Celebrating Dadaji’s 47th Sannyas Birthday

Pratiksha Apurv remembers the day Osho’s father, her grandfather, took sannyas.

After my taking sannyas on 18th evening, the next morning around 6 am, I witnessed a divine incident that remains as fresh as ever.

In the early morning hours of 19th October 1975, my grandmother and I woke up to some strange sounds and realised that Dadaji was speaking loudly, albeit incoherently. He also seemed very uneasy.

Dadaji asked me to quickly call Ma Laxmi. I went running to her room and woke her up. Thereafter I narrated to her whatever I had just heard and witnessed. Laxmi assured me that she was coming soon but told me that in the meantime I should also call Osho.

I went and knocked on Osho’s room and told him that Dadaji was not feeling comfortable and was speaking incoherently while sitting on the bed with his eyes closed. Osho replied that he would soon come.

Ma Laxmi came before Osho’s arrival and immediately tried to check Dadaji’s blood pressure. Osho soon arrived and saw Dadaji sitting on the bed, still with his eyes closed. Dadaji was also trying to say something.

As usual, Osho touched his feet and assured us not to worry. “Inko sanyaas ghat raha hai – he is taking a quantum leap into the unknown.”

Then, Osho asked Ma Laxmi for a mala, which he gently placed around his father’s neck and reverentially touched his feet again.

What followed was unprecedented. Soon after Osho touched his father’s feet, Dadaji asked Osho to come and stand on his bed. When Osho got on the bed, his father in deep humility bowed to the son and touched his feet.

It was an unusual sight – a father touching the feet of his son. Neither the father nor the son were there at that moment. It was just a disciple touching the feet of his Guru.

The transformation had suddenly happened.

Dadaji also asked Osho not to touch his feet ever again as he used to do every day before the evening darshan. Instead, after this incident Dadaji would touch the feet of Osho, who was now his Master, his Guru.