It has become a pattern of paranoia and panic with people who hold power positions in the commune that if someone raises issues which are uncomfortable to them, they start projecting him as the enemy of the whole commune.
Panic buttons are pressed and people are told: ”These people (who are raising questions) are out to damage the commune. Government authorities will come in, forces inimical to us will harm us and the commune will be closed down.” People get blackmailed and they start believing them that the avalanche of collective unconscious of the whole world is going to fall on the commune.
This method has been tried and tested many times earlier and it did bring instant results. People do come together when you say to them that the commune is in crisis. This is the best way to perpetuate anything without being answerable.
In my letters to Inner Circle, I had raised some significant issues of copyrights, royalties, Osho signature paintings and shifting of the publishing headquarters outside India. These were the questions all sannyasins wished to ask.
In response to my questions and suggestions, I got no direct reply. I received an email message from Srajano and an Indian youth from Bagmar family asking me to stop this ”negative publicity”. The commune authorities have placed Srajano’s letter on the press board. Let them display my reply too.
I wish to assure all Osho sannyasins that nothing adverse is going to happen to the commune. Just relax and respond meditatively. Do not panic when media persons with video camera come at the commune gate. Nobody is coming to damage or harm the commune. Let us remain focussed on the the main issues and not let commune authorities create a smoke screen.
Ever since I left Pune a few months ago and started living in New Delhi, I came in contact with many sannyasins and highly talented Osho lovers who had read a full page story on the commune published in the all India magazine section of The Indian Express, Flair. on April 2. Other newspapers later published similar stories.
Earlier, even I, despite my being the commune spokesperson before I left Pune, could not answer their questions fully, because I myself was not sufficiently aware of the whole situation. After reading The Indian Express story, I checked that it was really true that all copyrights of works of Osho had been registered in Europe and USA and even Osho’s meditation techniques were being trademarked in USA.
Earlier, I did not know this because nobody had told me about all this, even though I was one of the trustees of Osho International Foundation. But now after The Indian Express story so many thousands of Osho sannyasins in India and rest of the world have come to know this.
People want to know if the control of copyright from Zurich and New York will Osho work in India? Why is royalty now being asked from publishers of Osho books, while no royalty was asked till Osho was in body?
When I was in the commune, I thought that Pune was the headquarter and not New York, because Osho set up the Inner Circle to function from Pune and nowhere else.
I had a bitter experience of that last year when I often heard from Amrito that I should have my press releases checked by someone in New York before they were sent out.
I now make some suggestions to the commune authorities: Withdraw the trademark on his name and patent on Osho’s Dynamic, Kundalini and other meditations. Osho is a revolution in consciousness, not a trademark owned by some people. Bring back the copyrights to Pune where a larger group of Osho’s long time international disciples should function as trustees and not some new people handpicked by Jayesh and Amrito. You do need some credibility.
The New York office should continue functioning for practical purposes, but only as an extension of the head quarters in Pune. Stop demanding royalty from sannysins and other publishers in India. They have done a good job of making Osho’s thoughts available all over the country. Appreciate their contribution. If they wish to make any donation out of their proceeds from the sale of the books, there is no problem, but do not place conditions. Osho never asked for money. It always flowed in and money was not a problem. A non-commercial and loving approach is better than making a rigid demand.
Swami Chaitanya Keerti (Narain Das),
Osho World Foundation,
Ansal Plaza, New Delhi – 110049.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
