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Osho
World Foundation Hosts Ganga Network Workshop
New
Delhi, May 14 2002
Osho
World Foundation will host a Save Ganga Network Workshop on Sunday, 19 May
2002 at Gandhi Sangrahalaya, Rajghat in New Delhi. This new initiative -
Save Ganga Network - will be launched during this event to create a
constructive platform for networking of various organizations and people
involved in the Ganga Action Plan.
Shri
T.R. Balu, Union Minister for environment has been invited to inaugurate
the workshop while Shri Vijay Goyal Minister of State, PMO will be the
guest of honour at the inauguration. Several distinguished scientists and
environmentalists like Shri Sundar Lal Bahuguna, Dr. R.A. Mashelkar,
Professor Yash Pal, Professor MGK Menon, Shri Sudhindra Kulkarni and
representatives of ministry of environment and Ganga Action Plan have
agreed to join this network for which Dr. Vijay Bhatkar is the
Co-coordinator.
In
addition, the organizations that have joined the Save Ganga Action Network
include: URDIP (CSIR Laboratory), Osho World Foundation, ETH Research
Laboratory, Save Ganga Movement, Vedic Research Centre India International
Multiversity, World Peace Centre, Vishwa Jagriti Mission, KNOW-IT,
National Women's Organisation, World Foundation for Reverence for All
Beings, DBBIIT, Nirdhar and more are joining.
The
Save Ganga Network will be launched at Rajghat, New Delhi, on 19th May
2002 by offering prayers for the success of the mission of Save Ganga
Network and other rivers in India, to be followed by a workshop between
9.00 am to 3.00 pm at Gandhi Sangrahalaya, Rajghat.During this event,
first version of the Save Ganga Network website, with projection of its
multi-dimensional content & online services will be launched.
Representatives of distinguished scientific, spiritual and social
organizations will address the meeting. Following this Workshop, selected
participants will move to Haridwar and Rishikesh on 20th May 2002 where
the recognizance of Ganga will be undertaken along with local people and
institutions of the local bodies. On 21st May 2002, the team will proceed
to Devprayag and Gangotri and undertake similar exercises.
Osho
has said, "Don't leave this earth unless you have made it a little
better than you found it when you were born-- This is the only religion
that I know of. All other religions are just fake!"
In
line with this, Dr. Bhatkar commented, "In its 2, 525 km flow, the
Ganga passes through 29 cities and 70 towns. It is alarming to see the
Ganga getting polluted in its course, progressively more in every
kilometer it surges ahead. Recognizing the great importance of Ganga, the
Government of India launched the Ganga Action Plan in 1986. Although there
have been some noteworthy successes in this project, it is highly alarming
to see that even after 15 years of the Ganga Action Plan being in force,
the Ganga still remains polluted. Today it has turned into a sewer
overloaded with chemical pollutants from the industries and toxic
pesticide residues. Its water is severely contaminated with bacterial and
viral pathogens, particularly around the places of human inhabitation. The
same is true for the Yamuna, the Gomti and many other great rivers of
India. It has become urgent to accelerate the process of making Ganga
pollution-free in the coming years.
"In
this context, we wish to make the Save Ganga Network as a peaceful,
constructive, non-religious, multi-cultural, apolitical Gandhian movement
based on the principles of non-violence, peace and truth with direct
participation of people, Indians as well as NRI's and people of the world
interested in Ganga."
Individuals
and/or organizations desirous of joining and co-operating in this project
are requested to contact Swami Chaitanya Keerti / Ma Prem Shashin at Osho
World Foundation in New Delhi.
Swami Chaitanya
Keerti
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News
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Days
of uncreative sanyas are over
New
Delhi, May 10 2002
"Don't
leave this earth / Unless you have made it / A little better than you
found it / When you were born / This is the only religion that I know of /
All other religions are just fake" - declares Osho in his message to
his disciples, though he never wanted them to become missionaries. He
taught the
sannyasins not to renounce the world but bring creativity to the world and
make it a place worth living. Why seek paradise in the other world-make
this earth a paradise. He says: "Sannyas has to become a herald for a
new world, the first ray of the dawn. Man is reaching towards total war;
all preparations have been made to commit a global suicide. This is what
your history has brought you to.All the Alexanders, Napoleons, Stalins,
Hitlers and Maos have been working for centuries; now their dream is going
to be fulfilled: we can destroy this whole earth within seconds.
Destruction has reached its peak; unless creativity also reaches its peak,
man cannot be saved."
The old type of sannyas has been very uncreative. It was thought that
somebody becomes a sannyasin and goes to a Himalayan cave and sits there,
and that was perfectly alright. They are absolutely uncreative and dull
and contribute nothing even for their own living. You see no glow of
intelligence on their face. And the most surprising thing is that people
are worshipping them and touching their feet. Why are they touching the
feet? Because these sannyasins have renounced the world!
We must stop paying respect to this kind of uncreative sannyas. Osho says
in Heart Sutra: "My conception of a sannyasin is that his energy will
be creative, that he will bring a little more beauty into the world, that
he will bring a little more joy into the world, that he will find new ways
to
get into dance, singing, music, that he will bring some beautiful poems.
