Rip off the Masks and Identify the Mafia of the Soul

By Kul Bhushan

 We all wear masks all the time. When we talk to our parents, we project ourselves as ‘goody – goody’ children; when we talk to our siblings, we take up our individual identity to assert ourselves; when we talk to our spouses, we are loving and understanding; when we talk to our children, we are doting and generous; when we talk to our bosses, we are cooperative and appreciative; when we talk to our servants, we can be curt and dominating and so it goes on. 

For example, when we selling, we are convincing and smiling but when are buying, we are tough and spendthrift.

So, is it any wonder that our leaders and gurus also wear masks? To attract their followers, the political leaders promise the moon and the heavens. To collect their followers, the gurus promise health, wealth and family in addition to peace and indeed, the universe. So people are pseudo - false, counterfeit, and pretended. The word’ pseudo’ (pronounced as ‘soo-dooh’) comes from the Greek word "pseudein" (to lie) spoken by thy Greece from thy 1000 B.C. or a person who makes deceitful pretenses.

Osho has come down hard on these pseudo politicians and gurus when He says,

“ I go on talking about the political leaders and the religious leaders without making any distinction -- because there is no distinction at all, only a superficial distinction. Their psyches are functioning in the same way. Neither the religious leader nor the politician is interested in the people whom they pretend to lead. They are interested in being leaders - and of course the leader cannot be without the led, so it is a necessity to go on promising the people things. Politicians promise them things of this world; religious leaders promise them things of the other world.”

Approaching the next India’s elections, the politicians will again make promises that they never or hardly fulfill. The smiling and humble politicians promise the moon as they get their votes. 

Once they get elected, they become serious and dominating and the voters are usually forgotten. The spiritual leaders or gurus entice their followers by promising mental peace by reliving their tensions, prosperity and better relationships as long as the followers keep on offering them money. 

Except for some notable exceptions, both the politicians and the gurus boost each other to stay in power. Osho calls them 'Mafia of the Soul'. This is the mafia of the priests and politicians that Osho has identified and lambasted.

Buddhas's Silence and Bliss Needs Zorba's Song and Dance 

By Swami Anand Kul Bhushan

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On the night of the Full Moon of the Buddha whose name means the enlightened one is when the Buddha was born, when he became enlightened and when he died.

He walked this earth about 2,500 years ago and such is the strength of his wisdom that even today, there are millions and millions who go to him for refuge for this is the first of his three jewels with which all Buddhist prayers beginning:

“Buddham Saranam Gacchammi " means “I go to the Buddha (the Enlightened One) for refuge”,

"Dhammam Saranam Gacchammi " means “I go to the Dhamma (the Reality) for refuge”

"Sangham Saranam Gacchammi " means “I go to the Sangha (the Commune of Seekers) for refuge.”

Despite that fact that millions follow his Eight-Fold Path of inner peace, it is ironical that the lands where Buddha trod are exploding with violence and unrest today.

With frequent changes of its Prime Ministers, Nepal, where he was born, is usually embroiled in political crisis.

Sri Lanka, where Buddhism is the major religion, was enmeshed in a terrorist war for more than 30 years.

Myanmar, where Buddhism is the main religion, is also seething with unrest and denial of human rights. 

Thailand, where Buddhism is the supreme religion, has been troubled by terrorism and  political turmoil for so many years . 

Tibet, where Boddhidharma went to spread the message of the Buddha has been taken over by China and its heritage and religion crushed. 

China, where Buddhism, spread so rapidly, was a communist state without religion.  

The dictatorial regime of North Korea, part of Buddhist Korean peninsula, poses a mortal threat from nuclear weapons not only to South Korea but to other countries as well.

Instead of showing them  love and devotion, Buddha's statutes, carved in the Bamiyan mountains of Afghanistan, were blasted into pieces with explosives by the Taliban fanatics. Now they have been partly restored.

So what went wrong?

“When a Buddha moves the wheel of dharma, it takes two thousand five hundred years for it to stop completely,” says Osho. “The wheel that Buddha moved has stopped. The wheel has to be moved again. And that is going to be my and your life’s work – that wheel has to be moved again. Once it starts revolving it will again have twenty-five centuries’ life.”

