Saturday, February 20, 2010

Extensive Coverage of the Bombing of the German Bakery


This morning Dhanyam found extensive coverage of the bombing on one of his favorite websites: http://www.intelligentpune.org/IntelligentPune/index.htm

The long article has many photos, lists of the dead and injured, and details of the history of the German Bakery. We haven't seen anything that detailed in any other article. Have a look!

Sourced from Viha Connection magazine

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Celebration for Nadia




The first picture shows Nadia, the second one Eshana.

Here is an article from the Pune Mirror, February 17:

Rejoice! Nadia is no more!

Oshoites celebrate the death of their Italian associate, killed in the blast, in keeping with their master’s ideals. After all, she is free from this world and starting out in the next

By Chaitraly Deshmukh and Payal Banerjee
Posted On Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 12:13:14 AM

Eshana (Top), a close friend of Italian Oshoite Nadia Mercerini (Above)Living upto Osho’s teaching “Celebrate life! Celebrate death!” and tradition of Osho followers, the friends and associates of Italian Oshoite Nadia Mercerini, who died in the 13/2 German Bakery bombing, came together and ‘celebrated’ her death on Sunday evening.

Strange it may sound to many, but Oshoites have a tradition of ‘celebrating’ death. There had been similar ‘celebrations’ when Osho himself passed away. And the tradition comes from Osho’s teachings. Osho had said, “Death is always close by. It is almost like your shadow.

You may be aware, you may not be aware, but it follows you from the first moment of your life to the very last moment.

Death is a process just as life is a process, and they are almost together, just like two wheels of a bullock cart. Life cannot exist without death; neither can death exist without life.”

He had also said, “And existence gives so abundantly, it is not miserly. You are just not alert enough to use the opportunity to transform yourself into something immortal, eternal, into some experience which will make you beyond the reach of death. Just fearing death is not of any help.

If you see that death is following you, it is time to start searching deeper into yourself for that point which is beyond death. We have been calling that point satchitanand: the truth of your being, the ultimate consciousness of your life and the tremendous blessing of your coming to flower.”

“Nadia was on a spiritual path and a diehard Osho follower. That is why we decided to stick to Osho’s teachings and celebrate her death,” says Eshana (50), a close associate of the deceased.

Sitting quietly on a bench outside the mortuary of the Sassoon Hospital after seeking Nadia’s body and waiting for the formalities to be completed prior to receiving the body and ncessary for sending her mortal remains to her motherland, Eshana vividly recalled how they ‘celebrated’ Nadia’s death.

Eshana remembered,“On Sunday evening, we got together at my house in Koregaon park. We were about 25 people, all close to Nadia.

We played the music she loved and danced. This ‘celebration’ went on till late evening.” Clutching a purse gifted to her by Nadia, Eshana says Nadia was a yoga instructor and frequented Pune for the last seven to eight years.

“She had returned to Pune from a Thailand tour, just three weeks ago and her first words on reaching here were “home is where home is”. I had purchased a new dress for her. I want her to return to her motherland wearing it.”

HUMMING BIRD FLEW AWAY
She remembered Nadia as a lively person. “Nadia was a humming bird. She would always hum old melodies. She loved Bollywood movies and Ai Dil Hai Mushkil Jeena Yahan was her favorite song.”

She said, “Nadia was a pure vegeterian and loved to cook. But she savoured restaurant food also. She liked Pizza from La-Pizzeria. She was an enviornment lover and used bicycle to move about whenever she went to teach yoga or to anywhere else. She could talk in Marathi and Hindi.”

Eshana recalled, “Like me she too always wore a smile. That was what attracted us to each other. Just hours before the blast, we had lunch together on Saturday.

Then we were discussing about quitting smoking. We parted ways after promising each other to meet again at a function.

After the blast, I could not contact her. I came to know about her death only when a friend from Mumbai called up the next day. I then went to the hospital and identified Nadia.”

http://www.punemirror.in/index.aspx?page=article§id=2&contentid=20100217201002170013140782725e34§xslt=

Sourced from
Viha Connection magazine

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Memories of the German Bakery


Our dear friend and astrologer Deepak sent us this lovely piece. We invite you to share your memories of the German Bakery here with us.

Memories of German Bakery
by Deepak

The German Bakery was my first and second and last home in Pune. It was the first place I stopped when I got there in 1991, and it was the last place I saw when I left Pune for the last time in 2006. It was the first place I went to in the morning to have a cappuccino and a smoke, and it was the last place at night I stayed until those early closing hours to have a cappuccino and a smoke. I usually sat around on the side where the sound of traffic was less than it was in the front.

