Le vicende di Chandra Mohan Jain, ribattezzatosi poi Acharya Rajneesh, in seguito Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh e infine Osho sono state recentemente riportate in vita dalla docuserie Wild Wild Country andata in onda su Netflix. Io ero giovane quando Osho imperversava e per strada si vedevano persone vestite di arancione. Una mia compagna di università faceva l’entreneuse per procurarsi i soldi per poter soggiornare nella comune di Osho in Oregon, e un mio conoscente ex Lotta Continua era diventato un suo seguace. Io, che ho un approccio occidentale alla vita e valuto molto l’uguaglianza, ho sempre avuto una resistenza a farmi seguace di un guru.
La serie di Netflix mi ha dato l’occasione di ripensare alla vicenda di Osho, che continuo comunque a trovare in giro: conosco persone che sono state a visitare la sua tomba in India, vicino a casa mia c’è il centro di Osho Miasto, che promuove attività basate sui suoi insegnamenti (ma anche Villa Vindavana, centro di irradiazione degli insegnamenti di un altro santone indiano), e mi è capitato di partecipare a workshop di sviluppo personale tenuti da facilitatori che erano stati suoi seguaci (in uno di questi ci hanno fatto vedere la registrazione di uno dei suoi discorsi, io mi sono addormentato). Oltre alla serie di Netflix, ci sono tanti libri scritti da suoi (ex) seguaci che raccontano la loro esperienza con lui (vedi in fondo a questa pagina)
L’Oriente ha avuto una parte importante nel mio sviluppo personale: in terza media / prima liceo, prima di dedicare il mio tempo alla politica, praticavo lo yoga e leggevo le opere di Sri Aurobindo e Yogananda, ci ero arrivato da un percorso partito da Universo proibito di Leo Talamonti e Il Mattino dei maghi di Bergier e Pauwels. L’Oriente mi interessava perché ero affascinato dal mondo magico e nelle filosofie orientali ho cercato a lungo, senza trovarle, le soluzioni ai miei problemi esistenziali di adolescente e poi di adulto.
Dalle testimonianze dei seguaci vengono fuori accadimenti apparentemente contrastanti: tutti i suoi seguaci segnalano di aver vissuto, grazie alla vicinanza con Osho, sensazioni di pace e benessere e crescita personale, alcuni anche esperienze estatiche. D’altra parte Osho era un megalomane: sosteneva di essere la reincarnazione di San Giovanni Battista (e la sua compagnia Vivek la reincarnazione di Maria Maddalena), che Buddha era entrato in lui (vedi il resoconto di Devakant, p.290) e un accumulatore seriale: è arrivato a possedere più di 90 Rolls Royce, nonché decine di bracciali e orologi preziosi, comprati coi soldi richiesti ai seguaci, parte dei quali, per poter visitare e rimanere nell’Ashram, arrivavano a prostituirsi e commerciare droga, oppure erano costretti a lavorare fino a 19 ore al giorno, senza retribuzione. I pasti nell’ashram (sia a Poona che in Oregon) erano insufficienti, la gran parte dei seguaci erano denutriti e in precarie condizioni fisiche, spesso con malattie veneree a causa dei frequenti rapporti sessuali non protetti con più partner. I seguaci che non seguivano alla lettera le indicazioni di Osho o dei suoi fiduciari erano espulsi dall’ashram dalla mattina alla sera, senza soldi. I bambini venivano iniziati a pratiche sessuali con adulti (vedi la testimonianza di Tim Guest). Osho chiedeva prestazioni sessuali ad alcune delle sue seguaci, spingeva i suoi seguaci alla sterilizzazione, in Oregon i suoi seguaci hanno programmato assassini, eseguito attentati e volutamente creato un’epidemia di salmonella che ha colpito oltre 700 persone, etc., etc. Osho inoltre picchiava la sua compagna Vivek, per un periodo era dipendente da Valium e protossido di azoto, e profetizzava a vanvera. Ad esempio a un certo punto sosteneva che ci sarebbe stata una guerra nucleare entro un paio di anni (nella comune in Oregon fu dato l’ordine di costruire rifugi anti nucleari), e poi ancora che entro il 2000 due terzi dell’umanità sarebbero morti di AIDS. Vedi un approfondimento a questa pagina.
