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Regarding the Cone & Yashwant deshmukh

2009-10-27T21:49:00.001-07:00

Regarding the Cone was a one person show by my friend Yashwant Deshmukh at Janhagir Art Gallery, Mumbai in November 2008. I wanted to do a video based on the show. but when proposed to yashwant to make a small digital film to preserve the memories of the show- he agreed. I am always interested in the words people speak about visuals. (can You watch a silent film on TV?) though my friends always tell me that there is too much spoken words in my films.
when i imagine a film on art- i am always interested in the questions- why it is so important? what the artists are seeing which a common person like us go on missing?
thus the need to talk arises. so , if you can see and understand- then there is no need of a verbal explanation. but - how many people are really visually literate? (that including me too).
so, the film i was trying to make needed people who can talk about Yashwant's work.
Yashwant suggested Nitin Arun Kulkarni. He is an artist, poet and a critique of art.
But he is also a teacher at NIFT, Mumbai. it was difficult to get a whole day to interview him- which happened at his residence in Panvel.
The other person is my friend Abhijeet Tamhane. Abhijeet had an accident and broke his leg. when i called him to meet- he was a handicap. I still remember him coming out of a auto-rickshaw near thane station. we had several cups of teas in a small shop at the bus stop. discussing the idea of the film.
I waited for his recovery - and i am happy that e could manage to record his interview.
The film was ready.
Yashwant came home and watched the film on my mac and approved.
I felt - we need a small intro in beginning of the film. That was one more reason in the delay of the film.
and one day my Mac computer crashed.
thank GOD- the film was safe in my external hard drive.
but then - I needed help of some one to work on his mac.
then my friend Brajesh came into the picture.
He has a mac. His brother Bibhash is an editor. so i can use his machine to finalize the film.
but then- they went for a month long vacation to their MULUK.
on 26 of October-2009
I went to Brajesh's home.
Brajesh nad Bibhash- both saw the film.
Bibhash was excited to see the film and wanted to rework on certain places.
I was delighted to get some pro-help for the film.
we started working on the film.
and thanks to the editing skill of Bibhash- the film got this look.
I uploaded the film on YOUTUBE.
I strongly feel that the time is to use the technology and reach out to the world.

It Takes time.
and it took almost ONE YEAR to complete this small film.
This film is copyright free.
so if you want to download and show it in any art school or gallery- you do not need any permission. and need not carry any guilt. enjoy and share!

Hobby Center of N M College Juhu Mumbai

2009-09-22T01:06:00.000-07:00

Bharti Jain, a painter and teacher invited us to do a photography workshop at Hobby Center of N M College Juhu. I went with Anuja Gupta to do the basic teaching. then a photo compition was organized by the hobby center. theam was family and friends. Arun K the noted painter came along with us to judge. I was surprised to see the effort of Chandani and Shivani. here are some memories of the event dated 18sep. 2009 at Juhu Jagriti hall Juhu, Mumbai India.

Sudharak Helena at Cymroza art gallery

2009-09-10T23:45:00.000-07:00

yesterday was a big day for the 17 women who are taking up Photography classes with sudharak olwe and me. the ninth day of the workshop was held at cymroza art gallery, mumbai India, where

sudharak and helena is holding their two person show of photography exchange.

well this does not seem to be an official reporting of the art event or show.

i have been always conected with this workshop as part of the learning and teaching and it always gives me a great pleasure to be in a workshop as life is a workshop.

here the pictures are of the gallery.

roti kapda makan aur condom

2009-08-15T18:22:00.001-07:00

Me painting on the great wall of Mumbai.....

thank you Times of India

thank you Deepak Mer, Vijay Lakshmi, chinti

and

thank you Priyanka Borpujari

and

The wall project

here is the news in Times of India

Tulsi turns over a new leaf

The Great Wall of Mumbai from Mahim to Dadar now sports everything from Warli to Wacko and social messages sprayed with humour: roti kapda makan aur condom

Mahafreed Irani I TNN

One of the city’s longest walls running down the length of Tulsi Pipe Road was splashed with colour and humour on Independence Day. From the early hours of the morning, over 50 Mumbaikars armed with spray cans, chalk sticks, roller brushes and witty slogans turned into muralists.
Initiated and organised by the BMC and The Wall Project, a group of Mumbai graffiti artists, the idea was to allow the public to beautify and bring to life an inviting but drab 2.7-kmlong surface along the railway tracks that is now being hailed as The Great Wall of Mumbai. The painting session will continue on Sunday, with a new bunch of painters being mobilised through Facebook and Orkut to leave their writing on the wall. The BMC is providing all the gear—paint, spray paint, buckets, mugs, stools, chalk, brushes, thinner and gloves. Drinking water and chemical toilets are also at hand.
In her pink track suit and baby-pink crocs was four-yearold Kaira Arya, who woke up early and drove in from Juhu with her parents just so that she could paint 25 sunshine yellow smileys. By noon, the wall from Mahim to Matunga was a rainbow of diverse art ranging from Warli figures to free-flowing designs and pixel art to typography and geometric logos. Street children, doodlers, calligraphists, office-goers, tourists, expats, college students and people from the neighbouring buildings showed up to slap on some paint.
Among them was additional municipal commissioner R A Rajeev with his children, Amartya, 8, and Arundhati, 3, both of whom doodled away assiduously. “This project is an extension of the BMC’s Clean Up movement,’’ says Rajeev, who thinks this is the “least cost alternative’’ to beautify the city. It was he who approached The Wall Project when he read about how they had turned the compound walls of a few Bandra cottages into murals. He hopes the graffiti bug will spread to the city’s subways too (so much better than paan stains!). Walls along Mahim’s Kataria Marg and the southern end of Lower Parel’s Senapati Bapat Marg could be next in line for brush hour.
Walking up and down were Wall Project’s Nisha Jacob and Nitya Amarnath to make sure the rules were being followed. “No adverts, religious writings, political slogans or foul language,’’ they warned. ‘I love Mumbai’ and ‘Swine Flu go back’ messages were clear favourites. Suzanne Percy and family drew a stick figure of a boy carrying bricks with the effective message, ‘This is how Raju uses his head. Each one, teach one.’
Undecided and looking for a theme to paint, Hemal Gala looked in his pocket for inspiration and found a sticker of Michael Jackson. “I’m a big fan,’’ he said, pointing to his sketch of a moonwalking Jackson. Helping Gala were British tourists Nick Wade and Natalie Hough. They talked about the hugely famous and best-selling London graffiti artist Banksy, who has to use guerilla tactics to dodge the law. “Banksy is not allowed to do what he does,’’ says Wade. “It’s great to see the civic administration give sanction for such art here.’’
The Tulsi mural joins the Mumbai marathon in being a secular community initiative that brings all kinds of Mumbaikars together. The contrasts were stark. On the one hand were street and slum children drawing rangoli designs, on the other were youngsters and advertising types in funky jeans and chattai chappals piling out of cars with loud music. Many Sir JJ School of Art and Sophia College fine art students were among them. Happiest of all was Rishad Ali who is sick of parking his towing truck against a wall where people either spit or urinate. “Now my area will look good,’’ he said in a satisfied voice, and sprayed on a fluorescent red heart on the wall.
(Painting will go on from 9.00 am to 8.00 pm on Sunday)

URBAN LEGENDS Priyanka Borpujari and Ravi Shekhar tweak the title of a Big B starrer; Hemal Gala pays tribute to the King of Pop

who is an Artist ?

2009-08-11T23:00:00.000-07:00

artist is the person who takes the risk of living life according to his/her own understanding.

he is coureagious person, who is ready to make mistakes. and life blesses him on a very different level.

the most important change is- he / she does not have fear.

and enjoys every mystries.

in the process of living his/her life- whatsoever he/she does is art.

that may not be a painting or a song.

in fact art happens within you.

but then no one can market it.

search is the art which can be bought and sold.

so the problem is with the people who market art.

not with the artist.

artist can be happy creating and sharing it on the net.

see

people create wonderful forwards these days

is it not creative?

are they not artist?

corporate world want the icon to sell.

the real art survives the test of time.

Mahabharat have survived the thousands of years.

the greatest story!

which writer can stand with that kind of monumental work.

here people are trying to convince and educate others- what is art- and who is artist....

nobody knows

the name of artist

who painted Ajanta

carved Ellora..

wrote Upnishad....

urge to create

makes you the creator

the artist!

Ravi Shekhar' s Drawings

2009-08-11T02:51:00.000-07:00

'carry bag with a lock'

pen & ink drawing on archival paper

based on my own photograph.

this friday

2009-07-23T20:16:00.000-07:00

mumbai is witnessing the highest tide in the history.

while, i am witnessing the lowest in finencial front.

but life is flux, busy and full of surprises.

i went to dahanu with nachiketa radhi and other friends, not knowing that this may start a new chapter in life.

there i met Hemant Babu and Michellel Chawala of Nomad India.

they are into community radios.

and soon i will be able to explore my hidden talent broadcasting too.

hemant is in the business of setting up low cost transmiters in the different part of the country.

and he felt i will be of some help in trainging people fir creating there own programs.

( he saw two short films on the sunaday evening)

and here i am...

thinking about my early pre-telivison days, when i had a great romance with the radio.

i was a hard core AMEEN SAYANI fan and got selected as a drama artist for ALL INDIA RADIO varanasi, after failing the test twice.

along with SUDHARAK OLWE and PRIYANKA BORPUJARI, i am the part of training 17 women ( i do not want to write that they are muslim and atleast married once, as priyanka wrote in her report. )

we had three sessions so far. and yesterday , they had their first experience of shooting pictures with holding Nikon D3, the most reputed and expensive digital camera of the time.

i will write more about my experiences of these workshops with images.

I promice to myself !

words from a friend

2009-07-22T09:06:00.000-07:00

My friend Nachiketa desai invited me to spend a weekend with other friends at Dahanu.

i met great people who smile and laughed with my camera.

Nachiketa wrote these words for me on orkut !

thank you Nachi for so much love !

Nachiketa

The Philosopher Photographer

I met Ravi Shekhar in 2000. I was the editor of indiainfo.com's multi-lingual portal and was looking for best of talents who could contribute to the Hindi portal. Ravi, essentially a photographer, had worked for the Hindi weekly Dharmayug and the Illustrated Weekly of India. Indiainfo had a section on 'religion and spiritualism' and another on 'travel and tourism'. Ravi volunteered to write for both the sections. I had not seen his writing and wanted to check out his writing talent.

Ravi returned after two days and handed me an article on the city of Mumbai. The feature on Mumbai had a very refreshing air about it. Since then began our journey together. I must admit here that a factor that drew me endearingly towards Ravi was his Banaras connection. Banarasis are in general 'mast maula' - carefree.

Ravi had come down to Mumbai in 1989 to work with a photo studio which had some ambitious expansion plans. After he helped the owner expand the studio, Ravi was told to go back to Banaras because the studio could not afford to keep him occupied full time. Ravi decided to slog it out in Mumbai.

Ravi started working as a freelance writer-cum-photographer for the Times Group's two most respected weeklies - Dharmayug and the Illustrated Weekly of India. Impressed by his work, the Illustrated Weekly of India offered him a full time job as the staff photographer.

During the course of his work as a photographer, he came to know about Vipassana, the Buddhist method of meditation and self-exploration. He was also attracted to Osho's philosophy. His photography took him all across the country, while his spiritual inclination helped him look inwardly.

Ravi is an amiable person who makes everyone he interacts with comfortable. He radiates peace and harmony. This gets amply reflected in his photography and writing as well.

Ravi, thank you very much for capturing those lovely photographs!

he wanted me to meet TOBI

2009-07-03T20:07:00.000-07:00

it was a surprise!

we are at press club-

we means-

ravi, sudharak, priyanka and surendra rao,

we should have called Pooja too!- says sudharak.

but this , he was telling me 6.30pm in the evening.

i was there with him at VT.

he has asked me to meet in the evening to sit in the press club for the drink!

and i reached.

i did not know why we are going to drink?

he wanted me to meet TOBI,

a german photographer, who was in the city for last seven days, shooting mumbai.

he is on the world tour shooting 11 great cities around the world

he reached mumbai after shooting, cario, narobi, dubai, cape town,

and he will be going to bangkok, shanghai, tokyo and new york.

the pictures will be used with an music orchestra to be staged in muninch in september.

and i shook hands with tobi at press club.

he is a very tall man well built and energetic.

he is a musician and performs on the stage as clown.

he was a mechanical engineer before breaking away to his creative talent.

he showed us the photos of the cities he has shot.

AND YOU KNOW WHAT

he is carrying a folding bicycle with him.

so for the shoot he goes on his small bicycle.

we came out of press club.

his bicycle (size of the wheels were much smaller than a children's bicycle but with 7 gears) was parked out side the gate.

he is a comic character!

we say him all the best for his future journey!

and he paddled away!

