:: MEDIA ::

• NO DISTRACTIONS…


• HELL AND HEAVEN? OUR CREATIONS


• AN OASIS CALLED OSHO


• LEARN TO LIVE AND CELEBRATE


• “ONE WITH THE SKY” PRESENTED IN DELHI

NO DISTRACTIONS…
The Times of India, New Delhi
1st September, 2006

Rife with diversions, you may need to approach your one, ultimate goal it in many different ways…

Osho tells a Tibetan story. A lama who worked in a valley far away wrote a letter to the chief of his monstery: “We need one lama here.”

The chief called his disciples and said, “I’d like to send five of you.” One asked, “But only one has been asked for. Why five?” The chief said, “You will know. I will send five and hope that one will reach because the way is long, and the distractions a thousand and one.” They laughed and said, “The old man has gone out of his mind. Why send five when one is needed?” But the chief insisted so off they went.

The next morning, as they passed a village, a messenger from the headman came running to them. “Our priest has died and we need one. The salary is good.” The village looked prosperous, so one of the five said, “I’d like to stay because this too is Buddha’s work. Why go to the valley? There too I’m going to do the same work. You four will be enough. Anyway, only one is needed! I’ll stay here.” One dropped out.

The next day, as they passed by the outskirts of a town, the king encountered them. One young monk was healthy, handsome and radiant. The king said, “ Wait! I’m looking for a young man to marry my daughter. You seem to be exactly right. Are you ready? I have only one daughter. My whole kingdom will be yours.” Of course, the young man said to his friends: “Goodbye!” the second thus dropped out.

Now the other three realized that the old chief was not mad. The way was long and distractions many! They decided, “We will not do such a thing.” But deep down they were all jealous that one of them had become a king and another a great priest.

The third night, they lost the way. From a faraway hilltop, only one lamp could be seen, only one house. Somehow they reached it. There was only a young woman there, who said, “IT is good that you have come. You are a godsend because my parents were to come back this evening but haven’t. I was afraid to be alone in this house so far away from town. You are sent by Buddha himself. Please stay with me. Don’t leave me until my parents return.”

The next morning they were to leave. But one of them had fallen in love with the woman and said, “I cannot go until her parents are back. That would not be compassion, but PASSION! He said, “To leave her alone won’t be virtuous. Buddha will never for give me. I’ll stay.” And so, the third lama dropped out too. In a village the next morning, the remaining two were surrounded by a crowd. They were challenged by a great atheist scholar in the village: “You have to prove that what Buddha says is true.” One accepted. The second said, “What are you doing? Who knows how long it will go on?” the first said, “Even if my whole life is wasted, I’m devoted to Buddha, and this man challenged Buddha’s philosophy.” It was not a challenge to Buddha but to his ego. “I cannot leave this village, I will convert it. You go. In fact, only one is needed there.” thus, the fourth dropped out.

Only one reached!

Swami Chaitanya Keerti

HELL AND HEAVEN? OUR CREATIONS
The Times of India, New Delhi
8th September 2006

What is hell and what is heaven? Geographical places above or below the earth? Or psychological spaces in and around our minds?

Osho says: No! Hell is being out of step with Nature. Heaven is being in step with Nature. And that is the hidden harmony. If you can find it, you are blissful. If you can find it, you are blissful. If you cannot, you are miserable. Nobody else is responsible.

He illustrates this through a beautiful story. Once, a rabbi came to a village on his horse, on his way to another town. He was very tried and wanted a little rest, so he went into an inn, leaving his horse under a tree outside with some hay for it to eat. Mulla Nasruddin was sitting under another tree, drunk. The horse was beautiful. He approached it jus to admire it. As he stood near the horse, a man passed by; he was a merchant of horses. The merchant asked Nasruddin, “IS this your horse?” Drunk, and feeling very good that such a beautiful horse belonged to him, he said, “Yes”. The merchant man asked, “I would like to purchase your horse. How much would you like to take for it?” Now Nasruddin was caught. He thought if he asked for an impossible price, there would be no problem. So he said, “2,000 rupees.” The horse was not worth more than Rs 500. But, as it happened, the merchant said, “Here, take these 2000 rupees.” Now, Nasruddin was in real trouble. 2000 rupees! He thought: “The rabbi is inside and he doesn’t know. Why not take the 2000 rupees? Nobody is looking, so there should be no problem at all.” So he said, “Okay”. He took the money; the merchant took the horse.

