Buddha Purnima Celebrations in New Delhi

Each month of the year Osho World Galleria in New Delhi dedicates a celebration day to an enlightened mystic. In May it is Buddha’s turn because of the Buddha Full Moon, the Buddha Purnima, which this year falls on the 17th of May. Reason for a big gathering at the Ansal Plaza with meditation and creativity.

Kul Bhushan welcomed a packed house of Osho lovers with the following words: “Osho, a modern day Buddha, is creating the conditions for the emergence of what he calls Zorba the Buddha or the ‘New Man’ – the combination of the celebration, dance and song of Zorba and the silence, stillness and meditation of the Buddha – the meditation of the East and the materialism of the West. Zorba the Buddha is a totally new human being who is aware, life-affirmative and free.”

[portfolio_slideshow]

This concept was presented in “Silence of Zen”, an exhibition of paintings on Buddha created by Anusheh Hussain inaugurated jointly by well-known artist Aparna Caur and writer-producer-director Rajiv Mehrotra. To mark Buddha Purnima, Anusheh has chosen to visualize yet another inimitable Master’s wisdom through the strokes of her brush, with colour and calligraphy, capturing the simplicity and the silence of Zen. Her creative expression is inspired by the spiritual philosophies and traditions of India and by Osho in particular. This is her second show at the Osho World Galleria: in her first exhibition, held in December 2004, she had shown a series called ‘Finger Pointing to The Moon’ which was inspired by Osho’s signatures which are considered as works of art. Anusheh Hussain was born and brought up in Pakistan and has now been living in India for many years.

The celebration was also an occasion for the launch of 5 DVDs on Osho’s lectures The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha by artist Arpana Caur and writer-producer-director Rajiv Mehrotra.

The artist Aparna Caur also launched a set of five DVDs on Osho’s discourses on The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha. Before the launch, Kul Bhushan outlined Osho’s unique insight challenging the common notion that Buddha ‘renounced’ his palace. Osho says, “If you renounce the world to gain something, whatsoever it is – nirvana, enlightenment, moksha, freedom, truth or God, whatsoever it is – if you renounce the world to gain something, it is not renunciation.”

“Hence, I will not say that Buddha renounced the world to attain something. The very idea of attaining something IS the world. The very idea of attaining something is to live in imagination is to live in the future. And a man of understanding lives in the present, not in the future. A man of understanding does not really renounce the world – the world simply falls from him, the world simply becomes irrelevant; it loses meaning. His insight is such that he can see through and through the falsity of all desire – not to attain something, but seeing the futility of desire, desiring ceases. That is true renunciation. That’s what Buddha did,” says Osho.

A scintillating Kathak performance enacted from the life of Buddha by Astha Dixit concluded the event. Astha Dixit has trained for over ten years under Shri Harish Gangani of Jaipur gharana and Smt. Malti Shyam of Lucknow gharana. She has performed in the USA, China and at major festivals in India and has also performed as a repertory dancer with the Kathak Kendra under the Ministry of Culture.

A spectacular celebration indeed!