Osho and indulging desires

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

Dennis Waite wrote:

>On Sat, 16 Aug 1997 16:06:55, Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian wrote a diatribe
>about Osho's supposed urging that we indulge our desires:-
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Supposed?!!!

Did you read the orginal mail by Jonathan Bricklin? It clearly showed
that Rajneesh espoused such ideas. You were questioning Jaldhar whether
he has read any of Osho's works. Have you read any? I have, and there
are many books which repeat this indulgence theme.

When the original reference to Osho came about, I wanted to point out
that he is by no means a teacher of advaita. Vidyasankar has also
pointed out some pertinent facts in his recent mail. However, I thought
let sleeping dogs lie. It was only to the utterly illogical reasoning by
Osho that I responded.

As I said I don't give a damn what Osho did, I am not saying that his
followers will go to hell etc etc etc. I merely pointed out that his
reasoning is utterly illogical. Instead of responding to any of my
points, you choose to indulge in rhetoric like "diatribe" etc.

>I am not offended but would question the objectivity. I find it a pity that
>all of this judging is going on based upon unreliable, ususally antagonistic
>press reports, rather than on a simple reading of what he says.

I would suggest the same to you. I suggest that you _read_ some of his
works in entirety. This indulge till you tire theme is montonously
drummed into readers' heads in many of his lectures. I don't have Osho's
books with me here, but even a simple browsing through some of his books
picked up at a bookstore should be enough. Was my main point based on
press reports or was it a criticism of the logic used by Osho? Please
take a look at my mail again.

>Below is a short sample of what he said about desire, pulled from his main
>website.

[ story snipped ]

Very good. After this we are supposed to realize that the human desires
are infinite in number, but at the same time we are also supposed to
indulge till we tire. Fantastic reasoning!

You say you question my objectivity. Why? Do you know for a fact that
most of his male disciples who lived with him were rich, influential,
middle aged men who abandoned their families? There was no such pattern
among the women. In fact many of them were in their twenties! If you
think hiding the head in the sand like an Ostritch and ignoring all
facts is being open minded, well it's upto you. Anyone can grow a big
beard, memorize some Sufi stories, repeat some mumbo-jumbo and deliver
cute monologues. With half the audienced doped out of their wits, it
makes the job easier. Having some charisma would also help, I suppose.
As I said, it's good to have an open mind, but not so open that the
brains fall out of the ears.

I realized some of my statements might be construed as incendiary and
hence requested people in advance, to look at it objectively. I am sorry
you can't separate emotion from reason. Jaldhar hit the nail on the head
with his assessment that Osho was not the first Indian who disguised BS
as Eastern philosophy. Very correct assessment, I agree 100%. In the
latter part of my mail I was merely pointing out why Rajneesh's
philosophy sounds very appealing, especially to middle aged men. It
gives philosophical justification for abandoning their families and
going after younger women and drugs. The philosophical justification is
the _KEY_. _Not_ the younger women or the drugs _alone_, which they
would have been able to obtain anyway. Without philosophical
justification, most men would have felt the pangs of conscience.
Rajneesh provided them with the perfect solution, viz the justification!
Not only that, the idea was that they were superior to others since they
did so! That was my point (which I thought was obvious, but apparently
not!). That's my _theory_ based on facts. You can neglect that part of
my mail if you feel like it, since that's partly based on newspaper
reports, who you feel are out to nail Rajneesh. Maybe I should have left
out that part of my mail. However, my main point: indulge till you tire,
one of the cardinal principles of Osho-Om is utterly illogical, still
stands.

I'd like some constructive criticism instead of bland rhetoric or
hand-waving, please.

Ramakrishnan.