Energy Darshans
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On the CD-ROM, the phrase "energy darshan" first appears in Feb 1976, referring to events during the evening darshan in which people would be invited by Osho to come close and be touched or guided to allow "their energy to move" while in specified postures. Sometimes Osho would ask another sannyasin in attendance to stand behind the recipient, hold their hands or whatever. These "shaktipat" (energy transmission) events were always happening with him.
In Feb of 1979, they became a regular part of darshan, only much wilder, much more extravagant and on a much larger scale, coming to involve the whole ashram. The expansion had four components: First, the "mediums" Osho asked to assist in these energy transmissions became more numerous, and exclusively women, where before there had been occasionally a man. And they were given detailed instructions as a group in the first nights of this expansion after the "talking darshans" were concluded.
Savita was one of these mediums. She reports that once energy darshans evolved into a relatively stable format -- that evolution and format described below -- there were a group of thirteen original mediums augmented by others who came along later. Those thirteen were Vivek, Chetana, Maneesha, Savita, Maitri, Divya, Vasumati, Italian Anasha, Radha, Nirupa, Amiyo and Champa. Some of those who came later were Pradeepa, Veena, Sarita, Isabel, Kavisho and Marga. See below for Osho's guidance to them.
The second component was of course the nominal recipients of the energy transmission, those on whom Osho's energy was focused. Where in the past it had always been just one person at a time, with the occasional exception of two closely-related sannyasins, soon it became several, which also entailed more mediums.
The third component was "music". It is not known when exactly musicians were added to this energy soup, but it would not have been long after the mediums. As of this writing, no specific guidance has been found in Osho's words to direct the musicians and indicate precisely when this happened. The "music" consisted of many instruments but it was central to the form that no rhythm or melody be created. It was loud and chaotic and fast, building to a crescendo and then ebbing or suddenly stopping. Many drums and other percussion were included, as these are the most "primitive" instruments, and least likely to induce any "civilized" or conceptual "music appreciation" and "purest" in terms of energy.
The fourth component was everyone else. First, those passively in attendance at the darshan were asked to participate by moving, abandoning themselves to the energy (though while being alert so they too could suddenly stop at the end of the music). Then the whole ashram was included, with lights turned out everywhere, even in the outlying ashram properties where sannyasins lived and worked, such as # 122, 74 and 70 Koregaon Park. No one was to enter or leave any of these places during the 45-minute lights-out energy darshan period.
So what happened to the participants during these extravaganzas? The most common reported result was blissing out (or in, if you prefer). In addition, the nominal recipients experienced many things, from tingling and wild laughter to passing out. Passing out was in fact common, and strong men were added as darshan regulars, "lifters", to carry them to the back of the auditorium (Chuang Tzu) when they couldn't make it back to their places on their own. All ashram workers went to darshan every two or three months, going as groups according to what department they worked in, with a goodly proportion of them having the opportunity to be at the center of it all.
Osho spoke many nights as this phenomenon took shape, after the "talking darshans", people getting initiated, coming and going and asking questions. The following excerpts are recorded in the last chapters of Won't You Join the Dance?:
ch 22: [Osho gives a sannyasin a leaving / energy darshan with two mediums helping.] All three of you start feeling the energy moving upwards -- feel pulled upwards. All feel together as if one energy. Just take it up. Don't be afraid. Feel pulled up. If sounds start arising, allow it. Now feel the energy going back down, just as if the whole energy is going down, as if you are disappearing into the earth. Perfectly good. Things are perfectly good. Keep it (a box) with you and whenever you need me, just do the same experiment: sit silently, first start feeling energy going up. Raise your hands and feel pulled, and keep a tension being pulled, for at least five to seven minutes. Then relax, and then feel you are disappearing into the earth; even if you fall onto the earth, fall, and then rest for four or five minutes. This will give you tremendous transformation. [Osho gives another energy darshan, adding:] Completely forget yourselves; just become energies, all together, all four of you. Let it become a dance together. [...] Just stop all movement. Be perfectly still. Be utterly like statues. [With the next energy darshan Osho says:] Just do one thing: the energy is at the sex centre, so all of you pull the sex centre up and then relax it, pull it up and relax it, seven times, not more than that. If any sounds start coming, feel orgasmic, feel sex energy moving upwards. Feel ecstatic. Let the energy become pure bliss. Be in a dance. ch 23: [Before beginning an energy darshan, Osho says:] A few things to be remembered... This is a totally new phase of work, so you have to be totally available, as if you are not -- only then can my energy penetrate to the very core. And