TRADITIONAL OSHO SANNYAS INITIAN RITUAL: GENESIS OF GURUDOM

Osho broke His silence after three years in 1984 and left His physical body in 1990. This period was to complete the circle --- the circle which was started in 1960 and reached to its original point in 1984. Osho again started to disown all those things which he had accepted in seventies: title of Bhagwan, Rajneeshism, Maroon cloths, Mala, Guru, Surrender…. Everything was discarded or redefined.

After 15 years of starting Sannyas initiation in Manali in 26th September, 1970, Osho made a very important declaration in which He destroyed with single stroke the religion which was growing around him. On that day Osho also relieved Sannyas from all external symbols. The same reads as under:

"And 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!"

"Telling you that it is up to you to wear malas or not, it is up to you to be in red clothes or not, is not out of any hurt feeling in me. Nobody can hurt me – that is impossible, because in the first place I never expect anything from anybody. So disappointment is impossible. I have said these things because I love you, and I want you to be responsible and to take decisions on your own so that no fascist kind of regime again fetters you and destroys you. I cannot be with you always. One day I will have to leave my body, and then there will be every possibility of people exploiting you, becoming your leaders."

After two days i.e. on 28th September, 1985 Osho made another explosion:

"I am not your Master(Guru), and I have no disciple. You all are my friends."

Next day making it clearer He said, "Master and Disciple relationship means that Master is above and disciple is below him, and Master has some responsibility. That responsibility I have left yesterday. Now I am not responsible for anybody. You will have to be responsible for yourself. You cannot depend upon me. I am not your Masaya; I am not your leader. Now you yourself have to become your messiah." "Now if you want to become my friend, then you will have to be as responsible as I am; to become as free as I am. To be as centered as I am." "Disciple may remain stupid but if the friend remains stupid, he cannot be excused. So I will give you opportunities every day. It is an effort to sharpen your intelligence, so that you have your own individuality, grandeur, to become yourself." (From Bondage to Freedom)

(From Bondage to Freedom)

"THE DAY I STARTED INITIATING PEOPLE, MY ONLY FEAR WAS, "WILL I be able someday to change my followers into my friends?" The night before, I could not sleep. Again and again I thought, "How am I going to manage it? A follower is not supposed to be a friend" I said to myself that night in Kullu – Manali in the Himalayas, "Don't be serious. You can manage anything, although you don't know the ABC of managerial science."

I recalled a book by Bern, the Managerial Revolution. I read it not because the title contained the word revolution, but because the title contained the word managerial. Although I loved the book, naturally I was disappointed because it was not what I was looking for. I was never able to manage anything. So that night in Kullu Manali I laughed"…………

(Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic)

In spite of all that which Osho has said about Sannyas initiation, the so called old sannyasins who left Osho Commune, Pune in the year 2000 and those who followed the trail like Swami Satya Vedant, continued with the old Sannyas ritual. They are still initiating and making disciples, of course their own disciples and becoming their Gurus/Masters. They better knew that this Gurudom and hierarchy was not possible so long as they remain in Osho Commune, Pune.

Osho had again repeated His declaration about stopping the ritual of Sannyas Initiation in reply to a question in the series 'Komplein Phir Phoot Aayeen' which is reproduced below:

Q. . Have you stopped initiating people into Sannyas and creating disciples? …..
"What is discipleship?

"It is the highest and deepest name of love. If you want to love me, how can I stop you? If you shed tears in love for me, how can I stop you? And if you dive into what I call meditation, how can I stop you? Whosoever wants to be a disciple, no one can stop him. And that is why I have dropped all the formalities that were there for making someone a disciple, because now I want only those who are coming toward me on their own accord, not via some other rout. Now, the whole responsibility is yours."

"For instance we teach students in the first grade: 'A' is for apple, 'G' is for Ganesha. In fact previously G used to be for Ganesha, now it is for Gadha, the donkey. It is a secular State. Here it is not appropriate that the word Ganesh appears in the textbook. But neither does Ganesh have anything to do with G or gadha. It is just a way to teach a small child. The child finds gadha or Ganesh more interesting. He does not find any interest in the letter g. But slowly, slowly gadha will be forgotten, Ganesh will be forgotten, only g will remain, and only g will be used."

