Move Over, Osho

The new motto seems to be: forget enlightenment, concentrate on entertainment! The jazzed up ashram is in synch with the requirements of the younger lot. The nightlife here, after the Osho Whiterobe Brotherhood the discourses held between 6.45 and 8.45 pm, is one big bash!

There8217;s a happening party on at the Multiversity Welcome Centre, a stone8217;s throw from Osho8217;s samadhi, a silent zone. Sanyasins in their going-out best, from hipsters to skirts, dance wildly to Sukhbir Singh8217;s Aja nachale and popular English numbers, as well as techno.

Whatever happened to the original music composed by sanyasins and the live renditions that once made this place unique? Now you can8217;t tell the difference from any city pub.

A poster urges people to join the jump-into-the-swimming-pool party after twilight, the next night. To entice more visitors, there8217;s The Wellness Weekend Getaway on any weekend from April to August which, for Rs 7,500, gives a couple two nights and three days at the Osho Guesthouse the hotel in the new building. The package includes the goodness and madness of meditation techniques and yes, even meditation therapies that were, until now, reserved exclusively for international visitors.

I was a part of that last month, and boy, is it invigorating, specially the psychic healing massage by the beautiful German lady Oma. And you take home a maroon and white robe, complimentary.

8216;8216;All the activities on campus are designed to help you gain a taste of a radically new approach of bringing awareness to your daily life,8221; the slick brochure reads. 8220;The main activities are the meditations in Osho Auditorium, the Multiversity programme, the Work-as-Meditation programme, the evening meditation meeting 8212; the Osho White Robe Brotherhood 8212; and last, but not the least, the night-life!8217;8217;

So, for two nights and three days, you are promised a rollicking time. What you want to do is your choice 8212; meditate, partake of the therapies and massages or simply hang loose.

At the 8216;Welcome Day8217;, the first thing at 9.45 am, spokeswoman Ma Amrit Sadhana puts on music and asks us to dance. 8216;8216;To shed all inhibitions,8217;8217; she says. We are a motley bunch of 20, youngsters from Canada, Switzerland, Germany and Japan.

The biggest surprise is the opening up of the meditation therapies. The 8216;New Woman8217; therapy, designed to bring out the best of womanhood in terms of femininity and confidence, is a day-long session where you again begin by dancing and are introduced to it thus: 8216;8216;Your body has been used or misused by men8230;8217;8217; This session promises to make you aware of your beauty as a woman, by throwing up all suppressed emotional garbage.

The therapy leader takes you on a self-guided awareness tour of your body, 8216;8216;the way your boyfriend or husband would caress your body,8217;8217; says the leader. Surely, this therapy had its dose of sensuality 8212; something that Osho8217;s meditation techniques were suspected of having.

Yet Osho, the most volatile spiritual mystic of the 20th century and the nucleus of the ashram, has all but vanished! There8217;s no sign of his omnipresence anywhere 8212;previously the visitor was assaulted by the huge photographs dotting every corner of the commune.

The Inner Circle the commune management headed by a former Canadian estate agent, Michael O8217;Byrne alias Jayesh always ensured that its front-office team waxed eloquent about Osho. Instead, Osho is now just a passing mention in the three-hour orientation, a reference to meditation techniques.

But wait, more has happened ever since the luxurious 1,20,000 sq ft New Osho Auditorium, comprising a state-of-the-art meditation hall, hotel and kitchen sprung up in a magnificent pyramid bang in front of the Osho Commune International. The latter still exists, but has, sadly, lost its prominence.

At last, one sees Osho live, through a video during the Whiterobe Brotherhood session, where you get an amazing glimpse of one of his lectures held at the original Gautama, the Buddha Hall, which is now being used for martial arts.

The swanky new meditation hall measuring 18,000 sq ft has about 300 sanyasins against its capacity of 5,000 please don8217;t write that attendance is low, says Sadhana, after all it is summer, the lean season and here you see Osho, talking to a packed audience, against the sparse one present. His magnetic personality continues to mesmerise you and his words sound musical.

And then you wonder why Osho, the USP of this place, has been sidelined.