In Indian mythology there is a recurrent pattern of the fall of a great sage. Somebody will, through enormous labors and fierceness of will, achieve a very high level of spiritual insight and powers. After staying on that pinnacle for some time, a deeply saddening decay begins to set in. The saint is either seduced by sexual temptations thrown his way or else he gets inflated at the notion of his own stature, addicted to luxury and comfort and in no time his spiritual power deserts him and he is fallen. Very often they realize this is comeuppance and they claw their way back with a more aware attitude. Sometimes they decline into terminal mediocrity. In some cases they get another chance to rectify matters in the next life. I am tempted to feel that all of the above applies to Sri Bhagvan Osho Rajneesh, each one of these titles marking stages in his shift in attitudes. There is no doubt that he was one of the most original spiritual thinkers and teachers ever produced by India. There is also no doubt, at least to me, that in the last analysis it was a tragic waste of potential and ability.

Rajneesh was born on December 11, 1931 in the town of Kuchwada in Madhya Pradesh. He spent most of his time with his maternal grandparents whom he adored. He was a beautiful child with a vastly attractive personality a quality he maintained all his life. Unfortunately he had to witness the death of his baby sister when he was only five. When he was seven his grandfather died. These two episodes harrowed the sensitive boy so much so that he developed a superstitious theory that if he allowed himself to love anybody too much they would be taken away from him. Naturally he never had many close friends as a consequence, but he was a natural leader and delighted in masterminding his chums into scrapes against authority. Rajneesh also had a disconcerting, though brave, tendency to play with death to try and overcome his fear of it. He was also one of the world's most voracious readers, a habit he never gave up. Rajneesh seemed to have read everything though his memory was always at the mercy of whatever capricious wisecrack occurred to him. But on the whole he had a remarkable grasp of religion and philosophy from all around the world.

This instinctive rebel once actually joined the National Cadet Corps! He was thrown out of Hitkarini College in Jabalpur city for being an obnoxious know-it-all who had good reasons for his high opinion of himself. He joined another college and, typically, stayed at home and still cracked all the exams with ease. In about 1951 he entered a serious crisis of the soul, feeling literally dismembered and disintegrated, and trying by frantic physical activity to ease the discomfort. Psychiatrists were resorted to but what could they do to help the young man who knew their systems better than they did? An Auyurvedic doctor made the insightful diagnosis that he was not ill but passing through an important personal crisis that would transform him.

On March 21 1953, New Year's Day by the traditional Indian calendar, Rajneesh achieved a state of consciousness which he was sure was Enlightenment. He had given up struggling with his illness for a week and just patiently endured. Like all relaxations after a grim struggle, that was the moment that the heightened level of consciousness flooded in. In his own words he felt "Mad with blissfulness" and everything became "luminous, alive and beautiful". He gained a degree in Philosophy then a master' s degree in the same subject and by 1960 was actually assistant professor of philosophy in Jabalpur University. This must have been a gloriously funny spectacle considering his views on the ossified attitudes of academia. The University did not have a developed sense of humor and viewed, first with misgiving and then with outrage, his lecture tours round India, where he used to go out of his way to metaphorically slaughter sacred cows and scoff at traditional values.

In 1966 he quit his job to the great relief of the University. By this time he was a very popular iterant preacher, striking a new note of combative counterpoint to the usual harmonizing melodies warbled by the average guru. He was the first Indian to say that India had exhausted herself in the spiritual field though her ideas and insights were still valid. This was not pleasant to hear, Indians being genetically certain that they are the chosen people. In about 1969 he moved with some disciples to a Bombay apartment where he stayed until 1974. By now he was Sri Rajneesh and his first notorious book, From Sex to Superconsciousness, had made him the best-known guru in the land. Inevitably the foreign seekers poured in adding to his desirability as a teacher.

Rajneesh invented several new dynamic meditation techniques, arguing that the old forms did not work in modern contexts because life had become so much more fragmented. This is a genuine contribution to the spiritual field. He also knew he had no formal system of doctrine in place, and attributed it to the fact that every person's need is unique and therefore so will be the prescription - an insight of amazing astuteness in an Indian context that he has not been given sufficient credit for. But everybody was interested in his alluring idea that sex, lots of it, could lead to a higher state of consciousness. He became known as the Sex Guru, which was inevitable, but really a terrible trivialization of what he stood for. Above all what stood out most in his personality was the fact that he was the most garrulous guru the world has ever known. His collected books, actually transcripts of his lectures, form the single largest body of work ever attributed to a single writer in the history of the world. He talked and talked and talked and talked. Then he talked some more. Fortunately he was a brilliant speaker.

Sometimes the brilliance was used for peculiar purposes as witness his famous discourse on the F- Word. He was making the point that a culture has certain emotive triggers in the form of words and in the West the word 'God' had been replaced by the F-Word as the most powerful trigger that existed. In the interests of propriety I will use the brilliant synonym invented by the Immortal space biker hero of DC Comics, Lobo - 'Frag!' As Rajneesh would have it, " One of the most interesting words in the English language today is the word 'Frag'. It is a magical word. Just by its sound it can describe pain, pleasure, hate and love. In language it falls into many grammatical categories. It can be used as a verb, both transitive, "John fraggged Mary," and intransitive, "Mary was fragged by John" and as a noun, "Mary is a fine frag." It can be used as an adjective, "Mary is fragging beautiful."
"Besides the sexual meaning there are the following uses:
Ignorance: Fragged if I know
Trouble: I guess I am fragged now!
Fraud: I got fragged at the used car lot
Aggression: Frag you!
Displeasure: What the frag is going on here?
Incompetence: He is a frag-off
Suspicion: What the frag are you doing?
Enjoyment: I had a fragging good time.
Hostility: I am going to knock your fragging head off.
Greeting: How the frag are you?
Apathy: Who gives a frag?
Surprise: Frag! You sacred the shit out of me!
Anxiety: Today is really fragged."
"And it is very healthy if every morning you do it as a transcendental meditation - just when you get up, first thing, repeat the mantra " frag you" five times; it clears your throat too!"

This combination of insight with juvenile scatological humor was what made him such a hard conundrum to decipher. Was he a buffoon or was he pulling your leg and the joke was on you? Rajneesh had no intention of making your life easy, you had to accept him as he was, jokes and all.

continue >>

Archive