Ansula
Being from a highly intellectual and logical family, my
first act of revolt (unconscious admittedly) was to go visit Osho for the
first time at the most illogical of times, October 1985. For those of you who
aren't familiar, Sheela had just left the ranch stirring up a series of very
unfavorable accusations around her and the ranch. The newspapers were having a
heyday with the stories of attempted murder, fraud, and theft in addition to
the usual headlines that Osho was making at that time. The favorites included
the heavily armed nature of the ranch.
My father is a retired officer of the Canadian military. We
had spent my high school years at the headquarters of NATO in Europe so the
guns, the fences, and the security checks of Rajneeshpuram were familiar to
me. The warm, smiling faces and gentle mannerisms of the people maintaining
them weren't.
The grace and poise of Osho at this time really made an
impression on me and did many times afterwards. One of the first times I heard
him speak during discourse, an F16 American fighter jet decided to make its
presence known. It buzzed Rajneesh Mandir. It looked like it was going to join
us for discourse it was so low. I could see it flying towards us at the bottom
of the dry valley through the glass wall that made up one end of the large
hall. The noise when it passed overhead was deafening.
Osho simply stopped talking when the noise was too much to
hear anything. He started again when the jet had passed. He never mentioned
it. He didn't seem annoyed by it. Nor did he seem threatened by the jet and
the might it represented. It just seemed to be a small detail that didn't
require any more attention than the slight pause in his discourse he had made
until the noise subsided.
To me, the many small acts Osho made like this one were
remarkable.
I took sannyas in November 1985. Christmas at my parents
was a little tense that year.
Sw Alok Ansula
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