Obviously, the seriousness of Buddhism and its renunciation has not worked. Perhaps the inner silence, meditation and stillness of the Buddha needs to be blended with the dance, song and celebration of the joy of outer life. 

Osho has created this unique and new combination of what he calls the ‘New Man’ or Zorba, the Buddha. This is the combination the celebration, dance and song of 'Zorba The Greek', the hero of the famous novel/movie of this name,  and the silence, stillness and meditation of the Buddha; the meditation of the East and the materialism of the West. 

Zorba the Buddha is a totally new human being who is aware, life-affirmative and free. The spirituality of the East has to be combined with the science of the West. High time we embraced it.

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Rip off the Masks and Identify the Mafia of the Soul

By Kul Bhushan

 We all wear masks all the time. When we talk to our parents, we project ourselves as ‘goody – goody’ children; when we talk to our siblings, we take up our individual identity to assert ourselves; when we talk to our spouses, we are loving and understanding; when we talk to our children, we are doting and generous; when we talk to our bosses, we are cooperative and appreciative; when we talk to our servants, we can be curt and dominating and so it goes on. 

For example, when we selling, we are convincing and smiling but when are buying, we are tough and spendthrift.

So, is it any wonder that our leaders and gurus also wear masks? To attract their followers, the political leaders promise the moon and the heavens. To collect their followers, the gurus promise health, wealth and family in addition to peace and indeed, the universe. So people are pseudo - false, counterfeit, and pretended. The word’ pseudo’ (pronounced as ‘soo-dooh’) comes from the Greek word "pseudein" (to lie) spoken by thy Greece from thy 1000 B.C. or a person who makes deceitful pretenses.

Osho has come down hard on these pseudo politicians and gurus when He says,

“ I go on talking about the political leaders and the religious leaders without making any distinction -- because there is no distinction at all, only a superficial distinction. Their psyches are functioning in the same way. Neither the religious leader nor the politician is interested in the people whom they pretend to lead. They are interested in being leaders - and of course the leader cannot be without the led, so it is a necessity to go on promising the people things. Politicians promise them things of this world; religious leaders promise them things of the other world.”

Approaching the next India’s elections, the politicians will again make promises that they never or hardly fulfill. The smiling and humble politicians promise the moon as they get their votes. 

Once they get elected, they become serious and dominating and the voters are usually forgotten. The spiritual leaders or gurus entice their followers by promising mental peace by reliving their tensions, prosperity and better relationships as long as the followers keep on offering them money. 

Except for some notable exceptions, both the politicians and the gurus boost each other to stay in power. Osho calls them 'Mafia of the Soul'. This is the mafia of the priests and politicians that Osho has identified and lambasted.

Overseas Indians Can’t Decide: Slum Dog or Top Dog?

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Overseas Indians Can’t Decide: Slum Dog or Top Dog?

As the super hit film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ rakes in over $50 million at the box office globally and basks in the glory of ten Oscar nominations, some Indians – both at home and abroad – are angry. Protesters, mostly slum dwellers, attacked theatres screening this film and burnt its posters in some parts of India. As claimed by superstar Amitabh Bachchan and later denied by him, it portrays only the worst in India by highlighting its poverty and slums. Later, an Indian filed a defamation case against its name that insulted slum dwellers. Low income Indians are not crowding to see the Hindi version. It is not doing well because these film goers say that they do not need to see the film as they are living it in their daily lives!

Yet the film has plenty going for it. For a start, the pithy screenplay by Simon Beaufoy hurtles at a frantic pace and the direction by Danny Boyle never allows attention to wander away even for a fraction of a moment. The acting by the slum children, and later, by the lead actors – Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan et all – blends seamlessly into the rags to riches tale. A. R. Rehman provides eclectic music. Most of all, the unique perspective of the director and the camera angles capture the energy and the momentum of India to made it a masterpiece.

