Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and the great nothingness he increasingly came to characterise as
ultimate truth.
He moved rapidly from teacher to 'bhagwan,' declaring himself a
fully enlightened Buddha-like being. Devotees were not entirely
docile in accepting this rapid spiritual promotion. In a collection
humbly called
The Book of Books
, the bhagwan is asked bluntly
why he calls himself God. With impressive candour, he answers:
Because I am - and because you are. And because only God is.
The choice is not between whether to be a God or not to be a
God; the choice is whether to recognise it or not. You can choose
not to call, but you cannot choose not to be.
Another time when asked if he considered himself to be God, the
bhagwan's answer was slightly different:
No, sir, certainly not! Even if I were I would have denied it,
because who will take responsibility for this ugly world? I cannot
take responsibility for creating you! That will be the real original
sin!
This typical explanation-by-evasion echoes the pronouncements
of many of India's god-men: 'I am God - and so are you. The only
difference is that I recognise it and you don't . . .
yet
.' So who does
that actually leave as God?
In the years leading up to Poona, Rajneesh embarked on a binge
of 'initiations,' anointing his neo-sannyasis as palace guard. The
orange clothes, a new name chosen by him, the japamala rosary
bearing a large oval image of him, became the external signs of the
initiate. Then there were the secret mantras, and the prescription of
various spiritual disciplines, mostly hybrid forms of meditation.
The 108 beads of the mala represented 108 methods of
meditation, and, he claimed, these 108 were merely a start from
which hundreds more methods would eventually spring. Why was
his face on the locket? In another characteristically modest tome,
I
Am the Gate
, he explained:
