A Bond That Will Always Be There

Just as you can taste the sea from any place and it is salty, you will be able to taste any of my sannyasins and you will find the same taste: the taste of Bhagwan, the taste of the blessed one. (The Goose is Out, Chapter 10)

This quote has special meaning for me, as I came to Osho through His sannyasins. When I met sannyasins for the first time, in London in 1981, I was not consciously a seeker and had no interest in meditation. However, I loved these new people – so much fun, so easygoing, so accepting and loving. My social awkwardness was not a problem with this group. I felt that I had met my real family. Later I discovered the source of their juiciness: the wonderful play between a very juicy Master and His disciples.

Osho has attracted people from a myriad of backgrounds and countries, from every walk of life and belief system, but there is a certain similarity in all of us. Whether we were attracted to Him because we were already in tune with Him, or we became in tune with Him over time, I don’t know. But often whenever Osho sannyasins meet there is an instant connection; so much is already understood. There is a feeling of trust and relaxedness between us sannyasins I have rarely experienced in other communities.

The Zorba side of Osho’s vision – lust for life, irreverence for mainstream religion, and a fantastic sense of humor – have become something of our trademark. It makes for a very high-energy group of people, who can laugh easily and hug with great warmth, and who can look into each other’s eyes without fear. Most nonsannyasins I meet seem to be unable to have a good time without the help of some drug such as alcohol, but sannyasins will celebrate without props. (“We celebrate everything” was our motto in the ’80s.) Not that we don’t get really blotto sometimes, but it’s not a prerequisite.

The Buddha side of His vision has also become part of us – a longing for the beyond, meditation, silence, and depth. This makes for a tremendous sensitivity, which enables us to sit in complete silence together and to support each other’s journey toward consciousness. It doesn’t happen so much these days, but one of the sweetest meditations for me has been music group, where we sing and play together, unashamedly rejoicing in our love for our Master.

They love me – that is a joining thread. There is no organization. Each sannyasin is connected to me individually, but because he is my sannyasin... Other sannyasins who are joined with me have to be respectful of each other, because each of my sannyasins somehow represents me. Your love for me must be shared with my people too. (Beyond Psychology, Chapter 42)

This quote helps me greatly to understand the community that has grown around Osho. We all fell in love with Him at some point in our lives and chose to travel with Him in discipleship. Our love for Him is not the usual type, where if someone else loves the person you love, you are jealous. Our mutual love for Osho has brought us more together and connected us. This is such a beautiful and rare phenomenon in this world. While there are many support groups and communities of like-minded people in the world who may grow and work together for their common good, the connection that sannyasins have with each other works in another dimension. I believe that the crucial difference is the Osho meditations we all do.

The process of meditating together creates a powerful link between us. Especially in the active meditations, we help each other just by meditating in the same room. You can often feel the energy go up a notch as someone in the room goes into totality in the meditation or has some kind of breakthrough. Helping each other to rise higher in consciousness is a tremendously valuable phenomenon, although it may be unintentional and not acknowledged. Other groups meditate together, but their meditation is more separate. Feeling connected with other meditators while doing Vipassana or silent sitting does not come automatically, but a Mystic Rose laughing or crying session is a pure play of energy. Someone “gets it” and starts laughing uncontrollably, then pretty soon others are joining in – it’s an energy wave that travels between people. 

My understanding of the sannyasin collective superconscious is that it is the meeting of the higher, more conscious parts of ourselves. The part of us that has merged with Osho naturally merges with that same energy in the other, and it creates something greater than all of us. To me, it feels like the energy of Osho’s enlightenment. This exists on a level beyond the mind and is not something we can actively create, but its existence helps all of us. We all carry that in each other. Although Osho is not here physically anymore, I sometimes feel exactly the same energy around me as I did when sitting with Him in Buddha Hall. This often happens when I am meditating together with friends, and also sometimes when I am meditating alone, and it feels like I have “plugged in” to this amazing superconscious. It is really delicious and nourishing. 

On a more superficial level, we sannyasins are guilty of all the usual unconscious habits of groups of people – cliquey attitudes, limited acceptance of behavior, belief in our superiority to other groups, and mistrust of people who are not like-minded. However, these issues exist as part of the usual mind we are all trapped in. I feel that we do continue to work on these issues – many previous Viha Connection articles have examined them – and will go beyond them as we go beyond our own individual minds.

It is good that we continue to examine ourselves in every aspect of our behavior, as getting stuck in unconscious habits can taint the real benefit of our community. It is too easy to become complacent and comfortable within a group of friends or acquaintances who see the world in the same way that you do. We all have done much work on ourselves and so have become less neurotic, with fewer personal problems, but this can be a dangerous time for a seeker. Life becomes easier, and the urgency with which we came to sannyas – which for many was because of unhappiness – disappears. With Osho not around to jolt us awake every now and then, we must do that for ourselves as much as possible; otherwise we will get stuck half way.     

Osho accepts all and does not judge, and because of this we are a wonderfully diverse bunch, not only in our conditionings, but also in our way of being. The devotional, the spiritual, and the hedonist are all welcome. The goody goodies and the rebels, the liars, the thieves and truthsayers are all among us. We can even swap roles over time, to explore the other way of being – which gives us the understanding that these are just roles and not who we really are. I don’t think Buddha had such a mixed bunch as we are.

One special characteristic of the Osho flavor is the sense of humor. The Tibetans are the only other people I have met who are so good at not taking themselves seriously. We sannyasins have had our egos bashed and exposed so much that we can’t give them too much weight anymore. The freer you are from your ego, the more you can laugh at yourself and others and the more life becomes a play. Other people have commented to me that we are fun, loud, happy, and irreverent. I’m sure Osho would be proud of us.

For me, the sannyas community is a tremendously valuable thing, an everchanging collection of people who are constantly changing themselves. To appreciate the positive aspects of our community is important. It reminds us of how incredibly lucky we are to be connected with such a Master as Osho, and  how special the community is in supporting each other’s path to enlightenment. Looking back over the last 21 years, I see that even the bad times were good, and were needed. We have grown together, fought and loved together, and there is a bond between us that will always be there.   

Strangely enough, I am writing this article from a small house in Oxfordshire, where I am currently living far away from any sannyas community. Since becoming part of the community at eighteen years old, it has fulfilled all my social, intimacy, and support needs. All my friends were sannyasins, and I made no effort to make any others. However, in the last few years I have felt a need to “leave the nest.” I wanted to feel more connected with the larger community, and not just with a small group. I have become more aware of the changes going on in the world, in people’s thinking and in the society. This move also forces me to confront my deep-seated social awkwardness, which is not as evident when I am among sannyasins.

A decision I made two years ago, intending to wake myself from my comfortable life, has led me here. I’m not sure yet what this is all about – it’s certainly not been easy – but I still feel every bit as connected as I ever was with Osho and the community. That connection keeps me sane, lets me disconnect from the madness of the rest of society. The sannyas community is my family, and there will never be another like it.