Laughter Day turns into Laughter Week 2001
News Release, January 2, 2001
After the New Year sneaked in without much fanfare and the midnight parties were all over, celebrations and laughter took off on a high note at Osho World Galleria in Ansal Plaza during the evening of 1 January with Laughter Meditation. In fact, such was the overwhelming response with a ‘House Full’ of participants that a spontaneous decision was taken to extend the Laughter Day into a full Laughter Week until 7 January.
‘Laugh Your Way to God’ seemed the new mantra for enlightenment as ripples of guffaws flooded the room and overflowed into the aisles and at the end of it all Swami Keerti proclaimed a new slogan for the new millennium ‘Haasyamev Jayate!’ – Only Laughter Wins!
Osho has said, “If you can laugh totally, it will give you a moment of no-time, no-mind. Mind lives logically with expectations, laughter is something that comes from the beyond. Mind is always guessing what is going to happen, groping. And something happens which is absolutely contrary to its expectations: it simply stops for a moment. And that is the moment when the mind stops, when laughter comes from your belly, a belly laugh. Your whole body goes into a spasm, it is orgasmic. A good laugh is tremendously meditative.”
This non-serious meditation kicked off with some of Osho’s rib-tickling jokes on tape and Ma Dharm Jyoti, one of Osho’s earliest disciples, added a few more. Just then, the uncrowned king of Hindi humorous poets, Surendra Sharma, walked in to take centre stage and launched into his witty exploits with hilarious results that got the assembled revelers into splits. From then on, it was just pure, highly infectious laughter – without any jokes! – that reigned supreme for half an hour.
When laughter reached a peak, it was time to go in with total silence. All the positive energy generated with laughter was then directed deep inside to the innermost being so it became a meditation. In the vibrant and absolute silence, the mind stops ticking and this is the major difference between merely laughing and laughing meditation. To release and express the delight experienced during the previous period of silence, the Laughing Meditation ended with a ten-minute celebration. Ends
Swami Chaitanya Keerti,
Osho World Foundation, Ansal Plaza, New Delhi 110049, Tel. 91-11-626 1616
