Osho's Place

Osho’s Place:

Osho’s place is (for this story) in Pune. Whether or not Osho’s place being in Pune was perhaps due to some higher will, or whether it was perhaps simply a political agenda is not clear. His attempts to reside in America, and in fact anywhere else other than India, were rejected. His attempt to return to the Himalayas was also rejected.

Osho’s place was outside a villiage called Pune - some hours inland from Mumbai (formerly Bombay). It cannot be questioned that it is now encircled by an expanding sprawling Pune city. However the question is whether his place will be consumed by urban sprawl, or whether it will become an urban oasis.

For an answer to this question I turn to India as a country. Though with an ancient spiritual heritage and the promises of scientific and technological advances, it is a country beset with immense challenges. It has an aging and inadequate infrastructure; it has significant water pollution problems - both in rural and urban areas, it has pervasive problems with underground water aquifers (accessed by bores) either drying up or becoming unusable due to toxicity; it has significant air pollution problems (the Asian ‘brown cloud’); and for meditation centres - it should be stated but perhaps not heard - there are notable noise pollution concerns. India is also a living blend of the third world, the developing world, and the developed world; it has diseases inherent in its tropical climate; and has other endemic problems (such as Aids).

Further to the furore, Osho and India are an oxymoron; as is his vision of Zorba the Buddha. He and his vision are often considered to be the epitome of Western hedonistic self-indulgence. Add this to a conservative Indian culture, and as has historically been witnessed, the mix is likely to be confrontational. The technical issue here is whether to focus on foundational issues, on practical outcomes, or on both.

Granting the tackling of foundational issues a daunting task, I make here only a brief suggestion of a potential explorative direction. There is a juggling game between theory and practice; between Western individualism and Eastern conservatism; and between Western hedonism and Eastern repression - or between Western selfishness and Eastern self-sacrifice. So granting that there are significant divides, and significant confusion, the pragmatist in me suggests the following direction.

Prior to any unified vision, if this is at all the objective, each socio-cultural-economic-political region needs to be sufficiently unified. The proposal here is that Osho’s vision struggled because it manifested as Osho’s Western vision: Westerners were drawn to him, and I surmise that many of the Indians drawn to him actually had a more Western orientation - that is the Indians that were drawn to him not out of animosity. Simply put, the problem is a Western vision in an Eastern culture.

Osho tried very hard to live in America, or in fact - when faced with extradition - any other Western country, and then, any other country (other than India). When forced to return to India, he also appeared to try very hard not to return to Pune. However the reality is, he ended up back in Pune. The legacy is a Western vision in an Eastern culture.

With an orientation towards foundational issues, the suggestion here is that in India what is needed is an Eastern vision of Zorba the Buddha. In the West what is needed is a Western vision of Zorba the Buddha. If this approach is taken, perhaps his vision of a new way to live will flower in India, and elsewhere. It might here be argued that in recent years Osho has gained much acceptance both in the East and the West, and that there are many flowers. In response, yes the truth and depth of his words are sinking deeper into the collective, however I nonetheless strongly disagree.

At a practical level, as previously mentioned, India as a whole has a host significant challenges. It would be naïve to consider Osho’s place to be, in general, immune to these challenges. Becoming in tune with these challenges is central to charting practical directions.

Many people think of Osho as a self-styled crackpot, a sex-guru, and a cult leader. I think the unfolding of time will prove them immensely wrong.