Laherubhai

Laherubhainess – the very fragrance of the path

by Dhyan Tarpan

Laherubhai (aka Chaitanya Sagar, Laherchand B. Shah) was born in August 1938 and left his body on 24 September 2022.

Now I am a bit confused… Yes, by saying ‘left his body’; generally we mean that ‘someone has gone (somewhere?) from this body’; almost like he has gone from this shore to the other shore. Of course, a good usage to describe this type of situation. But can’t it be read in a different way? Like, this body is what he left here?

Then the scenario is being changed altogether. Then we can ask, Is this the only thing he has left here? This fragile body? This almost rotten one? The one which is going to be taken by the flames soon? Or the one which is going to be eaten by the microbes?

Does it matter what one leaves when he/she leaves this place? Sometimes it does matter. When all of us are going to leave our body one day, if someone leaves behind something else also, it may become significant.

That’s how ‘laherubhainess’, a word I have added to my personal vocabulary, becomes so important, for meditators, especially for Osho lovers, for people on the path. The context in which that word was coined, on my first meeting with him, can be read in my review of his book, Blessed Moments with Osho.

Laherubhai met Osho for the first time on 21 March 1967. From the very next day he started recording Osho’s discourses with a small tape recorder. All these recordings were actually made, according to him, because he was unable to understand well what the speaker was talking about! He went on improving the recording methods and kept them safe in a well arranged manner.

His connection with Osho went deeper and deeper; he became Sadhak Anand Sagar on 14 January 1972. And when Osho moved to Pune, he took sannyas from him and became Swami Chaitanya Sagar in 1974. However, Osho kept calling him Laheru, Laherubhai, only. Osho addressed him with this name also in two discourses in Osho Upanishad and in the same series (Ch 14, Q 4) he talked about calling old disciples by their old names: “I have known them for so many years before sannyas, and there has been no drastic change. They smoothly moved into sannyas, so smoothly that I don’t remember a few of their sannyas names.”

When Osho shifted to the USA, people around him thought of compiling Osho’s discourses, so Osho asked them to call Laheru for the recorded tapes. To their surprise, according to Laherubhai, he sent them 5000 discourses!

In his memoir, Blessed Moments with Osho, Laherubhai has shared many wonderful stories, the many sacred and joyful moments he spent with Osho.

When I had a chance to be with him, along with the translators of his memoir from Gujarati to English, Ramesh Jain, Maitri, Amol and me, we also had many blessed moments. Laherubhai shared many more incidents and incredible stories he had with Osho, which he didn’t write about in the book.

A smooth friendship, an inexplicable friendliness started happening between us. That is how the ‘laherubhainess’ became so clear that I would say it is the ‘suchness’ upgraded.

Let me share a few incidents about him which I think would be beautiful for all to hear.

One day I got a call from him to meet him urgently in his office at Masjid Bunder, which was quite distant from my place. Those were the days of the above-mentioned translation project. Naturally, I thought it might be something connected with the translation.

To be frank, I was not in the mood to travel that far on a jam-packed local train in Mumbai, but was unable to say no to him. In a bad mood not only because of the journey, but in those days I felt disturbed by many personal issues also. Somehow, I made up my mind and reached his office in time. He didn’t show any formalities like asking, “Hi,” “How are you?’ He simply started by saying, “Tarpan, remember, we can’t do anything about what’s happening in and around our lives. But we can be conscious of what we are going through. And nothing else is needed.” He smiled – and that’s all.

It was as if a deep thread by which I was clinging to my so-called life was pulled away in an instant, or like a troublesome tooth extracted so very suddenly. I immediately headed home. Sitting on a railway station bench, I couldn’t say why, but I was crying! What would one say if asked what he feels after a tooth extraction? Relief or pain?

On the way back, all that echoed within me was a statement from the Gospel of Thomas, my favorite Jesus quote: ’Be passers-by’, ’Be passers-by’.

Once we were together at the OIMR, Pune, for the Monsoon Festival. One day in the morning when I was passing through the Plaza, he was sitting alone in that area. He just called me over and asked me to sit with him, and so I did. After some time, another woman whom we both knew came and sat with us.

During the chit chat, somehow she started advising me to listen to the discourses on Bhagavad Gita, the Geeta darshan series. She said she was going through many turmoils in her personal life and could balance herself by listening to these series – and things like that. Laherubhai was listening attentively to our chat like a kindergarten kid to a bedtime story.

After that he said to us, “See, you all are very capable people, you can understand many things and can manage your lives. But me? I am still having tensions, anxieties, worries and don’t know what to do!”

The beauty is that he was not joking, nor was he boasting his ignorance or incapabilities. He was just being friendly, or sincere and we (at least I) felt ashamed of doing all that bla bla talk in front of him.

The next morning, I saw him coming down from his room in Chuang Tzu, accompanied by Gatha, who was taking care of him, to get to his car; it was like a movie of wonders. A man of innocence simply gliding, like a gentle breeze. For me, this was one of those moments of ‘laherubhainess’.

I can’t forget the musical event he had arranged in his new home. He himself facilitated the Kundalini Meditation and then said to me, “Now you can play the flute.” I never saw him as energetic as that day.

