Tuesday, July 30, 2013

"I leave you my Dream" - Osho movement in America

“America needs a buddhafield, strong buddhafield. Buddhafield is an energy field, where when you enter, your energy gets transformed, where you can feel some transcendental energy, where God can be provoked, where meditation is natural, you just close your eyes and sit down in a corner of the buddhafield and you are in meditation.”
Swami Anand Arun, , June 2010

I am reminded of those days in my childhood, growing up in a small village in East Nepal - I used to spend hours alone in green fields with my cow Gothu. She was very kind and was my friend for the time until we left the village and went to the capital city Kathmandu. My parents took good care of her, milked her every evening and during the day I used to take her out into the fields to graze. I used to sit down on the grass for hours gazing at the white clouds changing their shapes in the vast blue sky, and sometimes vanishing into the sky. Sometimes I used to stare directly at the sun for long to see if I could find out if the sun is on fire. The more I watched the sun, the more it became darker until I would see a dark sun; then I would look around, everything would be dark: the trees, the field, Gothu,- all seemed dark, as if suddenly it was a pitch black night.

When our Master Osho left his body, similar thing must have happened. The sannyasins that were being showered with divine light in Osho’s physical presence went into a sudden darkness after his death. And in this panic many sannyasins rushed to find every little source of light they could find. Many sannyasins joined different living gurus of different traditions and there were many who decided to hibernate in their own solitude seeing His death as the end of everything. However, there were some who were connected with him before his death, despite being thousands of miles away from his physical presence. These few Osho lovers continued the Caravan. Even after leaving his physical body, Osho continued to shower flowers onto them, and their fragrance attracted many new bees who were searching Osho in Osho’s books, his meditation techniques and his discourses.
 
I had read a few books of Osho and had been meditating for several years but the experience of feeling his presence changed everything. My life was divided at that very moment into past, which became meaningless, and present & future, which were to be blissful and adventurous. It happened in Osho Tapoban- a buddhafield where every tree, every flower, every rock was in meditation, and during evening celebration it felt like they were all celebrating with us. The pull of energy was intoxicating and hypnotic.

It is 6 years now since that timeless experience. The experience has remained as an undercurrent inspiring me each day to create a similar space in America. I have been in this country for nearly 4 years, trying to understand people, their choices, their desires, their inspirations and their frustrations of everyday life. Being a physician trained in Western Medicine, I am constantly in contact with people here, their depression and their hopes, their beliefs and their misery.

Many Osho lovers here in the US have asked me and argued with me in the last few years about sannyas. They argue what change it would bring in their lives if they took sannyas- since they meditate regularly and love Osho immensely and keep him in their heart, what difference would changing name to some fancy Sanskrit name and getting a mala with Osho’s picture in it make. I met an Osho lover who was sharing her experience after attending a camp facilitated by Swami Arun here in the US. She was telling me how Osho is against rules, and why we should stop wearing robes and malas. I also met another Osho lover who had been meditating and following Osho for 12 years, but recently felt like being a sannyasin and ordered a mala online from Osho Viha. It was very depressing for me to see such a powerful esoteric phenomenon, sannyas, being reduced to an online shopping experience. It felt like buying a lover from eBay, anyone who is in love would understand, it would be like making love to a prostitute. And Osho has spoken many times on various occasions how he would not be able to work upon anyone without their permission, without surrender, without sannyas.

Osho’s last words have been said to be, ‘I leave you my dream”, a dream to make the whole earth a buddhafield. To create a milieu for sannyas, to taste the experience of energy field of Osho mala - something more than household daily meditations is needed. A buddhafield is needed - an energy field created by a group of people synced in their hearts , in total love and trust with an enlightened Master, singing, dancing, meditating together . It’s a place where heart takes over mind and mysteries of the beyond start to reveal.


We have to create this buddhafield in America. And more than money and space, a group of people is needed; people who care less about money and space and more about melting with Osho and expressing his message through meditations, through music, through dance and laughter. We need friends who are ready to fly with Osho.

I have been helping our small center - Osho Sadhana Meditation Center in Astoria, New York for the last few years inviting people, sharing meditation techniques, books, cds on Osho meditations. And there have been many beautiful Osho sannyasins - Sw. Arun, Sw. Vedant, Sw. Keerti, Ma Jyoti - who were coming to help us grow here in America, to inspire us to meditate and spread Osho’s message. And after 4 years of inspiration, I finally feel the time is NOW. After our recent visits to Ithaca and meeting beautiful people who were ready to jump into a community of loving, growing, meditating people, after the recent July camp where many people new to Osho expressed their desire to be in a community of Osho lovers, I feel ….

My beloved Swami Arun has been coming every year with a beautiful flower and some seeds from Tapoban, to share the fragrance of a buddhafield with us. Every year he would tell us about the flower, show us the seeds and go back with the flower and the seeds, hoping someday we will prepare the soil for the seeds to be sown. For years, we have been carrying Osho’s torch here in America talking about the flower, talking and spreading stories about the flower, our whole year would be spent on discussing how beautiful the flower was and how we lack such flowers here in America and how we can invite Swamiji again to feel, see, smell the fragrance of the beautiful flower again next year, not caring about the soil at all. But things are changing, and change is happening very fast. The soil in America is now getting ready for those seeds again. Many new Osho lovers are feeling the need of a strong community to meditate, sing, dance and live together. Many Osho lovers are ready to fly with him. Soon we will have flowers in this land arid of meditation; soon we will spread fragrance of the buddhafield all around the world from here.
I am sharing this beautiful video, watch it with an open heart, it’s where we are now, it’s where sannyas is here in America and it’s where it is going. Time is coming when we will be inviting hundreds of people to festivals of Osho meditation and music. Soon artists, musicians and seekers will flock from all around singing...

Osho, with you, we fly , we fly ….Osho, with you we fly, we fly….