From Motor Safari in Kenya to Spiritual Safari in Pune

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Kul Bhushan recounts his rough journey with Osho which started fifty years ago

Everything stops when the Safari Rally is going on in Kenya. A World Motor Rally Championship event is held over four days and showcases the top rally drivers from across the world. They compete over 3,000 km of rutted, rough, dirt tracts in the African bush, with all sorts of wild animals running across their route. During the 70’s, the local newspapers basically had just this one interesting topic: the Safari Rally. For us, the news team of The Nation, based in Nairobi, the Safari was our most exciting but also our most strenuous period, because all of us journalists finished work well after midnight, day after day.

Upon returning home on one such night, I switched on my stereo, inserted a taped discourse of Osho (then called Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh), lay down on the carpet in the pitch dark, listened to his voice, and relaxed. You would not believe what I heard! In plain Hindi he said that only stupid drivers leave the highways and travel on rough tracks just to boost their egos. What? Was he talking about the Safari Rally in Kenya? Incredible! I switched off the stereo, and my mind was made up: “I have to meet this man! No matter what!”

After the Safari ended, I convinced my boss to grant me leave for two weeks to go to Poona. The first hurdle was over, but a bigger one loomed: no cash. So I sold my Mercedes. Then there was the problem of getting permission from the Central Bank to buy dollars (which proved to be a tough project) and finally to obtain clearance from the Income Tax department to travel abroad.

While this paperwork was being dealt with, I attended a gathering of the local meditation group. Another pointed remark smacked me when Ma Yog Manju, the organiser of the group, asked me, “The boat is ready at the shore, the sails are unfurled, are you coming on board?”

“Yes, I am coming,” I said to myself.

A few days later I boarded a flight to Bombay, together with Ma Manju, heading direction Poona. When we arrived, I found that this ashram was just another bungalow in Koregaon Park. Through a rusting metal gate, a path led us to a building where we met Osho’s secretary, Ma Yog Laxmi, who welcomed us with her ever-present smile. Looking around, it was clear that during the three months since Osho had arrived, on 21 March 1974, hardly any changes had been made to the building.

We were informed that there would be a lecture at 7:00 that evening at his residence, called Lao Tzu House, another bungalow right behind the first one. When we got there, we climbed to the first-floor, entered a vast balcony and sat in silence, waiting for his arrival. All there was on the balcony as furniture was a tall yellow executive chair lit from above by a spotlight. Around 60 disciples were already seated on the floor and I parked myself right in front of the chair, full of excitement and anticipation. Very soon it became pitch dark as it was monsoon time.*

When after a few minutes Osho entered, a hush fell over the gathering. He greeted each and everyone with eye contact in namaste – with folded hands – plus an enigmatic smile.

“At last I am seeing him in person!” I said to myself.

After settling in his chair, he looked deep into my eyes, and said, “You have come to me.” I was elated. “See,” I said to myself, “he has greeted me. After all, he knows I am an editor. He can get good publicity overseas. That’s why he has greeted me,” I assured myself, as my ego was ballooning into infinity.

After this mega-elation, which lasted just a few seconds, he went on (and I quote), “You have taken a dangerous step. It is a risk because near me, you can be lost forever. To come closer will mean death and cannot mean anything else.”

“Oh God, where have I landed?” I asked myself. A new series (in English) had just started. It was called The Empty Boat, on the teachings of the Chinese Zen Master Chuang Tzu. It was the 10th of July 1974.

Osho continued, “I am just like an abyss. Come closer to me and you will fall into me. For this, the invitation has been given to you. You have heard it and you have come. Be aware that through me you are not going to gain anything. Through me you can only lose all – because unless you are lost, the divine cannot happen; unless you disappear totally, the real cannot arise. You are the barrier.”

“Oh no, where have I landed?” My mind went blank for much of the discourse. But he carried on with, “And you are so much, so stubbornly much, you are so filled with yourself that nothing can penetrate you. Your doors are closed. When you disappear, when you are not, the doors open. Then you become just like the vast, infinite sky. And that is your nature. That is Tao.”

Tao? What’s that? I had no idea. And who was this Chinese master Chuang Tzu anyway? And an ‘empty boat’? What did that mean?

As his discourses proceeded, I started gathering more background about this Chinese master. It was a totally new world which was unfolding in front of me. A great discovery for me.

But of course I also wanted to have a personal interview. So the next morning I went to see Laxmi in her office again and asked for an appointment. She said to wait and in the meantime I should do the meditations. I remember in particular doing the Whirling Meditation which was held in a large courtyard covered by a temporary tent against the rains. At the back there was a huge banner with a painted slogan. Three local musicians played light Indian classical music for the whirling.

Every day I went to see Laxmi but each time she smilingly said I should wait. Finally one day she said, “Now you can have a ‘darshan’: tomorrow.” I was going to meet Osho the next morning in his garden! On the very last day of my stay in India!

It was a pleasant sunny morning. Manju and her three teenage children were also invited. When we entered the garden, Osho was already there, in a reclining chair.

When my turn comes to speak, he greets me with a big smile. I ask him for an interview, which could then be distributed in the different overseas media for which I was writing. He replies, “No need for an interview. You write what you want and attribute it to me, as if I had said it in an interview. And if it gets challenged, I will take care of it.” I am totally shocked, because every person I have ever interviewed always insists on being quoted accurately. And here Osho is telling me that I can write whatever I want and that he will take care of it! What trust!

Osho then gets on with our personal interview, saying, “Sannyas to lena hi hoga,” which means, “You have to take sannyas.” He puts a mala around my neck, writes my sannyas name on a sheet of paper with his letterhead, dates and signs it. My sannyas certificate! The date on it is the 10th of July 1974! **

When I see the blank letterhead, I remark, “Osho, would you have signed a blank letterhead? Could I now write anything on it and implicate you?”

He smiles and says, “Go ahead.”

Again, what trust!

And here we are: from a Safari Rally in Kenya to a spiritual safari with Osho. My personal safari, over sharp bends and rough terrain, which started fifty years ago and is going on, and on.

* According to records, the discourses were later moved to the mornings, as in photos.

** Confusing? Osho back-dated the certificate to that first discourse, a sort of time travel as he had done with my wife, Rashma – and I discovered it only today while writing this article, on my 50th sannyas birthday!

Update 10.7.2024: dates and first note corrected. Update 16.7.2024: added second note

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Kul Bhushan

Anand Kul Bhushan is a writer, journalist, UN media consultant and workshop/meditation leader.

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