The moment the horse was gone, the rabbi emerged from the inn. Nasruddin was in a dilemma over what to do now with the money and he was too drunk to even make a quick getaway. When he started working it out in his mind, he found a solution. He leaned down on all fours as if he were a horse and put some hay into his mouth. The rabbi couldn’t believe what he saw. He said, “What are you doing? Are you mad?”

Nasruddin said, “First, listen to my story.” Now his mind was working really fact. He had become a theologian: now he was working out one answer, then another question, then he had got caught in his own trap. He said, “Nearly 20 years ago, when I was a young man, I committed a sin with a woman. What did God do? He was so angry that he punished me and turned me into a horse—your horse, rabbi! And for 20 years, I served you but it seems the punishment is over and I’m restored to being a man.”

The rabbi started to tremble, on seeing that a sinner had been punished. Who is not a sinner after all? The rabbi himself had sinned, with several women, so this phenomenon struck dread in him. He fell on his knees, started praying. But then there was a practical problem to be solved. He said, “All this is okay but I have to go to another town. How will I?” Nasruddin suggested, “The market is not very far. You can go and fid a horse.” So off the rabbi went to the market, and there was his own horse standing at the horse merchant’s! He could not believe his eyes. He started to tremble again. He went to the horse and whispered into its ear, “What, Nasruddin! So soon again?” The mind goes on and on playing tricks, creating gods, praying, being punished, being sent into hell and heaven… the whole process is of imagination. There is no hell, no heaven. Only you are there and existence. And energy, infinite energy. If you are with it, it is with you.

You have to stop imagining. You have to feel that misery comes when you are out of step with nature, and happiness comes when you are not out of step.

Swami Chaitanya Keerti

AN OASIS CALLED OSHO
Today (afternoon newspaper), New Delhi
13th September 2006

Dhrupad maestro Wasifuddin Dagar created quite an ambience with his RaagYaman rendition of couplets from the works of Osho. Guru Vandana, an evening organized as a part of the 75th birth year celebrations of Osho, was surely a delight for lovers of classical music.

It was not only the mellifluous voice of Dagar but also the background notes churned out by the tanpura and the pakhawaj that kept reverberating in the ears of the audience. “I have come to realize that a lot of things Osho preached years back can now be seen happening all around us,” said Dagar. A melodious sitar performance of Kirwani Raag by Ustad Usman was no less than Dagar’s. When asked about the difference between the audience in India and abroad, Khan said, “People from abroad come with a mindset to enjoy and absorb the performance. This is not very common in India.”

LEARN TO LIVE AND CELEBRATE
The Times of India
15 September 2006

It is your choice what you want to do with your life, how you want to live your life. You always find yourself on a crossroad and are compelled to make a choice. You could choose out of helplessness, or make a conscious choice. In helplessness, you settle for your weakness, while a conscious choice requires a certain amount of courage and self confidence - a feeling that this existence is your mother, this universe is your home. This depends on what feeling you nurture in your heart. It is not just a matter of thinking but of feeling, strong feeling.

In His discourses, Osho exhorts us to nourish our beings with positive feelings and embrace life with gratefulness and gratitude. This is the secret of the art of living – and living consciously. The art of living needs a conscious choice. It is not about drifting unconsciously in all directions. One is not as weak as one starts assuming in a state of misery. One carries within oneself a vast treasure of godliness. One has to tap it. And the art of tapping is what meditation is all about. Then life becomes a celebration., a carnival of joys. You sing and dance and you find that the whole universe is snging and dancing with you.

“When thousands and thousands of people around the earth are celebrating, singing, dancing, ecstatic, drunk with the divine, there is no possibility of any global suicide. With such festivity and such laughter, with such sanity and health, with such naturalness and spontaneity, how can there be war? …..life has been given to you to create, to rejoice, to celebrate. When you cry and weep, you are alone. When you celebrate, the entire existence participates with you. Only in celebration, do we meet the ultimate, the eternal. Only in celebration, do we go beyond the circle of birth and death.

Osho tell us how to be free from pain and anguish: “This pain is not to make you sad, remember. That’s where people go amiss. This pain is just to make you more alert, because people become alert only when the arrow goes deep into their hearts and wounds them. Otherwise they don’t become alert. When life is easy, comfortable, convenient, who cares? Who bothers? When a friend dies there is a possibility. When your woman leaves you alone- on those dark nights, you are lonely. You have loved that woman so much and you have staked all, and suddenly one day she is gone. Crying in your loneliness, those are the occasions when, if you use them, you can become aware. The arrow is hurting: it can be used. The pain is not to make you miserable, the pain is to make you more aware! And when you are aware, misery disappears.”