So the elite Indians at home and abroad are gushing about this film. In well decorated drawing rooms, they ask, ‘Why a Bollywood director, living all his life in Mumbai, could not make such a film?’ ‘Why do foreign directors like Richard Attenborough have to make films on India and get Oscar nominations?’ Abroad, the educated, overseas Indians appreciate it for its candid reporting and riveting drama. Everybody knows that India is more than just slums, they say. But there are also plenty of irate overseas Indians who are sending E Mails to all and sundry, furious at the film’s anti-Indian and anti-Hindu distortions. To reproduce these mails or even sections from them would identify one as a rabid nationalist and a radical Hindu. But they do have many prickly points that cannot be explained by artistic license.

The film starts with Hindus killing Muslims, denigrates the Indian national anthem, shows God Ram as a violent warrior, a devotional song for Krishna is taught to main and blind street children to become beggars, reduces the Taj Mahal to a five star hotel, claims tourist guides are written by ‘bloody Indian beggars’ and so on and on. The title irks many Indians. Danny Boyle, the director, explained it in an interview with Newsweek, “Basically, it’s a hybrid of the word ‘underdog’ – and everything that means in terms of rooting for the underdog and validating his triumph – and the fact that he obviously comes from the slums. That’s what we intended.”

As the box office hit juggernauts towards the Oscars night, it remains a brilliant film; and it also raises strong emotions about how India is shown as the land of poverty and slums and deprivation. Does it follow the set pattern of films like ‘Mother India’ by Catherine Mayo, ‘The City of Joy’, ‘Salaam Bombay’ and ‘Water’ that show the squalor and misery of India to make a mark in the West?

It’s a far cry from ‘Gandhi’ that won eight Oscars including the one for the best film, for it showed the father of the nation fighting non-violently for justice and freedom against all odds. But here we have a battered slum child, who hits the jackpot despite the poverty, and also finds his true love as a bonus. And it’s set against the brutal reality of India today, the poor-rich chasm and the religious divide.

Yet the film has collected four Golden Globes, including the one for the best film, and gets ready to dominate this year’s Oscars on 22 February with ten nominations and perhaps eight Oscars. Its nominated song ‘Jai Ho’ set to music by Rehman will be performed live by Sukhvinder Singh on the Oscar night. Yes, India has arrived on the global film scene.

Now the queasy questions remain for Oscar night: Will Indians be angry at this British film grabbing all those Oscars by depicting India in all its filth and grime? Or, will they be proud of this film that is poised to launch them on the world movie scene and all this glory at Oscars? So, will it be slum dog or top dog?

Where will you run away in an earthquake? Can you run faster than a tsunami?

How do you cope with cataclysms like the earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan?

A long time Osho disciple, Ma Yog Manju recalls a story Osho told in one of his Hindi discourses about a Zen master who was having dinner with his disciples when a major earthquake struck. As everything shook and swayed and things began to fall all over, the disciples quickly ran to another room and some dashed outside in the open. But the Zen master sat still where he was and closed his eyes.

After a few minutes, the earthquake was over and the disciples began to tiptoe back to where the master was sitting in silence. When they asked him why he did not run away, he replied, “Where can you run? The earthquake is everywhere – in this room, the next room and even outside. So the only place you can escape is inside yourself. And that’s what I was doing.”

 “Manju, you will have an earthquake in your life.” said Osho. Osho related this Zen story in response to her question in the series ‘Ami Jharat Viksat Kamal’ in 1970s. Osho said after sannyas, she will have an earthquake in her life. So the only place for her to escape was by going inside with meditation.

 After the Japan disasters, Manju said, “I was instantly reminded of the Zen story that Osho said answering my question.  Where will you run away in an earthquake? How fast can you run? Can you run faster than a tsunami which travels faster than a jet? The only way is the way inside.

“It was nothing less than an earthquake after I took sannyas in 1972,” she recalls, “My mother, my uncles and some friends were present during that discourse that day. After sannyas I really had a big earthquake in my life. Osho said no one will accept you as you are like Meera who lost everything for Krishna. My family, my friends, my home …I lost it all.”

“After sannyas, many storms and earthquakes have come into my life. Everything and everybody around me changed as I changed. My immediate family, my home, my relatives and friends all changed. We moved to Pune to be with him and then my husband battled with cancer until he left his body. My children moved away. Now I live by myself and all I have is my master and meditation. “

She says, “To survive these earthquakes, all I had and still have is meditation. You cannot start meditating when the earthquake strikes but well in advance before it strikes so that you are aware and prepared to remain still when everything around you starts to collapse.”

