Fruit bat fly-by with full moon

A short note by Subhuti

Video discourse is over.

Osho has just said goodbye to Gautam Buddha, having generously shared his body with the ancient mystic for four days. The video is a recording from December 1988, and is being screened in the Osho Auditorium, a large black pyramid dominating this part of the Osho Resort, in Koregaon Park.

Osho, never one to under-state the importance of any event in his life, describes this encounter with Buddha as a meeting of “immense historical significance.”

Buddha, without a body and manifesting himself as a being of pure light, knocks on Osho’s door in the middle of the night, and asks to share Osho’s body, in order to complete his work. Osho agrees. But then, as many of you surely remember, the problems began to set in.

To roars of laughter from his sannyasins, Osho explains that Buddha likes to sleep on his right side, resting his head on his hand, while Osho enjoys two pillows, turning both left and right while sleeping.

Finally, when Buddha objects to the “luxury” of Osho’s habit of taking two jacuzzi baths a day, Osho bids him farewell.

“That’s enough!” he declares. “No more disturbance in my sleep; no more knocking on my doors. These fellows are good from far away. To live in the same room or in the same body… those four days I will never forget!”

The discourse is quite short, ending with laughter on the screen and dancing in the auditorium. Then we gather up our shawls, mats and black meditation chairs and file out through the double swing doors into the foyer.

Here we find our shoes, then move slowly towards the exit, a steady stream of white robes, heading for the changing rooms and pizza night in the Zorba restaurant. But as we exit the auditorium, the procession slows and stops.

We are standing high above the resort’s man-made lake and the walkway that crosses it. Ahead of us, at eye level, is a sea of trees and branches, with a nearly-full moon hanging in the sky above them. It is a lovely sight in itself, but there is something more going on around us. Large flying foxes, also known as dog foxes and fruit bats, are zooming past in the air in front of us, taking off and landing from a big tree to our right.

We are now at the beginning of the hot season, the night is warm, and this tree is in fruit, as the screeches of the bats tell us, plus the occasional squabble over a branch. This is followed by another fly-by just a few feet in front of us, then another, then three or four at the same time.

It is a lovely sight to see these large bats fly across the moon, then swooshing silently over our heads, or just hanging upside down from a branch, munching away.

In a horror movie, these bats would be sinister, but here they are just a mystical delight, dancing with the moon, a spectacle enjoyed by an appreciative crowd of white-robed meditators.

A surprising and a lovely moment.

And these bats impress me for another reason: their capacity to survive in a polluted city. All day, they hang in big trees by the river, wrapped up in their leathery wings. Then, as the sun sets, they wake up and fly above streets choked with traffic fumes, to feed in Koregaon Park and other areas of the city.

Such resilience! Tough little guys who greet us every year, breathe the same air and still flourish.

PS Please note: the photo is taken from an image bank, not here, but is an exact replica of the scene. So thank you, whoever took it!

Previously published as a Facebook post