Tell the driver to follow my car

The friends who have arranged His meetings at different places in Baroda are really funny people. Today in the evening, Osho is going to speak somewhere, but they are not willing to tell us the name of the place. They want to take Osho alone in a car. I am very much annoyed. At any cost I don’t want to miss His discourse. I meet Osho in the afternoon and ask Him what to do? He says, "It is so simple. Just engage a rickshaw and tell the driver to follow my car."

I tell Him, Osho, these people look so angry at us, they will ask why we are following them." Osho laughs and says, "You can tell them that we are going our way, you are going ahead of us. What can we do?"

I like the idea and it really worked. As His car stops, our rickshaw stops behind it. Immediately, I get down and start walking with Osho, not giving opportunity to these friends to say anything. It is a meeting arranged with members of the lions club in a small hall. I sit next to Osho and arrange my recorder, ignoring the organizer who is sitting next to me.

After the discourse, this man comes near me and thanks me for recording the discourse. He invites me to join Him in the car with Osho. I feel relieved and start walking behind Osho like a little kid who has won the lottery.

Chapter 29

One Hundred Tales for Ten Thousand Buddhas

Ma Dharm Jyoti

Mere Priya Atman

Today, Osho is speaking to college students at Baroda University. Thousands of students have gathered to listen Him. The hall is over-full with all the doors opened. Lots of people are standing all around the walls and outside to listen to Him.

I walk behind Him to the podium with my little cassette recorder. As we reach the podium, my ears are deafened with noises of clapping and whistling. There is much excitement in the atmosphere. He is going to speak on youth and sex. He greets everyone with folded hands, sits down in the lotus posture and closes His eyes. I try to tighten my little microphone wire with the rod of the mike placed before Him. Students start throwing paper arrows towards me. I feel very awkward. Somehow, I ignore it and make myself comfortable sitting near Him with my recorder in front of me.

I start gazing at Him. In a couple of minutes, He opens His eyes and straight away looks at a door. Friends from Bombay, not finding any seat in the hall are standing there. He passes a message for them to be allowed to come and sit behind Him on the podium. I am simply surprised to see His concern about such little things. He looks at me and smiles, I press the recording button and hear His sweet voice addressing the audience: “Mere Priya Atman” which means "My Beloved Self." There is pin drop silence, only His voice is echoing in the hall, quenching the thirst of those who are ready to receive Him in their hearts.

Chapter 28

One Hundred Tales for Ten Thousand Buddhas

Ma Dharm Jyoti

He tells me a story

Today, after lunch, I tell Him that He should close the door to His room from the inside while resting because I also wanted to rest. He says, "People will come and knock on the door." I tell Him that I am closing the main entrance door of the apartment and will turn off the call bell also. I assure Him He won’t be disturbed. Seeing me determined about it, He says, "Okay, okay, do whatever you like." I take care of everything and go to my room and have a good afternoon nap. Thank God, no one has disturbed Him during His rest time.

While drinking His afternoon tea, He tells me a story, which I can never forget, because it is my story.

The story is :

There was a master living in a hut in the forest with his only disciple. They both were very lazy. One night they were lying on their beds and the master asked the disciple, "Can you go and find out if it is raining."

The disciple without moving an inch from his bed replied, "It is not raining because I just touched a cat who came in from the outside and it was not wet."

The master said, "Okay, close the door and let us sleep." Again the disciple without moving an inch replied, "Master, what is the need of closing the door? We have no fear of thieves and it feels good having the door open with the cool breeze coming in."

The master agreed to it and said, "Okay, turn the light off."

The disciple answered, "Master, two jobs I have done, this one you should do."

The way Osho narrates a story is so unique, one can visualize the whole scene as if it is happening now before you. And at the same time, it has some subtle meaning for you, if you can get it.

Hearing this story, I feel ashamed of what I had done in my unawareness, but Osho never allows anyone to feel guilty about anything.

Chapter 27

Will you work as my secretary?

This time, I have come along with Osho to Ahmedabad, where He is delivering a series of discourses on Geeta.

After the morning discourse, He has lunch at 11:30am and then rests for a couple of hours. I sit at the door on the stool to guard. It is a hot summer afternoon and I feel very sleepy and start dozing sitting on the stool. Just to keep myself awake I try to read a book. somehow, I manage to sit there and make sure that He is not disturbed in anyway.