ART (from ORANGE BOOK OF OSHO)

2009-06-17T19:39:00.000-07:00

Art is meditation; any activity becomes meditation if you are lost
in it, so don’t just remain a technician. If you are just a technician
then painting will never become a meditation, you have to be crazily
into it, madly into it, completely lost, not knowing where you are
going, not knowing what you are doing, not knowing who you are.
This state of not knowing will be meditation; let it happen. The
painting should not be painted but only allowed to happen – and I
don’t mean that you just remain lazy, no, then it will never happen. It
_
has to ride on you, you have to be very very active and yet not doing
it. That is the whole knack, that is the whole crux of it: you have to be
active and yet not a doer.
Go to the canvas. For a few minutes just meditate, just sit silently
there before the canvas. It has to be like automatic writing. You take
the pen in your hand and you sit silently and suddenly you find a jerk
in the hand and it is not that you have done it, you know that you
have not done it. You were simply waiting for it. The jerk comes and
the hand starts moving, something starts happening.
That way you should start your painting. A few minutes
meditation, just being available. Whatsoever is going to happen you
will allow to happen. You will bring all your expertise into letting it
happen.
Take the brush and start. Go slowly in the beginning, so that you
don’t bring yourself in. Just go slowly. Let the subject start flowing
through you on its own accord and then be lost in it. And don’t think
of anything else. Art has to be for art’s sake, then it is meditation. No
motive should be allowed to enter into it. And I’m not saying that you
are not going to sell your painting or you are not going to exhibit it;
that is perfectly OK but that is a by-product. That is not the motive.
One needs food so one sells the painting, but it hurts that one sells it;
it is almost like selling your child. But one needs to so it is OK. You
feel sad, but it was not the motive; you had not painted it to sell. It
has been sold – that is another thing – but the motive is not there,
otherwise you will remain a technician.

too much to write on

2009-06-12T19:46:00.000-07:00

SIR why dont you blog?
ask the student.
hmm
no time
i replied

there are so much happening around
and it is difficult to be honest and truthful

if you can not afford to be truthful
why do you write?

yes!
i wanted to write about the institute- i just left.
i wanted to write about the youth-who feel being diplomatic
is important for so many reasons.
i wanted to write about the girl - who accepted my love. (and chats with me on phone endlessly)
i wanted to write about the great films i saw recently.
(like ROMA of felini, GREAT DICTATOR of chaplin, PATHER PANCHALI of Ray)

i wanted to write about the group show at canon gallery atria mall worlie,
where few of my pictures are on display (and i do not know which one!)
i wanted to write about my friend SUDHARAK OLWE, who always manage to take me with him to the places.
(this time we are going to kashmir for the photography workshop)

i wanted to write about my workshop in kashmir valley.
i wish to write the whole experience of visiting kashmir valley
after more than 22 years.

i wish to write about ANHAK SCHOOL of MEDIA STUDIES who are trying to teach people film making in the kashmir valley.

i wish to write about ABEER GUPTA,
he is a great person to be with.
loads of experience and very sensitive friend.

i wish to write about the beautiful kashmir valley and army every where,
which has inspired mani ratnam to make ROJA,
i could feel- exactly- what these film makers ( who made films with the backdrop of kashmir and terror felt when you drive passing 3.5 km JAWAHAR TUNNEL and enter the valley.)

i wish to write about the 5 hour long wait out side jawahar tunnel (2.30am to 8am)
i wish to write about the sms MUMBAI MIRROR's kasmir correspondent ANIL RAINA wrote to us that night-
'welcome to KASHMIR!
the most beautiful place on earth
and most dangerous too!'

i wish to write about our beautiful drive in to the the kasmir valley in the morning sunlight. it was worth all night wait in the dark jungle.
thank god we did not drive in night passing this beautiful landscape.

i wish to write about the 10 days long curfew we faced during the stay in srinagar.
5 of our kashmir based students did not turn-up for the workshop.
two boys- ROBIN and GOVIND travelled from gujarat to attainend the photography workshop.
Billal Ahemad from BARAMULA, was the most open sincere students of the lot.
Gabrial, the student from kanyakumari, learning film making in srinagar.

i wish to write about PRIYANKA BORPUJARI, the crime reporter, journalist from MUMBAI MIRROR, who is travelling with us.

i wish to write about the night we spend at pahalgam 5 degree centigrade.
the horse ride to meadow where all the bollywood films were shot.
our journey to chandanvadi to walk on snow passing betab valley, (where film Betab was shot- remember JAB HAM JAWAN HONGE!)

i always wanted to ask-
why does the long distance trains need to wait just out side the destination for half an hour?
why do the airconditioned compartments re-create 'winter' inside?
why new delhi railway station does not allow selling quality food on the platforms?
why veg cutlet is the only snack available in side the journey.

now
i need to sit on the computer and work on all the digital photos i enjoyed clicking there.
in good old days- we use to retur from the journey and send the roll to the lab and relax.
now it is hell of the job.
because i click too much.

sochata hoon

2009-05-19T00:29:00.000-07:00

sochata hoon tumhe
de doon

wo sab kuchh jo tum aaj chahti ho
aur
wo bhi jo tum kal chahogi

tumhe mile
wo sab jo sundar hai
behtar hai
achhahha hai

tum raho hamesha khush
gungunati
muskurati
kisi
joke per hansati

tumhe mile
har wo saath
jo tum chaho

tum
bolati raho
aur main sunta rahoon
kabhi
phone pe
kabhi bina phone ke
kabhi yun hi

aur main nikal jaun
bahut door
jab tum na chaho
mera hona tumhare aas paas

ki
tum mujhe yaad karo kal
ek sundar sapne ki tarah
aur rakho fir milane ki chah

karo chat
door desh se

batao wo sab
jo tum batana chahti ho

janati ho
aaj
subaha
jab need khulane hi wali thi
maine suni tumhari aawaz
jaise
phone abhi bhi chipka ho kaan se

tumahari awwaz ka sangeet
samata gaya hai
bheetar tak

oschata hoon
aaun tumhare pass
aur doon
ek HUG
aur turant wapas aa jaun!

(ab jaldi se send karta hoon
taki pdh sako
aaj ki subah
TUM)
19 may 2009

osho on Human relationships---painting by K P REJI

2009-05-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

Human relationships have changed a lot, and have changed for the worse. In all dimensions the deeper relationships have disappeared: the wife is no longer a wife, but just a girlfriend; the husband is no longer a husband, but just a boyfriend. Friendship is good, but cannot be very deep. Marriage is something which happens in depth. It is a commitment in depth, and unless you commit yourself you remain shallow. Unless you commit yourself you never take the jump. You can float on the surface, but the depths are not for you.

Of course, to go into the depths is dangerous -- bound to be so, because on the surface you are very efficient. On the surface you can work like an automaton; no awareness is needed. But you will have to be more and more alert, the more you penetrate into the depths, because at every moment death is possible. Fear of depth has created a shallowness in all relationships. They have become juvenile.

A boyfriend or a girlfriend may be fun, but cannot become a door to the deepest that is hidden in each and everyone. With a girlfriend you can be sexually related, but love cannot grow. Love needs deep roots. Sexuality is possible on the surface, but sexuality is just animal, biological. It can be beautiful if it is part of a deeper love, but if it is not part of a deeper love it is the most ugly thing possible; the ugliest, because then there is no communion -- you simply touch each other and separate. Only bodies meet, but not you -- not I, not thou. This has happened in all relationships.

But the greatest relationship has completely disappeared, and the greatest relationship is between a master and a disciple. You will not be able to understand Jesus if you cannot understand the dimension of that relationship which exists between a master and his disciples. That has completely disappeared. The wife is substituted by a girlfriend, the husband is substituted by a boyfriend, but the master, and the relationship that exists between him and his disciples, has completely disappeared. Or, this relationship has been substituted by a very contrary thing that exists between a psychiatrist and his patient.

Between a psychiatrist and his patient a relationship exists which is bound to be ill, pathological -- because a patient comes not in search of truth, is really not in search of health.... This word health is very meaningful: it means wholeness, it means holiness, it means a deep healing in the self. A patient does not come for health, because if he comes for health he cannot be anything other than a disciple. A patient comes to get rid of the illness; the attitude is totally negative. He has come just to be forced to become normal again, just to become a working part of the normal world again. He has become maladjusted; he needs adjustment and the psychiatrist helps him to be adjusted again. But adjusted to whom? Adjusted to this world, this society, which is absolutely ill.

What you call the 'normal' human being is nothing but normal pathology or normal madness, normal insanity. The 'normal' man is also insane, but insane within the boundaries, the accepted boundaries of the society, of the culture. Somebody sometimes trespasses, goes beyond the boundaries -- then he becomes ill. Then the whole society, which is ill, says that this man is ill. And the psychiatrist exists on the boundary to help this man back, back to the crowd.

The psychiatrist cannot be the master, because he himself is not whole. And the patient cannot be the disciple, because he has not come to learn. He is disturbed, and he does not want to be disturbed; his effort is only for adjustment, not for health. The psychiatrist cannot be the master, although in the West he is pretending to be, and sooner or later he will pretend that he is the master in the East too. But he cannot be -- he himself is ill. He may help others to be adjusted, and that's okay: one ill man can help another ill man, in some ways. But one ill man cannot bring another man who is ill to be whole; one madman cannot help another madman to go beyond madness.

Even your Freuds, your Jungs, your Adlers, are absolutely ill; not only ordinary psychiatrists, but the greatest of them are ill and pathological. I will tell you a few things so you can feel it. Whenever somebody mentioned anything about death, Freud would start trembling. Twice he even fainted and fell down from his chair just because somebody was talking about mummies in Egypt. He fainted! And another time also, Jung was talking about death, corpses, and suddenly Freud trembled and fell down, fainted, became unconscious. If death was such a fear to Freud, what about his disciples? And why should death be such a fear? Can you conceive of a buddha being afraid of death? Then he would no longer be a buddha.

Jung has reported that many times he wanted to go to Rome to visit the Vatican and particularly the library, the Vatican's library, which is the greatest, which has the secretmost records of all the religions that have existed -- very rare. But whenever he went to purchase the ticket he would start trembling -- just going to Rome! What will happen when you go to moksha? He would cancel the ticket and come back. He never went, never. Many times he tried, and in the end he decided, "No, I cannot go."

What is the fear, going to Rome? Why is a psychiatrist afraid of going to religion? ... Because Rome is just the symbol, the representative. And this Jung had created a philosophy around his mind, and that philosophy was afraid of being shattered. It is just as if a camel is afraid to go to the Himalayas, because when a camel comes near the Himalayas, for the first time he comes to know that he is nothing. This whole philosophy that Jung has created is just childish. Man has created such vast, cosmic systems, and all those systems are in ruins now. The fear is that going to Rome means going to the ruins of the great systems that the past has created.

What about your small system? What about this small corner that you have cleaned and decorated? What about your philosophy?

Great philosophies have tumbled down and gone to dust: go to Rome, see what has happened! Go to Athens, see what has happened! Where are the schools of Aristotle and Plato and Socrates? All have disappeared into dust. The greatest systems in the end come to dust; all thoughts finally prove to be useless, because thought is just a man-created thing.

Only in 'no-thought' do you come to know the divine. Through thought you cannot come to know the eternal, because thought is of time. Thought cannot be of the eternal; no philosophy, no system of thought can be eternal. That was the fear.

At least four or five times Jung made reservations and canceled. And this man Jung is one of the greatest psychiatrists. If he was so afraid of going to Rome, what about his disciples? Even you are not afraid -- not because you are better than Jung, but just because you are more unaware. He was aware that in Rome his head would come down; the moment he looked at the ruins of all the great systems, a trembling, a fear of death -- that, "What will happen to my system? What will happen to me?" -- would take hold. He trembles and comes back, and in his memoirs he writes: "Then finally I dropped the whole project. I am not going to Rome."

The same thing happened to Freud many times. He also tried to go to Rome -- so it does not seem to be just a coincidence -- and he also was afraid. Why? Freud was as angry as you can be, Freud was as sexual as you can be, as scared of death as you can be, as neurotic in his behavior as you can be, so what is the difference? He may have been a more intelligent man, may have been a genius perhaps, or he could help a little, but he was as blind as you are as far as the ultimate is concerned, as far as the secretmost, innermost core of being is concerned.

No, psychiatry cannot become religion. It may become a good hospital, but it cannot become the temple -- it is not possible. And a psychiatrist may be needed because people are ill, maladjusted, but a psychiatrist is not a master and a patient is not a disciple. If you come to a master as a patient then you will miss, because a master is not a psychiatrist. I am not a psychiatrist.

People come to me and they say, "I am suffering from this mental anxiety, neurosis, this and that."

I say, "It is okay, because I am not going to treat your anxiety, I am going to treat you. I am not concerned with your diseases, I am simply concerned with you. Diseases are on the periphery, and there is no disease where you are."

Once you come to realize who you are, all diseases disappear. They exist basically because you have been hiding self-knowledge, you have been avoiding yourself; you have been avoiding the basic encounter because you don't want to look at yourself. Why don't you want to look at yourself? What has happened to you? Unless you are ready to encounter yourself you cannot become a disciple, because a master can do nothing if you are not ready to face yourself. He can only help you to face yourself.

Why are you so afraid? ... Because something has gone wrong somewhere in the past. A child is born and he is not accepted as he is. Many things have to be changed, forced; he has to be disciplined. He has many parts which the society and his parents cannot accept, so those parts have to be denied, repressed; only a few parts can be accepted and appreciated. So the child has to work it out. He has to deny many fragments of his being which cannot be allowed manifestation. He has to deny them so much that he himself becomes unaware of them. This is what repression is, and the whole society exists on repression.

The greater part of the being of the child has to be repressed, completely thrown into the dark. But that repressed part asserts itself, tries to rebel, react; it wants to come into the light and you have to force it back again and again. So you become afraid to encounter yourself, because what will happen to the repressed part? That will come again, that will be there. What will happen to the unconscious? If you encounter yourself the unconscious will be there, all that you have denied will be there. And that gives you fear.

Unless a child is accepted totally as he or she is, this fear is bound to remain. But no society has yet existed which accepts a child totally -- and it seems that no society will ever exist which will accept a child totally, because it is almost impossible. So repression is bound to be there, more or less. And everybody has to face, some day, this problem of facing oneself. You become disciples the very day you forget about what is good, what is bad; you forget about what is accepted, what is not accepted. You only become a disciple the day you are ready to expose your whole being to yourself.

The master is just a midwife. He helps you to pass through a new birth, to be reborn. And what is the relationship between a master and a disciple? A disciple has to trust; he cannot doubt. If he doubts, then he cannot expose himself. When you doubt somebody you shrink; you cannot expand. When you doubt.... A stranger is there, then you close yourself; you cannot be open because you don't know what this stranger is going to do to you. You cannot be vulnerable before him; you have to protect yourself and create an armor.

With a master you have to drop the armor completely -- that much is a must. Even with a lover you may carry your armor a little; before a beloved you may not be so open. But with a master the openness has to be total, otherwise nothing will happen. If you withhold even a little part of yourself the relationship is not there. Total trust is needed, only then can the secrets be revealed, only then can the keys be offered to you. But if you are hiding yourself, that means you are fighting with the master, and then nothing can be done.

