Blessed Days with OSHO

By Ageh Bharti

This book of memoirs will be of extraordinary help in understanding the complexities of human nature within and beyond, besides in discovering how the world could turn into a planet of perpetual peace and love. This book allows the reader to avail an opportunity to view Osho from various angles. It would usher most, of the readers in different ways, as experienced in memoirs earlier, titled Love means acceptance, Not only divine but humane too and Why ask me? It would appeal to the intelligentsia and the layman alike as a great source of intellectual enrichment with the spiritual bliss. Every reader could imbibe much from the rare compendium— so worthy to be read, treasured and gifted by every intellectual, and particularly by Osho lovers and pro- Osho citizens of the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diamond Books
• Release date: Dec 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9788128822605

Book preview

MY FIRST

MEETING WITH OSHO

The memories of that most blessed day of my life - the evening of Feb 10, 1967 — when I met Osho, The Great Being, for the first time in ‘Yogesh Bhavan’, His residence at Jabalpur, are still afresh, as if it were just yesterday. How to express my feelings of that evening when my life got a new meaning, new path, and new direction! Indeed, mere words fall so inadequate!

December 1966: Some miracle transpired. It changed the whole course of my life. It was during that period I got inspired to meet Osho.

Without knowing any antecedents about Him, I set out to meet Osho, inquiring everyone I came across about the address of Acharya Rajneesh (thus was Osho known). Often, I don’t know from where His name came to my mind. Neither I knew whom I was going to meet. Was He a poet? A saint? Or Some Super Spirit? While enquiring, none responded about his real existence. Then I came across a mail carrier. I rushed to him in curiosity. He told me about Acharya Rajneesh in Napier town at a house known as ‘Yogesh Bhavan’

February 8, 1967: Time - Noon. I met with a humble looking gentleman, Professor Arvind Kumar Jain (Osho’s cousin and secretary) when I reached the venue. He told me that Acharya Shri was asleep. I took the postal address of the place, and wrote a letter to Osho back home.

My letter to Osho is given below. I do not know much about his antecedents, acquired social values or any such thing.

"Respected Acharya Shri,

Namaskar,

I had come to see you today, but you were taking rest and as such, I returned. Whatever the Divine is doing through you, the body must be getting tired. It is natural. So, it is necessary to give it due rest. Therefore, I was the least unhappy in coming back without seeing you. However, I shall keep coming to see you until I do see you. And if it never happens, then I won’t be unhappy ever. Moreover, I feel that ij I want, I can see you right now, here at my residence, but oh! What a wonder! No wanting is left. So how can I want? Isn’t it a strange phenomenon that I’ll be coming to see you and at the same time I’ll be free of the desire to see? You may say that this man is saying contradictory things, but so is the case really. I wish you good health. More when we meet…

Shiv Pratap"

I went to see Him again two days later.

February 10, 1967: I reached His residence at 6 p.m. Prof. Arvind Kumar told me that Osho was taking rest. I could come back at 8 p.m. if necessary. I shall see Him for 10 minutes. I spent those two hours almost dancing on the road nearby. It was one of the most elite areas of the city. Many people would have passed by looking at me, for, dancing by myself must have been an unusual scene. However, who was there to care?

Time - 8 p.m. I entered the gate of ‘‘Yogesh Bhavan’ again. Prof. Arvind Kumar ushered me into a big hall. He asked me to wait and told that Osho would be coming within a couple of minutes. I looked around. I saw gorgeous wooden shelves stacked with books aside the walls.

Osho entered the hall within a minute. His walk was very graceful and serene. He wore snow-white ‘lungi’ with upper part draped in similar shawl. He looked so beautiful, elegant, calm, and serene, like the Himalayas! He greeted me with a smile. I woke up to pay obeisance at his feet. Osho appeared serene than a lotus flower. His aura was more beautiful than blooming rose or rising sun.

He asked me to sit aside. I did so.

He said, I was to reply to your letter in a day or two.

Bhagwan, I have come myself, I replied.

Since how long have you been in Jabalpur? He asked me with smile.

For twelve years.

Have you ever attended any meeting?

No, Bhagwan.

Well, what brings you here? He asked with love.

I looked at my wrist watch. I chimed my intercourse to seven or eight minutes. Osho should get at least two minutes (I was given 10 minutes time). Nevertheless, Osho asked me to describe everything in detail without bothering about time. I told Him what transpired in my life in about 45 minutes.

"Something mysterious happened on December, 1966. It has put me in miraculous frame which cannot be described.

