The World Tour

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Osho's World Tour was a short-lived era which began in mid-Nov 1985 when he left the Oregon Ranch and ended when he returned to Poona/Pune, in early Jan 1987. It must be noted that some sources[specific ref?] are more narrow than that, preferring to think of the World Tour as only including the time spent outside of India, with some even excluding Nepal. The wiki has adopted the majority view, as referring to eras would be messy if the Indian and Nepali sojourns were excluded.

When Osho arrived in Delhi 17 Nov at the end of the long journey from Portland, he wasted no time, giving a press conference the same morning and flying out to Manali, arriving at noon. He was soon (19 Nov) giving 1-2 talks a day again, interviews and question-and-answer discourses, this all having been set up by Laxmi.

Why Manali? Why not Pune? The short answer is that going back to Pune had issues[details?], "the new commune" still seemed to be needed and Manali not only looked like a good possibility, it had great resonance as the place where Osho started initiating disciples.

But Manali soon proved unworkable. Veena reports that "Asheesh who was there by his side, told me that he asked Laxmi where all the buildings were for sannyasins to live in and she replied that we could build them. Asheesh said Osho got angry and said that he didn't want his sannyasins making roads and buildings, he wanted them to meditate".

And soon it wasn't just Manali that was unworkable but the whole country. India began making it difficult for non-Indian sannyasins to get visas. So ... on 1 Jan of the new year, Osho gave his last two discourses in Manali, on the 2nd he was in Delhi, and on the 3rd in Kathmandu, giving interviews. The game was on!

But country after country sooner or later showed itself to be inhospitable. By far Osho's longest stay, three months in Uruguay, was ended with the cancellation of his visa after intolerable economic pressure from the US. The details varied, but doors closed everywhere. See Urujamportu for more on this. And for hard copy, Maneesha's Bhagwan: One Man Against the Whole Ugly Past of Humanity can't be beat, an in-depth account of those times by someone who was there for the ride, and wrote about it at Osho's request.

Who accompanied Osho on this tour? Not everyone was there the whole time but an impressive group were. More research needs to be done, but so far we know of Vivek, Cliff/Amitabh, Chetana (later Shunyo), Hasya, Kaveesha, Jayesh, Maneesha, Devaraj (later Amrito), Mukti, Chitten, Japanese Geeta, Arup (later Garimo), David, Nivedano, Kendra and more. Probables can include John (later Yogi), Avirbhava, Devageet and more again. See also Osho's World Tour, Jul 30, 1986, some pictures of some of the group in Lisbon airport on the way back to Mumbai.

Wherever Osho stayed and talked for any length of time, other sannyasins would soon start showing up to be in his presence and drink from the well again, especially in Crete and especially especially in Bombay. The one exception to this was of course Uruguay, which was so far away, but also sannyasins were asked not to come there lest the government get spooked.

In Bombay, the Indian government was apparently still not giving visas to known sannyasins but many easily leaked through and Suraj Prakash's house in Juhu soon became much too small to handle everyone who wanted to attend Osho's discourses. A rota/rationing system was set up but the need for a bigger place became unavoidable, so Pune's bureaucratic issues were dealt with, and the tour came to a quiet end.

The World Tour also featured a brief return of Osho speaking in Hindi, one talk in Manali and sixteen more in Mumbai. He had not done so since Mar 1981 and would not again. His Hindi book publishing team in Pune rushed out three books with these talks, padding them with a substantial number of translations of English World Tour talks. This was eventually reduced to the two books of Hindi originals found in the Timeline table below. The word "Phir" (again) in the titles of all three-then-two books suggests a gladness to be back in India, especially "Koplen Phir Phoot Aayeen" -- "fresh buds are sprouting again".

Timeline

Facts at a glance, see 1985 and 1986 Timelines for more detail

Dates Location Talks, Series, Books
Before the World Tour: in Rajneeshpuram, then deported from the US
17 Nov 1985 Delhi Press Conferences ~ 09
19 Nov 1985 -
1 Jan 1986
Manali The Last Testament (Vol 4), ch 07-30
The Last Testament (Vol 5), ch 01-16
Light on the Path, ch 01-07
Phir Amrit Ki Boond Padi ~ 01
Press Conferences ~ 10
3 Jan 1986 -
14 Feb 1986
Kathmandu The Last Testament (Vol 5), ch 17-30
Light on the Path, ch 08-38
The Sword and the Lotus, ch 01-25
The Last Testament (Vol 6), ch 01-04
Press Conferences ~ 11
15-16 Feb 1986 two travel days, then Osho rested for three days before giving talks in Crete
19 Feb 1986 -
5 Mar 1986
Crete Socrates Poisoned Again After 25 Centuries, ch 01-28
5 Mar 1986 -
11 Apr 1986
Osho arrested and deported from Greece, denied entry in multiple countries,
able to rest for twelve days in Ireland and 23 days before starting talks in Montevideo
12 Apr 1986 -
18 Jun 1986
Montevideo Beyond Psychology, ch 01-44
The Path of the Mystic, ch 01-44
The Transmission of the Lamp, ch 01-46
18 Jun 1986 -
30 Jul 1986
Osho's visa revoked, denied entry in multiple countries, though there was a quiet
forty days in Portugal just before going back to Bombay/Mumbai
31 Jul 1986 -
29 Dec 1986
Bombay The Last Testament (Vol 6), ch 05-15
Koplen Phir Phoot Aayeen (कोंपलें फिर फूट आईं), ch 01-12
Phir Amrit Ki Boond Padi (फिर अमरित की बूंद पड़ी) (5 talks), ch 02-05
The Osho Upanishad, ch 01-44
Beyond Enlightenment, ch 01-32
Sermons in Stones, ch 01-30
After the World Tour: back to the Poona ashram