Body, Mind, Heart and Soul

Ageh Bharti, who lived most of his life in Jabalpur and Satna, both in Madhya Pradesh, recently accepted an invitiation by Swami Ved Prakash to relocate to Osho Pyramids in Hathiyari, near Vikasnagar, District Dehradun, Uttrakhand, as a coordinator of the centre’s activities. Shortly after his arrival in October 2016, his first move was to change the name of the centre because ‘Osho Pyramids’ would mean nothing to new people visiting. He renamed it Osho Abhinav Ashram. ‘Abhinav’ means innovation/innovative.

The ashram’s location is simply magnificent with the Yamuna river flowing gracefully on one side, and the other side marked by high green hills. During the night it is of maddening beauty to look at the moon and the stars in the darkness. The area is absolutely free of pollution. “If friends come forward to donate generously,” said Ageh Bharti, “we will have enough land to create more accommodation and run it like a mini Rajneeshpuram.”

Ageh Bharti’s focus from the very beginning has not only been on inviting meditators but he launched a campaign to connect with the young people of India by giving talks at colleges, universities and other public arenas.

Hence, on October 24, 2016 he gave a beautiful talk at Swami Shraddhanand College, University of Delhi, on the occasion of the first function of their Golden Jubilee; he was invited as the chief guest.

The event was initiated by Shri R.R. Pathania, aka Swami Jivan Prahas. There were about 150 students able to attend in spite of exams going on at the same time. It was a pleasant surprise for Ageh Bharti when he saw almost a dozen sannyasins in the audience who just a few days before had visited the Abhinav Ashram and had traveled from their homes in Gurgaon, Haryana, Kaithal, and Delhi.

Ageh Bharti said,

I was advised of the topic ‘Meditation’s Contribution in Personality Development’, but when I arrived at the University, I saw a large banner with the topic ‘Mind, Body & Soul’.

After a formal welcome with flower garlands presented by the Principal, Dr P. V. Khatri, Madam Sushila Thakran, the N.C.C. Officer, and Librarian Miss Neetika Sharma, Dr Khatri presented a memento to Ageh Bharti. After giving a beautiful introduction, post graduate student Miss Navita Thakran invited Ageh Bharti to proceed with his address. He began:

I feel great pleasure to be amid you because you are the future of not only India but of the world. It is up to you to create a world that you would like to live in. Right now it is full of hatred, anger, jealousy, rape, murder, suicide, terrorism and all kinds of other violence. I would like to first share my understanding for a few minutes, and will then speak on the topic of this meeting.

You must have heard the name Osho. I am his disciple and recognize him being of the stature of Krishna, Buddha, Lao Tzu, etc. But with all the present complications of the world he has gone far ahead of all. He is a new beginning; a new age begins with him. He spoke for the entire mankind and warned of the various threats that are surrounding the entire human race. I feel that as responsible citizens of the globe, it is your duty to be acquainted with him and what he says on various topics.

We inherited this world readymade. Thousands and thousands of people have contributed to bring humanity to where we are today. We owe much to the human race and we must contribute our part. And never feel that you are small beings. No, you all are great beings. Start thinking about doing something good and the quality, capability and courage will emerge from within. Most of all the great people of the earth were quite ordinary people initially. Who knew Malala a few years back?

Now to the topic: Firstly, the topic is not in proper sequence. It should be ‘Body, Mind, Heart & Soul’; from the gross to the subtle. And not only that, your college has ignored the heart but then, the whole country has ignored the heart in the name of so-called religion and morality. One is not supposed to laugh loudly, one is not supposed to weep loudly. You may write poetry on love, write stories and novels and make films on love and be rewarded. But do not love somebody in real life, otherwise the police arrives and then consequently jail. What an ugly society we are living in where we can give lectures on love but cannot love!

