Ma Neelam denied entry in Commune

Neelam said she reached the commune at 7.10 a.m. for the silent meditation that begins at the Samadhi at 7.30 a.m. At the reception centre, where she sought a sticker on her I-card for the day’s entry in the commune on payment, she was asked by the sannyasin at the desk to contact the `management team’.

She spoke to Swami Satya Vedant, the management team member on the intercom. Vedant, according to her, said she needed a break and she need not enter. “How does my not doing silent meditation at Osho’s samadhi help the commune and myself,” she asked. “Am I being banned?”

Vedant, she said, replied that she was not being banned and her I-card was not being withdrawn, but reiterated that she needed a break.

Without further argument, Neelam returned to her flat in Koregaon Park.

The commune’s version was sought, as the present system goes, by an e-mail message to Swami Satya Vedant, the press office and the management team. There was no response.

Meanwhile, Swami Chaitanya Keerti, till recently the Osho Commune International spokesperson and now out of the commune and camping in New Delhi said through an e-mail message that he would “organise a protest celebration at our Osho Rajyoga Center (in New Delhi) against this ban.”

“I have her picture with Osho (walking hand in hand) in my own website homepage: meditate-celebrate.com,” he added. “ Sannyasins here (in Delhi) did not like that Neelam was denied entry in Commune. She used to live in a room next to Osho Samadhi. It was given to her by Osho. Sannyasins all over the country will protest this stupid behaviour of the management team, which I know is not their decision. Again, it is Amrito and Jayesh and Anando doing this – the team has to carry out all these decisions.”

“I am happy I don’t have to be the spokesperson in such a situation.”