The Search of Within

Tripoto
Photo of The Search of Within 1/4 by Anuj Tikku

My meandering ways and my travels through India took me to a fascinating place. Situated in the bustling town of Pune was a mystical ashram called the Osho International Centre. The Ashram was created by Bhagwan Rajneesh and his disciples in the early 1970s. It was rechristened as the Osho ashram in the late 1980s when the spiritual guru Rajneesh took up the name of Osho which means the one on whom the heavens shower their blessings. The resort is now extensively used for meditation and many other therapies. In the middle of the resort stands a towering pyramid-like auditorium which is used for dynamic meditation in the morning and other meditations like Kundalini Jagran and Nathbraham. Each of the meditation methods makes use of sound and breathing techniques to put the subject slowly into a trance. As one goes deeper into oneself, the mind stops wandering and begins to go silent. All the clutter stops and slowly one drops the mind completely. This is called the state of the Samadhi or what we call no-mind. All that is left is the breath and all that will remain is no-mind. As one goes inwards into oneself, a realisation dawns that you are not the mind nor the body. All you are is the self or what the mystics called Satchitananda that represents ‘existence, consciousness and bliss’. This way total bliss is attained.

Photo of The Search of Within 2/4 by Anuj Tikku

The Nathbraham is another fascinating meditation in which you have to listen to music and hum in a low breath. Once you drop the mind and reach the innermost core of your being, a realisation of the ‘I’ is achieved. As one comes back from the meditation, one begins to laugh very loudly. I came out of the meditation hall and started laughing aloud. When I asked the instructor why I was laughing, he told me “You see through this meditation. Your inner being has closed all sadness, hate, sorrow and defeat. All negativity has been removed. So the only thing that is left is a hollow space which is taken over by laughter and that is why you were laughing”.

Photo of The Search of Within 3/4 by Anuj Tikku

But my most fascinating experience was when I was doing the dynamic meditation in the morning. We were asked to jump and dance with the music. I had my keys in my pocket which began to jingle and make noise. The instructor got annoyed and asked me to leave the meditation hall, she came out and ranted “You are disturbing everyone’s meditation, get out and go back to your hotel room. Look at you, you even look like a monkey.” I was startled to get such a harsh treatment in such a loving place. I went out and started weeping. Then a thought dawned on me that I am in the house of a man who was thrown out of everywhere in the world. Where does a man go who gets thrown out of his house? Indeed Osho had been thrown out of his commune in the US and subsequently 25 countries did not allow him to form an ashram. I took my question to the breakfast table where other Osho followers had gathered. I narrated the incident to them in the morning and asked them the same question. Suddenly an old lady from Finland heard my question which was “I am in the house of a man who got thrown out of everywhere in the world. Where does a man go who gets thrown out of his house?” The lady smiled and said, “Son, there is still one place you can go, and that place is within.”

Photo of The Search of Within 4/4 by Anuj Tikku

I got my answer. No matter how bad things are, there is always one door that is open and that door is the door within. One can always go there and one does not need the approval of society or of anyone to reach into that door.