for the helpers, for the mediums who will be helping; they have to be utterly absent, merged into me -- only then can their energy become part of my energy and move. From today, slowly slowly, mediums, helpers, will be chosen. Only those will be chosen who can be with me totally, with no critical mind -- not analysing what is happening, but simply going into it, whatsoever it is. Any analysis and it becomes a disturbance. Energy can go to tremendous heights, it can simply bloom into a lotus. Within minutes it can happen, but just total availability is needed, and more so on the part of the mediums. Ch 25: [A sannyasin was supposed to have had an energy darshan with Osho the previous night, but had developed a fever and was unable to attend. He feels part of him was resistant, fighting.] Don't ask for the impossible. You cannot do anything totally at this moment, at this stage. Whatsoever you do, if it is sixty, seventy percent, that is almost perfect. To be one hundred percent total means to become enlightened. Nothing is remaining then; what will the barrier be? At the most, right now do whatsoever the major part of your being wants to do. So what do you want? If you want an energy darshan you can have it. Or if you are still afraid and more afraid, then... [After giving him an energy darshan, Osho says:] You were unnecessarily afraid. Things are perfectly good. Next time I will give you a bigger dose! [Osho spoke about the come close darshans in the discourse this morning. He had been talking about energy. (text also in The Book of Wisdom, ch 15) ] Energy is delight. Desire is energy, energy is delight. Contemplate over it -- just pure desire, just overflowing energy, for no particular object, with no destination. That's what you have to remember when you come to me for an energy darshan, for a close-up. Just become pure desire, just an overflowing desire for nothing in particular. Don't wait for any experience. Experiences will come, but don't wait for them. If you wait, you will miss, because when you are waiting for the experience you are no more in the herenow. You have already missed the point; the mind has come in. The object has obstructed the purity of the desire. When you are in an energy darshan with me, when you are partaking of something of my energy, just be pure desire -- going nowhere, moving nowhere, just thrilled for no reason at all, just madly ecstatic for no reason at all. And in those few moments you will have the contact with me, because those few moments are my reality. But if you are sitting there, waiting to have some great experience of light inside you, then maybe you may experience some light, but you missed: you threw the diamonds away and gathered pebbles on the shore. You may be waiting for your kundalini to rise: you may have a certain sensation rising in your spine, but what is it? It is pointless! It may give you a kick, a spiritual kick, but then it is gone. With me, be just pure desire -- swaying with me, moving with me, dancing with me, allow me to penetrate you to your deepest core, to the deepest core of your desire, to the very seed. Then something immense, something incredible, something you cannot imagine, is possible: an entry of the beyond into you, the meeting of the earth and the sky.... Ch 26: [Osho gives an energy darshan to Sw Prem Chinmaya, a long-term survivor of Hodgkin's disease] Very good! You are doing so well, defeating death! Don't be worried. You are almost doing the impossible. Anybody in your place would have been born at least nine years before. They would have been nine years old by now! Things are good! All the mediums come here. There are just a few things I have to talk to you about. The first thing to be remembered is that the work that is now given to you is of immense importance, it is no ordinary work. And this is only the beginning; it will have many many dimensions soon. So only those who really surrender totally will be chosen for further dimensions. The function of the medium is to be utterly absent so that I can penetrate your being totally, so that my energy can start flowing through you. Your energy has to become attuned with my energy. The energy that you have is stored at the sex centre; all energy is stored at the sex centre, all energy is basically sexual. So the first arousal of the energy will have a sensuality about it. You are not to repress it, you are not to suppress it; you have to help it to go up. It is the same energy that at a certain point becomes spiritual, divine, but only at a certain point, at a certain intensity. But our minds start repressing it before it reaches that intensity. So many taboos, so many inhibitions, so many stupid ideas, have been taught down the ages that they function automatically. It is not that you repress; just as the sexual energy starts moving, an automatic repression comes in. You have to destroy that automatic reaction in yourself. You have to enjoy the sensuous feel of the energy rising, with no fear, with great welcoming and receptivity. When I say that the energy is rising up in you, you have to start moving and swaying with the energy. It has to be very graceful, very subtle, very aesthetic. You have to be sensitive, because you are moving on very subtle planes; grossness is not needed. But you have to be available to me on all levels, from the lowest to the highest, the whole ladder of your being, so that I can help your energy to reach to the highest peak. So when the energy starts moving it will almost feel as if you are making love. And in fact it is so: you are making love to existence itself So start moving, swaying, in the same way that you will move while you are making deep love, while you are in deep intimacy with somebody. Abandon yourself and go totally into it. The same thrust will be there, the same movements, the same sounds of joy will start coming. Don't repress them; let them, allow them, help them. Meaningless sounds and words will come, sometimes from your past lives, sometimes when you were animals, sometimes when you were birds, and sometimes when you were trees -- the past is infinite. Like clouds, fragments will start coming; you have to allow them. When I say "Go ecstatic", you have to allow everything; you have to be totally in a state which will be thought of as mad. All this time the light will remain off, because the energies can grow only in darkness. And the moment I put the light on. three are the possibilities. One: I may put the light on while you are in that mad ecstatic state; you are not to repress it. If I put the light on, you have to continue in your mad ecstatic state. The second possibility is: before putting the light on, I will say "Cool down and let the energy disappear into the earth." Then you cool down and let the energy disappear; then you will become very silent, very still. No wind, and the trees are just still. But still your face will have the fragrance of ecstasy. It will not be like a laughter, it will be like a smile, very subtle -- a grace, a joy, a rejoicing, but not loud, not wild. Your hands will be in a receptive mood, your body will be in a graceful posture. Then I will put the light on. The third possibility is that I may put the light on and you are in a wild state and suddenly I say "Stop!" Then without relaxing the energy and letting it go into the earth, stop as you are: if your hand is raised then your hand is raised, if your eyes are turned upwards then your head remains that way. Whatsoever the state, immediately become frozen. These are the three possibilities. It will depend on the person who has come for the close-up. I will call the person the guest. He is a guest in my energy-field. I am the host; you are my bridges to him. So it will depend on the guest what kind of situation will be more helpful to him -- wild, ecstatic, sudden stop; or a very very cool, slow settling. Good. Ch 27: [Before beginning the energy darshans, Osho speaks to the mediums.] Three things. The first: two consciousnesses can relate in three ways. The first way is the way of I-it. That's how millions of people relate: they reduce the other to a thing. Somebody becomes a husband or a wife; then it is an I-it relationship. Then the other is not respected as a person but used as a commodity. An I-it relationship means a relationship of possession; it is the ugliest relationship. Science functions in the world of I-it, that's why science cannot believe that there is a soul, that there is God. There are only things, matter; it reduces everything to matter. I-it is the world of the scientist. The second relationship is of I-thou. That's how lovers relate. The other is respected, respected tremendously. The other is not reduced to a thing, the other is not used; in fact both enhance each other, both enrich each other. In the first, the I-it relationship, you take; your whole concern is how to take more and more. In the second, you give; the whole concern is how to give more and more. It is not that by giving you don't get -- you get a thousandfold, but that is a different matter, that is not your motive. The second is the world of art; the artist lives in the world of I-thou. And many religions of the world, particularly religions born out of Judaism -- Judaism, Christianity, Mohammedanism -- have not gone beyond I-thou. Hence they have not been able to develop meditation -- only prayer. Prayer is an I-thou relationship; god is the other. Great respect is there, but still the other is the other; there is a separation. There is closeness, but not bridged yet -- very close, intimate, but not one yet. The third relationship is really not a relationship at all. It is very paradoxical; it is neither I-it nor I-thou. The two persons don't exist in it as two, they start functioning as one. They become one organic unity, they become one orgasmic joy. That's the state the mystic lives in, and that is the state the meditator tries to attain. All of my mediums have to attain to the third. With me you have to be in a relationship which is not a relationship at all. So if I put my hand on your head, it is not somebody else's hand, it is your own hand. And when I put my head on your head it is not somebody else's head, it is your own head. That feel has to grow. As it grows, you will become more and more open vehicles for my energy. That has to be remembered, then your being mediums will become your great meditation. It will not only be helpful to the guest, to the person who has come for the close-up; it will be a tremendous upsurge in your being too. The second thing: this is the beginning of a new phase of work. I will relate many more things to you -- many more that you cannot imagine, many more that you have never dreamt about -- but the first basic you have to learn before that can be conveyed to you is: let this relationship with me be absolutely exclusive. This has not to become your gossipping. The temptation will be there, because when you know something and somebody else does not know about it, there is great temptation to play the role of the knower, and to say it. It is a human temptation. But this has to be remembered, that whatsoever transpires between me and you is an absolute secret. And remember, it is not the matter that is important; the matter may not be important