OSHO COMMUNE, PUNE- I

MA YOGA LAXMI,Ex- Secretary of Osho as per Shunyo

"In June, 1981 Osho with a group of Western sannyasins left to U.S.A.. Ma Anand Sheela was appointed as new secretary of Osho replacing Ma Yog Laxmi. In U.S.A. Sheela was well established as Osho's secretary and Laxmi, who had done this work in India was now on holiday and Osho told her to relax and do nothing. In fact, a year later He was to tell her that had she listened to Him she would by then would have been enlightened."

"Being no longer Osho' secretary, Laxmi ceased to be in lime light and was left as an ordinary sannyasin. This gave her a great shock which stirred her jealousy towards her successor as well as towards those western sannyasins who were now near to Osho and holding good position in the new commune."

"This was unfortunate. She failed to understood that around a Master when situations change there is nothing to be done except go with it, because everything is changing all the time in existence, and with Master the emphasis is on accepting change. A few people, who in Pune had jobs with a certain amount of power or prestige, were to find it impossible to adjust to their new position. Some went their own way and the group around Osho changed, just as great winds come and dead branches fall from the trees"

"Sheela was now well established as Osho's secretary and Laxmi, who had done this work in India, was now on holiday and Osho told her to relax and do nothing. In fact, a year later he was to tell her that had she listened to Him she would by now be enlightened. She tried to sing and dance with the musicians but could no succeed, then she decided to be a cook. It was unfortunate that by the time the lunch was prepared it was already evening. Therefore this was also a failure. Poor Laxmi. Then for the purpose of increasing acquaintance with the local people and show that just like others she was an ordinary person, she started drinking in park –parties. But being over-drunk slipped down from the table. Later on( she herself took another path) she had to collect few disciples and to make efforts to start a new commune for Osho."( These lines were published in Hindi Osho Times International, June, 1999 issue but were not there in Shunnyo's above book. Editor was Swami Chaitannya Kirti.)

"I understood from talking to Devraj that Sheela did not simply become Osho's secretary because of the convenience. Although she was Indian she had become an American citizen through her first marriage and had spent a lot of time in America. It was more involved than that, and had in fact begun four or five months before in Pune. Devraj has written a book and in it he says:-"

"…Sheela, with the active or passive help of us all, became the 'Boss'. It was not that Bhagwan said one day' You are the best person for the job'; He merely confirmed that she had in fact taken the job. Any other choice would have been imposition by Him on us. In the Buddhist context this is what is called 'choice less awareness'.

" To have simply 'selected' somebody would have been against the whole way He worked. He was living in the experimental community, and for it to remain alive it had to have an integrity of its own. To just select His choice against the flow of events was not His way. He always went with the flow, surrendered totally to what existence offered to Him, and gave it one-hundred percent of His support to help it work. If existence had brought Sheela to the top, there must have some reason for it; there must have been something we needed to learn from it--- and how!"

"The day before Vivek left for Delhi I heard her talking to Neelam, telling her that Osho had said that if we were all to be deported, then He would come too. Vivek was asking Neelam, "Please, don't let Him follow us, because at least in India He is safe."

"Hasya and Anando had been busy in Delhi making appointments to see officials there. Arun Nehru was the Minister for Internal Security then, the man at the root of this problem(cancellation of foreigners visas), but their appointments with him were continually cancelled. When they did see an official they were to be told "confidentially" that we should look within our group to see from where the trouble came. It appeared that Laxmi had written to the Home Office giving full details of all the foreign disciples and her words were to be repeated to us that " it was not necessary that Osho needs foreigners to see to His welfare." It was necessary actually, because more important to Osho than life itself was His work, and Westerners were needed for that. Osho was to say,"My Indian disciples meditate, but will not do anything for me. My Western disciples will do anything for me, but will not meditate." I did not understand this at the time, but was soon to learn."

"That afternoon, just before Osho was to take His walk along the river, there was a great commotion at the main gate of Span. I went to investigate , the staff of Span were in a desparate struggle with a busload of drunken Sikhs who had arrived and were shouting aggressively about Osho and wanting to see Him."

"… We went in side and I closed the curtains of the sitting room. Rain started to fall outside and the room darkened as I looked at Osho and He said:

"Sikhs! But I have never said anything against Sikhs. Such stupidity! What do these people want?" And then, as He sat at the edge of the sofa with His shoulders hunched He said, " This world is insane, what is the point in living?"

"Laxmi had confused the situation even more by spreading rumors with the sannyasins who lived in Delhi, that Hasya and Jayesh were trying to kidnap Osho. In a valiant attempt to save their master the Delhi sannyasins tried to snatch Osho back, but were thwarted by Anando. Osho took the plane to Nepal, just in time, just in time to avoid arrest by the Indian police. The Span property which I had heard Laxmi telling Osho about, had not been purchased by her, it was not even for sale."

"Some sannyasins arrived a couple of days later in Kathmandu with an offer of a palace in India in which Osho could live. They did not understand that at this point He could not go back to India, but Osho talked to them. A video of the palace had been made for Osho to see, so He agreed and to my surprise invited all of us to watch the video with Him."

"We sat at Osho's feet in his living room and the film began. After ten minutes of trees in the drive way of the palace, we saw a row of five or six stone huts with the roofs completely fallen in. These were the servants' quarters, and obviously a lot of work had to be done on them--- but that was nothing, we have worked before on buildings. The camera then scanned up and down a few more trees and I thought to myself that someone must have told the cameraman that Osho loved trees."

"Osho asked if there was any water in the palace. "Yes, Yes" was the reply from the bearer of the video. After five more minutes travelling up and down the trunks of the trees, we saw the" palace". It had only four rooms, and they were in the advanced stage of dilapidation. " Is there any water in the property?" asked Osho. "Yes, Yes", came the reply. The four room palace must not have lived in for at least fifty years. " What about the water?" began Osho… Aah! There it was! A thin trickle of water ran down some moss covered stones in the garden. " And do we have rights to this water?' asked Osho. " The water belongs to the girls' school, next door," was the reply, "but, no problem."

"Now I understood. This is why Osho wanted us all to watch the video with Him, so that we could have some idea of how difficult the situation was when trying to get done with some of His sannyasins. That their hearts are with Osho is without question, but they must be crazy to want to take Him back to India, and even crazier to think He could live in the remains of what was a four roomed house, and without water!"

"Osho said to them that their asking Him to remain in India was out of love, but it was absurd. He said that it would create trouble for Him and trouble for themselves, and He told them to go back, think over it, and return after seven days. They never came back and Osho said that they must have understood the implications, and their insistence had been out of love, not out of reason."

Now let us see what Osho International Foundation has said in their circular dated 20th June, 2000 about the role of Ma Yoga Laxmi during Pune-II :-

"The Ex-Secretary Trap

With his characteristic insight into the unconscious of us all, Osho warned about the difficulty for ex-secretaries to get over being dropped from the secretarial function. He explains that a secretary's ego is very happy to be called to see him for this work and gets attached to its idea that it is special. And the ego is always angry with Osho when he decides that they are no longer useful in that function. He explains how these people have always demonstrated their anger and resentment at being dropped by trying to sabotage the work that their replacement has been asked to carry out.

Just as Ma Laxmi, Osho's secretary of the 70's, did this to her successors, and was eventually banned by Osho from the Commune for it, so Ma Sheela did the same, and now, like clockwork, Ma Neelam is repeating the identical pattern.

As Osho explains, when these secretaries are replaced, their egos naturally suffer, but this is an Opportunity for them to experience ordinariness. And that the continuing resentment at being dropped always leads to a sense of separation, which is ultimately destructive."