Tasty Morsels

Tasty Morsels from German Bakery:

The following seeks to provide insight into the workings of a religious movement - or should I say a religious derailment (or even worse, hijacking) - by an account of several anecdotes.

A European lady recounted a deeply tragic situation that happened to her in the early 90’s in Koregaon Park. She explained that while attending the (then) commune, she was staying outside in a residential complex likened to a budget hostel. A man staying at the hotel spiked her drink with an ‘upper’ – as opposed to the date-rape style drug.

As often happens this overwhelmed her mind and she was unable to come out of the mentally disturbed state as the drug wore off. It is like the drug flicked a few neural switches, and they were unable to switch back. In this disturbed state she went to the commune for help. She arrived at the welcome centre, and the connection with some familiar and friendly faces started bringing her back. She said that there was a sense that this nurturing environment, and her own strength, was all she needed to get better.

Unfortunately a decision came from management to send her to the nearby hospital. No doubt a ‘crazy’ woman at the entrance to the commune would not look so good for business. Against her will the doctor prescribed and gave her a cocktail of drugs. She said that the combination of feeling like she’d been thrown out of her ‘home’, the forceful nature of her being administered remedying drugs, and the drugs themselves (on top of whatever drug she was given in the first place), left her deeply disturbed. She was sent from the hospital back to her home country. Also, she was banned from the commune! This experience left a very deep physical and emotional impression on her for years to come.

After several years in her home country she returned to Pune. She found out that the man that gave her to drug had previously done the same thing to several other women. Also, he continued to do this to women after her. She also found out that sometime before her arrival in Pune, he had died: in simple terms his stomach exploded from a cocktail of drugs.

The way this woman was treated is in itself despicable. However in doing so what it does is to cover up the real cause of the problem. This man had done the same thing to other women, and by covering up the problem so as not to harm the commune’s image, more women were subject to this horrific crime.

This rings bells with me. I tried to bring management to the attention of drinking water contamination during the monsoon rains. I was banned, threatened and assaulted. This is in itself despicable. However in doing so for years to come people have been drinking contaminated water during the monsoon.

To in running a business cover up crimes is itself a crime. Just ask some Chinese government and business officials who have got themselves involved in the milk melamine debacle.

Another anecdote in the early 90’s is about a man who left Pune, changed his name, and went into hiding. Essentially the person just disappeared and has not been heard of since. It is said that he new something that led him to fear for his life. If he was to talk about it to anyone than the people it concerned would know that he talked. If there is any truth in this than what he witnessed or knows about must be very serious indeed.

I read Swami Rajneesh’s book – Tears of the Mystic Rose. He had a tough time in Pune I. Probably it was fortunate he didn’t go to The Ranch I. However he went to Pune II. It was at around the same time as the above mentioned incidents that Swami Rajneesh was repeatedly threatened and assaulted (early 90’s). It is likely that some of the incidents can be put down to personal differences. However from reading the book there is a sense that there was a campaign against Swami Rajneesh that came from management, and further that some of the threats and physical violence could possibly have been initiated from their. Swami Rajneesh was verbally threatened, physically assaulted, and threatened with a knife.

It is interesting to note a parallel here with my situation. There is a clear campaign by resort management against me. Also, I have the view that I have been threatened in writing, verbally threatened, physically threatened, physically assaulted, and threatened with a knife. Further, it is clear to me that this has been directed from resort management, and indeed in part carried out by resort management.

I will recount here one final tasty tid-bit from the German Bakery. After arriving in Pune late 2007, I had several months of issues with the resort. The front-line for the resort is Dhyanesh. It probably would not have been too difficult for people around Koregaon Park to find out that I had issues with the resort, and with Dhyanesh in particular.

One evening at the German Bakery a European man sat down across from me and engaged me in conversation. He started out by acknowledging he was in general aware that I had some sort of drama going on with the resort. Then he recounted a situation that happened some decades before (some time in Pune I).

A man committed suicide (jumping off of something) outside the commune. The European man was first on the scene. He said there was little he could do. An Indian person soon on the scene drove the person to hospital. However he was pronounced dead on arrival. The European man left Pune a few days later.

Now here is where the story gets interesting. Interpol turned up in Koregaon Park to investigate the death. There were two people murdered in Goa just before this death, and the gentleman who committed suicide had been in Goa at the time and had then travelled to Pune, and died. The situation is that Interpol believed that the person in mention travelled to Goa from Pune, committed the two murders, and then came back to Pune and committed suicide. However this situation became complicated.