At 2:00pm He comes out of the room and goes to the bathroom. I arrange tea for Him. Soon people will be arriving to meet Him personally. As I am pouring tea in the cup, He asks me, “Will you work as my secretary?” It is beyond my imagination and without giving a thought to it, I simply answer, “Osho, I need a secretary myself.” He says, “Your laziness is nothing compared to mine.” And He starts telling lots of stories about His laziness. I feel He is creating fiction stories. When I tell Him this, He says, “No, no, they are all facts.”

One story which I love is about keeping His bed near the door when He was a student and staying in a hostel. He would open the door and straight away jump on the bed. All His books were around and underneath the bed. He had nothing to do with the rest of the room.

I enjoy listening to His stories of laziness, which makes me feel free of my guilt of being lazy.

Chapter 26

One Hundred Tales for Ten Thousand Buddhas

Are you hiding something from me?

Today everyone has gone out for dinner except me. Osho is resting in His room and I am lying down in my bed in the next room. Something like a knot has started growing in my left breast and when I showed it to my doctor he advised me to get it checked at Tata Hospital. He suspects that it might be a cancerous growth. I am scared. I would rather die than suffer from cancer. One of my intimate friends had already been operated on with cancer in her breast. I am still not mentally ready to go for a check-up. I have not talked to anybody about it but inside I am getting more and more worried.

I decide to talk about it to Osho. I am lost in my thoughts and can’t believe hearing Osho’s soft voice calling me. I open my eyes and find Him standing near my bed. I try to sit up but can’t. I feel frozen. There is a little space near my pillow where He sits and places His hand on my forehead. I am touched so deeply, I start crying. When I calm down He asks, "What is the matter? Are you hiding something from me?" Now I can’t hold it anymore and tell Him about this cancerous growth in my left breast. He says, "Where is it exactly?" I take His right hand and place it on the knot. He tells me to relax and close my eyes.

I go into a deep relaxation and feel some hot flow of energy coming out of His hand and entering into my body. He sits silently for few moments and then takes His hand away. He assures me that there is nothing wrong and I should not worry about it. I try to get up but He says, "Lie down for awhile," and leaves me alone. I start crying again silently in gratitude and fall into sleep unknowingly. In the morning I feel very fresh when I wake up. I touch my breast and there is no knot. I am sure He has dissolved the knot with His divine healing energy.

When I reach Bombay and show it to my doctor, he is surprised, and wants to know how it happened.

I talk about the healing power of Osho which He always denies. Osho never claims to heal anybody but I know many more friends who are healed by His divine touch.

Chapter 25 One Hundred Tales For Ten Thousand Buddhas
Ma Dharm Jyoti
-----------------------
One Hundred Tales For Ten Thousand Buddhas – this is a essential book. There exists no other quite like it. It is a collection of living moments with the living Buddha. It is not some events remembered and then adorned with reactions. These are tales vitally alive. These tales are a great gift for all of us – those who have sat with the living Master and those who haven’t. It is a book for all seekers. It is also a book for those who are not actively seeking, but surely have the same longing – the longing for a taste of that love which has no bondage. Ma Dharm Jyoti lived and travelled with Osho in the very early days when Osho left being a professor at universities, and traveled around India giving talks and gathering thousands around him. These are the tales of those days.

Just hold your breath for a moment and drink it in one gulp

While Osho is in the bathroom, the cook of the house brings a cup, half full of some green juice. He says, "It is neem juice and Osho drinks it first thing in the morning." He leaves the cup on the table. When Osho comes out of the bathroom, I tell Him about neem juice in the cup. He says, I used to drink it, but now I have stopped it. It purifies the blood--and you can drink it." I take a drop on my hand and taste it. It is very bitter. I tell Osho, "It is very bitter." He says, "Just hold your breath for a moment and drink it in one gulp." I do it like an obedient child and He makes me drink it for all the three days and tells me to continue it at my home also.

I continue it for about two months until one day an old woman tells me that neem juice should not be taken for more than a week. She is surprised to hear that I have taking it for two months. She says, "It is your master who has saved you. Otherwise, it can be very harmful." I feel this was Osho’s message through that woman to stop drinking the neem Juice

Until the plate is totally empty

We are staying with a very orthodox Jaina family in Ahmedabad. Osho has dinner by 6:00pm before He goes to evening discourse. These days He has been reading late into the night and I tell Him, "Osho, you are eating dinner so early, you will be hungry in the night." He simply smiles.