I felt blissfully happy for no reason. It won’t be wrong to recollect the extent of perpetual bliss. I have realized about myself to be eternal entity and that love is not a relationship but a state of being. Should someone misbehave or even a stranger on the road give me a slap without any reason, I can do nothing but kiss him and express my love. I feel so elated that no gain of any kind could add a drop to my ocean of joy and no loss of any kind could extinguish with single drop. I have received more than I could have ever wished or dreamt. It left me no desire to replete. I feel immense gratitude towards the whole existence.

The experience of silence cannot be fathomed. It was so profound, continuous and perpetual. The whole existence feels to be silent and still even in the crowd. The extent of awareness continues even in sleep or in wake up phase. I didn’t have the perception of past and future other than the present.

I had strong urge to spread the ‘love’ that has been suffused in me. I feel that it was the assigned work from the Almighty, God. I should leave the family and roam around with the message ‘love’ is the only truth, ‘love’ is the only God, and ‘love ‘ is the only religion ‘.

I told Him, I have become enlightened and wanted to leave the spouse and children to spread the message of love and peace across the world. Moreover, I do not know what thought has made me to come to you before leaving home.

Osho responded spontaneously with love. ‘Mind has several stages. It is the highest stage of mind that has happened to you. You must have performed some very good deeds in your past lives due to which it has happened, because it is not common. It is rare but it is not that’.

‘It may be a door to ‘that’, but it is not ‘that’. When ‘that’ happens, there is no memory of it; nothing remains as a memory. The duality of the seer and the seen dissolves completely. Happiness too is not there in that state, just an emptiness; a nothingness remains here (Osho points out in the middle just below the chest)’.

‘And as Jar as leaving wife and children (is concerned), that is not right. They are not obstacles at all. Tearing is also egoistic. Who will leave and to whom? And the bliss that has happened to you is not common. It is rare. So, enjoy it within yourself. Do not tell it to others. Because, they will not understand. On the contrary, they would think you have gone mad and you are talking all non-sense. And this too is not good that many people should say that you are mad.’

He continued, ‘And whenever there’s anything, whenever you feel like coming, come, doors are open.’

I paid my obeisance and left the scene with due regards. I returned home with the experience of perpetual bliss.

How can one resist from talking to people? For, they’re miserable and struggle to find happiness in mundane world. They work hard and earn money by sweat and toil, depriving their body of due rest. However, really no one could even have an inkling of what I have described. As I went on speaking, gradually, my bliss started waning. Whenever I spoke to somebody on the subject, of course, out of love and compassion, my happiness diminished often. My body felt tremendous pain, as if some heavy vehicle has bulldozed.

This way, slowly and gradually, I reached the state of vacuum. For, I have left with only memories.

However, it certainly changed the whole outlook and the course of my life. The greatest thing that has happened is that it provided me the inner sight to recognize Osho and realize His aural significance. That is why, I have addressed Him as ‘Bhagwan’ during my first encounter.

Gloss: (1) Year 1999. I came across two booklets and one book by Osho at random search in my library. It bore my signature, dated October 2, 1966. I recalled, Oh! I bought them at the Gadarwara railway station kiosk (October 2, 1966). I read them on the same day. I had kept them in my personal library like other good books and forgot eventually.

February 08 and 09, 1967. I went to meet Osho. I had no memory of booklets. Nor I had any idea who Acharya Rajneesh was, although I have lived in the same city. May be His name was in my sub-conscious memory after reading those booklets, of which I was not aware.

* * *

HOW THIRSTY ARE YOU ?

One winter evening, feeling the rosy chill of the weather, I reached Osho’s residence. I had the privilege to meet Him without an appointment by His grace. He told during the maiden meet, ‘Whenever there’s anything, whenever you feel like coming, come, doors are open’.

Time: Five minutes to 8 p.m. I opened the outer gate and entered the garden. It was laden with various kinds of plants and creepers with fragrant flowers. Osho entered His study room at 8 p.m and sat on a chair. It was His usual time to read or attend to appointments. I could see Him through the glass-door, but I never rang the bell, on its harsh and unpleasant sound. How can I make such sound for Him whom I revere so much. I remain standing in the garden expecting that someone will surely come out.

After a little while, four men arrived on scooters. One of them inquired me, ‘Is He there’?

I replied, ‘Yes’.

‘Is there some other visitor with Him?’

‘No.’

‘We want to see Him. We have taken an appointment.’

‘If you have an appointment, then go in. I have also come to see Him.’

And one of them rang the bell. Kranti (the then caretaker and cousin of Osho) opened the door. I also entered with the friends unknown. Osho inquired about their welfare with a smile. He also inquired about mine.