Struggle is not the key with the master, surrender is the key. And surrender has disappeared from the world completely. Many things have helped it: for three or four centuries man has been taught to be individualistic, egoistic; man has been taught not to surrender but to fight; not to obey but to rebel; man has been taught not to trust but to doubt. There has been a reason for it: it is because science grows through doubt. Science is deep skepticism. It works not through trust; it works through logic, argument, doubt. The more you doubt, the more scientific you become. The path is the very opposite of the religious path.

Religion works through trust: the more you trust, the more religious you become. Science has worked miracles and those miracles are very visible. Religion has worked greater miracles, but those miracles are not so visible. Even if a buddha is there, what can you feel? What can you see? He is not visible -- visibly, he is just a body; visibly, he is just as mortal as you are; visibly, he will become old and die one day. Invisibly, he is deathless. But you don't have the eyes to see that which is invisible, you don't have the capacity to feel the innermost, the unknown. That is why only trusting eyes, by and by, start to feel and become sensitive. When you trust, it means closing these two eyes. That is why trust is blind, just like love is blind -- but trust is even more blind than love.

When you close both these eyes, what happens? An inner transformation happens. When you close these eyes which see outwardly, what happens to the energy which goes through the eyes? That energy starts moving backwards. It cannot flow from the eyes towards objects, so it starts turning, it becomes a turning. Energy has to move, energy cannot be static; if you close one outlet, it starts finding another. When both eyes are closed, the energy that was moving through these two eyes starts turning -- a conversion happens. That energy hits the third eye in you. The third eye is not a physical thing: it is just that the energy that moves through the eyes towards outside objects is now returning towards the source. It becomes the third eye, the third way of seeing the world. Only through that third eye is a Buddha seen; only through that third eye is a Jesus realized. If you don't have that third eye, Jesus will be there but you will miss him -- many missed him.

In his home town, people thought that Jesus was just that carpenter Joseph's son. Nobody, nobody could recognize what had happened to this man: that he was no longer the carpenter's son, that he had become God's son. That is an inner phenomenon. And when Jesus declared, "I am the son of the divine, my father is in heaven," people laughed and said, "Either you have gone mad, or you are a fool or a very cunning man. How can a carpenter's son suddenly become God's son?" But there is a way....

Only the body is born out of the body. The inner self is not born out of the body, it is born of the holy ghost, it is of the divine. But first you have to attain the eyes to see, you have to attain the ears to hear.

It is a very delicate affair to understand Jesus; you have to pass through a great training. It is just like understanding classical music. If suddenly you are allowed to listen to classical music for the first time you will feel, "What nonsense is going on?" It is so delicate, a long training is needed. You have to be an apprentice for many, many years; only then are your ears trained to catch the subtle -- and then there is nothing like classical music. Then ordinary day-to-day music, like film music, is not music at all; it is just noise, and that too, foolish. Because your ears are not trained you live with that noise and you think it is music. But for classical music you need very aristocratic ears. A training is needed, and the more you are trained, the more the subtle becomes visible. But classical music is nothing before a Jesus, because that is the cosmic music. You have to be so silent that there is not a single flicker of thought, not a single movement in your being; only then can you hear Jesus, can you understand Jesus, can you know him.

Jesus goes on repeating again and again, "Those who have ears should be able to understand me. Those who have eyes, see! I am here!" Why does he go on repeating, "Those who have eyes, see! Those who have ears, hear!" -- why? He is talking of some other dimension of understanding only a disciple can understand. Very few understood Jesus, but that is in the very nature of things and bound to be so. Very few -- and who were those few? They were not learned scholars, no; they were not professors of the universities, no; they were not pundits or philosophers, no. They were ordinary people: a fisherman, a farmer, a shoemaker, a prostitute -- they were very ordinary people, most ordinary, the most ordinary of ordinaries.

Why could these people understand? There must be something extraordinary in an ordinary man. There must be something special which exists in an ordinary man and disappears in so-called 'extraordinaries'. What is this? It is a humbleness, a trust.

The more you are trained in the intellect, the less trust is possible; when you are not trained in the intellect, more trust is possible. A farmer trusts, he has no need to doubt. He sows the seeds in the field and he trusts they will come up, they will sprout when the right season comes. They will sprout. He waits and he prays, and in the right season those seeds sprout and they become plants. He waits and he trusts. He lives with the trees, plants, rivers, mountains. There is no need to doubt: trees are not cunning, you need no armor around you to protect yourself from them; hills are not cunning -- they are not politicians, they are not criminals -- you need no armor to protect yourself from them. You do not need any security there, you can be open.

That is why when you go to the hills you suddenly feel a rapture. From where does it come? From the hills? No, it comes because now you can put the armor aside, there is no need to be afraid. When you go to a tree suddenly you feel beautiful. It is not coming from the tree, it is coming from within you. But with a tree there is no need to protect yourself, you can be at ease and at home. The flower is not going to suddenly attack you; the tree cannot be a thief, it cannot steal anything from you. So when you go to the hills, to the sea, to the trees, to the forest, you put aside your armor.

People who live with nature are more trusting. A country which is less industrialized, less mechanized, less technological, lives more with nature, has more trust in it. That is why you cannot conceive of Jesus being born in New York -- almost impossible. Jesus freaks can be born there, but not Jesus. And these 'freaks' are just neurotic; Jesus is just an excuse. No, you cannot think of Jesus being born there, it is almost impossible. And even if he were born there, no one would listen to him; even if he were there, nobody would be able to recognize him. He was born in an age without technology, without science, the son of a carpenter. He lived his whole life with poor, simple people who were living with nature. They could trust.

Jesus comes to the lake one day, early in the morning. The sun has not yet come up over the horizon. Two fishermen are there and they have just thrown their net to catch fish when Jesus comes and says, "Look! Why are you wasting your life? I can make you fishers of men. Why are you wasting your energy on fishing for fish? I can make you catchers of men, fishers of men. Come, follow me!"

If he had said that to you when you were sitting in your office or in your shop, you would have said, "Go away! I don't have any time. Don't waste my time!" But those two fishermen looked at Jesus; they looked at Jesus without any doubt. The sun was rising and the man was beautiful, this man Jesus. And his eyes -- they were deeper than the lake, and his radiance was greater than the sun. They threw away their nets and they followed Jesus.

This is trust. Not a single question: "Who are you, stranger?" They didn't know him, he was not of their village; they had never seen him, they had never heard him. But it was enough -- the call, the invitation was enough. They heard the invitation, they looked at Jesus, felt his sincerity, and they followed him.

Just when they were going out of the town a man came running and he said to those two fishermen, "Where are you going? Your father has died suddenly. Come back!"

So they said to Jesus, "Can we go home and bury our dead father, and then we will come?"

Jesus said: "Don't worry about the dead. There are enough dead in the town; they will bury their dead. Come and follow me. You need not bother about the dead." And those two fishermen followed. This is trust: they heard, they saw Jesus.

He meant -- and he was right: "When the father is dead, what is to be done? When somebody is dead, he is dead. There is no need to go. And there are enough dead in the town; they will do the remainder, they will do the ritual, they will bury your father. You come and follow me." So they followed and they never turned back, they never looked back. Trust means not looking back. Trust means not turning back.

A doubting mind is always looking back, always thinking of the alternative, always thinking of what he has not done, always thinking whether he has done right: should he go back or follow this madman? Who knows -- he says he is the son of God, but who knows? Nobody knows about God, nobody knows about his sons -- "and this man looks just like us!" But the fishermen followed Jesus.

If you follow a man like Jesus, sooner or later he will become infectious, but you have to follow in the beginning. Sooner or later you will feel that he is the son of God -- and not only that, through him you will realize that you are also sons of God. But in the beginning you have to trust. If in the beginning there is doubt, doors are closed.

This relationship between master and disciple has disappeared because of three centuries of successful science. Science has succeeded so much, and it has done miracles -- useless miracles of course, because they have not added a single bit to human happiness, and a miracle is useless if happiness has not increased through it. Rather, happiness has decreased. The more technology, the more comfort, but the less happiness: this is the miracle that science has done. The more things can be done by mechanical devices, the less you are needed. And the less you are needed, the more you feel futile, useless, meaningless. Sooner or later, the computer will replace you and then you will not be needed at all. Then you can go and commit suicide because the computer will do everything.

Happiness comes out of being needed. When you are needed you feel happy, because you feel your being has meaning, you feel your life has meaning; you feel that you are needed, and that without you things would be different. But now, without you, nothing will be different. Rather, things will be better without you because machines can do everything better than you. You are just a hindrance, just an out-of-date thing. Man is the most out-of-date thing today, because every year everything else comes in a new edition: a new model of Ford car comes out, a new model of everything. Only man remains an out-of-date model. Amidst so many new things, you are the only old thing.

The modern mind continuously feels a meaninglessness, because nobody needs you. Even children won't need you, because the government, the welfare state will take care of them. Your old father and mother will not need you, because there will be homes -- government, state homes -- which will take care. Who needs you? And when you feel nobody needs you, you are just an unnecessary burden, how can you be happy? In the old days you were needed.

Somewhere, a Jewish mystic, Hillel, who must have been a very trusting man, a very prayerful man, said to God in his prayer, "Don't think that only I need you -- you also need me. You will be nothing without me. If Hillel is not there, who will pray? Who will look up to you? I am a must. So remember this: I need you, that is right, but you also need me."

When the whole universe needed you -- even God -- then you had a meaning, a significance, a fragrance. But now nobody needs you. You can be disposed of easily, you are nothing. Technology has created comfort and made you disposable. Technology has made you better houses, but not better men, because better men need some other dimension -- and that dimension is not of mechanics. That dimension is of awareness, not of mechanicalness.

Science cannot create a Buddha or a Jesus, but science can create a society in which a Buddha will be impossible. Many people come to me and they ask why there are no more buddhas now, no more tirthankaras, no more Jesuses. Because of you! You have created such a society that it becomes more and more impossible for a simple man to exist, for an innocent man to exist. And even if he does exist you will not recognize him. It is not that buddhas are not there -- it is difficult to see them but they are there. You may be passing them every day when you go to your office, but you cannot recognize them because you are blind.

Trust has disappeared. Remember this: Jesus lived in an age of trust, deep trust. His whole glory, his whole significance can be understood only through that dimension of trust.

Photography workshop with Shankar

2009-05-02T01:32:00.000-07:00

Photography promotion Trust conducts photography workshops with children of different
age groups.
this time Mr. Shankar Ramchandran asked us to do the workshop at Chembur.
Children were enthusiastic and curious to learn.
here is the pictures of the workshop.
workshop was conducted by
Ravi Shekhar and Sudharak olwe and Pooja Gund near Dimond graden chembur on saurday on 25th April 2009.
this workshopis also connected to the Rights bytes Project which is coordinated in India by CDE.

more pictures of the workshop with Shahidul Alam

2009-03-18T21:13:00.000-07:00

The room was filled with lense persons. Prints were displayed on the table and all of us were around. I was constantly clicking pictures.

i am aware many persons present in this event are going to make name in the field of visual arts.

here is your pictures guys!

and do come for the next workshop too!

we are going to announce soon!

Shahidul Alam in Mumbai

2009-03-08T21:05:00.000-07:00

Sudharak Olwe, my friend and the picture editor of Mumbai's BOMBAY TIMES informed me about the portfolio review workshop. Shahidul Alam, the activist, journalist and one of the best known photographer from Bangla Desh will be in the city and he will be reviewing the portfolio of the Indian photographers.

this is the first time in the city of mumbai that this kind of activity is being organized.

Shahidul is known for his active participation for creating platform for the native photographers.

he strongly feel that the western photographers have their own biased vision and interest when they are looking for the stories from this part of the planet.

I met Shahidul Alam in year 2005, when i visited his prestigious CHHOBI MELA- the only photography festival of south east Asia. that time Bangala Desh was going through a political unrest and we were advised to leave the country in just few days.

but this was the first time, i am witnessing the untried energy of the man, who is keen to share, whats over he has- knowledge and experience.

he commented on the photos from various angles.

i was really surprised by the works of the photo students who are more active with their digital cameras now.

there were prints and digital projected images.

i learned that-

turn the photos in black and white when colors are not under your control.

in the WORLD PRESS PHOTO judging, each picture is viewed only for merely 2 second.

then they burn all the photographic prints to save it from the misuse.

Atul Loke projected his pictures of his on going project of the CHAWL. and Sudharak Olwe shared his story of ZArina and Parvez the Hiv positive couple. Zarina was sex worker in kamathipura.

Sudhark Olwe also projected his work on the changing faces of the kamathipura - the red light are of the mumbai.

Photography Promotion trust will keep organizing this kind of workshop in future too.

gender issue and my friend VIBHA RANI

2009-02-12T21:05:00.000-08:00

12th feb 2009

kala ghoda arts festival, mumbai, India

location -national gallery of modern art hall

time - 7.30pm

Vibha Rani is my friend.

she has invited me to see her hindi play- balchanda, the child moon.

she is the writer and the sole performer of the show.

the play is about the woman issue and the indian society's need of a male child.

it is crueal to kill the embryo after finding out that it will be born as GIRL.

the script is great.

performance is superb

congrats Vibha ji!

over the years i have been witnessing this gender issue my self.

thanks to my father late shital prasad pandey- we never had this issue in our famliy.

he educated all his daughters to become teachers- so that they can earn their own share of money and contribute it to there own family.

and all my sisters are having great life beyond this gender issue in india.

though there will be other problems will keep coming- mostly economical.

this economical problem is mostly comes with the number of child they have produced.

but that time i did not have this question in mind- why they produce 3 to 4 children, if they are not economicallly sound.

now the kids are grown-up and moved to the metros from small village chasing their own share of dreams.

well,

i was waiting out side the theater chatting with my friends- madhu manek and mohanbhai of mulund.

madhu bhai's son is in london and he is pursuing him to get married.

