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Fallacies
Surrounding Osho,
Demystified
which is non-tense, no worry; so we are simply relaxed and melting.” Today, the commune no longer holds workshops for free sex. However, sex within the Ashram is still casual and out of the closet. Controversies surrounding the Osho Ashram didn’t end there. The aggressive Encounter Group Therapy hurt the ashram’s image further. There were reports of violence too. “In an Encounter Therapy session in 1978, Richard Price, co-founder of Esalen Institute and a follower of the Osho ideology back then) was injured badly. He had a broken an arm.”, says Nessy from Sweden, a follower of Osho.
Encounter Group Therapies, Kundalini Meditation, PranicChakra Meditation and the Mystic Rose, another meditative therapy. The day ends with screenings of Osho’s videotapes. Osho’s take on intercourse was bold. He propagated free, uninhibited sex and his ashram, which provided people with a space to explore this philosophy, was criticized for it. This stood in stark contrast to the then prevailing general beliefs of Indian society, where sex was considered a sacred union between a married man and woman. “In 1975, Tantra workshops required participants to strip and smell the armpits and the genitals of the opposite sex”, says Suma Varghese, a writer who was then a Osho disciple. Some residents of Pune were outraged by this liberal approach to sex and even went to the extent of demanding Osho’s removal from the city. Unlike most religions that repress sexual desire, Osho felt that suppression of sexual desire led to perversion. Osho disassociated the taboo attached to sex and felt that sex needed to be accepted just like the other natural desires such as hunger or thirst. According to him, sex is a pathway to the soul. As he put it ‘‘a door to escape into some other world-
The Encounter Therapy focused on letting go all repressed feelings and thereby meeting oneself in totality without being monitored by social constructs of ‘good’ or ‘bad’ behaviour. Participants were locked in a room for a few hours with wooden weapons. Screams and cries of agony could often be heard. Violence in therapy groups came to an end in 1979, under immense pressure from the government to do so. The ashram issued a press release stating that violence “had fulfilled its function within the overall context of the ashram as an evolving spiritual commune”. Today, the Aggression Removal Therapies are conducted in a controlled environment. Furthermore, allegations of drug use began to tarnish the ashram’s credibility. “Drugs were sold in the ashram before Osho left for the United States in 1981. They also served hard drinks to the participants in the evenings.” says Nessy. Fox, in 2002 revealed that Osho himself wasn’t involved in any of this, but it was between the sannyasis. Alcohol was actually served at the commune in the Osho Zen Bar, but it was banned in the 90s by the government. Today the commune is shedding the typical ‘Osho lifestlye’ and is reinventing itself as a spiritual spa. It now functions as a centre that aims to help strengthen one’s potential and discover transformational tools to find one’s inner self , rather just be an exclusive Osho ashram. Although Osho is no more, his influence through his literature and videos is undisputed even today. As Swami Prakashan, a disciple rightly puts it, “Osho today at the ashram is described as energy, a consciousness and not as a person.”
The Undergrad |
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