Now those friends went on posing questions, ‘Acharya Shri, you claim that when mind is silent, the experience that happens in that state is the Self-realization (God). But why doesn’t that experience become possible?’

Osho explained, ‘There are many reasons that it does not happen. I would talk of a few of them that are the main ones’.

‘First, there is a lack of thirst for God in us.

A few days ago, I was in Patna city. There were four meetings in a single day. At the end of the last meeting, one friend drove behind my car and reached where I was staying.’

He said, ‘I want to realize God, please guide me.’

I told him, ‘I have already spoken in four meetings and I am tired. Better come tomorrow morning at 7.00 then I will talk to you.’

‘I wake up at 8 a.m. How I can be here at 7 a.m.?"

‘Come at 10.30 a.m, then.’

At 10.30 A.M. I would be in my office.’

‘Then come at 5 p.m.’

I have another appointment at 5 p.m. Can’t you be awake for me one night? Don’t you have even that much love?’

I replied, ‘I do have enough love. I can keep awake also but how long can this go on? How long can one love this way? If one has to work, one needs rest also.’

Osho continued, ‘So shallow is our thirst that we cannot even wake up half an hour earlier for God. We are not aware that in this world, one has to pay for everything. Nothing can be gained here without paying for it. And God is the costliest of all. For God, one has to give oneself. But people want it at the cheapest. They are going somewhere in connection with some work, some business and on the way, they expect some saint, some Baba should put God in their pockets.’

‘They will work hard for trivial things. To have a certificate of matriculation, they will work hard for ten years. If one fails, he will work again for one year. To become a wrestler, one exercises and practices for 15-20 years; And, if he is defeated somewhere, he feels that perhaps there was some shortfall in his practice. But for God, if one meditates for two months and he does not realize God, he stops meditating thinking that it is useless to waste time on this’.

‘Second, someone may be thirsty. He may work hard. Yet he may not be successful.’

‘The reason for this may be that he is working in a wrong direction. And if direction is right and still he does not succeed, then probably be lacks self confidence. May be the life-long teaching that God can be attained only by somebody’s grace; does not allow him to have self-confidence. And where there is no self-confidence, there the very beginning is impotent."

* * *

Another friend inquired, ‘What do you say about the Indian doctrine of Karma (the past actions) and sanskar (the conditionings)?’

Osho responded, ‘Past actions, rituals and fate etc, are useless concepts. It is these concepts that have made India lifeless, impotent, and good-for-nothing. These concepts have rendered the people effortless and worthless. On the whole earth, India is the only country that has remained a slave for 1,000 years. That is because of these concepts. Right from Rajaram Mohan Rai to Jawaharlal Nehru, all those who dreamt for freedom, got their inspiration from the west otherwise India would have remained a slave even today’.

‘One gets the fruits of one’s actions instantly. If you put your hand in the fire, the hand will be burnt right now, not in the next life. If I love now, I will be happy now only, not in the next life. If I hate now, I will be unhappy now.’

‘In short, I would like to say that I do not support any such thing that deprives man of manly effort and courage; that depletes his will-power. I do say that man can accomplish all. If he wills, he can do it; that is all. These monks and so-called sanyasins have made this country incapable.

Osho continued, ‘If a man murders someone, he is called a criminal and he is being punished. If someone misguides millions of people (in a wrong direction), propagates wrong things, then the society remains asleep about it. As I see it, monks and so-called sanyasins are far greater criminals, because they have turned the souls of millions of people to be good-for- nothing. These monks and so-called sanyasins have given us these superstitions.’

Osho winded up, ‘It is very strange that whatever little knowledge we have today is contributed by those whom you call irreligious people (scientists). Two hundred years before, we did’nt know that blood keeps on circulating in the body. We believed that it just remains filled in the body. So many things that we know today, that we use today, are all contributions by those individuals whom you call irreligious people.’

* * *

Another friend questioned Osho, ‘During your discourse in Indore city, you told that there is no next life. Is there really no re-birth?’

Osho replied, ‘People misunderstand me many a time. There is rebirth certainly. I do not oppose this. When I say there is no next life, my intention is not to make the next life a basis for any of your actions.’

‘For example, some one may think that one should follow the maxim - eat, drink and be merry - in this life and search for God in the next, or that one should do good deeds in this life so that one’s next life is good.’

My emphasis is that present is all that is. Present is the only reality. The past is gone. Future has not yet come. What is present is the only truth. When I say there is rebirth then your habit of postponement gains strength. If man’s habit of postponement is broken, he can accomplish a lot. So, when I say there is no rebirth, my meaning is only this. Do not postpone things in the name of rebirth or next life.’

