Two Kind Of Groups

Osho Says:

This always happens: when I say something, I create two groups of people around me. One group will be exoteric. They will organize, they will do many things concerned with society, with the world that is without; they will help preserve whatsoever I am saying. The other group will be more concerned with the inner world. Sooner or later the two groups are bound to come in conflict with one another because their emphasis is different. The inner group, the esoteric mind, is concerned with something quite different from the exoteric group. And, ultimately, the outer group will win, because they can work as a group. The esoteric ones cannot work as a group; they go on working as individuals. When one individual is lost, something is lost forever.
This happens with every teacher. Ultimately the outer group becomes more and more influential; it becomes an establishment. The first thing an establishment has to do is to kill its own esoteric part, because the esoteric group is always a disturbance. Because of "heresy," Christianity has been destroying all that is esoteric.

If Osho so eloquently plots the course of his movement, how can his disciples not follow suit? See what happens in Nepal: the emphasis there seems to be on the exoteric side, for the time being at least (Feb. 2007).

Read and watch in this connection:

• Article on the happenings at the Nepalese Tapoban centre and its director Swami Anand Arun.
• A sociological report on the Nepalese neo-sannyas movement.
  

A Question Put to Osho:

Of late, you have relaxed the dress code for sannyasins; no more dress restrictions - orange, red, saffron or lavender. Why?

Because the function of the color red and its shades is finished. They don′t have any more spirituality in them than any other colors. I had chosen them just to make the world aware of a new movement of religiousness. Now the world is aware. The movement is fast spreading. Now is the time that I should take away everything that is unnecessary. It was useful at one time, it is no longer useful. It is, on the contrary, a hindrance, because there are people who cannot wear orange, red, cannot wear the mala - for so many reasons, their family, their job, their society. And I would like the movement for consciousness and meditation to spread as wide as possible; that′s why I am opening all the doors.

Another Osho Quote in This Regard:

From this day you should not think in terms of being a religion, but in terms of being religious: a quality of love, gratitude, a sensitivity for beauty, for music, for poetry and all that makes you ecstatic... the dance comes on its own, the song arises on its own and it is an individual approach. You are not to follow somebody else′s footsteps, because you are not going outside, you are going inside yourself, where you will not find any footsteps, because nobody can enter in your interiority, in your subjectivity.
I do this because just my silence and isolation gave Anand Sheela and her fascist gang a chance to exploit you. I am going to destroy everything so history never repeats itself again. I will not be always with you - one day I will have to go. Before that I want to destroy every possibility. I don′t want any popes behind me, any high priestess, any Ayatollah Khomeini... no, I want to leave you alone, so content and fulfilled that you don′t need anybody between you and the truth of existence.
Hence I have withdrawn the red clothes. Now all the colors of rainbow are your colors. You can use any color, so you can mix with the wider humanity more easily. And when there are so many colors, why get addicted to one color? But if you love it and if you want to keep it, it is up to you. It is your freedom. You need not wear the mala with my picture in the locket, no. You have to go inwards, the mala will be left out. Somebody may steal it, damage it, there is no need of it.
But, it is up to you. I don′t want to enforce anything on anybody. You can use the mala if you like, if you can, use whenever you like, you can stop using whenever you like. The only thing that you have to remember is don′t forget that life comes to its fulfillment only when you have reached to your innermost center. That is the only truth. Everything else is nonessential. The only essential thing is to realize your being, your silence, your reality. And for that no belief is needed.

And:

I was going to withdraw the mala and the color anyway, but Sheela made it more urgent; you have to be grateful to her. All her crimes made it absolutely necessary that now sannyasins should be absolutely normal human beings, so you can live in the society without creating any kind of hostility or embarrassment for yourself, for your family, or difficulties in your job.
And, more specifically, you are now completely devoid of all outer symbols. All that is left is the essential core of religiousness, the inward journey, which only you can do. I cannot do it for you, nobody can do it for you.
So now there is left only the essential quality, the most fundamental quality of religiousness.

That is meditation.
You have to go inwards.

