70th Osho Enlightenment Day celebrations in Pune, rebels seek police help

In a press release, Swami Chaitanya Keerti, one of the Osho rebels, said: “For the past 23 years, Osho Ashram management has not celebrated Osho’s birthday on December 11, Osho’s Punjatithi on December 19. January, Osho Enlightenment Day on March 21. and Osho Full Moon (Guru Purnima in July). It has been celebrating only the monsoon festival in August and the New Year festival regularly. And about 500-700 people attended. This year’s Osho Enlightenment Day celebration in Pune will gather three to four times as many people (1,500-2,100, or even more) than any monsoon festival.”

Swami Keerti said that a large number of people would not attend the Bollywood music festival, but their own sannyasin-style celebration, as they have been doing during the days of Osho’s physical presence. “And they will not come to celebrate Osho’s brand, product or merchandise, but Osho as his beloved teacher,” he said.

Meanwhile, in a letter to Korea police station, Swami Keerti said, “Along with so many disciples I had come to attend Osho Punyatithi on January 19 this year in Fist. We all seek your support to visit Osho samadhi in the ashram for meditation. But none of us could enter because the ashram trustees did not allow us because we were wearing the Osho mala. The ashram administrators had made it a condition that we should hide the ‘mala’ we had received from our beloved Sadguru Osho at the time of our initiation into Osho’s NeoSannyas.

“All lovers of Osho have been deeply disappointed in the trustees and decided that they would not remove or hide the ‘mala’ given to them by Osho, as this ‘mala’ is a sacred bond between the master and his disciples. Osho had given the freedom to wear or not wear the ‘bad’. Osho had never appointed any priest to dictate such things to his disciples.

Swami Keerti said, “I have been with Osho since the day of my initiation on September 4, 1971. I have edited many of his books in Hindi and English. I am the founding editor of the Rajneesh Foundation newsletter published in Pune since 1974. I have been editor of Osho Times International and Osho Darshan and since 2001 I have been editor of the monthly Osho World Patrika published by Osho World Foundation. New Delhi.

“I take this opportunity to request your police station once again, on behalf of hundreds of Osho sannyasins who will come to Pune to celebrate Osho Enlightenment Day on March 21 this year, to help them in their constitutional freedom. of the individual to wear his sacred ‘mala’—at least on those holy days dedicated to our beloved teacher. You are there to protect the constitutional rights of the people of this country… So far, the Koregaon Park Police have not been helpful in protecting our human and constitutional rights. But I continue to hope against hope and one day the police will realize that the weaker group of individuals will receive the necessary protection against the powerful administration. Osho devotees will visit Pune once again on March 21 to celebrate the 70th Osho Enlightenment Day and would like to visit Osho Samadhi for silent meditation.”

When asked about the allegations, a spokesperson for the Osho International Meditation Resort said: “Our members of management will discuss them and then comment.”