Will welcome ‘rebel group’ with open heart, claims Osho Resort

Asked whether the ‘rebel group’ will be allowed entry into the Resort without being stopped or turned away, the spokesperson said, “Everyone is welcome but they will have to follow the rules and regulations of the resort.”

Asked whether the ‘rebel group’ will get an entry fee waiver as they have been demanding, the spokesperson said, “Everyone will have to follow the laid down rules….We run the Resort on the basis of the fees that we receive from the visitors. There is a huge expenditure incurred even for a day’s maintenance.”

The spokesperson said the management team takes care of the campus and all the activities according to Osho’s specific guidelines. “We have been informed that people are being offered free food, accommodation, and transport to persuade them to attend a demonstration outside the Osho International Meditation Resort on March 20 and 21.”

“Firstly, the prime motivation is that this offers the leaders of this protest an opportunity to display their long-standing animosity against the management team. In the past, these same people have invented endless rationalisations to provoke a rent-a-crowd phenomenon,” the Resort said.

The latest excuses only serve to highlight just how far from Osho these people will go to display that resentment, the Resort management said.

“March 21st has been chosen by these people because they want to make Osho’s day of enlightenment a ‘holy’ day to encourage their followers to attend. They are fully aware that Osho has specifically dropped these ‘special’ celebration days,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said leaders of protest know very well that Osho had dropped the ‘mala’ (beaded rosary) long before leaving the body, with the final proviso that, “If you must wear your mala, then at home in meditation only.”
“It is hilarious that the leaders of this protest themselves never wore a mala in front of Osho after he returned to Pune in 1987,” the Resort said. “The leaders of this protest are also aware that Osho has dropped the term ‘ashram’ for this campus,” spokesperson said.

Responding to the Resort’s contentions, Swami Chaitanya Keerti, one of the key members of the rebel group, said, “If they are talking of welcoming us with open hearts, they should do it with clean hearts as well. We have been an integral part of the Osho ashram for years. Those who are now running the Resort were never part of it. And now they are asking us to pay a Rs 970 entry fee. Just imagine, for visiting the samadhi of our guru, they are asking us to pay money. We have approached the Bombay High Court and sought a fee waiver.” Swami said as for the ‘mala’, it was given in ‘diksha’ by Osho. “We will enter the Resort by wearing the ‘mala… This ‘mala is sacred to us… It was given to us by our guru. The ‘mala’ signifies a special bond that a disciple has with the guru. It highlights the master-disciple relation,” he said.