at all. It is your capacity to keep it secret that is important. I may have simply told you that two plus two are four -- that is not the point. It is immaterial whether you convey it to somebody or not; that is not the question. The content is not the question, the question is: your capacity of keeping it absolutely to yourself, your not revealing it even to your own spouse, your friend, your lover. There is an ancient Sufi story.... A man who was a great seeker heard of a mystic who had attained to the ultimate secret. But he lived far away in the dark desert and nobody knew the way to him -- he hid himself. The man tried: he sold everything that he had, he renounced his family. It took him three years to find the old master. He was utterly happy when he touched the feet of the master, and he said "So I have come. Now reveal the secret to me." The master said "If you want the secret, then you will have to pay for it." He said "I have nothing left. I have already paid." The master said "No. That is not the question. You have to just be here for three years, utterly silent; not a single word has to be uttered. That will be the payment, and then I will reveal the secret to you." The three years were long, living in that desert -- nobody else there but the master and the disciple, and the disciple was not allowed to utter a single word. It was really hard; he was going crazy inside, but he waited and waited. Three years passed, and he said to the master "Now three years have passed: reveal the secret to me." The master said "Now the condition. You have paid, true, but now the condition: you have not to reveal this secret to anybody else, it has to be kept absolutely secret." He said "Agreed -- but reveal it to me." The master started laughing. He said "How can I reveal it to you? If you can keep it secret, why can I not keep it secret? In fact my master told me the same thing: 'Keep it secret -- don't reveal it to anybody' -- and I don't know what his master said to him. Whether there is any secret or not, that is not the point at all!" So that is not the point -- the content, or any secret -- but your capacity to contain it. That you have to remember. If any of you starts gossipping, it is bound to reach me, remember: gossip has wings! And those who do that will automatically be dropped, slowly slowly. The higher work is not for them; they are childish. And the third thing: Vivek will be your chief, so you have to listen to her, to whatsoever instructions she gives to you. I have been working on her for seven years; now she is ready. So you have to surrender to her, you have to listen to her; whatsoever information she conveys to you, you have to follow. And I am in search of creating a big group of mediums, because as the commune grows I will need much bigger groups of mediums to help people. Thousands are going to come, and they are going to come so fast that you will not be able to manage them! So remember these three things. Ch 28: [Before giving the "come close energy darshans", Osho addresses all the mediums.] The first thing: to be a medium means a shift of energy from the left-side hemisphere of your brain to the right-side hemisphere. People are living only fifty percent of their life; only half of their mind is functioning -- and the mind that is functioning is the mundane mind that calculates, that is cunning, that does all the business. The mind that is functioning is not of any worth. At the most it gives you a living but not a life. The other mind, which is far superior, the right hemisphere, is completely blocked. The right hemisphere contains all poetry, all music, all love, all that is beautiful, all that is worth living for, all that makes life meaningful and significant. To become a medium means to shift the energy. And the only possible way to shift the energy, I say the only way, is through your sexual energy. Your sexual energy is still part of the right-side hemisphere. That is the only possible hope left for humanity. That is the only thin thread through which you can move to the right-side hemisphere, otherwise everything has been taken possession of by the left side. So while you are absorbing my energy feel utterly sexual, sensuous. In the beginning it will look very sexual. Soon there comes a point of intensity when it starts changing, when it starts becoming something that you have not known before at all, something that can only be called spiritual -- but only later on, and only if you go totally into it. If you inhibit, your taboos come in and you stop yourself, then it remains sexual, it never becomes spiritual. All taboos, all inhibitions, have to be dropped; only then at a certain intensity does the transformation happen. Suddenly you are thrown from the left hemisphere to the right hemisphere -- and the right hemisphere is the hemisphere of the mystics. There is an ancient fable of a Hassid mystic. He asked one of his disciples "What do we mean when we use the word 'god'?" The disciple wouldn't answer. Thrice the master asked and the disciple wouldn't answer. The master was really angry and he said "Why don't you answer me?" And the disciple said "Because I don't know god!" The master started laughing and he said "Do you think I know?" God is not a question of knowing at all, it is a question of feeling. Nobody has ever known god. Those who think they have known, have not really known but felt. It is the function of the right hemisphere of the mind. So the deeper you enter into the right hemisphere, and as your energies start moving in the right hemisphere, you are more and more close to me, to god, to yourself, to everything that is. This