It all started with a carton of books. Settled in Nairobi, Manju used to take a carton of books to read on her return to Nairobi. As she travelled by ship, she had a big carton of books from the list she gave to the bookseller. When she came to collect it, the bookseller said he had included four books by a revolutionary author as there was some space in the carton. On board the ship, she started to read the new author and was so engrossed in these books that she never came out on the deck until the ship’s stewards asked her if she was unwell!

As the ship sailed towards East Africa, Manju wanted it to go back to India so that she could meet the author.  But she had to wait for four years until 1968 when her family went touring India in a car. She managed to get the address of this author in Jabalpur from the booksellers but when she went there, she found that Osho had moved to a new location. She persisted and found his new address and met him. At that time, Osho was lecturing and touring India and he invited her to attend one of his meditation camps. She took sannyas during one of them in 1972.

Then she shuttled between Nairobi and Pune to take care of her family and be with her master.   A couple of years later, her husband and three children also took sannyas.  She started Anandneed meditation centre at her home in Nairobi. “I moved to Pune later on and also went to Rajneeshpuram in Oregon for eight months. After it was dismantled, I returned to Pune and was here when Osho  returned to this city, she recalls, ”It’s been a long journey and my master and meditation enabled me to face many earthquakes of my life.” 

Huffing and Puffing After Happiness

By Swami Anand Kul Bhushan

When you walk, your shadow walks with you. Whether you see it or not, it is always with you. You cannot be without your shadow. When you are running after happiness, like your shadow, unhappiness is running with you although you may not see or feel it. The American Declaration of Independence maintains, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

For 300 years, Americans have been huffing and puffing after happiness but have not yet found it because it is a pursuit and not a goal. And today, most poor nations follow USA in this exhausting pursuit that brings material wealth thought to be happiness. With its negative shadow accompanying it, happiness remains a mirage. Sex can bring stress. Luxuries can bring misery as you guard them or they generate jealousy. Health becomes disease; friends turn into enemies, family transforms into anxiety.

So, how to become happy?

Happiness is not being positive all the time. You cannot eat ten cakes at one time. You need some spice and sour treats as well. After you get spicy, sour or even bitter experiences, positive experiences are all the more welcome and enjoyable.

Happiness is not owning luxury goods.

Numerous surveys have found that the happiest experiences are NOT due to good or products but experiences and relationships. Even the most expensive luxury goods cannot uplift your mood when you are sad but a friend can do it in no time.

Happiness is not a journey's end. Do you ‘arrive’ at happiness terminus? No. You are travelling all the time and happiness can be a stopover or a part of the journey, not its end as life goes on, up and down.

Happiness is not drinks/food and/or sex.

Not at all because there is a limit to all these passions. First, your body has a limit. Second, the after effects of over consumption are serious on health. Third, overdose. Too much of any of these causes rejection. Enough! Augh!

Osho comments, “There are people who cannot understand that happiness is possible in any way other than sex. There are people who cannot understand that there is any bliss beyond sex. There are people who cannot understand that there is any happiness except in food. There are people who cannot understand that there is any happiness except in big houses, big cars, much money, power and prestige.” So what is the answer?

What is happiness?

Osho answers, “Bliss is true happiness. What you call happiness is just misery in disguise. What you call happiness is nothing but entertainment, pleasure. It is momentary -- it cannot be true. Truth has to have one quality, and the quality is of eternity. If something is true it is eternal; if it is untrue it is momentary. True happiness is found only when the mind completely ceases functioning. It does not come from the outside. It wells up within your own being, it starts overflowing you. You become luminous. You become a fountain of bliss.”

Drop happiness and unhappiness. Only then you can attain bliss. Nothing less will do.

Women Come on Top in Indian Elections as Rulers

It’s high time they took the reins completely

 If the enlightened master Osho has his way.

By Kul Bhushan

Friday the thirteenth proved lucky for Indian women who fought the state elections as they seized the reins of government in two of five states. These two victories by women tip the overall balance in the favour of women rulers in India as another two states already have women as chief ministers. Moreover, the President of India, three Union Ministers, three Ministers of State, and the Speaker in the Union Parliament, the leader of the ruling party and the leader of the opposition are– you guessed it! - all women.