'what do you feel ravi? should he get married?"

what i can say madhu bhai- it is his life. he should decide for himself.- i had replied.

just before this mohan bhai was telling about their nebouher - they have a real naughty kid.

lonly mother at home does not know what to do with his energy.

so he had to go to school twice in a day. two different school

family system in india is changing.

we do not have brothers, sisters, chacha chachi bhaiya bhabhi at home- so the kid can get more adults in their life.

husband is blaming wife.

wife is blaming husband.

life goes on in earning money.

even your charecter is constantly blaming the poor husband for being a mama's boy.

osho had the solution.

he is against marriage.

all the problems in human life is coming from the expectations.

the relationship.

the role playing.

we all need love.

but love alone is not enough.

love with freedom and understanding

ultimate quest for human being is MOKSHA

the ultimate freedom.

am I against marriage?

somtimes i ask myself.

it has been arodous path with uma.

more than 20 years of constant struggle and disagreement.

a very common story of indian middle class family

who does not wish to surrender to what is the normal way of city life-

exist to earn

where every move is make money.

in the age- when stories and poetry has vanished from the newspapers.

we start our day reading the times of india as an average mumbaite.

what salmans and prietys are doing

who is romancing with whom is the news.

you have to make your own way to be happy.

smile is happiness.

also see this video on marriage and laugh aloud!

Enjoy!

faculty @ NIFT

2009-02-06T21:09:00.000-08:00

I wake up late to write and share again.

the January ended without net at home. we tried to get faster connection.

reliance or tata?

applied for both.

they could not help

reliance came to install the net.

but the signal was not proper so they went back.

tata's name and branding failed to even come.

200 people from my own sector applied for the connection for tata net.

strange- they did not turn-up.

this is the time of franchising services.

i am sure there is some great mistake in the system.

(some tata official reading these words must check in)

I have started teaching photography at NIFT mumbai.

thanks to my friends Mahendra Damle

who introduced me to Nitin Arun Kulkarni.

Also thanks to MTV.

they gave me the chance to shoot photos for Roadies 5.o

and

Splitsville.

so here i am at NIFT khar ghar.

locally they call it Fashion Collage!

building is modern open and gives a great sense of freedom and space.

it looks more like an Architectural school than a FASHION COLLAGE

not a single display of textile or clothing or fashion pictures in the campus.

we need to shoot and display these images folks!

hope you are listening!

students are always students!

they are still in a school.

not used to a professional course.

they more interested in getting attendance and the marking system.

I am learning to teach in a class room to the students who are forced by the system to learn.

my earlier teaching experience is -teaching to the much younger and underprivileged children..

who never dreamt of learning photography.

they are keen learn.

listen carefully.

enthusiastic to hold the camera we provide them.

they show pictures with great enthu.

not for the marking.

here at nift things are changing.

i really enjoyed the 50 picture presentation of the students..

they were suppose to show 50 fresh pictures- shooting subject of their own choice.

i enjoy their vision-

they are growing....

as i compare their first presentation which was much hesitation from their side.

keep it up folks!

we are going to shoot great pictures like this one......

new year- new post

2009-01-06T20:20:00.000-08:00

2009

never thought- i will not be able to post in 2008 again.

though i workd hard for material while i travelled to agra, varanasi, amritsar and himachal pradesh with monika and michael.

lots of photos- i wanted to share.

lots of audio diary- which is in the computer.

yesterday i was listening- but that all is past.

i have grown up a little.

so i may not be going to write about them.

i have a learnt a lot in these months.

celebrated myself.

and now it is time to work again.

Aloneness is Your Nature- Osho

2008-10-23T22:21:00.000-07:00

The first thing to realize is that whether you want or not, you are alone. Aloneness is your very nature. You can try to forget it, you can try not to be alone by making friends, having lovers, mixing in the crowd... But whatever you do remains just on the surface. Deep inside, your aloneness is unreachable, untouchable.
A strange accident happens to every human being: as he is born the very situation of his birth begins in a family. And there is no other way, because the human child is the weakest child in the whole of existence.
Other animals are born complete. A dog is going to remain a dog his whole life, he is not going to evolve, grow. Yes, he will become aged, old, but he will not become more intelligent, he will not become more aware, he will not become enlightened. In that sense all the animals remain exactly at the point of their birth; nothing essential changes in them. Their death and their birth are horizontal -- in one line.
Only man has the possibility of going vertical, upwards, not just horizontal. Most of humanity behaves like other animals: life is just growing old -- not growing up. Growing up and growing old are totally different experiences.
Man is born in a family amongst human beings. From the very first moment he is not alone; hence, he gets a certain psychology of always remaining with people. In aloneness he starts feeling scared... unknown fears. He is not exactly aware of what he is afraid of, but as he moves out of the crowd something inside him becomes uneasy. To be with others he feels cozy, at ease, comfortable.
It is because of this reason he never comes to know the beauty of aloneness; the fear prevents him. Because he was born in a group he remains part of a group, and as he grows in age he starts making new groups, new associations, new friends. Already, existing collectivities don't satisfy him: the nation, the religion, the political party... He creates his own new associations: Rotary Club, Lions Club. But all these strategies are just to avoid one thing: never to be alone.
The whole life experience is of being together with people. Aloneness seems almost like a death. In a way it is a death; it is the death of the personality that you have created in the crowd. That is a gift of others to you. The moment you move out of the crowd you also move out of your personality.
In the crowd you know exactly who you are: you know your name, you know your degrees, you know your profession; you know everything that is needed for your passport, your identity card. But the moment you move out of the crowd, what is your identity, who are you? Suddenly you become aware that you are not your name -- your name was given to you. You are not your race -- what relationship has race with your consciousness? Your heart is not Hindu or Mohammedan; your being is not confined to any political boundaries of a nation; your consciousness is not part of any organization or church. Who are you?
Suddenly your personality starts dispersing. This is the fear: the death of the personality. Now you will have to discover freshly, you will have to ask for the first time who you are. You will have to start meditating on the fact: Who am I? -- and there is a fear that you may not be at all. Perhaps you were nothing but a combination of all the opinions of the crowd, that you were nothing but your personality.
Nobody wants to be nothing.
Nobody wants to be nobody.
And in fact everybody is a nobody.
There is a very beautiful story...
Alice has reached Wonderland. She came to meet the king and the king asked, "Alice, did you meet a messenger coming towards me?"
She said, "I met nobody."
The king said, "If you met nobody, why has he not arrived yet?"
Alice was very much puzzled. She said, "You are not understanding me rightly. Nobody is nobody."
The king said, "That is obvious that nobody is nobody, but where is he? He should have reached here by this time. It simply means nobody walks slower than you."
And naturally Alice was very much annoyed and forgot that she is talking to the king. She said, "Nobody walks faster than me."
Now the whole conversation goes on with that "nobody." She understands that he is saying, "Nobody walks slower than you."
"... and I am a fast walker. I have come from the other world to Wonderland, a small world -- and he is insulting me." Naturally she retorts, "Nobody walks faster than me!"
The king said, "If that is right then why has he not arrived?"
And this way the discussion continues.
Everybody is a nobody.
So the first problem for a disciple is to understand exactly the nature of aloneness. It means nobodyness; it means dropping your personality which is a gift to you by the crowd.
As you move off out of the crowd you cannot take that gift with you in your aloneness. In your aloneness you will have to discover again afresh, and nobody can give you the guarantee whether you will find anybody inside or not.
Those who have reached to aloneness have found nobody there. I really mean no body. No name, no form, but a pure presence, a pure life, nameless, formless. This is exactly the true resurrection, and it certainly needs courage. Only very courageous people have been able to accept with joy their nobodyness, their nothingness. Their nothingness is their pure being; it is a death and a resurrection both.
Just today Hasya was showing me a small, beautiful cartoon: Jesus hanging on the cross, looking at the sky, is saying, "It would have been better if alongside God the father I had Allah the uncle. It would have been better; at least if God was not listening, Allah might have helped."
Having just God for his whole life he was very happy proclaiming, "I am the only begotten son of God." And he never talked about God's family, his brother, his wife, his other sons and daughters. In the whole of eternity what has he been doing? He does not have a TV to waste time, to pass time. He does not have any possibility of having a movie hall. What does this poor fellow go on doing?
It is a well-known fact that in poor countries the population goes on exploding for the simple reason that the poor man has no other free entertainment. The only free entertainment is to produce children. Although it is in the long run very costly, right now there is no ticket, no problem, no standing in the queue...
What has God been doing for the whole eternity? He has created only one son. Now on the cross he remembers that it would have been better if God really had a few brothers, sisters, uncles. "I could have asked help from somebody else if he is not listening to me." He is praying and he is being angry saying, "Why have you forgotten me? Have you given up on me?" -- but there is no answer.
He is waiting for the miracle. The whole crowd that has gathered to see the miracle by and by started dispersing. It was too hot, unnecessarily. Nothing is going to happen; if something was going to happen it would have happened.
After six hours there were only three ladies left who were still believing that a miracle may happen. One was Jesus' mother -- naturally, mothers go on believing that their child is a genius. Every mother, without exception, believes that she has given birth to a child which is a giant.
Another woman who loved Jesus was a prostitute, Mary Magdalene. That woman, although she was a prostitute, must have loved Jesus. Even the disciples, the so-called apostles, who became second to Jesus in importance in the history of Christianity, all twelve escaped just out of fear of being caught and of being recognized -- because they were always hanging around with Jesus, everywhere. You never can believe the crowd: if they were caught, they might have been crucified, if not crucified at least beaten, stoned to death. Only three women were left.
The third was another woman who loved Jesus. It was love that remained in the last moments in the form of these three women. All those disciples must have been with Jesus just in order to get into paradise. It is always good to have good contacts, and you can't find a better contact than the contact with the only begotten son of God. Just behind him they will also be able to enter through the gates of paradise. Their disciplehood was a kind of exploitation of Jesus; hence there was no courage. It was cunning and clever, but not courageous.
Only love can be courageous.
You are asking about aloneness and courage. Courage comes out of love... Do you love yourself? Do you love this existence? Do you love this beautiful life which is a gift? It has been given to you without your being even ready for it, without your deserving it, without your being worthy of it.
If you love this existence which has given life to you, which goes on providing every moment life and nourishment to you, you will find courage. And this courage will help you to stand alone like a cedar of Lebanon, high -- reaching to the stars but alone.
In aloneness you will disappear as an ego and personality and you will find yourself as life itself, deathless and eternal. Unless you are capable of being alone your search for truth will remain a failure.
Your aloneness is your truth.
Your aloneness is your divineness.
The function of the master is to help you to stand alone. Meditation is just a strategy to take away your personality, your thoughts, your mind, your identity with the body, and leave you absolutely alone inside, just a living fire. And once you have found your living fire, you will know all the joys and all the ecstasies that human consciousness is capable of.
The old woman watched her grandson eat his soup with the wrong spoon, grasp his knife by the wrong end, eat the main course with his hands, and pour tea into the saucer and blow on it.
"Has not watching your mother and father at the dinner table taught you anything?" she asked.
"Yes," said the boy, chewing with his mouth open, "never to get married."
He has learned a great lesson: Remain alone.
It is really very difficult to be with others, but we are accustomed from our very birth to be with others. It may be miserable, it may be a suffering, it may be a torture but we are accustomed; at least it is well known.
One is afraid to step into the darkness beyond the territory, but unless you go beyond the territory of the collective mask, you cannot find yourself.
Groucho Marx has made a beautiful statement for you to remember: "I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set I go into the other room and read a book."
The teacher of a class of ten-year-olds is too shy to conduct the sex-education class and so she asks her class to make this a homework project.
Little Hymie asks his father who mumbles something about a stork. His grandmother said he came from a cabbage patch and his great-grandmother blushes and whispers that children come from the great ocean of existence.
The next day, little Hymie is called by the teacher to report on his project. Little Hymie says to the teacher, "I'm afraid there is something wrong in our family. Apparently nobody has made love for three generations!"
In fact, very few people have loved at all; they have pretended, have been hypocrites deceiving not only others but have deceived themselves too.
You can love authentically only when you are.
Right now you are only a part of a crowd, a cog in the wheel. How can you love? -- because you are not. First be; first know yourself.
In your aloneness you will discover what it is to be. And out of that awareness of your being love flows, and much more.
Aloneness should be your only search.
And it does not mean that you have to go to the mountains, you can be alone in the marketplace. It is simply a question of being aware, alert, watchful, remembering that you are only your watchfulness. Then you are alone wherever you are. You may be in the crowd, you may be in the mountains; it makes no difference, you are just the same watchfulness. In the crowd you watch the crowd; in the mountains you watch the mountains. With open eyes you watch existence; with closed eyes you watch yourself.
You are only one thing: the watcher.
And this watcher is the greatest realization. This is your buddha nature; this is your nature of enlightenment, of your awakening. This should be your only discipline. Only this makes you a disciple: this discipline of knowing your aloneness. Otherwise, what makes you a disciple? You have been deceived on every point in life. You have been told that to believe in a master makes you a disciple. That is absolutely wrong; otherwise, everybody in the world is a disciple.
Somebody believes in Jesus, somebody believes in Buddha, somebody believes in Krishna, somebody believes in Mahavira; everybody believes in somebody but nobody is a disciple, because to be a disciple does not mean to believe in a master. To be a disciple means to learn the discipline of being your self, of being your true self.
In that experience is hidden the very treasure of life. In that experience you become for the first time an emperor; otherwise you will remain a beggar in the crowd. There are two kinds of beggars: poor beggars and rich beggars, but they are all beggars. Even your kings and your queens are beggars.
Only those people, very few people who have stood alone in their being, in their clarity, in their light, who have found their own light, who have found their own flowering, who have found their own space they can call their home, their eternal home -- those few people are the emperors. This whole universe is their empire. They don't need to conquer it; it is already conquered.
By knowing yourself you have conquered it.

Osho, Love, Freedom, Aloneness

Maturity- an understanding to be alone- Osho

2008-09-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

Maturity has nothing to do with your life experiences.
It has something to do with your inward journey, experiences of the inner.

The more he goes deeper into himself, the more mature he is. When he has reached the very center of his being, he is perfectly mature. But at that moment the person disappears, only presence remains...
The self disappears, only silence remains.
Knowledge disappears, only innocence remains.