Dunque qual è l’insegnamento principale della vicenda di Osho? Secondo me che la capacità di un guru di provocare esperienze sovrasensoriali e benessere nei suoi seguaci non basta a classificarlo come ‘buono’ o ‘illuminato’ (in senso buddista). Un determinato guru (nel caso specifico Osho) può mostrare capacità sovrumane (quelle che ci si aspetta dai guru) e provocare esperienze sovrasensoriali e benessere nei propri seguaci, ma ugualmente essere malvagio, approfittarsi di loro e soffrire di quegli stessi limiti (ad esempio comportamenti violenti o attaccamento alla ricchezza) che vorrebbe far superare ai suoi seguaci. Mostrare capacità sovrumane e provocare benessere non è di per sé, purtroppo, un segnale sicuro di ‘bontà’ o illuminazione.
Lascio dire allo studioso Timothy Conway, che esprime questo concetto meglio di me:
Even more than the notable Mafia bosses, dictators and their ilk, who often exude a formidable, palpable animal magnetism, Rajneesh / Osho was known by his sannyasins to be surrounded by an extremely potent and influential energy field that could put people into temporary altered states of consciousness and even deep trances. But Rajneesh is certainly not alone in this. My M.A. thesis in graduate school back in 1983 focused on the cross-cultural, widespread set of phenomena associated with figures from religious history East and West, ancient and contemporary, who are felt to be the source of this unusual energy that gets variously called Shaktipat by the Hindu Tantrikas (bestowal of the Divine Shakti energy), the Charismata Power of the Spirit by Christians (from Jesus and early followers to medieval monasteries to modern-era Pentecostal and Charismatic circles), the Baraka or Berekah blessing force around many Muslim Sufi and Jewish mystics, the Wang empowerments around certain Tibetan Buddhist lamas, the Ch’i or Ki energy around meditation masters and martial artists of China and Japan, the Mana energy around Polynesian shamans and called by various names around other shamans and shamanesses in indigenous tribes found worldwide.
What also became clear to me in my extensive research back then and over the years since then is that such potent, palpable energy or vital force can come through scoundrels as well as saints and sages. It’s for this reason, for example, that early and later Christian leaders ranging from St. Paul to St. John of the Cross were very, very cautious before labeling such energy a clear, pure manifestation of God. Jesus’ criterion, “By their fruits you shall know them” became paramount, and in many cases Christian sages were carefully watching and feeling with their own charismatic power of “discerning spirits” to determine if the source of the dazzling energy in themselves or others was Divine or demonic or somewhere in between. The same kind of careful spiritual discernment regarding unusual potent energies and miracles and other manifestations has occurred among the wisest spiritual leaders of our sacred traditions, from the ancient time of the Upanishad’s sages and the Buddha to the present time.
It’s well known to the true sages that powerful but ultimately confused, constricted discarnate entities regarded as “demons” or “titans” (Skt.: asura, rakshasa, etc.) can create such electric energies through human beings as a way of then “feeding” on the aroused emotions and psychic states of the hordes of people who surround the human channel. That’s why many Zen masters often warned their students to simply regard all unusual states and energies as makyo, distracting “diabolical phenomena,” and instead wake up to the Open, Infinite Awareness, the formless “Big Self” or pristine “Buddha-Nature.”
In concluding this point: Just because a charismatic figure is felt to be a powerhouse of energy creating altered states of consciousness in people does NOT mean the figure should be viewed as a perfected spiritual master or venerated as “Divine,”
In the case of Rajneesh, therefore, we can surely affirm that he was somehow a source or a channel, especially from the mid-1960s until some time in the 1970s (after which it’s hard to determine whether it was Rajneesh or the group-energy of thousands of people responsible), for a very powerful Shaktipat energy that created dramatic effects in numerous persons around him. But what was the long-term effect of all this energy? Yes, there was evidently and undeniably a lot of good! But there were also a lot of “not-so-good” consequences dark and painful. So, to reiterate Jesus’ statement: “By their fruits you shall know them.”