At 11:00pm, Kranti tells me that Osho wants to eat. I am puzzled. What to do now? I tell her, I will go to the kitchen and see if I can arrange some food." Very silently, like a cat, I enter the kitchen. There are lots of containers in a row on the shelf above the kitchen counter. I am confused. There is no label on them. I close my eyes, stand silently for a couple of moments and follow my intuition. I take one plate and start to open the containers whichever I feel to open. To my surprise, I am getting all types of snacks which Osho likes. I am excited and try to get a few more kinds of snacks.

Suddenly I find the housewife standing near me and she asks what I am doing. I simply freeze. She is a very orthodox Jaina woman who believes eating in the night is a great sin and is already against Osho. I gather my courage and tell her, "I am hungry and I want to eat something." She gets furious and starts dumping more containers before me and asks me to eat everything. There is nothing to say and I walk out of the kitchen with my plate. She starts following me.

I enter Osho’s room, where He is sitting in a chair reading some book. I put the plate on the little table in front of the chair and sit on the floor. Somehow I feel like protecting Osho that He doesn’t eat in the night. I tell Kranti and tell her, "Let us eat." We both start eating while this woman is standing there watching us. She is very tense. To divert her mind, I ask her, "Who prepares all these delicious snacks? They are very tasty." She doesn’t reply. By now, Osho also put His book away and joins us in eating. I can see this woman bubbling with anger. Not finding any words, finally she leaves.

I tell Osho what had happened in the kitchen and He laughs and laughs like a child and tells me, "Tomorrow, tell her that we don’t want to go to heaven. We are preparing for going to hell by committing all kinds of sins." I crack up with laughter which releases all my tension and we enjoy eating all kinds of snacks until the plate is totally empty.

Chapter 23
One Hundred Tales for Ten Thousand Buddhas
Ma Dharm Jyoti

It is always the male who calls: the female waits

It is afternoon. Osho is sitting in an easy chair on the balcony--it is spring time. There is a huge mango tree near by, and a cuckoo is singing continuously. Her song deepens the silence even more.

Osho asks me if I know whether this cuckoo is male or female. I have no idea and never even thought about it, but I say, "It is a male." Osho asks how I know and I tell Him, "I really don’t know--I just said it."

He says, "It is a male bird. it is always the male who calls: the female waits." Then we hear another cuckoo calling.

"Listen to this," says Osho. "This is the female responding to the first call. If you listen carefully you will find the difference."

I forgot about the cuckoo’s call: I am astonished at this great insight of my master.

Chapter 22
One Hundred Tales for Ten Thousand Buddhas
Ma Dharm Jyoti

It is a Zen koan for you!

After His morning bath, Osho likes to have toast and tea for His breakfast. He is sitting on the sofa--a little table is placed before Him. He is wearing a white lunghi and the upper part of His body is Naked. He wraps a shawl around only when He goes out. He is looking so fresh and beautiful--like a pink rose in full bloom. I bring toast and tea on a tray, place it on the table and sit on the floor opposite Him. As I fill the cup with tea, He asks me, "Where is yours?"

I say, "Osho, I don’t drink tea."

He laughs and says, "Meditation is not possible without drinking tea. Tea keeps the meditators awake" -- and tells me the story of Bodhidharma who plucked his eyelids and threw them away because he was feeling sleepy while meditating. The first tea leaves grew from them.

Seeing my reluctance to have tea, Osho fills the other cup and asks me to try it. I drink it slowly and like it and I tell Him it tastes really good. He gives me another cup and says, "One cup won’t do; you have to drink two cups every morning."

I ask Him, "How about if the cup is big?"

He says, " The size of the cup does not matter: two cups of tea every morning!"

I ask Him, "What is the secret of two cups?"

He says, "It is a Zen koan for you!"

Next morning, at breakfast, He asks me, "Did you find the answer to the Zen koan?"

I say, "Maybe: one cup for me, and one in the name of my beloved."

He says, "You have come close to the answer but not exactly."

Every one present there enjoys this tea ceremony with much laughter.

Chapter 21
One Hundred Tales for Ten Thousand Buddhas
Ma Dharm Jyoti