I have been teaching you all the methods of meditation. You can choose any method that suits you. There are only one hundred and twelve methods; there is no possibility of adding more. It is exhaustive. All the methods possible have been explored. The simplest is witnessing.
So now that you no longer have any outer symbols, it is good, if you want to be a sannyasin, for you to remember only one thing: how to go into the discipline of witnessing; otherwise there is a possibility that wearing red clothes and the mala you are completely satisfied that you are a sannyasin. You are not. Clothes don′t make anybody change, neither does the mala make anybody go through a transformation. But you can deceive yourself.
Now I am taking all that away from you, and leaving only one simple thing. You cannot deceive: either you do it or you don′t do it. Without doing it, you are not a sannyasin. So the movement has come to its purest state, the most essential stage...

Osho′s Last Quote on the Subject:

There are almost two million sannyasins in the world. I have told them not to wear orange clothes, not to wear the mala, because I don′t want anyone to suffer because of me. But anybody trying to persuade sannyasins to drop sannyas... Now what is left as far as sannyas is concerned? I have told them to forget about the orange clothes, throw away their malas in the ocean. Only meditation is the essence. Just keep to it, nobody can even suspect that you are a meditator. It is your inner, innermost center.

So, notwithstanding the fact that Osho advised his sannyasins to stop wearing the mala, in Nepal Swami Anand Arun revived "the sanctity of the mala". There has even been a Mala Revival Celebration.
And, during one of the meditation camps he conducted (in 2006), Arun highlighted the importance of three purifications of Body, Mind and Feelings and recommended Five Disciplines:

1. Commitment to Meditation everyday.
2. All Sannyasins must wear mala and explained the reason behind this.
3. Participating in Osho Meditation camp at least once every 3-4 months.
4. Reading / listening Osho every day.
5. Sharing Osho with more and more people.

The sanctity of the mala seems to have been a decision of a council of "Osho′s old and intimate disciples" (including Arun and Keerti and a number of other gentlemen) in Oshodham Meditation Center in New Delhi, as described in a newsletter from Arun.

Compare this with the stance held by members of the Academy of Initiation of the Osho Meditation Resort, Poona.

This Stance Agrees With The Following:

Today I would like to declare something immensely important, because I feel perhaps this helped Sheela and her people to exploit you. I don′t know whether tomorrow I will be here or not, so it is better to do it while I am here and make you free from any other possibility of such a fascist regime:
That is, from today, you are free to use any color of clothes. If you feel like using red clothes, that is up to you. And this message has to be sent all over the world to all the communes. It will be more beautiful to have all the colors. I had always dreamed of seeing you in all the colors of the rainbow. Today we claim the rainbow to be our colors.
The second thing: you return your malas - unless you wish otherwise. That is your choice, but it is not a necessity anymore. You return your malas to President Hasya. But if you want to keep it, it is up to you.
The third thing: from now onwards, anybody who wants initiation into sannyas will not be given a mala and will not be told to change to red clothes - so we can take over the world more easily!

A Sannyasin Is Relieved:

Beloved Master,
Thank you.
For the first time I feel like meditating. I don′t want to believe in anything. I don′t understand anything. There is nothing to hold on to. I just want to experience your silence.
Is this the point?

Exactly!
Okay?

Osho Dynamites Structures:

Lao Tzu′s ideas cannot be made into a dogma, his philosophy cannot be reduced to a creed. He has put enough dynamite in it; that dynamite will destroy all structures that are created around it. It is self-sabotage; he has made every effort to sabotage himself. But the third category of the enlightened people is the most honest and sincere. Of course they have to be very paradoxical and contradictory, almost illogical and crazy. Lao Tzu has been thought to be a madman.
His disciple Chuang Tzu went even further. Nobody has surpassed Chuang Tzu in craziness; he is the craziest Buddha that has ever walked on the earth. That′s why I call this place (Osho indicates the auditorium with a circular movement of his fore finger) Chuang Tzu Auditorium, I love this man!
My own approach is the same: every day I go on saying what truth is, and every day I have to deny whatsoever I have said. So those who are going to be with me have to become accustomed to my self-contradictions, my paradoxicalness, my craziness.
To be my sannyasin means to be in the hands of a crazy man. But what can I do if you choose this way? - it is your freedom!