As the fiery Mamta Banerjee and the imperial J. Jayalalitha take over as Chief Ministers of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu respectively, they join another two the dominating Mayawati and the suave Sheila Dikshit in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi to rule over 368 million Indians – about a third of India’s 1.2 billion people.

Let’s start at the very top. Pratibha Patil is the President. The Union Cabinet has three Ministers - Ambika Soni, Kumari Salja and Mamta Banerjee (expected to resign now) – who are joined by three Ministers of State - Preneet Kaur, Agatha Sangma and D. Purandeswari.

The political party scene is dominated by the Italian sphinx Sonia Gandhi leading the Congress and the peppery Sushma Swaraj blasting the government as the leader of the opposition in the parliament. This makes India perhaps the only country in the world with women in so many top political positions.

“If all over the world the woman is allowed freedom to grow to her potential, there will be many, many women enlightened; many, many women mystics, poets, and painters. And they will enhance not only the woman's part of the world -- because the world is one -- they will enhance the whole world,” says the enlightened master Osho.

Women will become front runners in politics if the proposed and long delayed Women's Reservation Bill to reserve 33.3 per cent seats in Parliament and state legislatures is passed by the parliament. Introduced in 1996, it seeks to empower women at the federal, state and local levels of decision making by reserving a third of the seats for them.

A third of the seats at village level elections have been reserved for women already. The experience of women's reservation at the panchayat (village governing body) level has been very encouraging. A million women are being elected to the panchayats in the country every five years. This is the largest mobilisation of women in public life in the world. But various political parties have staunchly opposed it because they fear many of their male leaders would not get a chance to fight elections if 33.3 per cent seats are reserved for women. Men on the back foot!

Says Osho, “It has taken her over a century and a half to get equal rights – at least under the law in most countries. Yet gender equality is a dream beyond the horizon in most poor countries of the world. In some, she is still enslaved.”

He adds, “The ultimate result is that the woman has become very bitter. Her whole being has become a cry for revolt. She is not at peace to laugh at things; she is in utter misery and despair, and unless she becomes liberated she will not have a sense of humour. Once she becomes liberated, she will leave man far behind in all creative dimensions and she will be really joyous and playful.”

 “It is for the betterment of both man and woman that the woman should be given every freedom and equal opportunity for her individuality,” says Osho.

These are not empty words but Osho put them in practice by always giving women full authority and responsibility for establishing, expanding and managing his communes. Osho did not talk about women's equality but their superiority; not as the weaker sex but as the stronger sex.

But how will they survive in a man’s macho world of aggression and violence?

Osho answers, “A man is not of necessity masculine, a woman is not of necessity feminine. A woman can be masculine, for example, Joan of Arc or, in India, Laxmibhai. These women were warriors, great soldiers; they were not feminine at all. Biologically, of course, they were feminine, their bodies were those of women, but their very souls were those of men. They have to be counted as masculine.”

Indeed, India has the distinction of having the first women as the Prime Minister – the steely Indira Gandhi who stood up to domestic and international challenges and threats with courage and aplomb. In fact, she was dubbed as the only man in the cabinet! And also called “Mother India”

Osho says, “Mother, sister, girlfriend, wife and again mother…..all different and yet the same – a woman. She is the ultimate power, inspiration, beauty, charm, elegance and all the wonderful virtues one can think of. She can also be destructive and play havoc with the lives of men, start wars to destroy thousands of lives. She is stronger than man - both physically and emotionally. Yet she has been dominated, oppressed, tortured and humiliated by man.”

Yet doubts remain about how well a woman can rule. Can a woman take tough decisions? What is her attitude towards her subjects? Will she approach them as a tough task master or care and nurture them as a mother?

Osho says, “God is a mother, a motherly phenomenon. This whole existence is motherly. And God is far softer than man can ever be, far more vulnerable, far more open. A woman in her ultimate flowering becomes a mothering energy... she can mother the whole existence. She feels blessed, and she can bless the whole existence.”