As I understand from the conversation, Dhyanesh told Interpol that the European gentleman and the deceased were friends and were living in the same residence. Also, Dhyanesh told Interpol that the European gentleman had murdered the person who had actually committed suicide. So whilst the European gentleman was off travelling, Interpol was investigating him for murder. Fortunately the investigation led to Interpol contacting an acquaintance of the European man, who explained to Interpol that this clearly was not the case: the situation was that the European man was first on the scene of a suicide.

So for me, after two months of dramas with Dhyanesh and the resort, it became clear that the European man sitting across from me that evening in the German Bakery was telling this story not for his own gratification, but to warn me. It did leave me considerably worried. I said to him that if Dhyanesh had tried to set him up for a murder, that this was extremely serious: that it wouldn’t be much fun languishing in an Indian prison as a convicted murderer. I wanted to know what came out of it. He explained that well it was some decades ago, and that Interpol (and no doubt the Indian police) had limited investigative capability. However I said that for sure Interpol would still have a record of this. He agreed with me.

A long-time sannyassin that was very close to Osho told me once that Osho (Bhagwan Rajneesh) left Pune I because a number of people had taken over the place and were destroying it. Obviously (and unfortunately) some of those with abuse of religious power on their agenda followed him to The Ranch in Oregon, America. After the destruction of The Ranch by a small but powerful gang of criminals, Osho eventually found himself back in Koregaon Park for Pune II. However it seems to me very likely that again a small but powerful gang of criminals has been wielding a worsening formula of violence against innocent and authentic Osho sannyassins and devotees.

Granted in any organisation, especially so in a religious one, there will be disagreement and in-fighting. However what has happened at The Ranch, what appears to be happening in Pune II, and what may well have happened during Pune I, goes beyond the bounds of normal religious politics. I am of the view that criminality, and a very serious form of it, has weaved a thread through all the decades that a great Master and his beloved followers have shared the most sacred of journeys.

Unfortunately the profound messages of injustices - from individual tragedies to the destruction of the Buddha Hall pagoda - have not yet brought about change. On the issue of the pagoda, unless there was some health and safety issue, there are no grounds for this to have occurred – and even if, like the fabric (and perhaps metal structure) of the tent, there was an issue, this could easily have been addressed with due care. Osho was very clear that the inner-circle was an administrative body, not a spiritual one. Also, the management team in India clearly does not have a spiritual function. Hence there are absolutely no grounds for the destruction of the pagoda. Only a Master can make that choice! This wilful act of destruction is a most grave encroachment of managerial decision making into matters of spirituality.

Who at the resort operates in the capacity of making (supposedly) excessively attached devotees of Osho learn from their attachment? Indeed like the removal of all the photos of the ‘dead guy’ from the resort, some spiritual tourists may not like the religious sentiment of a beautiful pagoda in the surrounds – bad luck!

While it is outside the scope of any managerial group to rule on matters of the spirit, they do have a primary duty to protect whatever legacy of the spirit Osho left behind – whether that is his words, his ashes, his pagoda, or indeed is samadhi (whatever it may now be called!).

The inner-circle is a body with legal status. Others that have sought power at any cost have worked their way up in what is now called ‘management team India’. Some of these people have from their hard work also made it into the inner-circle. Other than by Osho himself fighting Sheela and her gang (rather than instead going into a prolonged period of silence), the only way for the Sheelites to be removed from their murderous rule was by the law.

Unfortunately I do not think Osho is going to visit us any time soon. The majority of the original inner-circle members that he himself appointed are no longer members. The current inner-circle, though smaller in size, continues to have new recruits. Members of management team India continue to jostle amongst themselves as well. While this complex web of power games plays itself out, there is a growing and considerable consensus of opposition within the Osho sannyass community against the inner-circle and its affiliated foundations – Osho International Foundation (supposedly the publishing wing) for example.

Osho organisations in India and abroad are becoming a considerable political force. This applies growing pressure to a resort that caters for the exclusive (or should I say exclude-sive) in a world that is heading into a global recession. The long-term strategic direction of Pune II is at odds with the current economic climate, and the effects of this are already being played out.

Though the resort looks great, it actually needs to invest significant money into neglected basic infrastructure. I am quite sure the place is not awash with the funds necessary to do this. Instead, over the last few years a great amount of financial resources have been allocated to making the place look great, while the underlying problems remain unaddressed. Does this ring any bells with the account I gave about the women who was drugged so many years before?

The last point I would like to make is that though Osho’s place in Pune needs to have in part a commercial orientation – to remain soundly economically viable - the place is not there to make money. This is not the primary objective. It, like any authentic spiritual sanctuary, is first and foremost a resting place for pilgrims on the path.

I suppose that at his stage it can only be said….to be continued!