(Editorial Context) OK OK, just to please SannyasNews, appease Freschee, and confuse Mr Smartyn, I will follow strict Osho protocol and give comment only within the guidelines of the lead article.
The resort looks the antithesis of a closed religious society, such as the deeply floored one imagined by Elizabeth Day. Anyone can enter the gateless gate, though a few extra dollars in the pocket make it easier. Anyhow the pricing structure and resort model discourage people lingering too long and creating the problems of closed social structures that may become alienated from the outside world. The removal of obvious religious markings and the creation of modern resort-like facilities give the impression that there is a now a seamless blend with the outside world. All this too created by the visionaries Jayesh, Amrito, and others in the Inner-Circle and in resort management.
How long has Dhyanesh lived in his space in Krishna House. The man has only lived and breathed Osho since he finished Law school. When he went for a trip to visit his beloved in London he didn’t like it and wanted to come home straight away. The beloved is not important. What is important is to stand at the top of the auditorium stairs (the pulpit) before White-Robe, and to be someone special. And not just an ordinary person of prestige, but a person with religious prestige. Just listen to Sadhana talk. She is absolutely unable to string a single sentence together that is not a dull repetition of Osho. Have you had the opportunity to see how Jayesh manages the place. His language in managing the day to day affairs is infused with a spiritual gloss. His approach is laced with spiritual connotations. How many years has Amrito been living in the little room adjacent to Osho’s original bed-room? These people live and breath Osho. What is their connection to, and view of, the outside world?
Are you aware of the writings of people like Prem Abhay and Swami Rajneesh. What if what is said about food hygiene and water sanitation, of ugly political and financial scheming, and of violence and assault, is the case. Would that surprise you? Would you just say that well it is India after all so yes I did expect such things.
If you have followed the discussion about the terrorist threat and Bakery bombing it would also appear that management is indeed severely wanting. Is it really the case? Well the water is a tough one and you cannot read the microbial test results so who knows, Abhay is probably a dangerous nutter like they say. So likely is Swami Rajneesh, and many others. (In the least they probably needs therapy, right Freschee?) Yet with this terrorist stuff the facts are not old and do not lie hidden. Of course a reasonable number of Osho sannyasins will have their blinkers on, but plenty will not. And plenty of people who aren’t conditioned by Osho ideology will also not be secretly bidding for anything Osho.
It all really makes me wonder about this new revamped worldly Osho movement created by Jayesh and the like. How’s about I find out about what is really going on by asking a few questions and asking around. Oh, no one will give me any straight answers, and the general community appears scared to get involved in any discussion. Oh, the management of the resort have a secretive no comment style of operating. This is all very strange. I thought they were very worldly. I thought OshoWorld and the like were the extremist devotees, and Jayesh and crowd were part of the worldly way of integration. This seems to not make much sense.
When I look at it, it appears that at a senior level of functioning, the management of the resort (including OIF and the Inner-Circle) is deeply devotional despite removing a lot of the obvious physical markings at the resort, and are not particularly involved with the outside world. Yes all the old sannyasins probably can only afford to come for a few weeks, as with new seekers. Yet the little clique at the top of the power structure does not live accordingly. Sure Osho did set up a structure that had a management that stayed longer term, with others coming and going and thus integrating with the world. Over the first ten years of Osho leaving the body this management went through a civil war of sorts. The outcome of it is that almost all the original Inner-Circle members are now refugees. So, is the new Osho elite fulfilling Osho’s requirement to act as care-takers of functional managerial positions? I can only hope so, I can enjoy wondering, I can think it unlikely from what I have seen, but how can I find out for sure?
I really need to be again convinced that resort management and the Inner-Circle are who they claim to be. They are interesting in a model of living that encourages worldly integration. There can and will be communes of all types of persuasions. They will have their benefits and their problems.
If the managerial elite of the resort model of Osho are actually living a closed communal life, and if they are actually seriously dysfunctional, extremist religious devotees, than I wonder two things. I wonder what they will do next, and I wonder about the effects on people of worldly persuasion that come and go.
In a closed communal life there is the possibility of implosion (mass suicide for example) or eventual explosion with the outside world. This latter possibility was what Sheela was creating at The Ranch. However the idea of the primary focus being coming and going from a spiritual centre is a new creation. It has the possibility of a different outcome. If such a model continues to operate and if it is seriously dysfunctional, then it will be like a cancer that grows and lives in a closed cyst-like environment, but also spreads surreptitiously and extensively. Healthy people will come for a few weeks, and take the disease back with them and spread it to their worldly friends. If more dysfunctional resorts spring up than the situation can become very serious indeed. So I would say we are looking at something new here, growing out of the problems that can be created from something old (the closed communal life).
The result would be almost unnoticeable at first, especially if you are of the view like Shantam (for example), that at a practical managerial level all is well at the resort. The clue is indeed whether or not they are performing their duties. The pointer is that some people say they are not, these people appear to be rational human beings, and other factors are pointing the same way. The critical point is that the organisation functions in a veil of total secrecy, and that it defends this secrecy with an aura of arrogance and superiority. This all points to the possibility of a very serious cancer, and if it is the case, under the new model, the cancer will (and has already) spread.
Under the new model it is that you will not notice so much the spread because it will be dispersed. Yet though it will at first be light it will make up for this it its reach. In a way, the new model has the potential to be more threatening and dangerous for society. With signs that the nub of religious power at OIF, the Inner-Circle, and the resort seemingly out of kilter, I would say there may be a problem here. If there is a bulbous cancer already, then it also be already spread. If it continues to grow, and if it continues to create other nodes, then we may have a big problem here. This is why I say that firstly a clear medical assessment be done, and second a clear model be put in place that addresses the underlying issue of corruption of religious power. It is of course the same old problem from the commune model.
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