“Just be a dentist!”

Devageet, Osho’s personal dentist, in conversation with Waduda Paradiso (Part 1); “How does a person like me come to be at the feet of the Master – more – how does a person like me come to be at the teeth of the Master?”

Watch on YouTube
Channel: NirvanaRoadStories
Part one of a series of unedited conversations with Devageet, recorded in Santa Fe, NM, in 2013, as part of the promotion for his book Osho: The First Buddha in the Dental Chair
Produced by Bhikkhu Schober
Music credit: Après La Pluie from the album Sun Spirit by Deuter

Excerpt

00:12 We are here together with Devageet, Osho’s personal dentist. We would like to ask you a very simple question: tell us a little bit about how you ended up being Osho’s personal dentist and how later you ended up writing a book about your story with him.

When I came to meet Osho, I had no intention of being a dentist. I’d finished being a dentist. As far as I was concerned, dentistry was part of my past life – finished.

The first time I came, I did groups. Then I went away to finish up my business in the West. Then I came to live, at the end of 1978. And when I asked Vidya, I’d like to come and work here, she said, “You’ll be our dentist.”

I said, “What dentist? You haven’t got a dental room.”

She said, “We have got a dental room. There’s an American dentist, Nirvan, who’s just built a dental room. You be our dentist.”

I said, “If Nirvan’s here, how can I be your dentist?”

She said, “Just be a dentist!”

I said, “But I didn’t come here to be a dentist. I came here to be a disciple – to chop wood and carry water.”

She said, “Devageet, just be a dentist.”

I asked, “Have you asked Nirvan if he wants somebody to be a dentist with him?”

She said, “Just be a dentist.”

So I went round the corner, just round the corner, and I met Nirvan, who was about 58 at the time. The dental room was smaller than this room – it was tiny – and he had all these beautiful cabinets together with all the machinery. He was showing me everything because nobody there really appreciated the dentistry and all the beautiful work he had done.

I said, “Vidya has said I should come and be a dentist.”

He said, “OK, you can be a dentist here.”

I said, “But how? It’s not big enough for two of us.”

He said, “We’ll find a way.”

The next day he told me he had been sick ever since he’d been in Poona; he had amoebas, he can’t get an erection… He wanted to go back to the West, and he hated everybody in the front office. By the next day, when he came, he had all these vitamin pills and a specially-made mattress, and said, “You can buy them, I’m leaving this afternoon.” Within 24 hours he was gone – and I was the dentist.

03:10 So she was right?

Yes, she was right. But when I had come the for first time, on the very first day, when I met Laxmi, there wasn’t even a place to pee. There wasn’t even a place to have breakfast. Laxmi asked my name, and I told her, and she asked, “What do you do?” I said, “I’m a dentist.” She asked, “Will you be our dentist?”

I burst out laughing – there was nothing there, just a huge hole in the ground where Buddha Hall was going to be. There was no water laid on, no showers, I couldn’t find a place to go and have a pee after Dynamic – and I thought she was mad.

That’s how it happened. Eighteen months later, I was a dentist there.

03:56 So now, many many years later, you have a few books ready to be published. Can you tell us the story about how these books came to life?

As I remember it, there had been a poetry evening in the commune in Poona, and I had read some of my poetry. Osho used to get feedback – I don’t know how, but probably someone like Vivek was there. Anyway, he said, “I would like you to write a book.”

This was in 1988. He said, “I want you to write a book, and it’s going to be called Bhagwan: The First Buddha in the Dentist Chair – Amusing Anecdotes by His Personal Dentist, Swami Devageet.” He gave me the full title – and then left it to me to write it.

I had already been writing for three years on my previous book, so at that point he knew I could write, and then he just left it up to me. He never saw any of this book, in fact, he never saw any of my other books.

The first book, he said, should be a subjective account of my life with him – a subjective account. That was very different from other books. He had given two other books to Amrito and one to Anando [to write]. He also gave me specific instructions: the book needs to be widely distributed, and it should find an outside publisher. Twenty-five years later, it may find that publisher now – who knows?

06:03 When you say Osho told you to write this book, can you describe the circumstances?

There was never any direct conversation except on one occasion, but the circumstances when I used to speak to Osho were always in the dental room. The first book, when he asked me to write it, was not in the dental room – I was in London.

I had just done an interview with Hugh Milne on the radio. His book was a piece of black propaganda, and I was on this radio programme providing a balance to his viewpoint, because he was portraying Osho as a very bad character. I was there to represent the disgraced guru, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.

In that interview… There were so many lies! I had been in all the situations that Hugh Milne was talking about, and I could refute every one of those lies – they were pure lies. Afterwards, when I came back to my home in Hampstead – it was about 2 o’clock in the morning – sannyasins were phoning me up saying how wonderful it was that somebody was supporting Osho at a time when he was getting a very bad press.

Then, at about 6 o’clock in the morning, I got another phone call, from Arup in Geneva, saying that Osho had just sent a message that he wanted me to write a book. I was completely amazed, because only two hours earlier, I [had wondered] why it is only that people who hate Osho that are writing books. I want to write a book which tells the details of how wonderful it is to be a disciple of Osho.

That’s how it started.

I began writing this book without knowing how or what. Osho gave me the title – Bhagwan: Messiah of Life, Love, and Laughter: A Subjective Account of My Life with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh – but he gave me no indications on how to start with or what he wanted.

I began at the very beginning, giving a small biography of myself – how a person born in the East End of London, became a dentist, and be in India with an enlightened master. It was impossible. When I looked into my life: It was impossible for me to be there!

Then, as I gave this three-chapter resumé, and when about two years later Osho had asked how the book was going, I told him I was on about page 1,400 right now. He asked, “Why is it so big?”

I explained, “I have written some chapters about myself before I met you.”

He said, “Nobody wants to read those,” so I took those out, making the book a more manageable size.

For me, my life with Osho is the culmination of my life, and to make that contrast, I felt it was important just to say where I’d come from. Otherwise, how does a person like me come to be at the feet of the Master – more – how does a person like me come to be at the teeth of the Master?

It’s an impossibility.

But it happened.

10:27 How did it actually happen [to meet Osho]? How did you get to Osho?

[The interview continues on the video at 10:30]

To be continued…
Excerpt edited for clarity and length