No accumulation of money

Rohit’s open letter to Mukesh about the recent statements by the Meditation Resort Management Team.

Dear Mukesh Ji,

I had two questions after reading your letter to the Maharashtra Governor dated 3 July, 2021. I have no right to demand answers, but since you mention Osho’s guidance as reason for deciding what is permissible/not permissible in the Meditation Resort, I take the liberty to ask two questions.

1. You refer to a puja facility, and how it will be contrary to Osho’s guidance. In the same letter you mention trying to create a large corpus fund by selling two plots.

Question 1: Is generating surplus money not contrary to Osho’s guidance? I have read so many accounts about Osho and his communes (including those published by Rebel that were authored by Maneesha and Amrito) and always found the common narrative that communes were always spending more than they were earning or receiving.
Osho always said that his work would grow beyond imagination and the economic crunch will always remain. He also said that he would not allow accumulation of money with us; if we would get a hundred thousand, he will make us spend a hundred and twenty five thousand. He said that if any institution had surplus money then fighting and politics would start in it.

One specific example is found in Blessed Moments With Osho, by Chaitanya Sagar (Laheru), with an introduction by Anando. Ch 30 contains an excerpt from a Hindi discourse where Osho speaks about accounts, accounting and funds.¹

Question 2 is specifically for Amrito. I assume he is an important decision maker (a) and has his part in decisions being discussed. In his book, The Choice Is Ours, published in 1991, he outlines how the family lies at the root of many problems. In fact Osho Times’ homepage still has the article with the theme, ‘The Family — The Home Edition War-Game’.

But the family derives its strength from our unconscious instinct for preservation and security. And by decisions like above to sell plots to “provide a strong financial base for a long time to come”(b), the Meditation Resort is also opting for preservation and security. Hence the same drive by two different entities lead to two different results.

(a) Living near Delhi, I often come across messages saying the current administration is just taking orders from foreigners (I assume ‘foreigners’ refer to Amrito and Jayesh here). I don’t believe that. Whosoever has stayed for long in Osho’s milieu , especially after the Sheela fiasco, cannot function like a sixth century slave. He may choose a certain narrative or a certain team to pour his energy and resources into – but blindly taking orders – I cannot imagine this even in dreams.

(b) The words are an exact quote from the letter.

With Love,
Rohit

¹ Discourse excerpt:

At present, there are about one hundred books, and this is nothing. Right now there are five thousand hours of recordings with Laheru – perhaps they will never get published because I will go on speaking every day, and while you are busy publishing those talks, you will not be able to publish those fifty thousand pages from before.

If you want to regularize the accounts, raise funds! But to avoid raising funds, you gossip that the accounts are not correct. They will never be. I warn you that in this work, your funds will never be more than you need. It will never happen that your funds will be more than you work. Never be under that illusion. No matter how much money you collect, it will never be enough.

So understanding this situation, you should always defend the person who is doing the work. But instead of defending him, you spread the idea that, yes, the accounts are not so correct. I simply cannot accept this because how can anybody know that the accounts are not correct? It is not that he never presents the accounts – they are presented at the end of every year. Everything gets audited, otherwise your trust cannot function. Put the audit report in the hands of everyone who says the accounts are not right. And if you really want to keep the accounts accurate to the last paisa, then raise enough funds so that this can be done. The day you raise the funds to a sufficient level I will relieve Ishwarbabu of the job completely and hand over the whole work to you, But if I hand it over to you now, all the work will stop – this I know. But of course, your accounts will be very correct!

So for me, the work is more important than the accounts. And to you, it seems the accounts are more important. What is so important about accounts and things like that? Whether they are right or not – what really great thing is going to come out of all this? In the end, accounts in themselves have no value. The real question is the work; how can the work grow?
Osho, Anant ku Pukaar ( अनंत की पुकार / Work Is Love Made Visible), Ch 12 (translated from Hindi)