Remembering the Orange Connection Event in Berlin, November 1981
It began with the March Event in London in 1981 – a beautiful celebration of sannyas organized by Poonam. After Osho left for the USA and most Pune residents and visitors trundled back to their respective countries or other shores, Veeresh and the Humaniversity organized the ‘Full Moon Affair’ in Holland in July, and Mega initiated a similar event in October of that year in Munich, called ‘Bhagwan’s Bavarian Buddhafield’. A month later, the Orange Connection Event exploded in Berlin, brainchild of Gurudas, who ran the Vihan center then.
Upon alighting in Germany together with Yoga Sona after leaving India, I had been invited to be part of the crew to organize this event and in particular act for press relations. The entire Vihan center was involved and we worked hard to make this event happen. Gurudas even managed to book the exclusive and quite conservative Berlin Congress Centrum as the venue and Berlin sannyasins opened their homes and arms to visiting fellow travelers.
If I remember correctly, about 2,000 sannyasins or more descended on Berlin and those grey November days transformed into a sea of orange; we painted the town red so to speak! Somendra, Teertha and Veeresh were among the several group leaders who participated, Chaitanya Hari and friends played music, Aneeta and Anubhava conducted Sufi Dance, workshops and meditations were scheduled around the clock, including also a talk show or two. Many took sannyas and for a while we were the talk of town!
Thirty years later, Prem Kumari from Sweden came across TV footage from that time that had been shown on Swedish television. (Videos no more available.)
Comments are closed.