To me, maturity is another name for realization: you have come to the fulfillment of your potential, it has become actual. The seed has come on a long journey, and has blossomed.
Maturity has a fragrance. It gives a tremendous beauty to the individual. It gives intelligence, the sharpest possible intelligence. It makes him nothing but love. His action is love, his inaction is love; his life is love, his death is love. He is just a flower of love.

The West has definitions of maturity which are very childish. The West means by maturity that you are no longer innocent, that you have ripened through life experiences, that you cannot be cheated easily, that you cannot be exploited, that you have within you something like a solid rock -- a protection, a security.
This definition is very ordinary, very worldly. Yes, in the world you will find mature people of this type. But the way I see maturity is totally different, diametrically opposite to this definition. The maturity will not make you a rock; it will make you so vulnerable, so soft, so simple.
I remember... a thief entered a master's hut. It was a full-moon night, and by mistake he had entered; otherwise, what can you find in a master's house? The thief was looking, and was amazed that there was nothing. And then suddenly he saw a man who was coming with a candle in his hand.
The man said, "What are you looking for in the dark? Why did you not wake me up? I was just sleeping near the front door, and I could have showed you the whole house." And the man looked so simple and so innocent, as if he could not conceive that anybody could be a thief.
Before his simplicity and innocence, the thief said, "Perhaps you do not know that I am a thief."
The master said, "That doesn't matter, one has to be someone. The point is that I have been in the house for thirty years and I have not found anything, so let us search together! And if we can find something, we can be partners. I have not found anything in this house -- it is just empty."
The thief was a little afraid -- the man seems to be strange. Either he is mad or... who knows what kind of man he is? He wanted to escape, because he had brought things from two other houses that he had left outside the house.
The master had only one blanket -- that was all that he had -- and it was a cold night, so he told that thief, "Don't go this way, don't insult me this way; otherwise I will never be able to forgive myself, that a poor man came to my house in the middle of the night and had to go empty-handed. Just take this blanket. And it will be good -- outside it is so cold. I am inside the house; it is warmer here."
He covered the thief with his blanket. The thief was just losing his mind! He said, "What are you doing? I am a thief!"
The master said, "That does not matter. In this world everybody has to be somebody, has to do something. You may be stealing; that doesn't matter, a profession is a profession. Just do it well, with all my blessings. Do it perfectly, don't be caught; otherwise you will be in trouble."
The thief said, "You are strange. You are naked and you don't have anything!"
The master said, "Don't be worried, because I am coming with you! Only the blanket was keeping me in this house; otherwise in this house there is nothing -- and the blanket I have given to you. I am coming with you -- we will live together. And you seem to have many things; it is a good partnership. I have given my all to you. You can give me a little bit -- that will be right."
The thief could not believe it. He just wanted to escape from that place and from that man. He said, "No, I cannot take you with me. I have my wife, I have my children, and my neighbors, what will they say? -- `You have brought a naked man!"
He said, "That's right. I will not put you in any embarrassing situation. So you can go, I will remain in this house." And as the thief was going, the master shouted, "Hey! Come back!" The thief had never heard such a strong voice; it went just like a knife. He had to come back. The master said, "Learn some ways of courtesy. I have given you the blanket and you have not even thanked me. So first, thank me -- it will help you a long way. Secondly, going out -- you opened the door when you came in -- close the door! Can't you see the night is so cold, and can't you see that I have given you the blanket and I am naked? Your being a thief is okay, but as far as manners are concerned, I am a difficult man. I cannot tolerate this kind of behavior. Say thank you!"
The thief had to say, "Thank you, sir," and he closed the door and escaped. He could not believe what had happened! He could not sleep the whole night. Again and again he remembered... he had never heard such a strong voice, such power. And the man had nothing!
He enquired the next day and he found out that this was a great master. He had not done well -- it was absolutely ugly to go to that poor man; he had nothing. But he was a great master.
The thief said, "That I can understand myself -- that he is a very strange kind of man. In my whole life I have been coming in contact with different kinds of people, from the poorest to the richest, but never... even remembering him, a shivering goes through my body.
"When he called me back I could not run away. I was absolutely free, I could have taken the things and run away, but I could not. There was something in his voice that pulled me back."

After a few months the thief was caught, and in the court the magistrate asked him, "Can you name a person who knows you in this vicinity?"
He said, "Yes, one person knows me" -- and he named the master.
The magistrate said, "That's enough -- call the master. His testimony is worth that of ten thousand people. What he says about you will be enough to give judgment."
The magistrate asked the master, "Do you know this man?"
He said, "Know him? We are partners. He is my friend. He even visited me one night in the middle of the night. It was so cold that I gave him my blanket. He is using it, you can see. That blanket is famous all over the country; everybody knows it is mine."
The magistrate said, "He is your friend? And does he steal?"
The master said, "Never! He can never steal. He is such a gentleman that when I gave him the blanket he said to me, `Thank you, sir.' When he went out of the house, he silently closed the doors. He is a very polite, nice fellow."
The magistrate said, "If you say so, then all the testimonies of the witnesses who have said that he is a thief are cancelled. He is freed." The master went out and the thief followed him.
The master said, "What are you doing? Why are you coming with me?"
He said, "Now I can never leave you. You have called me your friend, you have called me your partner. Nobody has ever given me any respect. You are the first person who has said that I am a gentleman, a nice person. I am going to sit at your feet and learn how to be like you. From where have you got this maturity, this power, this strength, this seeing of things in a totally different way?"
The master said, "Do you know that night how bad I felt? You had gone; it was so cold. Without a blanket sleep was not possible. I was just sitting by the window seeing the full moon, and I wrote a poem: `If I was rich enough I would have given this perfect moon to that poor fellow, who had come in the dark to search for something in a poor man's house. I would have given the moon if I had been rich enough, but I am poor myself.' I will show you the poem, come with me.
"I wept that night, that thieves should learn a few things. At least they should inform a day or two ahead when they come to a man like me, so we can arrange something, so they don't have to go empty-handed.
"And it is good that you remembered me in the court; otherwise those fellows are dangerous, they may have mistreated you. I offered that very night to come with you and be partners with you, but you refused. Now you want... There is no problem, you can come. Whatever I have I will share with you. But it is not material: it is something invisible."
The thief said, "That I can feel -- it is something invisible. But you have saved my life, and now it is yours. Make whatever you want to make of it. I have been simply wasting it. Seeing you, looking in your eyes, one thing is certain -- that you can transform me. I have fallen in love from that very night."

Maturity to me is a spiritual phenomenon.

Aging is nothing that you do, aging is something that happens physically. Every child born, when time passes, becomes old. Maturity is something that you bring to your life -- it comes out of awareness. When a person ages with full awareness he becomes mature. Aging plus awareness, experiencing plus awareness, is maturity.

A mature person has the integrity to be alone. And when a mature person gives love, he gives without any strings attached to it: he simply gives. And when a mature person gives love, he feels grateful that you have accepted his love, not vice versa. He does not expect you to be thankful for it -- no, not at all, he does not even need your thanks. He thanks you for accepting his love. And when two mature persons are in love, one of the greatest paradoxes of life happens, one of the most beautiful phenomena: they are together and yet tremendously alone; they are together so much so that they are almost one. But their oneness does not destroy their individuality, in fact, it enhances it: they become more individual. Two mature persons in love help each other to become more free. There is no politics involved, no diplomacy, no effort to dominate. How can you dominate the person you love?
Just think over it. Domination is a sort of hatred, anger, enmity. How can you think of dominating a person you love? You would love to see the person totally free, independent; you will give him more individuality. That's why I call it the greatest paradox: they are together so much so that they are almost one, but still in that oneness they are individuals. Their individualities are not effaced -- they have become more enhanced. The other has enriched them as far as their freedom is concerned.
Immature people falling in love destroy each other's freedom, create a bondage, make a prison. Mature persons in love help each other to be free; they help each other to destroy all sorts of bondages. And when love flows with freedom there is beauty. When love flows with dependence there is ugliness.
Remember, freedom is a higher value than love. That's why in India, the ultimate we call MOKSHA; MOKSHA means freedom. Freedom is a higher value than love. So if love is destroying freedom, it is not of worth. Love can be dropped; freedom has to be saved: freedom is a higher value. And without freedom you can never be happy -- that is not possible. Freedom is the intrinsic desire of each man, each woman -- utter freedom, absolute freedom. So anything that becomes destructive to freedom -- one starts hating it.
Don't you hate the man you love? Don't you hate the woman you love? You hate. It is a necessary evil; you have to tolerate it. Because you cannot be alone you have to manage to be with somebody, and you have to adjust to the other's demands. You have to tolerate, you have to bear them.

Love, to be really love, has to be 'being-love', 'gift-love'. 'Being-love' means a state of love. When you have arrived home, when you have known who you are, then a love arises in your being. Then the fragrance spreads and you can give it to others. How can you give something which you don't have? To give it, the first basic requirement is to have it.

from Maturity: The Responsibility of Being Oneself

Life is a RELATIONSHIP...says Osho

2008-09-23T21:15:00.000-07:00

life is a relationship.
with your own self and with every thing, u think and do.
again sharing the words from osho:
From the chapter,
The Koan of Relationship
A relationship is a puzzle with no clue to it.
Howsoever you try to manage it, you will never be able
to manage it. Nobody has ever been able to manage it.
It is made in such a way that it simply remains
puzzling. The more you try to demystify it, the more
mysterious it becomes. The more you try to understand
it, the more elusive it is.
It is a greater koan than any koan that Zen masters
give to their disciples, because their koans are
meditative -- one is alone. When you are given the
koan of relationship it is far more complicated,
because you are two -- differently made, differently
conditioned, polar opposites to each other, pulling in
different directions, manipulating each other, trying
to possess, dominate... there are a thousand and one
problems.
While meditating, the only problem is how to be
silent, how not to be caught in thoughts. In
relationship there are a thousand and one problems. If
you are silent, there is a problem. Just sit silently
by the side of your wife and you will see - she will
immediately jump upon you: "Why are you silent? What
do you mean?" Or speak, and you will be in trouble -
whatsoever you say, you are always misunderstood.
No relationship can ever come to a point where it is
not a problem. Or if sometimes you see a relationship
coming to a point where it is no longer a problem,
that simply means it is not a relationship anymore.
The relationship has disappeared - the fighters are
tired, they have started accepting things as they are.
They are bored; they don't want to fight any more.
They have accepted it, they don't want to improve upon
it.
Or, in the past, people tried to create a kind of
harmony forcibly. That's why, down the ages, women
were repressed - that was one way of sorting things
out. Just force the woman to follow the man, then
there is no problem. But it is not a relationship
either.

Money is Energy Says - Osho

2008-09-20T03:13:00.001-07:00

Money should not become the goal, but I am not saying at the same time that you should renounce it and become beggars -- use it, it is a good means. I'm not against money, I have nothing to say against it. I am saying something about you and your possessiveness, not about money. Money can be beautiful -- if it is not possessed, if you don't become obsessed with it. It can be beautiful. Money is like blood circulating in the body: in the body of society money circulates, it is blood. It helps society to be enriched, to be alive -- but it is like blood.

Money is not just there outside in the currency notes, it is something to do with your inner mind and attitudes. Money is your love of things, money is your escape from persons, money is your security against death, money is your effort to control life, money is a thousand and one things. Money is not just in the currency notes otherwise things would have been very easy.

Money is your love -- love of things, not of persons. The most comfortable love is of things because things are dead, you can possess them easily. You can possess a big house, a palace -- the greatest palace you can possess easily -- but you cannot possess even the smallest baby; even that baby rejects, even that baby fights for his freedom. A small baby, howsoever small, is dangerous for the man who wants to possess. It will rebel, it will become rebellious, but it will not allow anybody to possess it.

People who cannot love persons start loving money because money is a means to possess things. The more money you have, the more things you can possess; and the more things you can possess, the more you can forget about persons. You will have many things but you will not have any contentment because deep contentment comes only when you love a person. The money will not revolt but it cannot respond also, that is the trouble. That's why miserly people become very ugly. Nobody has responded to their love ever. How can you be beautiful without love falling on you, without love showering on you like flowers -- how can you be beautiful? You become ugly. You become closed. A man who possesses money or tries to possess money, is miserly and he will always be afraid of persons and people because if they are allowed to come closer they may start sharing. If you allow somebody closeness you have to allow some sharing also. People who love things become like things -- dead, closed. Nothing vibrates in them, nothing dances and sings in them, their hearts have lost the beat, they live a mechanical life. They drag, burdened, burdened with many things, but they don't have any freedom because only love can give you freedom; and love can give you freedom only if you give freedom to love.

People who are afraid of love become possessive about money. People who love become non-possessive, money doesn't matter much. If it is, it is okay, it can be used; If it is not, that too is okay, because love is such a kingdom that no money can purchase it. Love is such a deep fulfillment that you can be a beggar on the street and you can sing if you have love in your heart. If you have loved and you have been loved, love crowns you, makes a king of you. Money simply makes you ugly.

I am not against money. I am not saying: 'Go and throw it away,' because that is another extreme. That is also the last step of the miserly mind. A man who has suffered too much because of money, who has clung to money and could not love anybody or become open, becomes so frustrated in the end that he throws away the money, renounces and goes to the Himalayas, enters a Tibetan monastery and becomes a lama. This man has not understood. If you understand, money can be used, but people who don't understand are either misers, they can't use the money, or they renounce the money, because in renouncing they are also saving the same mind. Now there will be no difficulty in using it: you renounce all and escape. But they cannot use the money, they are afraid of using it.

They can renounce, remember this. I have seen misers renouncing completely, totally. A man founded a university in Sagar in India, I was a student there. This man was a rare specimen, his name was Dr. Hari Singh Gaur. I have never come across a greater miser than him and I have not come across a greater renouncer either. He was perfect in both the ways. For his whole life he never gave a single paise to anybody, no beggar ever received anything from his bungalow.