Those friends paid obeisance and parted after listening to His enlightening talk. I too take leave of Him after some time.

* * *

ACCEPTANCE IS

THE ONLY COURAGE

I went to meet Osho some evening.

I thought often that Osho never expects anything from anyone. Not only that He gives total freedom to everyone. I have seen people disagreeing with Him yet receiveing the same love from Him. It is only after meeting Osho, I got the correct interpretation of what Rabindranath Tagore says, ‘I am ‘Able to love God, because he gives me freedom to deny him. ‘ I feel very fortunate that I never found any point about which I could disagree. When I was near Him, I was not; my thought process ceased. Who can then disagree or agree? Just His presence made me meditative.’

I arrived at the venue at 8.45 p.m. I saw that Dr. Bijlani, the divisional medical officer (Railways) and Professor Gurunani of PSM (a degree college of Psychology) were sitting with Osho. Osho received me with warm affection. I quietly occupied seat. Dr. Bijlani wanted to fix up a date for His lecture in the office of divisional rail manager. Prof. Gurunani wanted Osho address the student community and the academia on "My Vision on Psychiatry". Their appointments were fixed up for December 3 and 4 respectively.

Dr. Bijlani inquired, "I could not come to the meeting that took the day before yesterday at Shahid Smarak Auditorium, but heard it to have gone well with unbelievable gathering.

Often you have told the congregation that one should accept love and anger both while Buddha speaks only of love. I find it difficult to understand. Could you please elaborate?"

Osho replied with a smile, ‘We have no experience of the love Buddha speaks about. What we call love is nothing but the other side of anger. They are not two things, but one.’

‘Buddha’s love is a totally different concept. That is why, he uses the word compassion instead of love. That is why, Mahavira uses the word Ahimsa (non-violence) instead of love. But as I see it, Jesus alone uses the right word love, because when you use the word compassion, you belittle the other person and Ahimsa (non-violence) is a negative term. Love is the right word to use, but that love is a different thing. What we call love is only the other side of the same coin. That is why I ask you to accept both. The acceptance of love and anger both may one day help us to know the love that Buddha speaks of. But if we see them as different things then we shall never be able to experience love.’

Dr. Bijlani felt unburdened after hearing the discourse and took leave after a while.

Osho then looked at me. I inquired, ‘Since past few days, when I go to bed, a deep meditation starts happening on its own and I become afraid of death. Some people experience peace in meditation, while others experience bliss. Earlier, my experiences were of that kind, but these days I get disconnected from the outside world and just death stands before me and I get scared".

Osho inquired, ‘For how many days has this been happening?’

‘For some ten to fifteen days.’

He suggested, ‘Whatever is happening, accept it. Even if death comes, it has to be accepted. What can we do? We can’t stop the rising of the moon or the stars. We can’t stop our breathing. We can’t do a single thing. We have no control over anything. So even if death comes, what can you do? In fact, there is only one manly and courageous thing that one can do and that is - a total acceptance. Whatever happens, accept it. Don’t try to escape from it. In fact, there is no way to escape and the fear is there, only because we try to escape. As one accepts, one becomes fearless. In fact, fear has no existence. Fear is a shadow of non-acceptance. For fifteen days, you practise acceptance and see what happens."

I paid obeisance to Him and left the spot. He pulled out the pencil in between the pages in the book and went on reading.

* * *

WHY ASK ME?

January 1968. Time: Evening. I reached Osho’s residence at 8 pm. The house was covered with beautiful creepers around. The fragrance of a variety of flowers breezed out. A particular flower has such divine fragrance that drove me mad intrinsically. Slowly as I ambled in, I could see Osho in the study- room browsing something. I entered the room and paid my obeisance.

Osho welcomed with a smile, ‘Come Shiv, take your seat, how are you?’

I replied, ‘I was coming with a very pleasant mood. Some thing happened on my way which made me very sad.’

‘What happened?’

‘While I was coming, a friend of mine (Prahlad Bhagat) who was a train-guard in the department of railways inquired me, whither I was going? He had told me several times in the past that some day he would like to come with me and meet you. I did not want him to join me today. I wanted to come alone today. So, I was a bit hesitant, but I did’nt like to tell a he either. Therefore, I told him that I was coming to see you.’

Bhagat said, ‘One day I too will like to come with you as I want to ask a question to Acharya ji and it can be addressed to Him alone.’

I said to Him, ‘You are welcome to accompany me any day you wish. However, you can tell me about