The Last Testament (Vol 1) ~ 13

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event type interview
date & time 30 Jul 1985 pm
location Jesus Grove, Rajneeshpuram
language English
audio Available, duration 1h 44min. Quality: good.
Live music after the interview.
online audio
video Available, duration 1h 0min. Quality: good.
online video
see also
online text find the PDF of this discourse
shorttitle LAST113
notes
Most of the 166 interviews Osho gave during the Ranch era and World Tour (see The Last Testament (series)) have never been published in book form. They have been published on the CD-ROM though; there they appear under the titles The Last Testament (Vol 1) to (Vol 6).
CD-ROM on this chapter: This discourse is published in The Last Testament, Vol 1, chapter 24. See The Last Testament, Vol 1#Correspondence between this Book and the CD-ROM.
synopsis
Interview. Announcements by Ma Anand Sheela : Laura Parker, Seattle Post Intelligencer, Seattle
CD-ROM on this chapter: Laura Parker, Post Intelligencer, Seattle, Washington.
Question 1
Hello. What we would like to do is write a story profiling you. There are a great number of readers in the Seattle area who are not as familiar with the commune or with you as the newspaper readers are in Oregon, and so I would like to know something about your background in addition to some of the things that you want to say about Rajneeshism. I guess we could start with: Why did you decide to speak, and why did you decide to speak to reporters?
Question 2
Is there anything that you have to say to the media that you couldn't say through your discourses or books? Do the reporters carry a message to the audience in America for you?
Question 3
Is there any way someone who has not come here could understand this way of life?
Question 4
Is there any way the people in Oregon.... Will there ever be peace here between the people in Oregon who are so opposed to the Rajneeshees, and the commune here or the Ranch here? Do you see that ever happening in the future?
Question 5
Could you elaborate a little? If they had ignored you, it would have been worse, then, the hostility?
Question 6
If we could go back to India, and when you were younger.... I have read some things about your background, but I don't know very much about it. Could you tell me... I have heard that you lived with Sheela's family for a while, and I have read that you lived with your grandparents as a young boy. I'm not certain which is accurate. Could you tell me about your childhood?
Question 7
Even as a very small child?
Question 8
To argue?
Question 9
This was when you were ten you lived with him, approximately?
Question 10
Did he send you to school? Was he responsible for educating you?
Question 11
What were you interested in?
Question 12
Your father was a merchant, is that correct?
Question 13
When you went to school, you were older?
Question 14
How did the other children in school treat you?
Question 15
They were afraid of you?
Question 16
Because of the things you were saying, or because of your arguing?
Question 17
Then you went to the university, is that correct?
Question 18
Why did you continue in school and go the university if you didn't...?
Question 19
When you were studying at the university, was there anyone who you read, or anyone who you followed? -- I don't mean a teacher, but perhaps someone whose writing that you particularly read?
Question 20
I think I read somewhere that you stopped reading at some point.
Question 21
When did you meet Sheela?
Question 22
You taught at the university, is that correct?
Question 23
You taught philosophy? And you were a young man in your twenties?
Question 24
Describe the years that you were a teacher and what you were trying to teach to your students while you were at the university.
Question 25
And what did the vice-chancellor say to you?
Question 26
And they accepted your resignation?
Question 27
I want to make sure my readers understand all of this. You became enlightened when you were in your very early twenties, and then you became a teacher after that. Is that correct? -- and then traveled after that. Could you describe for me when you became enlightened, and how that occurred?
Question 28
What was that day like? What was the day like when you became enlightened? I would like to explain the details to people who, as I say, are not that familiar with becoming enlightened.
Question 29
Were you a student at the time?
Question 30
Did you share this with anyone?
Question 31
Could Sheela's father tell?
Question 32
Did you see him after you became enlightened, but before you had told people?
Question 33
You said that the other man told you to wait until the right moment. When was that moment? When did you tell?
Question 34
Describe for me when you were traveling around India lecturing.... Where did you go, what was the reception that you received from the groups...?
Question 35
When did you start the ashram in pPoona? Did that come much later?
Question 36
So you traveled around India for quite a few years?
Question 37
Why did you stop traveling and start the ashram?
Question 38
Was the ashram large enough? Or did you want to expand at that point?
Question 39
For additional land?
Question 40
Why not?
Question 41
When did they perform this ritual? Recently, or...?
Question 42
How did you get the financing to start the ashram in Poona?
Question 43
When the government wouldn't allow you to get additional land, is that when you made the decision to leave India?
Question 44
Did you want to leave Poona?
Question 45
How is Rajneeshpuram different from Poona, physically?
Question 46
You and other people have described the Poona ashram to me as having many lush gardens, and when this ranch was first purchased it was almost worthless desert land.
... What did you think, or what was your impression when you first came and saw the land here?
Question 47
All over? You will turn the whole ranch into an oasis?
Question 48
It has been said to me that you left Poona in the dead of night. Is this true?
Question 49
The implication being that you sneaked away, as opposed to announcing it....
Question 50
Can you explain for me how you left Poona?
Question 51
Do you envision Rajneeshpuram becoming a city that will be able to handle more permanent sannyasin residents than there are now?
Question 52
In a self-sustaining way, I mean; a larger vegetable farm and...?
Question 53
How do you envision Rajneeshpuram growing as a city? By hundreds, or thousands, or...?
Question 54
Can you describe for me what your day is like? Getting back to.... I'm serving readers who don't know much about... None of whom, except for a few, have ever been here, and they are curious about you.
Question 55
What do you do during the day?
Question 56
How (do your people have improved upon Rolls Royces)?
Question 57
If I could back up for a minute.... When the United States was founded on religious freedom, and when this group of people came to Oregon and when you arrived here, did you have any expectations or were you surprised at the kind of reception that you received from Oregonians, who are Americans, who are citizens of a country that was founded on religious freedom?
Question 58
Can you envision yourself ever returning to India?
Question 59
You described yourself, I think in an interview, as the rich man's guru.
Question 60
Can you explain for me what that means? And how that would be different from, say, a poor mans guru? Are you talking about a state of mind, or a state of the pocketbook? Are you talking about state of mind -- that the rich have a different state of mind than the poor -- or are you merely talking about economics?
Question 61
A few years ago, you were quoted as saying there was no single path, there was no exclusive religion. You embraced all forms of religion. And then, a few years later, you said something different, and when you were asked about that, you said that you were full of contradictions....
Question 62
I have been here before, and I have seen the drivebys, and I think I have a sense of what sannyasins are experiencing during the driveby. What do you experience inside your car when you drive past your disciples?
Question 63
Do you have doubts that you are the blessed one?
Question 64
You don't go out driving anymore around here, is that correct?
Question 65
You don't drive around the hills outside Rajneeshpuram any more?
Question 66
Have you seen the sign at the last turnoff to Rajneeshpuram recently? I saw it on the way in today: "Abandon ye all hope who enter herein." Have you seen the sign?
Question 67
I have one final question. It's a little frivolous.... In order to go on driving, I know you had to get an Oregon driver's license. Can you describe for me what that was like, to take the examination with the Oregon tester, or the man who goes with you and gives you the driving test? I mean, what he was like when he was giving you the test?


(source:CD-ROM)


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