Cars

What cars did Osho use? And when? This is just a page to make some notes about that.

  This page is under construction --Sugit (talk) 07:23, 19 February 2020 (UTC)

Osho used to arrive at the auditoriums (Poona 1, Rajneeshpuram and Poona 2) by car.

• In 1978 (*1) and in 1979 (at least on January 7) (*2) a yellow Mercedes was used: plates DHE9797, model W116 ?.
  (*1) see The Blessings Times (1978)
  (*2) see below, #The First Car

• In 1979, for some days around Aug 29, a Chevrolet Impala was used apparently as a back-up car while the main one was in the garage. See #The car of the plumbers.

• Some time after that, at least from the beginning of April 1980 a white Rolls Royce was used.(*3)
  (*3) see (Struck by enlightenment in Poona)

About that white Rolls, Krishna Prem says: "The only time there was a Rolls-Royce on that property was at the very end of our first stay in Pune when, following an assassination attempt by a Hindu fundamentalist (editor: that was on 22 May 1980), we imported a metal detector and an ancient bullet-proof Rolls." (source)

(Editor: there is a discrepancy between Levin's observation of the white Rolls in the beginning of April 1980 and the explanation of KP.)

The First Car

Krishna Prem, in Osho, India and Me, writes, page.200 ff. :

The First Car

Almost overnight, it seems, the press office doubles. There’d been a spate of Indian journalists all at once, including a delightful Parsi lady, Bachi Karkaria, from the country’s biggest English-language rotogravure, The Illustrated Weekly of India - all rushing to have a look at the Mercedes Laxmi had bought for ten-lakh rupees to ferry Osho the few hundred yards from Lao Tzu House to Buddha Hall and back once a day.

It had been his solution to a problem Laxmi couldn’t resolve. Money was low - she confessed to me one evening there was just enough left in the kitty to feed him for a week — and she had been turned down by every bank she approached. Despite the obvious profit potential, no one was interested in financing the operation and its expansion.

When she explained the situation to Osho, she told me, he said to go to New Delhi and buy the most expensive car in India. As usual, she took his advice without question. She travelled to Delhi, toured the imported car dealers and, with the help of a wealthy local sannyasin, returned to Poona with a Mercedes the colour of Dijon mustard. I lie very next morning we were on the front page of The Times of India and every other major daily in the country. And three bankers dropped by with offers of assistance that very afternoon.

But whether it was the car or curiosity that was drawing the journalists here, I didn’t miss a chance to give the grand tour, the grand rap. “Blabber!” is Laxmis only guideline. Well, I figure, if hot air will help turn the wheel of dhamma, Osho’s certainly picked the right guy.

Sparked by news about the luxury car, requests start pouring in from magazines, mostly Indian, for excerpts from discourses, for photos and articles on the commune and our activities. Mangala has just about all she can handle already, editing, coordinating — and we need a writer. Madhura packs in her knitting needles and says she’ll give it a try, but her promise outweighs her performance and, with a graceful English upper lip, she abandons the Muse for typing and the files. (...)

The car of the plumbers

Quote from The Dhammapada Vol 04 ~ 08, q.1 (29 Aug 1979 am):

"We don't understand a few things. Why does this ashram look luxurious? This is against spirituality. Why do you drive in a beautiful car? This is against spirituality."

Now, for these three or four days I have been driving in an Impala. It is not a very beautiful car; in America it is the car of the plumbers! But in a sense I am also a plumber -- the plumber of the mind. I fix nuts and bolts. It is a poor man's car. In America, the people who use Chevrolet Impalas, etcetera, their neighborhood is called the Chevrolet neighborhood -- that means poor people's neighborhood.

But this French couple must have the old idea that poverty has something spiritual about it. Man has lived so long in poverty that he HAD to console himself, otherwise it would have been intolerable. He had to convince himself that poverty is spiritual.

See also

93 Rolls-Royces

The Spirit magazine of the Rolls Royce enthusiasts club, issue Summer 2015, detailing nearly all the individual Rolls Royces (84). Information includes Vehicle Identification Number, Type, Model Year, Order date, and Delivery date.

Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith II Stretched limousine op website rrsilvershadow.com.

Rajneesh followers amass fleet of 74 Rolls-Royces (part 13 of 20) part of The Oregonian - Rajneesh series