Anand Tathagat

Anand Tathagat (Ashok Bhaskar) was first introduced to Osho’s vision in 1970. Reading Osho’s books became his love and passion. Being trained as a lawyer he had been working in the pharmaceutical industry until 1984, the year that became a turning point in his life: he came to Pune and was initiated into sannyas. For two years he participated in the meditation programmes in the ashram and in 1986 became an ashram resident.

After Osho returned to the Pune campus in 1987, after his ‘world tour’, Tathagat was put in charge of the Main Gate guards, and soon afterwards Osho entrusted him with the responsibility of being the Commune-In-Charge. Later, in April 1989, Osho included him as a member of the Inner Circle of 21 disciples. He remained its member and Commune-in-Charge till 1992.

In the year 2000, after moving to Dharamshala, Osho Nisarga was conceived and Tathagat became involved with its creation; he had always taken work as his main meditation.

His experiences and insights were expanded through various other methods of Osho’s meditations, which were also offered at Osho Nisarga, which became a successful meditation retreat centre. For the last three years, Osho Neo-Vipassana became one of his favorite meditations, which he also loved to share with fellow travelers.

Tathagat had been diagnosed and subsequently treated for a brain tumour in Bangalore in 2019, and died last night in Lucknow.

Osho talks about Tathagat

Look at Tathagat! I will not allow him to become enlightened. Once he becomes enlightened, who is going to run to the courts, to the police? I have given him the name Tathagat – it means the buddha.

Be patient and be at ease. When the time is ripe, when I see that now there is no need to run to any court, to the police …. I have given you the name to indicate that if you are patient enough you will become a buddha. But right now, you are in charge of the commune.

Yakusan: Straight to the Point of Enlightenment, Ch 2

Links to more tributes

#ForTathagatWithLove – Damini’s goodbye to Tathagat

The visit of the Free Spirit – A tale by Keerti

Swami Anand Tathagat was to Osho what Hanumaan was to Bhagwan Shree Ram (25 October 1949 – 24 January 2020) – Chaitanya Keerti writes about Tathagat and Osho

A photo tribute by Bhikkhu and Waduda

I remember being part of his team in early 1987 at the front gate of Osho Commune. We always had a lot of fun. In October of 2018 he and Keerti visited us here in Boulder and we had some wonderful sharing. We will miss him dearly. One of the things I really treasured was the truly international meeting of seekers in our Osho place in Pune. Tathagat will stay in our hearts beyond the mind and beyond time. With love and gratitude,
Bhikkhu – and Waduda

A video as tribute by Damini

Akanksha Damini Joshi created this beautiful video of Tathagat’s ashes dissolving in the river in Varanasi.

A tribute by Parijaat

Woke up to the morning of 25th January to receive the news that our beloved Swamiji took a flight out of this world. The message was accompanied with this photograph, symbolically telling us two things: He travelled to the abode of his master and he was the one who gave all of us Osho through his ‘way of living’.

I am reminded of a quote in the movie Last Samurai when Emperor Meiji asks Nathan how Samurai Katsumoto died, to which he replies, “Let me tell you how he lived.” It is an honor and a great privilege to remember how Swamiji lived and keep his memories close to our heart. If I ever have had a golden period in my life, it was during the time I had spent in Dharamshala in the glorious company of Swamiji.

When I was thinking about what would be the best word to describe him, it was that in his company everyone felt ‘re-assured’ that everything will be alright. He was there for you and with you every moment, but at the same time he was fully detached. The perfection he mastered on this ability – of being with you every moment and yet remaining completely detached was a quality only great men can achieve in this lifetime. Osho had the vision that Swamiji would, when he gave him the name Tathagat!

He was a great administrator and ensured every detail was taken care. People who worked with him would have very fond memories of Swamiji and his warmth and care. He was untouched by the complexity of this world of relationships and elevated to a plane where everything was simple and pure. He gave of himself fully to any cause that asked for his services and when the time came, he just walked away with such grace. How many of us can do it!

Memories are many, but words are few to recall a great life. A life so well lived that his passing away will make us all very poor. In the last few years when his body was failing, his spirit was as intact as I had known him. He never ever complained of anything. Every time anyone asked how he was doing, he answered with that re-assuring smile that all was well. Yes Swamiji, all I can say is all is well just the way you left us. We carry you and your message in our hearts and live our lives just the way you lived so that our return ticket to reach the abode of masters is assured!

A man of very few words, but he touched all our lives with his smile, with his love, with his grace, with his reassurance, with his compassion and with his warmth that I cannot ever think that he is away. His phone number and his WhatsApp account will always remain in my phone only to humanly feel that I can call him when I need him. His mail ID summed up the spirit of his life – Spiritual Nomad. I always do!

Let me take a leaf out of Rudyard Kipling’s Poem ‘If’ to remember Swamiji forever. He epitomized his life truly to this:

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run—
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Our beloved Swami Tathagat.

Prem Parijaat

A Tribute by Sanghmitra

I met Swami Tathagat when I visited Osho Nisarga for the first time, in 2009. There was such an air of quiet authority and assuredness around him, that one felt oddly relaxed and comfortable right away. Only much later, I’d realize that the sentiment was shared by almost all who met him and had the great privilege of spending time with him. He had created Osho Nisarga at the foothills of the Himalayas, brick by brick, just as envisioned by Osho. But such was his inherent elegance that this fact was more concealed than revealed by his innate dignity and gracious warmth that enveloped us all.