is the first thing to remember. The second thing to remember is: when you are joyous your energy flows into the other; when you are sad you start sucking energy from the other. So while functioning as mediums, be as joyous, ecstatically joyous, as possible; only then will your energy start moving into the guest. Only then will you shower your energy into the guest, only then will he start overflowing. Joy is contagious. So you are not to be a medium out of duty; it has to be a joyous celebration. The third thing: your bodies are musical instruments. The medium has to be just a harp in the hands of the master, so l can play on the music of your body, so l can help the music become awake in you. It has to be a very musical process, very graceful, very caressing, loving. When you play upon a musical instrument, you caress it with each touch. You have to become my harps, and you have to remember that -- to be very very soft, open, vulnerable, available. A little resistance from your side and the music will disappear. Then you can go on moving in an empty gesture. It will be empty, of no use; it will make you tired. If you are not making an empty gesture, the guest is going to be helped and you are going to be helped; both are benefited. In fact the mediums will be benefited more, because they will be available every day. The fourth thing: the first medium, on whom I will be working more, has to function as a triggering point. So whatsoever starts happening in the first medium, you have to fall in tune with her, you have to just move with the first, you have to be just one with the first. And you will be surprised: what is happening to the first will start happening to you all, exactly the same, because it is not a question of the physical body, it is a question of an energy-field. I am just creating an energyfield: if you are ready, the first will be the triggering point and soon you will be taken possession of. So wherever you are -- a few people will be standing here behind the guest, a few mediums will be sitting.... Those who are sitting, they can also participate just by sitting there. The fifth thing: this is not only a small experiment to help the guest; this is to transform the whole energy-field of the commune. Right now it is a small commune. I was waiting for the new commune, but I think it will be delayed a little more, hence I decided that the work has to start. But in a way it is good: if you can fill these six acres of land with your energy, then it will make you able to fill the new commune. The new commune will be big, at least three square miles. But if you can fill six acres of land with your energy, it will not be difficult to fill the three square miles. It is not a question of how big the place is; the question is whether you have got the knack of it. So before the new commune happens I am trying to give you the knack of it. And it has started happening: the whole commune is affected. Even people who have not participated, who have not been here at all, even in their rooms they are affected. From tomorrow, the time for energy communion will be the time when all the lights in the ashram will go off. All activities will stop; for that half hour or forty-five minutes there will be utter darkness and all activities will stop. People, wherever they are, have to sit silently and be in a receptive mood, and whatsoever starts happening to them -- there in their room, in the garden, wherever they are sitting, on the roof -- they have to allow. So this will be the beginning, and once the experiment succeeds here, then I can prepare a bigger group for the new commune, because then there will be the need of a bigger group. The sixth point: the people who are sitting here in silent darshan, they can also participate. But they have to be aware: when the group is ecstatic, they can be ecstatic; when the group falls silent, they have to fall silent; when the group becomes absolutely quiet, they have to become quiet, otherwise they will be a disturbance. But when the group is going into ecstasy, into movement, into wild laughter, they can also. So you can also participate with closed eyes. Just two things to be remembered: when the group stops, you have to stop immediately; and the second thing, you are not to disturb somebody else who is sitting by your side, you are not to touch somebody else by your side. You have to be alone, on your own. So these things to be remembered. Good. |
- "Another phase of Osho’s work in late Pune One (’79-81) that influenced my understanding of bliss and ecstasy, and the higher forms of pleasure, involved rather esoteric energy work, in which there were female energy mediums, dancing and swaying to the beat of energetic music. The lights were flashed on and off like a strobe while Osho touched the 3rd Eye of mediums and ‘guest’ as the energy rose upwards, creating ecstatic states of inner awareness and bliss. Personally, I experienced an upward explosion of energy in my own energy darshans with Osho, that left me feeling dissolved into an ocean of consciousness and bliss. Sometimes I felt it for days afterwards.
- In Osho’s Darshan Diaries from late Pune One you can find beautiful photos of these energy darshans. The faces show an extraordinary grace, an indescribable inner feeling as delicate as a whisper."
- (Ma Deva Aneesha in Osho Pulsation)
gallery
Poonam helping as a medium
Radha helps as medium
Sw Devakrishna receiving
Sw Siddharta receiving
Sw Vinod Bharti receiving
Vivek and ?? helping as medium
Vivek helping as a medium
- See also
- Energy Darshans by Ma Prem Shunyo
- Energy Darshan as a Psychedelic Experience at Sannyas News