The place was full of sannyasins in maroon robes in those early days, and that is where I got my introduction into sannyasin ways. I remember one crowded day when I asked a swami to pass me that stool next to him. He looked over at it, looked at me, looked at the stool again, and said, “Sorry man, but I don’t feel like it”.

“Wow, you can do things like that?” I thought.

Another time I walked in and saw a Westerner in street clothes talking on his cell phone. It was the first cell phone I had ever seen. The idea of talking on a cell phone in the midst of India in the middle of meditators was so incongruous to me that I just burst out laughing. He saw me laughing and smiled.

Another time my Italian girlfriend and I were standing out in the middle of the street in front and having argument number one thousand and fifty five. The street was still unpaved in those days, and North Main Road had no traffic after dark. She yells, and I yell, and we yell together in two languages, and she stomps her little feet and storms off to Yogi Park. I turn around and go into German Bakery to have a cappuccino and a smoke.

I sit down, and the guy next to me says, “You are Deepak?”

I know what’s coming and say with resignation, “Yeah.”

“You write that beautiful horoscope in the Osho Times, and you behave like that?”
I throw my hands up and say, “Yeah, paradox.”

I remember the little store next door where I had another expansion in consciousness. In America, customers stand in line, and then when the clerk is finished with one customer, the next customer steps up over the line. One at a time, one at a time. At this little store, all the customers would be talking to the clerk at the same time. With one hand he was giving change, with another hand he was reaching for an item on the shelves, and with the third hand he was taking money from another person. “Wow, polyphasic parallel processing,” I thought as I saw him multitasking simultaneously.

I spent thousands of hours chatting, talking, smoking, drinking cappuccinos, and eating Berliners at German Bakery. I met wise men that were older than me and could teach me things in some ways, Narendra in the morning and Purnananda in the afternoon. I met friends and lovers and strangers and newcomers and old sannyasins and ashram exiles. People were from all over the world, and ten different languages would be going on. It was a mind-expanding and heart-opening space to be. I lived in Popular Heights for a long time, and it was on the way and easy to stop. I stopped there many, many times.

The German Bakery was a home to me, and now it has been blown up and is gone. My own home where I grew up as a little boy is now an empty lot. My grandmother’s house where I would stop after school and have a piece of chocolate cake is now an empty lot. So many people I have loved and have been my guides and teachers are gone. All of this life has been maya, transitory, and shifting dreams. The wise men were right. The only place to go is to go In.

Deepak's website is http://www.astronlp.com

Sourced from Viha Connection magazine

Sunday, February 14, 2010

German Bakery in Pune Bombed



We are shocked to hear that the Germany Bakery, a popular hang-out spot near the Osho Resort in Pune, was bombed on Saturday, 7:30 pm local time. Below an article from the online BBC.

Pune, known as the cultural and educational capital of the western Indian state of Maharashtra, is in shock at the bombing of the German Bakery.
The restaurant is popular with students and tourists and was crowded when one of the waiters opened an unattended bag to see who it belonged to.
The following explosion destroyed the restaurant and the outdoor seating area, although the building above was left standing.

Santosh Bhosale: "The bakery is like our home"
"When I heard the blast it was like a earthquake tremor," said Santosh Bhosale, a shopkeeper who was nearby at the time.
"We ran to see what happened and saw bodies lying. I didn't think twice and I started to help people to take the injured to hospital.
"I knew the staff members of the bakery. We all have been here for years together now and are extremely fond of each other. This bakery is like our home," he said.
Initial reports of a second bag containing explosives have been discounted.
The German Bakery is in a plush, upmarket area of Pune, close to the Osho Ashram and the Jewish Chabad House.
There was a heavy police presence at the three Pune hospitals where the injured - most of them between 25-30 years old - were taken.
At Jehangir Hospital students gathered in anxious clusters to ask after their friends.