The cause of society’s many illnesses is a lack of love. If you kill a man it does not result in the same bad image than if you love somebody. Sometimes killing becomes a virtue, especially if you kill in the name of a nation, or a religion. Now the world is at such juncture that if a climate of love is not promoted everywhere in the world, its future becomes very uncertain. If mankind is not facilitated to be joyous, we are going to face very dark days. Terrorism and all kinds of violence is chiefly due to lack of love. Love alone can create an atmosphere in which violence and all kinds of negativities can be nullified.

Since this vital aspect had been ignored I spoke on it first. In fact, first is the body. You all know about the significance of the body. Without the body nothing is possible. Existence is very kind in that important organs and functions have been kept in its own hands. As you know, our heart beats more than one hundred thousand times a day. The liver, the kidneys, the digestive system, the blood circulation and all the functions, without which the body would die, are in the hands of God. If it were in our hands we would have died long ago by missing some function. The body is the greatest miracle. The more we know about it, we realize that far more has remained yet unknown.

Americans James E. Rothman and Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Südhof from Germany recently discovered that each cell of the body is a factory that goes on producing several kinds of molecules and how the cell organizes its transport system. For instance, insulin is manufactured and released into the blood and signaling molecules called neurotransmitters are sent from one nerve cell to another. These molecules are transported around the cell in small packages called vesicles. They discovered the molecular principles that govern how this cargo is delivered to the right place at the right time in the cell.

These three men were awarded the Nobel Price for this discovery. So, all that is left for us is to take care of the body by right eating, right working, right exercise and right rest. If we take proper care, the body can be maintained healthy. We must love our body then it too responds. It has its own intelligence. If you care, it too cares for you.

Second is the mind: Osho has spoken of five minds, first: pre-mind, the primal; second: collective mind, the social; third: individual mind, the ego; fourth: cosmic mind, the universal; fifth: no mind, the buddha mind, the Jesus mind.

The first mind refers to simple people. They can’t even listen to a buddha. By buddha I mean an awakened one. As I understand they don’t know even what east and west, north and south are.

The second mind can listen to a buddha but cannot understand. I think Hindus, Muslims, Christians and all such religious societies fall in that category. They are a society. None of them has a thought of their own. They all are believers and all beliefs, howsoever beautiful they appear, are blind. You believe because you don’t know.

The individual mind can listen to a buddha and understand, but cannot follow. As I understand it, some authors, poets, singers, dancers, painters, etc. must be in this category. They start thinking on their own and because of that they become individuals. Their minds do not remain in a society.

The fourth mind is the cosmic mind that can understand and follow, but only follow. It is my understanding that Kahlil Gibran, Rabindranath Tagore, and Urdu poet Iqbal Saheb may be in this category. Iqbal Saheb writes, ’Lahoo khursheed se tapke agar zarre ka dil cheero’ – meaning ‘if you hurt a tiny piece of clay, blood would ooze out from the sun’, implying the entire existence is one whole. All of us are interconnected.

And the fifth mind is of the one who can become, who can realize, who can become enlightened.

The third mind may at times become the second mind because conditioning is very hard to change. Similarly the second mind may sometimes have a glance into the third mind but it can’t be its state.

I very much hope that you all must be at least in the third mind. If not, please start thinking. Don’t believe any scripture, any saying. Think for yourself. In fact thinking makes you a human being, otherwise we would not be much different from animals. It’s only that they walk with four legs while we walk with two legs, but this is not much of a difference.

Societies don’t like you to think. They like you to behave like sheep believing in the leading sheep. If you speak, is it your thought or is it society speaking through you? We ought to start thinking. Right thinking will make you individuals. Then only can you listen to an enlightened master and also understand him and grow further. And believers have done enough harm to humanity – enough is enough! Now think and become individuals and be connected with the whole cosmos. Existence needs individuals, only then can we overcome the various kinds of threats of global destruction.

Finally, I am thankful to you for listening with much love and silence and I thank Principal Dr Khatri and all his staff who managed the event so beautifully. Also I thank my Master and brothers and sisters who travelled long distances to listen to my talk. I especially thank Mr R.R. Pathania-ji who has remained behind the scene but is the person who initiated this event!

Ageh Bharti is a regular contributor

More articles by the same author on Osho News