Enlightenment Day Darshan 1976
There is an informal record of this event in the Darshan Diary Be Realistic: Plan for a Miracle; images on the right and below are a pictorial record, in the same order as in the book, and Maneesha writes, first quoting Osho from a talk given a month earlier in Ancient Music in the Pines:
- Enlightenment is not something to be achieved. It is to be lived. When I say I achieved enlightenment, I simply mean one day I decided to live it. Enough is enough! And since then I have lived it.
- Twenty-three years ago on March 21st, Bhagwan Shree took the decision to live his enlightenment.
- Today we celebrated the occasion with thousands of visitors from many parts of India, and sannyasins from literally every corner of the earth. The day had been one of much activity with the official opening of the adjoining Jesus, Francis and Eckhart Houses, as well as the laying of the foundation stone for the underground Vipassana meditation centre. When people weren't undergoing a second baptism in the newly-completed fountain in the front of Krishna House, or contemplating the zen-like riddle of whether a gateless gate can be officially opened -- or closed; when bellies had been rounded with the generously provided food and throats placated with ice-cold coffee, sannyasins danced and sang their way around the ashram, greeting friends and strangers alike like long-lost lovers.
- The sun, exhausted at merely watching this scene of feverish celebration, finally took his leave as sannyasins began to wend their way through the gates of Lao Tzu House to the auditorium. Soon the auditorium was filled with orange figures of every size and shape imaginable -- some sitting, others standing like orange candles around the huge birthday cake of the auditorium. The splash of orange amidst the green of the surrounding garden out-dazzled even the sparkle of the chandelier.
- As Bhagwan's white and graceful figure entered, laughter and music broke out in spontaneous and affectionate greeting.
- Then began a stream of seemingly endless people ... little girls in long white socks and plaited hair, shyly clinging onto their mothers' skirts, frail old ladies with faces like withered apples, smart slick business men, hair generously plastered down with coconut oil, elegant and bejewelled sari-clad women, bespectacled, earnest-faced students, and holy men in holey lungis....
- And sannyasins -- snub-nosed, freckle-faced five-year-old Purva from England; Bharti from Italy; broad-shouldered, blue-eyed Sagar from Germany; and Chetna from Ireland; red-cheeked, four-year-old Siddhartha from Switzerland: and Pratima from Australia; siren-like, black-haired Gopi from Paris; and Vandana from New Zealand; Arup from Holland and skinny-legged, six-year-old Hiroshi from Chile; demure and sloe-eyed Gita from Japan and Divya from Puerto Rico; Amritam from Austria and slim dark-skinned Niraj from Ethiopia; tall and fair Sambuddha from America, and stooping, white-haired Paritosh from Edinburgh, and many many more....
- The music, sometimes indian, sometimes western, sometimes soothing, sometimes wild, for two and a half hours filled the auditorium with its lively energy. Some sannyasins, caught up in its rhythm, danced chaotically, fairly springing to a momentary halt at Bhagwan's feet before dancing on their way. Others would glance up at Bhagwan tentatively, shyly; some unashamedly laughing, others unashamedly weeping.
- One, waiting with hands folded prayerfully, eyes closed, became so engrossed in his meditation that he walked past Bhagwan quite forgetting to acknowledge him. One middle-aged lady, able to only totter with the help of a steel support, cast aside the frame to dance the few steps past Bhagwan -- to the laughter and applause of the rest of the auditorium. A little girl, carefully studying her father as he knelt down at Bhagwan's feet, suddenly took fright and ran back to her mother.
- Some fainted, some cried, some laughed, others sighed....
- And Bhagwan sat smiling, chuckling, hands moving occasionally in rhythm with the music ... open, giving, loving.
- Finally the last sannyasin passed by Bhagwan as the music group played and sang to a rousing climax. In the wake of its last note, Bhagwan rose and smilingly left the auditorium.
- Slowly the auditorium emptied, sannyasins hand in hand, with sleeping children over their shoulders or nestled in their arms. Soon the auditorium was still, silent, filled once again with the unique presence of Bhagwan's absence.
