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Bhagawati interviewed Lakshen for Viha Connection when he visited Bali in 2023

Lakshen at the filmcamera

I teach you this moment, I teach you herenow. That’s what sannyas is all about: a life lived each moment with utter joy and celebration, a life which knows no postponement.”

– Osho, Turn On, Tune In and Drop the Lot, Chapter 22
(excerpt from Lakshen’s sannyas darshan)

I met with Veet Lakshen when he visited Bali recently [2023, ed.] and treated a group of sannyasins and friends to a sneak peek of his documentary film, Ten Thousand Shades of Osho.

Lakshen was raised in Rimini, Italy, where he was born in 1956. He played basketball as a semi-professional and studied to become a gymnastics teacher. He was a rebel and adventurous by nature. During summers he was working on cargo ships, enabling him to see the world; he was inspired by Jack London and also Kerouac’s, On the Road.

When he found out about Osho, he traveled to Pune in December 1978. Two days after arrival he became a sannyasin. In darshan, he told Osho about a peculiar issue with his navel being so sensitive that neither he nor anyone else could touch it. Osho explained, “The navel is the center of death. Just behind the navel is a point which is the most vulnerable point in life. If somebody becomes very afraid of death then this problem arises.”

To this day, his navel remains very sensitive. “When I touch it, I feel a connection to the universe, a precise physical connection with the whole.”

Lakshen stayed at the ashram although he hadn’t even intended to take sannyas. “I had no idea what sannyas meant; I had no idea about the disciple-master relationship; why I was wearing orange and a mala… I had so many unanswered questions. It was typical of me to do something spontaneously and only realize what I had done later. Taking sannyas was part of that.”

After two months of ashram life, he found himself on a train to Mumbai, headed for Rishikesh. “Suddenly an inner voice said, ‘Where are you going? Your master is back there!’ This was the moment I truly became a sannyasin.” He jumped out of the slow-moving train and returned to Pune, knowing “we were all here to stay forever.”

After his parents died in 1980/1981, he donated his inheritance and was invited to Rajneeshpuram. He didn’t like living there and as Osho had given him the name Nirvano for a center in Rimini, he returned there, and also opened the first Italian Zorba the Buddha disco in 1984. “Rimini is known for its nightlife, and we were the talk of the town. Even Fellini visited the disco; he was reading Osho’s books, and he got a tarot reading from us.”

Then the Ranch collapsed, and so did the disco after the second season. “It was painful, like a broken dream. I was unhappy for a year but never lost faith in Osho, even though I had questions about what really happened at the Ranch.” He helped with Osho’s visa application which had many supporters, including Fellini, and eventually Osho was granted a 15-day stay.

“Having always felt pulled to Sufism, I visited a Sufi group in Konya, where Rumi had lived. I spent the winter of 1986 with the Mevlevis, who I loved. I started a Gurdjieffian career, buying and selling kelim carpets from Turkey and working as a professional carpet dealer in Italy.”

Lakshen, passionate about writing and storytelling, wrote The Blue Line in 1989 and turned it into a film in 1994. He moved to Rome, started working at Cinecittà Studios, and established Navala Productions. The story of one night in Rimini featured also Fellini’s sister, Maria Maddalena. As luck had it, the Italian government provided a helpful loan for the film that was shown at the 1995 Venice Film Festival. “It was a challenging transition into the industry but the film didn’t make it in the mainstream market. But ultimately, we all had a terrific time while shooting the movie.”

His second film in 2000 was Zorba the Buddha, based on a story he invented about a DJ, and ‘little Siddhartha’ played the main character. He obtained another government loan for this film which was distributed more widely and circulated in the ‘art movie’ scene.

“After those two movies, I put all my energy into making one about Osho. I wrote a script for The Other Side of the Ocean and spent ten years on that movie. I tried hard to get well-known actors and even contacted Al Pacino. I finally found an Indian producer, but he abruptly turned down the project. I think he got scared of OIF. I wrote to Jayesh and Amrito, wanting to discuss the film, but no support was given. Instead, they boycotted the project by publishing a notice in a professional Indian film magazine, declaring that anybody who wanted to make a film about Osho had to go through them. I think this threat caused that producer to pull out.”

This was another crisis in Lakshen’s life. He had invested a lot of time and money into this movie, was bankrupt, and turning 60. And then he had the idea of a documentary about Osho, which required less funds. “I wasn’t really sure how it would work, but I reached out to sannyasins and built a story upon the interviews I made. When Wild Wild Country came out, I felt my work was now much more vital because it had to differ from their interpretation of Osho.”

Lakshen traveled widely to collect material, and also interviewed non-sannyasins. “I didn’t want the documentary to be defined by sannyasins only and am happy with the result. What was supposed to be a 1.5-hour bio-documentary for cinemas became a 5-hour, 5-part series for OTT platforms. I feel my work is important also for the next generation because of the direct testimonies of people who were with Osho, even when they won’t be on this planet anymore!

“The film has just begun to travel the Festival circuits around the world and is being well received. I’m looking for a buyer such as Netflix or Amazon in India and abroad.” *

A year ago, with the docu in its final stages, Lakshen was happy and content and felt he could now relax. “The dream of my life had been to make this film and to give something back to Osho; I was doing something significant not only for my growth but also for humanity.

“What is existence preparing for me now, I thought? What next, what to learn and confront? And then boom, a diagnosis of cancer in the prostate was made. In any case, I never perceived this diagnosis as an enemy; it is not a battle to fight. I’m trying to combine the traditional natural approach with Western modern medicine. I am also trying to understand the psychological reasons why this imbalance happened. In this new movie, I am not only the director but the main character!”

oshothemovie.com

This interview was first printed in Viha Connection Magazine (oshoviha.org/magazine) – reproduced with permission

* Navala Productions let us know that towards the end of the year 2025 there will be details about possibilities of downloading his docuseries Ten Thousand Shades of Osho

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Bhagawati

Bhagawati is a communicator, writer and author with a penchant for gardening and India.

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