"If you keep having to read a for apple, g for Ganesh, by the time you enter the university, there will be no opportunity to study. Even to read one complete sentence will be impossible. And after reading it, it will become difficult to understand what the meaning is, because who knows how many donkeys and Ganeshas and mangoes will be in the sentence?"

"So when I started, I had to initiate people into Sannyas, to make people disciples. But how long can one play the joke of gadhas and 'ganeshas'; apples and pineapples? Now Sannyas has matured. Now, formalities no longer have an important place."

"Now, if you are in love, become a disciple. It is not something even to be talked about. Now, no need even to let anyone know: if it is your feeling, be a sannyasin. Now, the whole responsibility is yours. This is the sign of being mature. How long can I walk along with you, holding your hand? Before my hands are removed, I have to let go of your hands by myself, so that you can stand on your own feet – relying on your own hands, your own responsibility – and walk."

Even if seen retrospectively, Osho has not given any new vision on sannyas initiation in above quotation. In the year 1970, before starting the movement of sannyas, Osho had expressed the same view about sannyas in reply to a question on this subject in discourse 18 of series "Jin Khoja Tin Paiyan" which reads as under:-

Q. IN SPIRITUAL QUEST, DEEKSHA, INITIATION, HOLDS A VERY IMPORTANT PLACE. ITS SPECIAL CEREMONIES ARE CARRIED OUT UNDER SPECIAL CONDITIONS. BUDDHA AND MAHAVIRA USED TO GIVE INITIATION. HOWMANY TYPES OF INITIATION ARE THERE? WHAT IS THEIR SIGNIFICANCE AND USE AND WHY ARE THEY NEEDED?

A little talk on initiation will be useful. For one thing, deeksha, initiation, is never given; initiation takes place, it is a happening. For example, a person stays with Mahavira and it takes years for his initiation to take place. Mahavira tells him to stay, to be with him, to walk with him, to stand in such a way, to sit in such a way, to meditate such a way. Then a moment comes when the person is fully prepared. Then Mahavira is only the medium. Perhaps it is not proper even to say that he is the medium – rather, in a very deep sense he remains only a witness and initiation takes place in front of him.

Initiation is always from the divine, but it can happen in the presence of Mahavira. Now the person to whom it is happening sees Mahavira in front of him, but the divine he cannot see. It happens to him in front of Mahavira so naturally he becomes grateful to Mahavira – and this is fitting also. But Mahavira does not accept his gratitude. He can only accept his gratitude if he acknowledges that he initiated him.

So there are two types of initiation. One is that which happens and which I call "right" initiation, because in this you establish your relationship with the divine. Then your journey through life takes a new turn: you become someone else now; you are no longer the same that you were; everything within you is transformed. You have seen something new. Something new has happened to you, a ray has entered you, and now everything within you is different.

In the real initiation the guru stands aside like a witness and he can confirm that initiation has taken place. He can see the full process but you see only half. You can only see what is happening to you; he sees that from where the initiation takes place. So you are not a complete witness of the happening; all you can say is that a great transformation has taken place. But whether initiation has taken place or not, whether you have been accepted or not, that you cannot say for certain. Even after you are initiated you will still wonder, "Have I been accepted? Have I been chosen? Have I been accepted by the divine? Can I now take it that I am his? On my part I have surrendered, but has he taken me to him?" This you cannot know at once. You will come to know after some time, but this interval can be long also. So the second person, whom we call the guru, can know this because he has watched the happening from both the sides.

Right initiation cannot be given, nor can it be taken. It comes from the divine; you are merely the recipient.

Now the other type of initiation, which we may call false initiation, can be given as well as taken. The divine is completely absent there; there is only the guru and the disciple. The guru gives, the disciple takes, but the third, real factor is absent.

Where there are only two present – the guru and the disciple – the initiation is false. Where three are present – the guru, the disciple and he from whom it takes place – everything changes. This giving of initiation is not only improper but also dangerous, fatal, because in this illusion of initiation right initiation cannot take place. You will merely live under the illusion that initiation has taken place.