The exotericism in Christianity could become overpowering and extinguish esotericism only after a few books were accepted as gospel to the exclusion of many gnostic works, at the Council of Nicaea.
So, as long as the dynamite in Osho′s books remains available to all neo-sannyasins in Nepal, out of the exotericism constantly new esotericism will flower. There will be a movement from outer to inner, from down to up.

Notes:

• There′s a conflict going on between Osho Foundation International (an organisation that manages the Osho Meditation Resort in Poona) and Swami Anand Arun from Tapoban in Nepal, who joined forces with Swami Anand Keerti from OshoWorld in New-Delhi, concerning the copyrights of Osho′s books. For this copyright case, see here and here.
  Comment about the Osho Copyright and the forced closing of sannyas internet sites.
• Here′s Chaitanya Keerti′s point of view with regard to the copyrights issue. (Keerti is founder of Osho World in New Delhi, see the links section).
• To complicate matters further, Sheela, Osho′s former private secretary claims to own the copyrights.
• The number of Osho books sold today is many, many times bigger than it ever was at the time when Osho was in the body: http://www.rebelliousspirit.com/osho-webzine/101
• Osho left the care of his legacy in the hands of a body of 21 of his closest sannyasins. This body was called The Inner Circle. The Inner Circle doesn′t exist anymore and only a few people are in charge now of Osho′s heritage. The danger here is that these few will act too much according to their own ideas without it being checked by others. Instead of honouring Osho′s wishes, they may be honouring their own and so there may be good reason for concern. An open letter from Ma Yoga Neelam, Osho′s former secretary expresses this.
  Anando, who is mentioned in Neelam′s mail, and a few others in charge of Chuang Zu where Osho′s ashes are buried, have written replies to Neelam′s letter.
• Osho Global Connections, a branch of Osho Foundation International, has attempted to make uniform the actions of any Osho Meditation Centers, Osho Information Centers, or Osho Institutes, by having the centers′ management sign a so called Letter of Understanding.

See also:

• Osho Friends International
• Big Trouble in the Commune
• Royalty Ruckus (an article of India Today)

I want my sannyasins to inherit my freedom, my awareness, my consciousness. And each sannyasin has to be my successor, has to be me. There is no need for anybody to dominate. There is nobody for anybody to dictate to. They are on their own. If they want to be together they can be together. Out of their own freedom, it is their choice and their decision. If they want to move free they have all the rights to move free.

I have been working hard to abandon everything that is outer, so that only the inner remains for you to explore.
Otherwise the man′s mind is a very immature mind. It starts clinging with outer symbols. That has happened to all the religions of the world. They all started well, but they all went astray. And the reason was that the outer was emphasized so much that people completely forgot the inner. To fulfill the outer was such life-absorbing task that there was no space left even to remember about your inward journey which is basically the meaning of religiousness.

It′s clear that Osho doesn′t like sannyasins becoming dependent on him or on religious rules imposed on his behalf. Actually he was not in favour of the master-disciple relationship and explained that he′d better be seen as a friend.

Read in this connection:

• The Power of Imagination
• Osho on the Master-Disciple relationship

In the course of time, Osho became convinced that the initiation of disciples via pressing their third eye is not recommendable. This is clear from a lecture he gave in 1986.
It makes one wonder why Indian sannyasins like Swami Anand Arun and Swami Anand Keerti do not acknowledge this and make use of the cultural conditionings of the Indian and Nepalese people to keep a master-disciple relationship going, initiation via third-eye-pressing included. Sannyas is not so cheap.
Also, the way in which Arun is fishing for the good favours of politicians is in great contrast with Osho′s approach.
And what to say about the attitude of Arun, and of other trustees in charge of Tapoban, with regard to rebelliousness and sex. Osho Rebel, Tapoban′s online magazine had its first issue published, but it looks like there won′t be another one; Ma Bodhi Sujata, former editor-in-chief, tells her story.

• Arun in shaktipat mode
• Sannyasins are concerned.

Also Read:

• Confusion, Clarity and The Way
• Neo-Sannyas
• Sannyas Celebration