Terrorism & Religious Violence

A perspective on how the Osho community is being terrorized.

Letter To Management Team India and Osho International Foundation (Inner-Circle/Trustees)

I have been the victim of two assaults. After the second assault, the next afternoon I was stopped by a guard who had just picked up a metal pole and held it behind his back, saying I could not pass along the public road. Eventually I passed by. The next afternoon he had a metal pole and glared at me. However he did not try and stop me walking along the public road. Today, Monday 25th Febuary, as I was putting up small flyers on some metal sheeting protecting a construction site that is not the property (as I understand it) of Osho International Meditation Resort nor Osho International Foundation. A security guard from Osho Resort followed behind me collecting the flyers. Another security guard approached from the other direction and said I could not do this. I said that this was a public road and the adjoining property was private and (presumably) not Osho Resort property, and to leave me alone. I seem to recall that one security guard said that someone had asked him approach me. After repeatedly (perhaps ten times) asking the other guard if he was security for Osho Resort, and similarly indicating that his security badge was turned around so I could not tell, he eventually turned the security pass around to confirm that he was working for Osho Resort. After me repeatedly saying that they had no right to interfere with me, they left me alone.


If this incident is leading up to a third assault on me I find it completely and totally unconscionable. I want to know from a person of relevant authority that I will not be assaulted a third time. I want to know that I can walk along any public road around the Osho Resort and not be unnecessarily approached, not be threatened, and not be attacked. My position is one of peaceful expression of my point of view. I want confirmation of my request urgently as from this mornings incident, a third assault may be imminent. Dhyanesh has been involved in two assaults on me. Obviously I therefore do not consider this person to be an appropriate authority, so I do not want him to reply to my request, and actually am requesting that senior management take appropriate measures to deal with this person.


Below is a copy of my latest work. For more details on the assaults and more works visit http://www.nomindspiration.com

Yours sincerely,Prem Abhay.

Reflections: Violence in the Name of Religion

Strange it is to make a long journey to a foreign country knowing that one will be received with violence and hatred. I assume it must have either taken me a great deal of courage or a great deal of stupidity to make such a trip.
To put things in perspective the confrontation with ostensible senior Osho disciples has escalated from my side entirely by the written word. The written word managed to get me in my opinion threatened, then banned, and then assaulted.

When I arrived in Koregaon Park, and made the walk to the entrance of the Resort to hand out the Water Contamination Report, do you think that I knew that this might trigger hostility towards me? Most people generally thought that I was some crazy guy obviously with some crazy piece of paper. What is the harm in some lunatic standing around looking stupid and handing out a stupid piece of paper with gibberish written on it. I knew otherwise and so does management. Hence I new that the response would not be a passive one.

Management is well aware of the truth of what I have reported on. The facts are indisputable. The conclusions drawn are done so with rigorously comprehensive arguments. The case is in fact so strong that management has no intelligent response to it. Hence the need to create the illusion that Prem Abhay is a lunatic, and a violent one at that.
I asked Dhyanesh at one stage why a security guard needed to approach me in a threatening way with a metal pipe. Dhyanesh said he needed it to deal with people like me. People like me have engaged in peaceful, non-violent expression of their point of view. I am sorry, do I now reside in a special part of the globe where freedom of expression is suppressed by violence. Excuse me, did the plane I boarded for India accidentally land in Burma, Iran, or China?

In return for the reports that I have written management has replied with what I consider to be threats, being banned, and being assaulted. I have not heard a single word about the validity or not of what I have written. If I have made factual errors or errors in logic, or narrowness of perspective, and if that be the case on every single issue that I have written about, a simple letter saying so would have been much better than the absurd escalation that has occurred. If some of the issues that I raised were considered reasonable, and that they have been or are in the process of being addressed, a short response in this regard would also have been helpful.

I was assaulted for an attempt to peacefully hand out a report. I was assaulted a second time simply because I phoned someone from a phone that I was told to use by a ‘shift co-ordinator’. The second assault was worse than the first, and it looked to me like it may have been planned.
The response by some ostensible Osho sannyasins is to “put up or shut up”. The wiser Osho sannyasins rather than replying with offensive language – whether in person or by mail – tell of psychological deficiencies that have lead me down this troublesome road.

In response to vulgarity I have none. In response to others let it be known that criminals are dealt with in the court of law presided over by a judge, not in a therapist group room. I am sorry but soft fuzzy cushions have not played a part in the assaults on me.

In general terms I see that the argument put forward in response to my position is that we are creating a first class meditation resort, not a beggar seeking slum. However to argue this point knowing the state of neglect of basic infrastructure and maintenance shows a very deep misunderstanding. People can come and live in 5 star conditions at a 3 star price. Great!!! Unfortunately what they do not know is that they eat 2star food and drink 0 star water. To invest in a glorious façade and yet neglect basic maintenance is outright ridiculous. Was it in Osho’s guide-book for the future to have a 5 star façade with filth underneath? I thought Osho liked his sannyasins? Who is the beggar, where is the 5 star resort, why the slum, and who is being cheated?

It is my understanding the power games have played themselves out both at the management team India level, and at the inner-circle level. All is calm yet all is not well.
A common take on the inner circle is that 15 of the original 21 inner-circle members have either been forced out or left because they were forced out. Management team India and the current inner-circle are both responsible for what has been happening in the last years.
Clearly some people undertake or support violence in the name of Osho. This is religious extremism and is a worrying trend over the globe. Yet still people do not get it. How far will this violence go? Perhaps I am lucky that I cannot draw cartoons, however obviously what I write manages to evoke rage and violence.


The more a person clings to power the more they do so to avoid the darkness within. It spirals out of control as the power is dealt out in a more and more rigid and harsh fashion. Eventually this leads to downfall of the authoritarian rule, however as this happens those in power face their fear and express their rage. This worries me a great deal, especially because I have confirmed that some powers that be have not enough consciousness to own their violence and express it in a safe way.

From being in Pune for close to 2 months I have gathered a sense that the majority of the sannyasin community live in fear of speaking out against the resort, or even of offering their constructive opinion. I have spoken out and have been on the receiving end of violence. This validates my views, and probably reinforces the fear that many sannyasins feel. However it demonstrates that their fear is real, not just paranoia. Does this ring any bells; a group of people living in a state of fear; a state of terror?