A seeker came to me who had been initiated by someone. He said, "I have been initiated by such and such a guru and I have come to you to learn meditation."

I asked him, "Why then did you take initiation? And if you did not even attain meditation, what have you obtained from your initiation? All you received is clothes and a name. If you are still seeking meditation, then what is the meaning of your initiation?"

The truth is that initiation can only happen after meditation. Meditation after initiation has no meaning. It is like a man who proclaims that he is healthy and still he knocks at the physician's door and asks for medicine. Initiation is the acceptance obtained after meditation. It is a sanction given of your acceptance – consent. The divine has been advised of you and your entrance into his realm has happened. Initiation is only a confirmation of this fact.

Such initiation is now lost, and I feel it should be revived again: initiation where the guru is not the giver and the disciple is not the recipient – and the giver, God. This can be; this should be. If I am a witness to someone's initiation I do not become his guru. Then his guru is the divine. If he is grateful it is his business. But to demand gratefulness is senseless and to accept it is meaningless.

Gurudom, the web of the so-called gurus, was created by giving a new form to initiation. Words are whispered in the ears, mantras are given, and anybody initiates anyone. Whether he himself is initiated is also not certain; whether the divine has accepted him is not known. Perhaps he too has been initiated in the same manner. Someone had whispered into his ears, he whispers into someone else's, and this one in his turn will whisper into someone else's ears again.

Man creates lies and deceptions in everything – and the more mysterious a happening the more deceptions there are, because there is nothing substantial to show as proof.I intend carrying out this method also. About ten or twenty people are preparing for it. They will take initiation from the divine. The others who are present will be the witnesses, and their work will be to confirm whether the initiation has been accepted by the divine; that is all. You will experience but you will not be able to recognize at once what has taken place. It is so unfamiliar to you, how will you recognize that the thing has happened? Confirmation can be made by the presence of the enlightened one. This alone is the basis of its evaluation.

So the supreme guru is the paramatman – God only. If the gurus in between would step back initiation would be easier, but the intermediary guru stands fixed. His ego exults at making a god of himself and displaying himself. Many kinds of initiations are given around this ego. They have no value, however, and in terms of spirituality they are all criminal acts. If some day we should start punishing spiritual criminals, these should not go unpunished.

The unsuspecting seeker takes it for granted that he has been initiated. Then he goes about with pride that he has received his initiation, that he has received his mantra, and that all that was to happen has happened to him. So all his search for the right happening stops.

When anyone approached Buddha he was never initiated immediately; sometimes it took years. Buddha would keep on postponing by telling him to perform this practice and that. Then, when the moment came, he would tell him to stand up for initiation.

So later on also Buddha would tell the seeker, "Do not believe what I say just because I am an awakened one; do not believe what I say just because I am famous or because I have many followers or because the scriptures confirm it. Now only believe what your inner understanding tells you."

Buddha never became a guru. At the time of his death, when he was asked for his final message, he said, "Be a light unto yourself. Do not go after others; do not follow others. Be a light unto yourself. This is my last message."

There is no guru; therefore, beware of the initiation where someone becomes your guru. The initiation where you become immediately and directly connected with the divine is a unique initiation.

By stopping the sannyas initiation Osho gave a great shock to the egos of those sannyasins who considered themselves as higher than others. Their path to become Gurus or leaders of others was blocked. It was a great hurt to their egos. Most of the so called old or senior sannyasins (as they treat themselves) were not comfortable with this declaration of Osho. Therefore, they decided not to follow the advice of their master and continued the old ritual of sannyas initiation i.e. putting mala (with Osho's photo in it) in the neck of new-comers and deceiving to give energy by touching their fore-heads. Thus a tradition which promotes gurudom was maintained by these people.

Osho was told that many of his sannyasins were doing things which were against his vision. What is his message to them? In response to this Osho had categorically stated that they are free to do whatever they like, but then they should not use His name. But unfortunately the sannyasins who left Osho Commune in the year 2000 and subsequently are continuing all that which goes against the wishes of Osho. Osho lovers should take note of it and not to support such sannyasins.

[Osho International Foundation has the copy right of all above Osho's quotations]
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