Pathika and Ojas wrote about the media attention after the screening of the Netflix docuseries Wild Wild Country and listed the main articles and shows. A nation-wide meeting of friends and lovers of Osho will be held on 5th May at Wajid, The Hague.
Osho frequently called the Netherlands “my country”1 and said, “Holland is becoming one of my most important orange countries.”2 The colour orange is actually ‘ingrained’ in the Dutch; it is their national colour, their kings and queens being part of the House of Orange–Nassau.
After the showing of Wild Wild Country, Dutch sannyasins have been very busy being interviewed by national TV (twice on prime time) and national newspapers. De Volkskrant published on their front page Ojas’s mala on a maroon background with a picture of Osho. Our master’s portrait again everywhere, with photos of Pune and Rajneeshpuram.
After the storm of all the sensational stories, hearing the sometimes shocking facts and the why’s and how’s, the question left was: Who was this Bhagwan? Who is this Osho? It was nice that the media gave sannyasins space to also express their love and experiences with meditation, which resulted in many people, especially young men and women, to become interested in Dynamic Meditation.
This media frenzy also resulted in more of a cohesion among the sannyasins, so much so that they have now organised a nation-wide meeting of friends and lovers of Osho. It will be held on 5th May (National Liberation Day) at the Wajid Meditation Centre in The Hague.
Holland is my country. I have more loving friends in Holland than anywhere else, not only loving but in deep trust. They have remained with me from the very beginning – they don’t know how to betray. It is a great quality, a great honor, to remain in love, to remain in trust, and to go on seeing the truth and never start taking it for granted.
The Dutch people are beautiful. I have come in contact with so many Dutch sannyasins that it feels as if I have already been to Holland. Although I have not gone there yet… any day I could move to Holland.3
(originally a Roman Catholic left-wing newspaper)
22 April
A beautiful article and an online ‘video of the day‘ of an interview with Gerrit Boonstra, a sannyasin who lived for 2 1/2 years in Rajneeshpuram and was given space to express his love for Osho and the transformation that happened for him.
19 April – Bhagwan verdient alle respect, hij is de Jezus van de new age-beweging
A well-written letter by Anand Aadhar, stating Osho remains a great meditation teacher and one of the greatest and most effective, popular and striking philosophers of the twentieth century.
17 April – Hoe kijken toenmalige Bhagwan-volgelingen naar de Netflixserie Wild Wild Country?
3-page article shows interviews with 5 sannyasins: Ojas, Madhugit, Maroesja Perizonius (who made the film: Commune Child), Shanti (who grew up in communes) and Gerrit Boonstra. All very much about the downfall of Rajneeshpuram.
17 April – Hoe konden mensen in zo’n charlatan geloven?
Column of left-wing intellectual, Max Pam: “Wondering how educated people could follow a charlatan…”
30 March – Netflix-documentaire Wild Wild Country is een epos over een mislukte utopie
Short notice about the docuseries.
(objective and intellectual newspaper)
11 April – Hoe Netflix de documentaire verandert
Article about the quality of documentaries, stating that they have become more of an entertainment.
30 March – Bhagwans wilde wereld in de woestijn van Oregon
A very good non-biased article, leaving conclusions to the readers.
(originally a Christian newspaper)
14 April – De Amsterdamse Bhagwancommune is nog springlevend
Article about what Osho means to sannyasins now; with a visit to the commune in Amsterdam with pictures of an Evening Meeting.
14 April – Dansen voor Bhagwan in Boeddha’s geboorteplaats ($) (EUR) (PDF of printed version)
‘Dancing in front of Bhagwan in Buddha’s birthplace’. An essay by historian and indologist Casper Luckerhof whose mother was a sannyasin. He visits a small center in Nepal. Pretty damning, especially about the all-Indian culture of devotion. Contains several factual errors.
5 April – Het rode gevaar uit India, in een slaperig Amerikaans stadje
Big article about the content of Wild Wild Country.
(local Amsterdam paper)
15 April – Amsterdam telt nog altijd handje vol Bhagwanvolgelingen
“Through the Netflix series Wild Wild Country the Bhagwan movement is in the limelight again. Discotheque Zorba the Buddha was the spiritual center of Amsterdam. The city still has a group of confirmed sannyasins.” The article also describes the archive of the Dutch sannyas history in the International Institute of Social History, with 16 metres of archive.
14 April – Wild Wild Disco aan de Oudsezijds Voorburgwal (print only – view PDF)
Interview with Ojas and Tarangita: It was nice that the media after all the usual
attention for sex, money and supposed bad cult behaviour also gave the sannyasins the space to express their love for Osho, how it transformed their lives and their experiences with meditation.
(local paper)
7 April – Oud-sanyassin: Bhagwan was therapie
A former sannyasin talks about his life with Osho.
(popular right-wing newspaper)
9 April – ’Later dacht ik: Jézus’ (€)
A full-page article with the popular stories about sex and Rolls Royces.
(Netherlands edition)
13 April – We spraken nightlife-fotograaf Raymond van Mil over de Bhagwan, zijn tijd in India en de naam die hij als swami kreeg
Article by Ewout Lowie about Raymond van Mil (aka Antar Sangit), a nightlife photographer in Amsterdam, who took sannyas after Rajneeshpuram.
Translated into English and published by Vice on 29 April under the title
I Was in the ‘Wild Wild Country’ Cult and I Loved It.
(Dutch Public Radio)
14 April
(Dutch Public Television)
6 April
Late night show ‘Pauw’ with very popular Jeroen Pauw: after a long interview about depression a very short interview with Sugit, Ojas and Abhilasha, again about sex, Rolls Royces, etc. However, it had a strong ramification because meditations, in particular the Dynamic Meditation, were described as personal experiences, very effective after the earlier broadcast about depression.
(EenVandaag – TV show)
14 April
Very short, with sensational images of Rajneeshpuram and a short interview with Ojas, Tarangita and Shanti; parts of Dynamic Meditation were also shown.
Text and list thanks to Pathika, Ojas and Vrienden van Osho
Quotes by Osho
1 The Last Testament, Vol 1, Ch 16
2 I Am That, Ch 2, Q 4
3 Socrates Poisoned Again After 25 Centuries, Ch 18, Q 2
More about the docuseries Wild Wild Country on Osho News
Comments are closed.