After I settled back to Kerala, I used to visit him whenever I was in Mumbai.  The last two of such visits were really remarkable. Once, when he was talking about Osho, he said laughing, “I really don’t understand what this man is talking about. But daily I listen to two discourses.” His face radiated with joy. Then I remembered his statement about how he started recording Osho’s talks. It was the same reason because he had said, “I didn’t understand what this man was talking about. That’s why I started recording.” But this time, it was different, for sure.

I asked myself, “Do you really understand what Osho is talking about?” I couldn’t laugh like Laherubhai did.

My last visit was in May 2022. I was on my way back from OIMR. Ramesh Jain was with me. Laherubhai took us to his bedroom. He showed us that he had learned to use a laptop to play video discourses. He was very happy. He just played a small discourse and looking at Osho, he laughed at himself saying, “This man has immense guts, for sure.”

After the video, he said to us, “For me it is always the same situation, like once he (Osho) told me that he would take my hand and drag me into the ocean – and then leave me there.” He has explained this incident in detail in his book.

Yes, some masters save the disciples. But some masters leave the disciples in mid-sea so they learn how to save themselves. Inexplicable ways, always. But Laherubhai took or realized the sea as compassion, it seems. In his book, there is a wonderful answer given by Osho (page 156), in this regard. We need to remember that the original title of his book in Gujarati meant ‘Compassion of Osho’.

The touch of ‘laherubhainess’ can be felt in the questions he asked Osho in the Osho Upanishad series; about innocence, and about mind and meditation, when Osho gifted Laherubhai a picture. It’s something one really can’t forget.

Osho’s letter to Laherubhai, responding to his gift on Osho’s birthday, is perhaps one of the best Osho quotes for a meditator to remember forever:

The love between the disciple and the master
Is the most intimate, the most ultimate.
You have to rejoice my absence
The same way as you rejoice my presence,
Because I cannot remain here forever.
And do not postpone.
I am not going to come again in the body,
This is the last time.
You have to become as silent, as loving, as meditative
With me or without me.
The difference between my absence and presence
Should be completely lost.

Dec 16, 1988

You left it behind
the very laherubhainess, suchness
which shattered all definitions of so-called meditators…
Tears with joy.
Namaste beloved Laherubhai.
Love and gratitude.

Osho speaks to Laheru

• The innocent person cannot suffer. Wherever he is, he is in paradise – A question posed to Osho by Laherubhai
• Mind and Meditation – With the help of a moving sand art picture, Osho demonstrates the difference between mind and meditation

Excerpts from Laherubhai’s book, Blessed Moments with Osho

• Osho visits a bistro = From Chapter 2, Life Awakening Center (Jivan Jagruti Kendra)
• Sex, Religion and Life – In Chapter 4, Laherubhai writes about Osho’s controversial discourses in Mumbai
• Initiation as Sadhak – Chapter 21, about a special one-day-only sannyas initiation during the camp at Matheran
• Osho’s surprise visit in hospital – Two instances where Osho asks about and comments on Laherubhai’s health – excerpts from chapter 22
• Blissful experiments in the Samadhi tank – In chapter 31, Laherubhai writes about his experiments in the flotation tank and includes an excerpt from a discourse where Osho talks about the Samadhi tank

More Tributes

Beloved Laherubhai,
Thank you for your smile, twinkling eyes, hospitality and generosity.
My warm feelings to all your family.
In loving memory.
Neeten

Ah yes, Laherubhai, so many fond memories of you.
You are in my heart.
Haridas

 

Thank you, Laherubhai (Swami chaitanya Sagar) for everything you have done for us.

If Laherubhai and his friends; Shri Harshadbhai, Shri Ishwarbhai, Shri Anopchandbhai, Shri Premchandbhai Maheshwari, Shri Vasanjibhai Lodhaya etc. didn’t record the speeches given by Osho right from the beginning, I don’t think most of us from the current generation would have had any access to the most valuable discourses in human history.

Osho’s style of teaching has gone through a great process of continuous evolution from 1960s to 1990, learning from several trial and error experiments and by taking input from modern researches regarding human behavior. All this can be understood more deeply when you read the book Blessed Moments with Osho written by Laherubhai. His unique and deeply insightful perspective into the evolution of his Master, from being Acharya Sri Rajneesh to Osho has helped me very much to understand why Osho is using such controversial and unconventional methods for awakening the souls of his disciples.

Also, the two questions asked by Laherubhai and the answers given by Osho are of immense importance to almost every seeker on the path, as they help us become aware of our own ‘persecution complex’ and remind us that to remain in the marketplace, instead of blaming the surroundings we should focus on centering and balancing our own mind… I’m pretty much sure that only a true seeker can ask such deep questions.

Last year I had a very lucky opportunity to make a phone call to Laherubhai to thank him on behalf of the present as well as all the coming generations of humanity for recording Osho’s discourses. His reply which was: “We are not doing anything, existence is making us do everything, using us as some kind of tool,” had a profound impact on me which I will remember to carry on for ever….

Thank you, Dhyan Tarpanji, for this wonderful article, and lastly…

Thank you, Laherubhai, for visiting this planet and making it more beautiful….

With Love

Dheeraj

 

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