(…)
[Osho] wasn’t fully free [from his egoic samskaras – binding attachments-aversions] from the beginning, and predictably began to have some psychological and emotional problems rooted in a subtle, insidious sense of self. All the inflation and aggrandizing of that self (by himself and others) could not stave off a certain ‘crash,’ and then had to come the compensations (as you specified in an earlier email: the Rolls-Royces, etc.)…. I know this sounds harsh, but we really need to distinguish between the fully enlightened on the one hand, and, on the other hand, those individuals like Rajneesh who have powerful glimpses of real awakening, kensho/satori experiences (in Zen language), but then fall back into their egoic samskaras [binding attachments-aversions] and karma-producing tendencies. It seems like it was just assumed far too early (by both Rajneesh and his followers) that he was ‘fully enlightened,’ not just a very talented, experienced, insightful, charismatic guy who’d made some spiritual breakthroughs into fearlessness, exhilaration, etc. And on the basis of this idea that he was ‘fully enlightened’ everyone got into some trouble; though, as you say, all sorts of good things happened too! I could starting naming for you dozens and dozens of figures similar to Rajneesh who claimed (or had others claiming) that they were ‘fully enlightened,’ but none of these have authentically lived from that Holy Wholesomeness beyond the needy self.”
(..)
Evidently Rajneesh was not free of several of these ten fetters (e.g., recall his self-inflated narcissistic boasts, the attachments to sex and expensive toys, the delight in stirring up controversy for the sake of controversy, elevating himself above earlier sages [Sankara, the Buddha, et al.] by misrepresenting and criticizing their views, etc.). Going further, where, really, was the truly heroic self-sacrifice and the love/compassion? (—we’ve heard of too many incidents reported by former close disciples of the lack of these traits). And where was that “all-seeing” “functional omniscience” reported of the Buddha and, more recently, of Ramana Maharshi, Shirdi Sai Baba, and several others?
Libri di seguaci di Osho che raccontano la loro esperienza (riporto solo quelli che ho letto o sto leggendo)
- Devakant. In the eye of the Hurricane
- Subhuti Anand Weight. Wild Wild Guru
- Milne Hugh. Bhagwan. The God that failed
- Guest Tim. My life in orange
- Yoga Punya. On the Edge. Living with an Enlightened Master
- Ma Anand Sheela. Don’t Kill him! The Story of my Life with Bhagwan Rajineesh
- Luglio Radha. Tantra. Un modo di vivere e amare
- Strelley Kate. Ultimo gioco
- Prem Shunio. Diamond Days with Osho
La parabola di Osho si inserisce all’interno del più generale processo di diffusione in Occidente di teorie mistiche orientali, processo che ha portato spesso a delusioni o vere e proprie truffe. Vedi una descrizione delle varie vicende a questa pagina. Dall’introduzione:
In the 1960s it seemed that the Wisdom of the East was arriving on every other 707 from Asia to rescue i baby boomers from the dismal promise of a job in the city and a home in the suburbs and church on Sundays.
Unfortunately this captivating fairy story of how Indian Holy Men and their devotees have established ideas like karma and enlightenment, puja and meditation into the New Age of Western popular culture has, as is traditional, a dark twist. The magical promises of realisation and enlightenment or magical powers and tantric sexuality have turned out to be damp squibs and the Holy Men often, if not nearly always, have been as sleazy and phony as a politician or snake-oil salesman and they have wasted the hopes and lives of thousands, if not millions, of those who trusted them while they secretly indulged in the very physical pleasures they claimed to be above.
This movement is based on a few separate strands:
- the 19th century translation and publication of Hindu and Buddhist scriptures
- the writers and hustlers who created the dream of a Mystic East where yogis and swamis had occult powers
- the recruitment of a few remarkable men who travelled to the West and their sympathisers and financers
- the removal of racist immigration barriers that allowed Asian gurus to try their luck in the USA
- the American Way which promotes and produces profit from religions that glorify asceticism and self-sacrifice
Autore © Leonardo Evangelista. L’articolo rispecchia le opinioni dell’autore al momento dell’ultima modifica. Vedi le indicazioni relative a Informativa Privacy, cookie policy e Copyright.