He will create something, he will not be uncreative. The days of
uncreative sannyas are over...
"He should contribute something. Remaining uncreative is almost a
sin, because you exist and you don't contribute. You eat, you occupy
space, and you don't contribute anything. My sannyasins have to be
creators. And when you are in deep creativity you are close to God. That's
what prayer really
is, that's what meditation is. God is the creator, and if you are not
creators you will be far away from God. God knows only one language, the
language of creativity. That's why when you compose music, when you are
utterly lost in it, something of the divine starts filtering out of your
being. That is the joy of creativity, that's the ecstasy.
Swami Chaitanya
Keerti
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Mulla
Nasrudin Celebrates Osho World's Mirthday!
New
Delhi, April 1 2002
Mulla
Nasrudin, the laughing Sufi mystic popularized by Osho in his discourses
celebrated Osho World's second birthday - no, Mirthday! - in a
rip-roarious manner on April Fools Day renamed as Mulla Nasrudin Day.
Well-known humourous poet Surendra Sharma led a jam-packed Osho World
Galleria in Ansal Plaza into a laughter safari for more than an hour. The
chuckles turned into full-throated laughter and then into uncontrollable
guffaws as he related tantalizing jokes about the perils of matrimony. The
event stared off by Osho setting the stage with Mulla jokes in his
inimitable style. Later, a noted TV Producer-Director Col. Raj Kapoor
a.k.a. Swami Raj Bharti also contributed some choice anecdotes to keep the
laughing momentum that will be maintained in the ensuring Mulla Nasurdin
Week up to 7 April.
At 6 p.m. every evening until Sunday, Osho World Galleria in New Delhi's
Ansal Plaza will be rocking with laughter, as Osholovers will share
rip-roaring jokes of the Mulla. A favourite of Osho in his discourses,
these Mulla jokes with a deep spiritual message will also be related on
tape by Osho. It will all add up to an hour of uninhibited laughing
meditation that has proved so popular at the Galleria.
But who is this Mulla Nasrudin? Replies, Osho, "Born in Iran,
Nasrudin is a Sufi mystic, a little crazy, but always tremendously wise.
"To be Mulla Nasrudin means two things: Be foolish in your wisdom and
be wise in your foolishness. It is a very great contradiction. Be wise in
your foolishness and be foolish in your wisdom. You should be aware of the
fact that Mulla Nasrudin is a Sufi device. It is to make you clear that
life is wise in its foolishness. And when you try to be wise you
become a fool. The greatest wise people are like fools. And the greatest
foolish people are those who pretend that they are wise. If you have to
choose, choose the fool and you will become wise. Don't choose to pretend
wisdom, otherwise you will become a fool."
Explains Osho, "Mulla Nasrudin is a simple man with utter purity --
every act in his life is full of wisdom, but on the surface looks a little
crazy. He belongs to the same category as Bodhidharma, as Mahakashyap. But
he is a little more eccentric than any of them. Who has recognized Mulla
Nasrudin? Very few people. Who has recognized Mahakashyap suddenly
laughing? Only Gautama Buddha. Ten thousand monks were present but nobody
could understand this eccentric behavior. But it was arising out of the
empty heart, from a clarity of vision. Only another man of the same
clarity can understand it. The Japanese awakened soul Hotei has been
called the laughing Buddha. For what is he laughing? -- his whole teaching
was laughing."
Osho concludes, "Buddha's message in short is: Be a light unto
yourself. And mine? Be a joke unto yourself! Being a joke unto yourself,
you will be a bliss for everyone."
Swami Chaitanya
Keerti
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April Fool’s Day – No, Mulla
Nasrudin Day!
New
Delhi, 30 March 2002
A new hilarious twist will be added to the
timeworn April Fool’s Day this year as Osho World Foundation declares 1st
April as Mulla Nasrudin Day in honour of this laughing mystic.
At 6
p.m. every evening from 1 to 7 April, Osho World Galleria in New Delhi’s
Ansal Plaza will be rocking with laughter as Osholovers will share
rip-roaring jokes of the Mulla. A favourite of Osho in his discourses,
these Mulla jokes with a deep spiritual message will also be related on
tape in the inimitable style of Osho. It will all add up to an hour of
uninhibited laughing meditation that has proved so popular at the
Galleria. Well known Hindi humour poet Surendra Sharma and other top poets
will regale everyone during this week.
But who is this Mulla
Nasrudin? Replies, Osho, “Born in Iran, Nasrudin is a Sufi mystic, a
little crazy, but always tremendously wise.
“To be Mulla Nasrudin
means two things: Be foolish in your wisdom and be wise in your
foolishness. It is a very great contradiction. Be wise in your foolishness
and be foolish in your wisdom.
You should be aware of the fact that
Mulla Nasrudin is a Sufi device. It is to make you clear that life is wise
in its foolishness. And when you try to be wise you become a fool. The
greatest wise people are like fools. And the greatest foolish people are
those who pretend that they are wise. If you have to choose, choose the
fool and you will become wise. Don't choose to pretend wisdom, otherwise
you will become a fool.”