How did they manage to attack such a busy place in such an important area? Pune is otherwise a laidback and relaxed city but now one does not know
Pune policeman

In pictures: India restaurant blast
Thirteen of the injured were taken here. Two were later discharged after being treated for minor injuries.
"My friend Aditya Mehtra was admitted," said Yogesh, an engineering student.
"Students are always around the German Bakery - especially on a Saturday evening. We never felt anything in Pune but now it will change," he said.
He was told his friend was in the intensive care unit in a stable condition.
The government has offered compensation of about $10,700 (£6,800) for the families of those killed and has said it will pay for the treatment of all those injured.
Security fears
Outside the restaurant, a police constable said until now the citizens of Pune had felt safe and not worried about terror attacks.
"One incident is enough to alter the city. Now people will not have peace of mind. How did they manage to attack such a busy place in such an important area? Now after all these deaths it will get difficult. Pune is otherwise a laidback and relaxed city but now one does not know."
But local resident Salil Nishte said he thought security around the bakery had recently decreased.
"We used to come here for a cappuccino and pastries occasionally. In the last few days I had noticed that security was reduced," he said.
"Normally this area is very well protected because of Osho Centre and Chabad House. However, I feel that over years the population of foreigners and important dignitaries has increased, so security should be beefed up adequately at all times so that such incidents do not occur."
In the absence of anyone claiming responsibility for the attack, speculation has focused on Indian Mujahiddin, Jamat ud Dawa and Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Questions are also being asked about an alert raised for Pune in October.
Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram has said David Headley, an American facing charges in the US for allegedly scouting targets for the Mumbai attack, had also surveyed Chabad House and Osho Ashram.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8514791.stm


Sourced from Viha Connection magazine

Friday, February 5, 2010

Osho: A Contemporary Mystic


Osho (formerly Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) teaches meditation not as a practice but as a way of life. He is a mystic who brings the timeless wisdom of the East to bear upon the urgent questions facing men and women today. He speaks of the search for harmony, wholeness, and love that lies at the core of all religious and spiritual traditions, illuminating the essence of Christianity, Hassidism, Buddhism, Sufism, Tantra, Tao, Yoga, and Zen. Osho’s vision is of a new man.

Osho speaks on virtually every aspect of the development of human consciousness. His talks cover a staggering range – from the meaning of life and death to the struggle of power and politics, from the challenges of love and creativity to the significance of science and education. He belongs to no tradition.

To know oneself is to know all. And that is the only thing I emphasize; no belief, no dogma, no creed, no church, no religion. By a simple process of inner observation you come to realize yourself... Truth is within – seek not elsewhere.

Osho is a striking modern-day example of the millennia-old Eastern tradition of enlightened Masters. In the East, enlightenment is described as the state of ultimate and total consciousness or awareness, as attained by Gautama Buddha, Socrates, and others.

The function of a Master is to provoke consciousness in others, frequently by unexpected or apparently irrational acts and behavior; and to provide an environment in which a disciple can experience meditation for himself. It is therefore with a very different perception that we must view such a man’s life, as our standard criteria simply do not apply.

History tells of Bodhidharma entering the Emperor’s court with a show on his head or of Japanese Zen Masters planting trees upside down. Such acts can only be understood within the context of the Master’s constant efforts to bring his disciples into the Now, into meditation, and ultimately, to enlightenment. Osho is such a Master.

Osho was born December 11, 1931, in Kuchwada, a small village in the state of Madhya Pradesh, central India. He became enlightened at the age of 21 on March 21, 1953, while majoring in philosophy at D.N. Jain College in Jabalpur.

In 1966 Osho left his post as a professor of philosophy at the University of Jabalpur to devote himself to the raising of human consciousness. A powerful and passionate debater, he traveled widely in India, speaking to large audiences and challenging orthodox religious leaders in public debates and began to address gatherings of 50,000 to 100,000 in the open-air maidans of India’s major cities, using the name of Acharya Rajneesh. Four times a year he conducts intense 10-day meditation camps.

During these camps he introduced his revolutionary meditation technique, Dynamic Meditation, which begins with a period of uninhibited movement and catharsis, followed by a period of silence and stillness.

Most traditional meditation techniques require one to sit still and silent. But Osho understood that for most of us accumulated stress in our body/mind makes that difficult. Before we can enter our inner silent spaces, we need to let go of our tensions. Over the years Osho designed many more such active meditations, lie Kundalini Meditation, Nataraj Meditation, Nadabrahma Meditation, and others. These active meditation techniques have been used by psychotherapists, medical doctors, teachers, and other professionals around the world.

In 1974 Osho moved to Pune (then Poona) where an ashram was established so that Osho would be able to focus his attention on the seekers he had started to initiate. He made it clear that his Neo-Sannyas or discipleship – a path of commitment to self-exploration and meditation – does not involve renouncing the world. Seekers from around the world started arriving and Osho, who was known at this time as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, gave a 90-minute discourse nearly every morning from 1974 to 1981, alternating every month between Hindi and English. His discourses offer insights into all the major spiritual paths, including yoga, Zen, Taoism, Tantra, and Sufism, as well as word teachers such as Gautama Buddha, Jesus, Lao Tzu, and other mystics. These discourses have been collected into over 300 volumes and translated into every major language of the world.

