Osho’s mandala
Asian Age
1 April, 2007
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In 1998, Clio Mitchell, a journalist working with a famous publication in England, never imagined that a three-month visit to India would change her life forever.
This journalist-turnedMandala painter is now known as Ma Prem Shashi among her Indian friends. A visit to India with her friend (a disciple of Osho in Pune) in 1999 prompted her to follow in the friend’s footsteps. Then she started making mandala paintings at the Osho ashram in Pune.
Mandala paintings are mythological symbols, mostly round in shape and depict a pattern or a picture. She essays deep meaning through her art.
In a painting titled Many Paths One Point, she illustrates numerous ways and paths followed by different people to step towards the dynasty of God, but all such paths lead to the Almighty.
Shashi has another pas sion of whirling (like other Osho disciples), and it is also portrayed in some paintings.
A captivating work titled Circle of Lovers show figures of 96 people whirling together in a spectrum.
One of her favourite paintings The Heart of the Fire is a thought-provoking work which shows intense flames billowing out of a point. “The fire burns the mystic and keep the wheel of life moving forever through reincarnation,” she said.
She uses contemporary methods to showcase her feelings. Compass and gouache (French colour similar to pastel colours) are used primarily by her. Having done this, she scans them and changes the background of paintings on a software.
She uses vibrant colours which symbolise joy and pleasure. The paintings have therapeutic properties and they evoke a surge of positive energy. “These have healing effect, inducing the keen spectator to release the tension, to relax and to meditate,” she informed.
Shashi shuttles between Pune and London and loves the contrast between lives at the two places.
“I spend six months at each place. As soon as I come out of the London hangover in India, six months get complete and I move back there. The same thing happens in England too,” says the artist.
-Vimal Joshi
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