If it was known in his town, Sagar, that some beggar was going to Hari Singh's house to ask, others would laugh and they would say: Seems to be new to the town. Nobody ever received anything. He never donated a single rupee for any cause, humanitarian or anything. For the Indian National Freedom Movement he never donated a single paise -- no, that was not his way. He was a perfect miser and he was one of the greatest lawyers in the world. He had three offices, one in India, one in China, one in England, and he worked four months in England, four months in India, four months in China. He was one of the best lawyers in the world. He accumulated so much money and then in the end he donated his whole life's savings. The whole university of Sagar is created by a single person's donation. It is one of the most beautiful universities.

But when he donated, he donated all. You will be surprised to know that he donated so absolutely that he did not leave a single paise for his children. Now they are fighting in the courts, they have nothing, they are beggars on the street. The miser remains a miser to the very end, even when he renounces. He couldn't give to his children even a single paise but he could renounce the whole.

First you can accumulate money like a madman, then one day you understand that you wasted your whole life. When you understand this you become afraid, but the old habit persists. You can give the whole and forget about it and escape, but you cannot share it.

If a man of understanding has money he shares it because money is not for itself, it is for life. If he feels that life needs it, love needs it, he can throw it away completely, but it is not a renunciation, it is again using it. Love is the goal for him; money is never the goal, money is the means. For people who are after money, money is the goal, love becomes just a means. Even their prayer is for money; even prayer becomes a means to money.

Money is a very complex phenomenon. Why do people get so much into it, and so many people at that? It has a certain appeal, a magnetic appeal. Money has a hypnotic appeal in it and the appeal is that you can possess it completely. Money is very docile, it becomes a slave. The ego feels very fulfilled.

Love is not docile, love is rebellious. You cannot possess love. You can possess a woman, you can possess a man, but you can never possess love. If you possess a woman, the woman has become money, a thing; if you possess a man, the man has become money, a thing, an instrument. A man is a man and a woman is a woman only when they are an end unto themselves, not a means to anything else. Money is the means, and to become obsessed with the means is the greatest foolishness that can occur to a man and the greatest curse.

Money should not become the goal, but I am not saying at the same time that you should renounce it and become beggars -- use it, it is a good means. I'm not against money, I have nothing to say against it. I am saying something about you and your possessiveness, not about money. Money can be beautiful -- if it is not possessed, if you don't become obsessed with it. It can be beautiful. Money is like blood circulating in the body: in the body of society money circulates, it is blood. It helps society to be enriched, to be alive -- but it is like blood.

You must have heard about diseases in which the blood stops and cannot circulate, clots of blood come into existence and they become blocks and the blood cannot circulate in the body. Then you are paralyzed, and if the clots happen in the heart you are dead.

If money circulates, moves from one hand to another, goes on moving, the more movement the better, then the blood circulates well, then life is healthy. But when a miser comes in, a clot has happened; somewhere somebody is accumulating, not sharing, and that is a clot in the blood circulation. The man disturbs, he does not live himself and because of his blocking he does not allow others to live. The money has stopped circulating. Blood circulating is life, blood stopped, blocked, is death. Money circulating is life, money stopped, blocked, is death.

I'm for a society where money moves fast, nobody clings to it, everybody uses it, and you remember that the simple law of money is: the more you use it, the more valuable it is. For example, we are sitting here. If ten persons have a hundred rupees in their pockets, and they keep it to themselves, then ten persons have only one thousand rupees, dead. But when those rupees circulate, if they make two rounds, ten thousand have become twenty thousand; if they make three rounds they have become thirty thousand; and if they make four rounds.... The more they circulate, the more money there is, because when one hundred rupees are kept by one man those hundred rupees are dead. If he uses them they go to somebody else, then they come to him again because others are also using them; now he has two hundred rupees, and again three hundred, four hundred, five hundred.... The more you use it, the more money floats and circulates, and the richer society is.

America is richest because America is the least miserly country in the world. Money circulates fast; everybody is using that money which he has, and even that money which he is going to have in the future, he is using it too. The country is bound to become rich. A country like India is bound to remain poor because people cling. If you cling to money the country will remain poor. When nobody uses it, money becomes like clots in blood.

India has two types of people: misers and renouncers. Both these types are wrong, ill, abnormal, neurotic. One should have money, earn money, produce money -- and use it. One should hold it only to use and one should use it only to hold; it becomes a circle. Then a person is both, a miser and a renouncer together. When you are miser and renouncer together you are neither miser nor renouncer, you simply enjoy whatsoever money can give. Money can give many things and money cannot give many things; when you use it then you know what money can give. Money can give all that is outward -- things of this world, nothing is wrong in them. Nothing is wrong in having a beautiful house. Nothing is wrong in having a beautiful garden -- money can give it to you. But money cannot give you love, that is expecting too much from poor money.

One should expect only that which can be expected, one should not move in the impossibilities..Just asking poor money to give you love -- poor money cannot do it. But nothing is wrong, don't get angry with the money! Don't burn it and throw it in the river and go to the Himalayas. In the first place you asked something which a man of understanding would never have asked -- you are foolish, that's all. Nothing is wrong with the money.

A wandering monk came to see me two or three years ago and he was very much against money. He would not even touch it -- this is a neurosis. There are people who only count money the whole day, and in the night also, in their minds, they go on counting. They touch only money with a loving hand, they never touch anybody else with a loving hand. When they look at their currency notes, watch their eyes -- they sparkle. They are hypnotized. These are neurotic people. Then there are other neurotics... This wandering monk came to me, he would not touch money. So I said: Then it must be very difficult for you. How did you come to Bombay to see me? He said: There is nothing difficult. He showed two other men, his disciples: they could touch, they were not such evolved beings. What foolishness! They could purchase the ticket and they could keep the money, but for him, he said: I don't touch, I have gone far beyond it.

said: But what is the point? Now you are not only using money, you are using two other persons as your pockets. You have reduced two persons, alive persons, to pockets; you have murdered. What was wrong in keeping it in your own pocket?

And the man said: So it seems you are in favour of money? What can money give? Can money give love? Can money give God? I said: You are foolish if you ask love and God from poor money, your expectations are false. Money never promised them to you, but whatsoever money promises it can give. It never promises that it can give you love. If you expect it you are idiotic.

These people who have been expecting too much from money one day become enemies of money. Then they escape, then they don't touch money. Even Vinoba closes his eyes if you bring money to him, he will not see it. What nonsense! What is wrong in money? Something still seems to be miserly inside, something still seems to be like a wound, otherwise why close your eyes? What is wrong in a currency note? It is just paper, and these spiritual people go on saying that it is just paper. If you put ordinary paper in their hands, they touch it, but when you put a currency note there they throw it away as if it is a scorpion or very deadly disease.

Neurosis can move from one extreme to another. Use money. Money is beautiful as far as it goes, and it goes far enough! As far as the world is concerned it goes far enough, but don't expect love, because it is of the interior, of the inner being, and don't ask for God, because it is transcendental.

Use everything for its own capacities, not for your dreams. Then you are a healthy man, and to be healthy is to be holy. Don't be abnormal in any way. Be normal, ordinary, and just create more understanding so that you can see. Money can be used, should be used, it can give you a beautiful world.

Otherwise, sooner or later, if you are against money you will create a dirty country like India: everything is dirty -- but they think they are great spiritualists. Everything has gone ugly but they think they are great spiritualists because they have renounced. That's why things have got so bad. They think one has to close one's eyes and not look outside.

It is good to look outside because outside is God's creation; it is good to look inside because inside is sitting the Creator. Both are good. Eyes are meant to blink; they are not meant to remain open forever and they are not meant to be closed forever. They are meant to blink -- open and close, open and close. That is the rhythm -- out and in, out and in.

Look outside -- the beautiful creation; look inside -- the beautiful God. And by and by you will see that the in and out meet and mingle and are one.

Tao: The Three Treasures
Vol-2
# 6

Osho on Marriage

2008-09-17T22:22:00.002-07:00

( Osho's view on marriage was very shocking to me when read this post first few years ago. but this is very important realization- that in present format- marraige is hell. stress. becauce basic need of any human is freedom. and marriage is binding. against freedom. one has to cultivate a kind of understanding with the fellow human being....

my hope with post has been tremendous.

what works in relationship is love...

there is no other way....)

osho says-

This is the compromise that human beings have made: to be secure about the future, to be certain about the tomorrows, to have a guarantee that the woman who loves you is going to love you forever, that it is not a temporary affair....

That’s why religious people say that marriages are "made in heaven"... a strange kind of heaven, because if these marriages are made in heaven, then what can you make in hell? They don’t show the signs, the fragrance, the freshness, the beauty of heaven. They are certainly disgusting, ugly... they show something of hell certainly. But man settled for marriage because that was the only way to have private property.

Animals don’t have private property -- they are all communists, and far better communists than have appeared in human history. They don’t have any dictatorship of the proletariat and they have not lost their freedom, but they don’t have any private property.

Man also lived for thousands of years without marriage, but those were the days when there was no private property. Those were the days of hunting; man was a hunter. And those people thousands of years ago had no cold-storage system, no technology -- whatever food they got they had to finish as quickly as possible. They could only hope that tomorrow they will get some food again.

Because there was nothing to accumulate, there was no question of marriage. People lived in communes, tribes; people loved, people reproduced, but in the beginning there was no word for "father." The word "mother" is far more ancient and far more natural. You will be surprised to know that the word `uncle’ is older than the word "father" -- because all the people who were the age of your father... you didn’t know who your father was. Men and women were mixing joyously -- without any compulsion, without any legal bondage, out of their free will. If they wanted to meet and be together there was no question of domination. The children never knew who their father was, they knew only their mother. And they knew many men in the tribe; someone amongst those men must have been their father, hence they were all uncles.

As private property came into existence with cultivation.... With hunting, man could not survive long. People have destroyed complete species of animals. Hundreds of species which once used to dance and sing on this earth... man has eaten them up. Something had to be done because hunting was not reliable. Today you may get food, tomorrow you may have to be hungry. And it was very arduous. The search for animals did not allow man to develop any of his other talents, his genius. But cultivation changed the whole life of man.

You must be reminded
of the fact that
cultivation
is the discovery of women,
not of men.

The woman was confined -- she was not able to go hunting. Most of the time she was pregnant, she was weak, she was carrying another soul within her. She needed care, protection...so she was living in the house. She started making the living space more beautiful -- and this you can see even today, after thousands of years.

If you enter into a bachelor’s room you can immediately say that it is a bachelor’s room. You may not be able to decide by seeing the bachelor whether he is bachelor or not, but his room certainly is a bachelor! The woman, her touch, is missing. The house of a bachelor is never a home, it is just a place where he sleeps. It is not something with which he feels a certain intimacy, a certain creative relationship.

The home, the village, the city and the whole civilization are because of the woman, because she was free from hunting and she had different values of the heart and of the mind -- she was more aesthetic, more graceful, more earthly, not at all interested in hell and heaven and God and the devil and all that crap! No woman has written a single religious scripture. No woman has been a philosopher thinking about abstract, faraway things.

Woman’s consciousness is interested only in the intimate surroundings -- she would like a beautiful house, she would like a beautiful garden. She wants to create a small world of her own -- cozy, comfortable. She imparts a certain quality to a dead house and it becomes a living home. It is a magical transformation.

Man continued to hunt, and the woman started looking around...the man had no time. He has always been busy without business, but the woman had all the time there is. The basic work of hunting was being done by the groups of men and the woman started looking around. She discovered cultivation because she saw wild fruits growing, she saw many other things growing and she also saw that every year the crop dies, the seeds fall back into the earth and when the rains come, again those seeds sprout in thousands of plants.

She started experimenting to find what was edible and what was not edible. Soon, as hunting was becoming more and more difficult, men had to agree with women: "We have to shift our whole economic focus. We have to go for cultivation, for fruits, for vegetables. And these are in our hands -- we can produce as much as we want, as we need it, and there is tremendous variety."

Slowly, slowly the nomads, the wandering tribes...because hunters cannot stay in one place. They have to go on moving as the animals escape. Once hunting was dropped and cultivation became our very measure of survival a new thing also happened alongside.

There were people who were powerful people and there were people who were weak people. The people who were physically powerful managed to claim much ground as their property. They earned much...slowly, slowly the barter system started, because when you have too much of one crop, what are you going to do with it? You have to exchange it; then you can have many more things. Life became more complex, with more excitement.

But a problem was felt: after a person dies, who is going to inherit his property? Nobody wanted their property to be inherited by any XYZ. They wanted their property to belong to their own blood.

It is out of economics,
not out of the understanding of love
that marriage came into existence.
Its very birth was wrong,
under the wrong stars.

And because man had to agree for marriage.... The woman was very willing for the simple reason that for thousands of years in the hunting period she was not financially a part of the society; man was all. Man continued his power, although the whole social structure changed. The hunter’s nomadic life became a peaceful life in a village but man’s concern about his property.... He wanted a contract with the woman to be certain that the son she was giving birth to is not somebody else’s, but his own. For this simple purpose all the woman’s freedom had to be destroyed. She had to live almost like a prisoner, or worse.

Man agreed -- under compulsion, he compromised. If the woman was losing a few things -- her freedom of movement, her freedom in changing lovers -- man was also ready to sacrifice his freedom. They would remain devoted to each other forever.

But it is against nature. Even if you want to do it nature is not going to support you.

Nature is for freedom, not for any kind of bondage.

So new problems started arising. Men started finding prostitutes who were no-one’s wives, or as it was phrased in India, the prostitute was the wife of the whole town: nagarvadhu. She belongs to anybody, she is a commodity; you have to pay and buy her time and her body. Because of marriage it was very difficult to find married women because then there were more complexities: they had their husbands.... Prostitutes were good.

And you will be surprised to know that in India every city had its topmost prostitute -- she was the most beautiful girl born in that city. Because she was so beautiful it was not right to let her get married to one person, she had to be shared. She was so beautiful that if she got married there would be trouble, there would be problems -- people would go on falling in love with her. It was better to keep her free for anybody who would pay.