Explains Osho, “Mulla Nasrudin is a simple
man with utter purity - every act in his life is full of wisdom, but on
the surface looks a little crazy. He belongs to the same category as
Bodhidharma, as Mahakashyap. But he is a little more eccentric than any of
them. Who has recognized Mulla Nasrudin? Very few people. Who has
recognized Mahakashyap suddenly laughing? Only Gautama Buddha. Ten
thousand monks were present but nobody could understand this eccentric
behavior. But it was arising out of the empty heart, from a clarity of
vision. Only another man of the same clarity can understand
it.”
“The Japanese awakened soul Hotei has been called the laughing
Buddha. For what is he laughing? - his whole teaching was laughing. Seeing
this ridiculousness that people are not what they are thinking they are,
and people are what they never dream about.... It is a cosmic joke, but
one has to understand it to come
to a point when one can become a
laughing Buddha. And I want the world filled with laughing Buddhas, not
the serious ones. We need the whole earth filled with laughter, and not
ordinary laughter but cosmic laughter - a laughter that arises out of the
understanding that it is a beautiful joke existence has played with
us.”
Osho concludes, “Buddha's message in short is: Be a light unto
yourself. And mine? Be a joke unto yourself! Being a joke unto yourself,
you will be a bliss for everyone.”
Swami Chaitanya
Keerti
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Mulla Nasruddin Immortalised in
Bronze
March 30,
2002, New Delhi
As part of Mulla Nasruddin Week Celebration, Osho
World Galleria will launch maquettes of Mulla cast in Bronze by famous
sculptor K.S. Radhakrishnan in Ansal Plaza, New Delhi. Exclusively created
for Osho World Galleria, these statuettes capture Mulla Nasruddin in an
array of moods and gestures and reflect the artistic genius of
Radhakrishnan.
Osho World Foundation will lend a hilarious twist to
timeworn April Fool's Day this year by celebrating the week starting 1st
April as Mulla Nasruddin Day in honour of this laughing mystic. But who is
this Mulla Nasruddin? Replies, Osho, "Born in Iran, Nasruddin is a Sufi
mystic, a little crazy, but always tremendously wise.
A student of
Ram Kinkar Baij at the Shantiniketan and contemporary Indian sculptor,
K.S. Radhakrishnan’s affair with sculpting started in the 60’s. The
taciturn artist in his fifties professes a deep attachment to a higher
spiritual plane. In these maquettes, he relates different stories of Mulla
Nasruddin. In Mulla he finds an outlet to express this cosmic but
non-serious spirituality. According to Radhakrishnan,
“These
Mulla’s are a result of deep thought processes and tell a subtle
philosophical story that everyone can appreciate and relate to.” One can
find Mulla carrying the door to his own grave, sitting on a bench and
carrying the scales to deliver some laughable judgment, among other
delightful creations. In the past, Radhakrishnan’s acclaimed Musui-Maiya
series inspired by a Santhal tribal has been toasted as avant-garde
example of sculpting in India. He is known for vastly successful shows in
India and abroad notably France. True art comes very close to religion. So
don't be worried what true art is. Osho in his book The Dhammapada: The
Way of the Buddha, says, “If you rejoice in doing it, if you feel lost in
doing it, if you feel overwhelmed with joy and peace in doing it, it is
true art.”
Osho World Galleria welcomes you to this unique Sangam
of Art, Laughter and spirituality in the marketplace.
Swami
Chaitanya Keerti
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News Release
As for Tagore,
Osho's Works Must be Copyright Free
New Delhi, 2 Jan 2002
The waiving
of restrictive copyright on the works of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore will
set them free for the entire world to appreciate the heritage of this
mystic poet who is India's only Nobel Laureate in literature. In the same
vein, like the message of all Buddhas. Osho's works need to be immediately
freed from the clandestinely registered copyrights and patents in the
U.S.A. and Switzerland.
In fact, this step was long overdue as the
Berne Copyright Convention of 1886 - now over a century old - requires the
revision of the grace period from 50 years to ten years due to the
development of instant communication in this age of the Internet.
Tagore's sublime and inspirational works have been freed from the
shackles of copyright for the benefit of everyone everywhere. The same
must be done for Osho's works.
The statement by Ms Bela Banerjee,
Joint Secretary, Copyright and Languages, is commendable as it emphasized
that this copyright ownership expiry would be a boon to artistes and the
printing and publishing of Tagore's works in India and abroad. She saw no
reason to fear the substandard production of Tagore's works.
It is
encouraging to note that the Indian media in numerous editorials has also
welcomed this step in the public interest. In the same spirit, Osho World
Foundation is striving to bring the works of the enlightened mystic Osho
into free domain for the maximum possible dissemination. Osho has
described Tagore as 'the heart of India''. Says Osho,"
"Saa Vidya Ya
Vimuktaye..' Whatever liberates you is true knowledge, declare the
Upanishads. Osho's insights and meditation techniques fall in this
category of leading one to liberation and thus must be free from the
fetters of copyright.
Swami Chaitanya Keerti
Osho World
Foundation
BG-09, Ansal Plaza
Khelgaon Marg
New
Delhi-110049
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