Swami Tathagat lived his name. Behind the easy charming smile and uncommon wisdom was an alert mind stilled by years of rigor and training under an exacting Master. Penetrating eyes, ever watchful, missed nothing. There was nothing much to be said. He sensed and understood and responded to any situation as only he could, with alacrity and complete awareness. This is also the reason how many limbs and lives were saved in the nick of time (mine included) by his sheer presence of mind and calmness under nerve-wracking pressure.

He leaves a big void that would be impossible to fill. “Mohtarima”, I remember him saying, eyes twinkling with subdued laughter, “is pehle aap, pehle aap main gadi nikal jayegi!” (Madam! We’d miss the train in these formalities!) This was our standard banter as we harked back to our Lucknawi roots every now and then, he in his Nawabi style Urdu while I struggled with my rusty ‘Jugadu’ Delhi one. Always the voice of reason, it was so easy to confide and be enriched by every conversation one had with swami Tathagat.

A man of few words with a ready wit, his relaxed manner, and old-world charm found him admirers wherever he went. Yet, he could never be trifled with. Many a reckless ‘seekers’ in the Ashram were tamed by a steely gaze just as ruffled weathers could be calmed with an ease that was fascinating to watch.

Not for nothing, he was known to be the ‘Sankat Mochan’, or the ‘trouble shooter’ in more ways than imagined. A ‘Karmyogi’ in the truest sense, there was a curious lack of attachment to any office or post. He had lived too rich an inner life to be affected or offended by the vagaries of human life. Nothing seemed to affect his composure or dilute the forgiving generosity of his spirit.

Get well soon… Sanghmitra! we’ve to dance again in the Meditation hall, he told me one more time… a little more than a month back. Yes. I promised him. One more time. Not knowing that he was in a hurry to go. He had known somehow that his time on earth was coming to an end. He had closed his eyes and shut the door on the world outside. Preparing for the final journey with his usual dispassion and clarity of mind… weeks before he breathed an unhurried last breath. Poised even in death.

Goodbye, dearest friend. You made everything seem easy and possible. It is not going to be easy for me though. But persist, I must, and persevere to keep my promise to you, as a last hurrah, in remembrance of a life lived too well to be forgotten..

Sanghmitra

More tributes

You can leave a message / tribute / anecdote using our contact form (pls add ‘Tathagat’ in the subject field).

Wow, what a start into the Chinese New Year! Fly high, brother.
Thanks for all you did in Pune and at Nisarga. It was always a pleasure to meet you! Of course, I am sorry you left. You will be missed. But I wish you a great onward journey.
Farewell Tathagat <3
Jayadip

I remember Tathagat with his elegant robes, well-ironed, walking in a busy way especially around the Front Gate. We exchange look, respect.
Yoganand – Lorenzo Clemente

Fly high, brother. Thanks for not being afraid to be in the center of controversy. You stole many a heart. You have long been one of the Rascals!
Abhiyana

Thank You for your words
कर डाल (just do it)
Thank you for your energy ❤️
Giving you a beautiful send-off
From my heart
❤️❤️
Sonia Wadhwa- Atmo Diksha

Swami ji like a loving father. I met Tathagat swami at osho nisarga where I first did my meditation camp. Always smiling, cheerful and even came for my wedding to bless me. Swami ji, I will miss you and your aura so much.
Khushboo

Beloved Tathagat
thank you for your presence in the ashram
LOVE
Asupta

 

It reminds me when I first met Tathagat in the Poona commune in 1994. I met a man with a superb sense of humour, positive aggression, laughter and rhythm. Then on our invitation he came to Jaipur for Osho’s books exhibition and I met a man with a great aesthetic sense, commitment to work and still make you feel lighter. When the following year he came for the exhibition we wanted him to invite Vinod Khanna for the inauguration which he did and we met Vinod who was like a sannyasin with extreme beauty and depth.

Then I met him at Dharamshala but he was a different man, a sannyasin with softness, feminine affection and stability, but still with the same sense of humour.

I can never forget laughing with him.

My salute to a real Osho sannyasin and a lucky one as he was loved by our master.

Love you Tathagat,

Sunita Palawat (Ma Gyaan Amola)

 

Sweet Tathagat, walking near you in our commune was always an easy breezy experience.☮️ You carried your gentle powers in an admiral way?. I’m so happy to have met you ❤️ Tathagat.

It was your idea to give me use of the garden shed, in the courtyard outside of publishing, to live in for two months after Osho left the body. After my sponsors left I cut hair in the courtyard in publishing which is one reason we met. I cut your hair.

I believe that I saw you as a back gate guard and generally a patrolling security guard for the most part. Those days seem just like yesterday; so crisp. Thank you so much ?❤️ Tathagat ?

I never knew until today that you were in charge, which is the reason I am impressed at the way you carried your authority with virtually no ego. You gave me the padlock’s key after we moved my luggage inside and you showed me a group shower and toilet nearby to use. You helped me to set the tools to the side to make use of the bench there to sleep safely.

?See ya soon; thanks for going ahead to clear the path for us ?

Antar Komalta

 

Oh no! Dear Swamaji! Tears rolling down my face! Such an old, old, dear friend from very early days with Osho. How can we exist without him? And I have an even more special connection with him! When I was so ill in hospital in Pune in 1998 he gave blood so I could have a blood transfusion with his blood. He and three others, Osho’s brother also, saved my life. Beloved Tathagat, you will be missed very, very much by so very many beloved friends. I don’t have to say ‘Fly high, Swamaji’ because I know you are flying high! I will remember you with much love and gratitude???
Veena

 

Dear friend. Good looking Swami. An inspiration you were to me. All the way,
Swami Madhugit