Marriage created suspicion. The husband was always suspicious about whether the child born to them was his own or not. And the problem is, the father had no way to determine that a child was his own. Only the mother knew. Because the father had no way of being certain, he created more and more walls around the woman -- that was the only possibility, the only alternative -- to disconnect her from the larger humanity. Not to educate her, because education gives wings to people, thoughts, makes people capable of revolt, so no education for women. No religious education for women, because religion makes you saints, holy people and it has been a male-dominated society for centuries and man cannot conceive a woman to be higher and holier than himself.

Man has been cutting from the very roots any possibility of woman’s growth. She is just a factory to manufacture children. She has not been accepted by any culture in the world as equal to man.

Osho: Sermons in Stones, Chapter 13.

Bliss and Pleasure

2008-09-17T22:22:00.001-07:00

what is the difference between bliss and pleasure?

Pleasure is physical, physiological. Pleasure is the most superficial
thing in life; it is titillation. It can be sexual, it can be of other
senses, it can become an obsession with food, but it is rooted in the
body. The body is your periphery, your circumference; it is not your
center. And to live on the circumference is to live on the mercy of
all kinds of things that go on happening around you.

The man who seeks pleasure remains at the mercy of accidents. It is
like the waves in the ocean; they are at the mercy of the winds. When
strong winds come, they are there; when winds disappear, they
disappear. They don't have an independent existence; they are
dependent, and anything that is dependent on the other brings bondage.
Pleasure is dependent on the other. If you love a woman, if that is
your pleasure, then that woman becomes your master. If you love a man,
if that is your pleasure and you feel unhappy, in despair, sad,
without him, then you have created a bondage for yourself. You have
created a prison, you are no more in freedom. If you are a seeker
after money and power, then you will be dependent on money and power.

The man who goes on accumulating money, if it is his pleasure to have
more and more money, will become more and more miserable -- because
the more he has, the more he wants, and the more he has, the more he
is afraid to lose it. A double-edged sword: the more he wants... the
first edge of the sword.
Hence he becomes more and more miserable.

The more you demand, desire, the more you feel yourself lacking
something, the more hollow, empty, you appear to yourself. On the
other hand -- the other edge of the sword -- is that the more you
have, the more you are afraid it can be taken away; it can be stolen.
The bank can go bankrupt, the political situation in the country can
change, the country can go communist.
There are a thousand and one things upon which your money depends.
Your money does not make you a master, it makes you a slave. Pleasure
is peripheral; hence it is bound to depend on the outer circumstances.
And it is only titillation. If food is pleasure, what actually is
being enjoyed? -- just the taste! For a moment, when the food passes
your taste buds on the tongue, you feel a sensation which you
interpret as pleasure. It is your interpretation. Today it may look
like pleasure and tomorrow it may not look like pleasure. If you go on
eating the same food every day your buds on the tongue will become
nonresponsive to it. Soon you will be fed up with it -- that's how
people become fed up.

One day you are running after a man or a woman and the next day you
are trying to find an excuse to get rid of the other. The same person,
nothing has changed! What has happened meanwhile? You are bored with
the other, because the whole pleasure was in knowing the new. Now the
other is no longer new; you are acquainted with the territory of the
other. You are acquainted with the body of the other, the curves of
the body, the feel of the body. Now the mind is hankering for
something new. The mind is always hankering for something new. That's
how mind keeps you always tethered somewhere in the future. It keeps
you hoping, but it never delivers the goods -- it cannot. It can only
create new hopes, new desires. Just as leaves grow on the trees,
desires and hopes grow in the mind. You wanted a new house and now you
have it -- and where is the pleasure? Just for the moment it was
there, when you achieved your goal. Once you have achieved your goal,
your mind is no longer interested in it; it has already started
spinning new webs of desire. It has already started thinking of other,
bigger houses. And this is so about everything.

Pleasure keeps you in a neurotic state, restless, always in turmoil.
So many desires, and every desire unquenchable, clamoring for
attention. You remain a victim of a crowd of insane desires -- insane
because they are unfulfillable -- and they go on dragging you into
different directions. You become a contradiction. One desire takes you
to the left, another towards the right, and simultaneously you go on
nourishing both the desires. And then you feel a split, then you feel
divided, then you feel torn apart, then you feel like you are falling
into pieces. Nobody is responsible. It is the whole stupidity of
desiring pleasure that creates this. And it is a complex phenomenon.
You are not the only one who is seeking pleasure; millions of people
just like you are seeking the same pleasures. Hence there is great
struggle, competition, violence, war. All have become enemies to each
other because they are all seeking the same goal, and they all can't
have it; hence the struggle has to be total. You have to risk all --
for nothing, because when you gain, you gain nothing, and your whole
life is wasted in this struggle. A life which might have been a
celebration becomes a long, drawn out, unnecessary struggle.

When you are so much after pleasure you cannot love, because the man
who seeks pleasure uses the other as a means. And to use the other as
a means is one of the most immoral acts possible, because each being
is an end unto himself, you cannot use the other as a means. But in
pleasure-seeking you have to use the other as a means. You become
cunning because it is such a struggle. If you are not cunning you will
be deceived, and before others deceive you, you have to deceive them.

Machiavelli has advised pleasure-seekers that the best way of defense
is to attack. Never wait for the other to attack you; that may be too
late. Before the other attacks you, you attack him! That is the best
way of defense. And this is being followed, whether you know
Machiavelli or not. This is something very strange: people know about
Christ, about Buddha, about Mohammed, about Krishna; nobody follows
them. People don't know much about Chanakya and Machiavelli, but
people follow them -- as if Machiavelli and Chanakya are very close to
your heart!

You need not read them, you are already following them. Your whole
society is based on Machiavellian principles; that's what the whole
political game is all about. Before somebody snatches anything from
you, snatch it from the other. Be always on guard. Naturally, if you
are always on guard you will be tense, anxious, worried. And the
struggle is such and it is constant. You are one, and the enemies are
millions. For example, if in India you want to become the prime
minister, then millions of people, who also want to become the prime
minister, are your enemies. And who does not want to become the prime
minister? One may say, one may not say. So everyone is against you and
you are against everybody else. This small life of seventy, eighty
years, will be wasted into some utterly futile effort. Pleasure is not
and cannot be the goal of life. The second word to be understood is
happiness.

Happiness is psychological, pleasure is physiological. Happiness is a
little better, a little more refined, a little higher, but not very
much different from pleasure. You can say that pleasure is a lower
kind of happiness and happiness is a little higher kind of pleasure --
two sides of the same coin.
Pleasure is a little primitive, animal; happiness is a little more
cultured, a little more human -- but it is the same game played in the
world of the mind. You are not so much concerned with physiological
sensations; you are much more concerned with psychological sensations.
But basically they are not different; hence Buddha has not talked
about four words, he has talked about only two.

The third is joy; joy is spiritual. It is different, totally different
from pleasure, happiness. It has nothing to do with the other; it is
inner. It is not dependent on circumstances; it is your own. It is not
a titillation produced by things; it is a state of peace, of silence,
a meditative state.
It is spiritual. But Buddha has not talked about joy either, because
there is still one thing that goes beyond joy. He calls it bliss.

Bliss is total. It is neither physiological nor psychological nor spiritual.
It knows no division, it is indivisible. It is total in one sense and
transcendental in another sense. Buddha only talks about two words.
The first is pleasure; it includes happiness. The second is bliss; it
includes joy. Bliss means you have reached to the very innermost core
of your being.
It belongs to the ultimate depth of your being where even the ego is
no more, where only silence prevails; you have disappeared. In joy you
are a little bit, but in bliss you are not. The ego has dissolved; it
is a state of nonbeing. Buddha calls it nirvana. Nirvana means you
have ceased to be; you are just an infinite emptiness like the sky.
And the moment you are that infinity, you become full of the stars,
and a totally new life begins. You are reborn.

Pleasure is momentary, of time, for the time being; bliss is
nontemporal, timeless. Pleasure begins and ends; bliss abides forever.
Pleasure comes and goes; bliss never comes, never goes -- it is
already there in the innermost core of your being. Pleasure has to be
snatched away from the other; you become either a beggar or a thief.
Bliss makes you a master. Bliss is not something that you invent but
something that you discover. Bliss is your innermost nature. It has
been there since the very beginning, you just have not looked at it,
you have taken it for granted. You don't look inwards.
This is the only misery of man: that he goes on looking outwards,
seeking and searching. And you cannot find it in the outside because
it is not there.
Osho, excerpted from Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha,Volume 8, Chapter 5

Raghu Rai- THE Photographer

2008-09-13T23:33:00.000-07:00

Raghu Rai- (The one and only well known Indian Photographer) will be in mumbai.
sudharak told me on phone. and we are going to be there.
and we went.
it is not the first time- that I would be meeting him.
I know him since ages- when I was learning photography and my photography sir at Benaras Hindu University, mentioned and introduced his few works.
that was not the time of the net- when one can go to google and get more than one can chew. Today type Raghu Rai on google and one can see 13,000 image link to his name.
I have been following his work in 'India Today', where he was working as picture editor.
I was facinated by his work.
He was my personal Amitabh Bachchan.
when we had our all India photography context organized by Camera art society, Varanasi- back in 80's- my friend G K Santosh a noted photo-journalist from Varanasi, travelled to New Delhi to ask for his pictures to be exhibited in the show. And he gave.
I did not miss the cover story of 'The Illustrated weekly of India' which carried the cover story on him with an interview by Pritish Nandy.

That was the first time I came to know his process of picture taking. He said - it is a kind of photo-meditation for him.

well,

I first met him in 90's during the 'India 24hours' show at NCPA mumbai.

I recall him carrying his camera entering in the exhibition hall.

I was watching him the way one looks at the film stars.

Later that evening, in the party at the Oberoi Hotel, I introduced my self.

He gave me his delhi Phone number, and asked me show my work.

He said to me in that very first meeting- do not waste time being any ones fan- just do your work.

and I did not obey him.

In the year 2005, while making a short film On noted artist Himmat Shah , I came to know - Himmat is the friend of Raghu Rai. I met Raghu Rai with Himmat sir at his office in delhi.

and since then he became Raghu sir to me.

Raghu sir spoke to me on camera about his close friend Himmat Shah and it became an important part of my film.

Oh!

Here I am sitting at the third floor of sylvania hotel worlie, Mumbai.

We are little late - and Raghu sir was already on microphone in dark confrance room telling his story.

I am sitting mesmerized with my friend Sudharak Olwe listening and recording what he was saying. I want to become a silent microphone for the evening.

"Don’t take all those good pictures that you have seen before. We are human machines which get programmed each day. When we are young, our parents are doing it to us; in school, our teachers do it; our neighbours do it. You need to de-programme your mind, your thinking, your attitude, your mindset. Youngsters should look for their own kind of voice."

That evening, after the meeting I joined Raghu sir for a walk in worlie koliwada with sudharak olwe and Shantanu Das.

it is a day before Ganapati.

clouded worlie skyline.

it might rain any moment.

and enjoyed watching him practicing what he was telling to the audience- it was a sheer awareness of peace, sillence and spontanity. as if nature is creating images for the the generations to come.

The nature is saving some moments through the man Raghu Rai, who gets disslove in location as if he does not exist.

Mahendra Damle's paintings

2008-09-10T22:10:00.000-07:00

last month in Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai, India my friend Mahendra damle exhibited his work.here it is.

2008-09-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Law of Magic by osho

2008-09-08T21:41:00.000-07:00

I will tell you one of the deepest laws of life. You may not have thought about it at all. You have heard — the whole of science depends on it — that cause and effect is the base. You create the cause and the effect follows. Life is a causal link. You put the seed in the soil and it will sprout. If the cause is there, then the tree will follow. The fire is there: you put your hand in it and it will burn. The cause is there and the effect will follow. You take poison and you will die. You arrange for the cause and then the effect follows.

This is one of the most basic scientific laws, that cause and effect is the innermost link of all processes of life. Religion knows about a second law which is still deeper than this. But the second law which is deeper than this will look absurd if you don’t know it and don’t experiment with it.

Religion says: Produce the effect and the cause follows. This is absolutely absurd in scientific terms. Science says: If the cause is there, the effect follows. Religion says the converse is also true: you create the effect, and see: the cause follows.

There is a situation in which you feel happy. A friend has come, a beloved has called. A situation is the cause — you feel happy. Happiness is the effect. The coming of the beloved is the cause. Religion says: Be happy and the beloved comes. Create the effect and the cause follows.

This is my own experience, that the second law is more basic than the first. I have been doing it and it has been happening. Just be happy: the beloved comes. Just be happy: friends are there. Just be happy: everything follows.

Jesus says the same thing in different words: Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, then all else will follow. But the Kingdom of God is the end, the effect. Seek ye first the end — the end means the effect, the result — and the cause will follow. This is as it should be.

It is not only that you place a seed in the soil and the tree follows; let there be a tree and there are millions of seeds. If the cause is followed by the effect, the effect is again followed by the cause. This is the chain! Then it becomes a circle — start from anywhere, create the cause or create the effect.

I tell you, it is easier to create the effect because the effect depends totally upon you; the cause may not be so dependent on you. If I say I can only be happy when a certain friend is there, then it depends on a certain friend, whether he is there or not. If I say I cannot be happy until I attain this much wealth, then it depends on the whole world and the economic situations and everything. It may not happen, and then I cannot be happy.

The cause is beyond me. The effect is within me. The cause is in the surroundings, in the situations — the cause is without. The effect is me! If I can create the effect, the cause will follow.

Choose happiness — that means you are choosing the effect — and then see what happens. Choose ecstasy and see what happens. Choose to be blissful and see what happens. Your whole life will change immediately and you will see miracles happening around you...because now you have created the effect and causes will have to follow.

This will look magical; you can even call it “The Law of Magic.” The first is the law of science and the second is the law of magic. Religion is magic, and you can be the magician. That’s what I teach you: to be the magician, to know the secret of magic.

Try it! You have been trying the other your whole life — not only this but many other lives also. Now listen to me! Try this magic formula, this mantra I give to you. Create the effect and see what happens; causes immediately surround you, they follow. Don’t wait for the causes; you have waited long enough. Choose happiness and you will be happy.