Additionally, the commune offered a wide variety of therapy groups combining Eastern meditation techniques with Western psychotherapy. Therapists from all over the world were attracted, and by 1980 it had become an international community with a reputation as the world’s finest growth and therapy center, with 100,000 people passing through the ashram gates each year.

In 1981, Osho traveled to the US where his American disciples purchased a 64,000-acre ranch in the central Oregonian high desert and invited him to visit. The city of Rajneeshpuram was incorporated and provided services for 5,000 residents. It became the largest and most controversial spiritual community ever pioneered in the US, and a target for many politicians who made inflammatory speeches against it.

In September 1985, Osho’s personal secretary and several members of the commune’s management suddenly left, and a whole pattern of illegal acts they had committed was exposed. Osho invited law enforcement officials to investigate the crimes committed by the group, but the authorities saw this as a golden opportunity to destroy the commune entirely. Federal and local officials arrested Osho at gunpoint without warrants and held him without bail for 12 days.

Fearing for his life, attorneys agreed to an Alford Plea on two out of 35 charges brought against him by a federal grand jury in secret session. (According to the rules of the plea, the defendant maintains innocence while saying that the prosecution could have convicted him.) Osho was fined $400,000 and deported from America. The US Attorney in Portland, Charles Turner, later publicly conceded that the government was intent on destroying Osho’s commune.

Over the next two years, the government of 21 countries denied Osho entry or deported him after arrival. In 1986 Osho returned to India and later to the ashram in Pune where he started giving discourses again. Quickly the ashram fills again with seekers from all over the world.

In early 1989 Osho stopped using the name “Bhagwan” and accepted the address “Osho,” which derived from ancient Japanese. His health declining, he stopped giving talks in August and instead began to make daily appearances for evening darshan, sitting in silence while music was played. “That which cannot be said has to be experienced. This is a geat experience of getting into an inner, meditative space.”

Osho left his body on January 19, 1990. Just before his departure from the body, he said, “Never speak of me in the past tense. My presence here will be much greater without the burden of my tortured body.”

Today, more than 20 years later, his words are proved true. Thousands upon thousands of disciples and visitors come to the Pune ashram (now called Osho International Meditation Resort) and other Osho centers around the world. His talks, spoken over 30 years, recorded on audio and video, and published in hundreds of books are more popular than ever. In 2009, for example, three and a half million of his books were sold worldwide.

Osho Viha Information Center is devoted to spreading Osho’s message through the distribution of Osho books, DVDs, MP3s, and CDs. Osho's words, spoken spontaneously over the years, and his active meditations, are recognized around the world as is his insight into meditation, Tantra, Zen, relationships, and all aspects of life. His work was not a religion but a way of life, a method of revealing and living our full potential, from birth to death.

Osho Viha Information Center is proud to supply books, DVDs, MP3s, tapes, CDs, videos, Tarot cards, and other reflections of Osho’s work, to you through our web site http://www.oshoviha.org. Please contact us at oshoviha@oshoviha.org to find the Osho material you want and contact us. We are always happy to assist you.

Sourced from Osho Viha Connection Magazine

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

The Sound of Running Water



Many friends of Osho's will remember The Sound of Running Water, the beautiful, big photo biography that was produced in Poona One times. Many gorgeous photos of Osho, his people, and his ashram, plus numerous quotes tell the story of Osho's life and work between 1974 and 1978.

The book was printed in a limited edition and went out of print more than 20 years ago when Avirbhava bought the last (signed) copy for $14,000 in Poona Two. Over the years, many sannyasins would sadly remember the time when they snapped up a copy for $100 in Rajneeshpuram – and gave it away. Sometimes a copy would appear on ebay or Amazon, offered for several thousand dollars.

Now Swami Jagdish in Pune has reprinted the book, with the same photos and text, in almost the exact same format, and we have just received a small shipment. You can contact us at oshoviha@oshoviha.org if you would like a copy.

The “sister” book to The Sound of Running Water has also been reprinted, with a new title, The Song of the Ocean. (The earlier version of the book was titled
This Very Place: The Lotus Paradise.) This new version has some additional chapters and covers Osho’s life and work from 1979 to 1990.

Each book measures 12 1/2 by 11 inches. The Sound of Running Water weighs about 7.5 lbs, and The Song of the Ocean about 5.5 lbs.

We are offering The Sound of Running Water for $895 and The Song of the Ocean for $595.

I think the two books are must-haves for every lover of Osho.

Sourced from Osho Viha Connection Magazine