THE SEXES- Osho, the original thinker

By Shobhaa De


It has taken 20 long years after his death for a small section of society to acknowledge and celebrate Osho. With the publication of Life’s Mysteries—An Introduction to the Teachings of Osho (Penguin India), perhaps a new generation of readers will get the chance to access Osho’s formidable work sans prejudice and bias. His was a life touched by genius… and madness.

In a country as hypocritical as ours, a person has to be a little crazy to say what Osho consistently said, knowing all along that his ideas would be mangled beyond recognition by those who were so conditioned by convention to conform to centuries of clichés about our ‘great culture’. Osho was horribly misunderstood during his lifetime. And rendered largely irrelevant to the next generation (after his death) that didn’t quite understand just how ahead of his time Osho really was. It was easy for an ignorant press to label him a ‘sex guru’ and focus on wild orgies at his commune in Pune.
Sure, Osho had dedicated a large part of his life to deconstruct and demystify sex—he’d consistently mocked those who gave it such exaggerated importance, he’d laughed at others who treated sex as a terrifying affliction. Sex, Osho declared, was like eating, sleeping, breathing, drinking. It was our problem if we attached any more significance to it.
His irreverence and wicked sense of humour (nothing was sacred in his book, and nobody was a holy cow) were misconstrued by people who refused to look beyond his flamboyant lifestyle (a careful construct that was actually a sly and subversive send-up of our fascination for money and symbols of wealth), his velvet robes and an impressive fleet of Rolls Royces (he changed cars every day to drive the short distance from his home to the meditation hall in which he held his discourses).

This was the essential Osho—as mischievous as a child. Ready to play intellectual pranks on the world, then sit back and chuckle at the furore those created. Behind the diamond bracelets and elaborate headgear was a man with complete and absolute control over his subject. Forget dubbing him a philosopher who had mastered comparative religions—any academic can rightfully make such a claim. Osho was an original.

His take on religion was radically different from anybody else’s. And as an original thinker, he challenged everything and everybody. In the bargain, he managed to annoy the world. Perhaps that was his intention. If there is one thing Osho hated it was complacency and smugness. He provoked with deliberation, aiming his barbs at those who were cosily ensconced in their bubbles of certainty about life and its ‘rules’ (BORRRRRING!!). Osho abhorred humbug and didn’t miss a single chance to debunk all those pious, pompous asses who sat in judgment over others. In the process, he acquired a terrible reputation and was seen as a threat to ‘civilised’ society. This positioning would have suited him fine as well had he not had to pay such a stiff price for it in terms of his physical health.

Post his ordeal in Oregon, which nearly cost him his life, Osho was a mere shadow of his former self—frailer in body and spirit, he more or less abdicated and left his vast empire in far less capable (even wily) hands. Today, the commune in Pune is no better than a swanky resort or spa, without a charismatic leader to head it. Yes, it still attracts foreigners looking for a warm winter break in Pune from the brutality of European winters, and I’m sure it makes serious money, too. But ‘Brand Osho’ has been devalued and diminished. The great scholar that Osho was, may just find the recognition denied to one of the last century’s most iconoclastic thinkers, thanks to the book. He died an inglorious death. But his vibrant life was his true message. Here’s hoping Osho lives vividly in our imagination once again. I was, and remain, Osho’s ardent admirer.
www.shobhaade.blogspot.com
(The Week)
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