What is the problem? Why can’t you choose? Why can’t you work on this law? Because your mind, the whole mind, which has been trained by scientific thinking, says that if you are not happy and you try to be happy, that happiness will be artificial. If you are not happy and you try to be happy that will be just acting, that will not be real. This is what scientific thinking says, that that will not be real, you will be just acting.

But you don’t know: life energy has its own ways of working. If you can act totally it will become the real. The only thing is, the actor must not be there. Move totally in it, then there is no difference. If you are acting half-heartedly then it will remain artificial.

If I say to you dance and sing and be blissful, and you try half-heartedly, just to see what happens, but you remain behind...and you go on thinking: This is just artificial. I am trying but this is not coming, this is not spontaneous — then it will remain acting, a waste of time.

If you try, then try wholeheartedly. Don’t remain behind, move into it, become the acting — dissolve the actor into acting and then see what happens. It will become real and then you will feel it is spontaneous. You have not done it; you will know then that it has happened. But unless you are total this cannot happen. Create the effect, be in it completely, see and observe the results.

I can make you kings without kingdoms; you only have to act like kings, and act so totally that before you even a real king will appear as if he is just acting. And when the whole energy has moved into it, it becomes reality! Energy makes anything real. If you wait for kingdoms they never come.

Even for a Napoleon, for an Alexander, who had big kingdoms, they never came. They remained miserable because they didn’t come to realize the second, more basic and primal law of life. Alexander was trying to create a bigger kingdom, to become a bigger king. His whole life was wasted in creating the kingdom, and then there was no time left for him to be king. He died before the kingdom was complete.

This has happened to many. The kingdom can never be complete. The world is infinite; your kingdom is bound to remain partial. With a partial kingdom how can you be a total king? Your kingdom is bound to be limited and with a limited kingdom how can you be the emperor? It is impossible. But you can be the emperor. Just create the effect.

Swami Ram, one of the mystics of this century, went to America. He used to call himself Badshah Ram, Emperor Ram. And he was a beggar! Somebody said to him: You are just a beggar, but you go on calling yourself the emperor. So Ram said: Don’t look at my things, look at me. And he was right, because if you look at things then everybody is a beggar...even an emperor. He may be a bigger beggar, that’s all. When Ram said: Look at me! in that moment, Ram was the emperor. If you looked, the emperor was there.

Create the effect, become the emperor, be a magician... and from this very moment, because there is no need to wait. One has to wait if the kingdom has to come first. If the cause has to be created first, then one has to wait and wait and wait and postpone. There is no need to wait to create the effect. You can be the emperor this very moment.

When I say, Be! Just be the emperor and see: the kingdom follows.... I have known it through my experience. I am not talking to you about a theory or a doctrine. Be happy, and in that peak of happiness you will see the whole world is happy with you.

There is an old saying: Laugh and the world laughs with you; cry, and you cry alone. Even the trees, the rocks, the sand, the clouds...if you can create the effect and be ecstatic, they will all dance with you; then the whole existence becomes a dance, a celebration.

But it depends on you, if you can create the effect. And I say to you, you can create it. It is the easiest thing possible. It looks very difficult because you have not tried it yet. Give it a try!

dahi handi

2008-08-28T22:50:00.000-07:00

srigurji art acdmey is the uniqe place to learn art.
this was the celebration of the janmastami by painting a big picture.
drawing by teacher- mahendra damle.

Vivek vilasini

2008-08-18T22:50:00.000-07:00

I met Vivek Vilasini at Bose krishnamachari's studio.
I was making the film for his GHOST TRANSMEMOIRE show.
And Vivek was helping us in the research process.

we sat in a resturant at santacruze, to drink beer.
and that was the longest meeting I had with him.
he is well read person like most of the Kerala born artists.
that time I did not know- what he is up to...

I met him couple of times and find him a very intresting and intelligent person.
Today, I got the information that his pictures are the part of Sothebey's auction in New York.
Congratulations Vivek!
here is the picture titled -LAST SUPPER

Rain Rain

2008-08-11T20:44:00.000-07:00

more than 15 days of continius rain and i am enjoying it.
i am doing drawings and they are coming out good.
after all i can create an image with out a heavey electronic tool.

One need to learn and practice making images- if he (or she) is really serious about image making. simple tool like camera give opprtunity to click and there is a picture.
it was the base line of Kodak company-
you just clik- we will do the rest.
now we do not need them.

but in the process of simlyfying the process the depth of image making is getting lost.
this i realized seeing the work of the old masters in the various galleries of the europe.
i am exploring my quest to create an image.
and i am much more serious now...

2008-08-10T22:20:00.000-07:00

I wrote this post in hindi for chavanni chap
it is here- so that it will be availabe to all the persons who read my post.
I hope you will enjoy it!

Monday, July 28, 2008
हिन्दी टाकीज:फिल्में देखना जरूरी काम है-रवि शेखर

रवि शेखर देश के जाने-माने फोटोग्राफर हैं.उनकी तस्वीरें कलात्मक और भावपूर्ण होती हैं.उनकी तस्वीरों की अनेक प्रदर्शनियां हो चुकी हैं.इन दिनों वे चित्रकारों पर फिल्में बनाने के साथ ही योग साधना का भी अभ्यास कर रहे हैं.चित्त से प्रसन्न रवि शेखर के हर काम में एक रवानगी नज़र आती है.उन्होंने हिन्दी टाकीज सीरिज में लिखने का आग्रह सहर्ष स्वीकार किया.चवन्नी का आप सभी से आग्रह है की इस सीरिज को आगे बढायें।

प्रिय चवन्नी,

एसएमएस और ईमेल के इस जमाने में बरसों बाद ये लाइनें सफेद कागज पर लिखने बैठा हूं। संभाल कर रखना। तुमने बनारस के उन दिनों को याद करने की बात की है जब मैं हिंदी सिनेमा के चक्कर में आया था।

और मुझे लगता है था कि मैं सब भूल गया हूं। यादों से बचना कहां मुमकिन हो पाता है - चाहे भले आपके पास समय का अभाव सा हो।

सन् 1974 की गर्मियों के दिन थे। जब दसवीं का इम्तहान दे कर हम खाली हुए थे। तभी से हिंदी सिनेमा का प्रेम बैठ चुका था। राजेश खन्ना का जमाना था। परीक्षा के बीच में उन दिनों फिल्में देखना आम नहीं था। तभी हमने बनारस के 'साजन' सिनेमा हाल में 'आनंद' पहली बार देखी थी और चमत्कृत हुआ था।

हम जिस समाज में रहते हैं उसके चरित्र हमें बनाते हैं। आज मुड़कर देखता हूं - तो दो-तीन ऐसे मित्र हैं जिनके प्रभाव से मैं हिंदी सिनेमा से परिचित हुआ।

सबसे पहली फिल्म हमने अपने बाबूजी के साथ देखी थी -'दो बदन' मनोज कुमार की निशांत सिनेमा में तब मैं चौथी क्लास में पढ़ता था। उसके बाद हर साल परीक्षा के बाद बाबू जी एक फिल्म देखने ले जाते थे। इस सिलसिले में दूसरी फिल्म थी -'अनुपमा'। उस समय 'अनुपमा' मेरे बिल्कुल पल्ले नहीं पड़ी थी। बए एक गीत था -'धीरे -धीरे मचल ऐ दिले बेकरार कोई आता है' फिल्म देखने के बाद गीत से एक दोस्ती सी हो जाती थी। जब रेडियो पर किसी देखी फिल्म का गाना आता था तो आवाज थोड़ी बढ़ा दी जाती थी।

बनारस उत्तर प्रदेश और बिहार की सीमा पर एक महत्वपूर्ण शहर है। वहां ढेरों सिनेमा हॉल थे -दीपक, कन्हैया, निशात, चित्रा, गणेश टाकीज मुख्य शहर में थे। कन्हैया बिल्कुल गोदौलिया चौराहे के पास और चित्रा चौक में। चित्रा पहली मंजिल पर था। चित्रा सिनेमा सुबह के शो में विदेशी फिल्में दिखाया करता था। जिसे देखने के लिए शहर के पढ़े- लिखे लोग इकट्ठे होते थे। उस वक्त यह पता करना मुश्किल होता था कि कौन सी अंग्रेजी फिल्म अच्छी होगी।

उस समय सिनेमा के दर अपनी जेब पर ज्यादा जोर नहीं डालते थे। दो की पाकेट मनी (जो कि एक रुपये हुआ करती थी) बचा कर एक फिल्म देखी जा सकती थी। एक रुपये नब्बे पैसे में फर्स्ट क्लास में बैठकर अनगिनत फिल्में देखी है मैंने। तभी तो आज कल फिल्मों के एक टिकट के लिए सौ रुपये का नोट निकालना जरा अच्छा नहीं लगता।

उस जमाने में गाने रेडियो पर सुने जाते थे। अमीन सायानी का बिना गीत माला रेडियो का सबसे लोकप्रिय कार्यक्रम हुआ करता था। अमीन भाई बीच- बीच में फिल्म पत्रकारिता भी किया करते थे। बिनाका गीत माला से मेरा पहला परिचय मेरे जीजा जी ध्रुवदेव मिश्र ने कराया था। वे मेरे जीवन में आने वाले पहले रसिक व्यक्ति थे - जिनको जीवन में आनंद लेना मजा लेना आता था।

उनके साथ मैंने राजेश खन्ना की 'हाथी मेरा साथी' देखी थी। तब मुझे लगा था . मैंने जीवन की सबसे अच्छी फिल्म देखी है।

पर सिनेमा का चश्का लगा था मुझे अपने मामा जी से गर्मियों की छुट्टियों में मैं बनारस से निकल जाया करता था- गोरखपुर। गोरखपुर से सटे हल्दिया पिघौरा गांव में मेरे मामा जी रहा करते हैं। तब नाना- नानी भी थे। पिघौरा से गोरखपुर लगभग 13 किलोमीटर है। और सायकिल से रोज हमलोग शहर जाया करते थे। शहर में छोटे- बड़े कई काम हुआ करते थे - मामा जी के और उसी में समय निकाल कर एक महीने तक हम लोग एक फिल्म भी देखा करते थे। इस तरह पहली बार हमने एक महीने में अठ्ठाइस फिल्म देख डाली थी। यी वीडियो के आने के पहले की बात है। और हमें स्वयं आशचर्य हुआ करता था।

गोरखपुर में सिनेमा रोडर पर ही तीन- चार सिनेमा हॉल थे। बाकी सायकिल हो तो कुछ भी दूर नहीं। मामा जी दिलीप कुमार के फैन थे। और मुझे पहली बार दिलीप कुमार की फिल्मों में रस लेना उन्होंने ही सिखाया था। तब पुरानी फिल्में भी सिनेमाघरों में धड़ल्ले से चला करती थी, वो भी रियायती दरों पर।

बनारस लौटा तो नये कॉलेज में दोस्त बने और फिल्मों का सिलसिला शुरू हो गया। मुझे लगता था कि - फिल्में देखना एक जरूरी काम है ताकि फिल्मों की जानकारी होनी चाहिए। यह सामान्य ज्ञान जैसा था और हम घंटों फिल्मों की चर्चा करते रहते थे।

'आनंद' सिनेमा शहर से थोड़ा दूर था उन दिनों। वहां पर 'रोटी, कपड़ा और मकान' रिलीज हुई थी। जिसका बेहद लोकप्रिय गीत था -'बाकी कुछ बचा तो महंगाई मार गयी'।

(यह गाना आज भी आकाशवाणी पर बैन है) धीरे-धीरे शहर के बीच पुराने सिनेमाहाल अपने रखरखाव की वजह से घटिया होते होते गये, -कुर्सियां टूट गयीं। उनमें खटमल भी होते थे। जगह-जगह पान के पीक होना तो बनारस की शान थी। पर इससे क्या फर्क पड़ता है। फिल्म देखने के सुख पर इसका कोई प्रभाव नहीं पड़ता था।

लहुरा बीर पर प्रकाश टॉकीज था। जिसमें 'बॉबी' रिलीज हुई थी। सड़क के उस पार क्वींस कॉलेज था। जहां हम पढ़ाई कर रहे थे। पता चला एक दिन क्वींस कॉलेज के प्रिंसिपल ने वहां धाड़- मार दी और स्कूल यूनिफार्म में सिनेमा देख रहे बच्चों को पकड़ लाए।

उसके बाद ही आयी थी 'शोले' आनंद सिनेमा हाल में। फिल्म हिट होने का क्या मतलब होता है वह किसी छोटे शहर में ही महसूस किया जा सकता है। शहर का शायद ही ऐसा कोई मानव हो जिसने 'शोले' और 'जय संतोषी मां' न देखी हो। दो फिल्में लगभग एक साल तक एक ही हॉल में जमी रही। दोनों फिल्मों की जबरदस्त 'रिपीट बैल्यू' थी। हमने भी 7 या 8 बार 'शोले' हॉल में देखी होगी - कभी किसी के साथ कभी किसी के साथ।

'जय संतोषी मां' देखने मैं नहीं गया।

'साजन' सिनेमा हॉल का जिक्र मैं कर चुका हूं। उसके बाद नदेसर पर 'टकसाल' खुला और लंका पर 'शिवम' 'शिवम' में काशी हिन्दू विशविद्यालय के छात्रों की भीड़ रहा करती थी। नदेसर शहर के दूसरे छोर पर था - वहां फिल्म देखना नहीं हो पाता था।

अस्सी पर एक सिनेमा हाल था 'भारती' वहां अच्छी अंग्रेजी फिल्में चलती थीं। काशी हिन्दू विश्वविद्यालय के नजदीक होने के कारण वहां भीड़ भी रहती थी। बीच में ऐसा भी होता था कि 'भारती' में लगने वाली कोई भी फिल्म देखी जा सकती है। वहां खचाखच भरे हॉल में हमने देखी थी। - 'इण्टर द ड्रैगन', 'टॉवरिंग इनफर्नो' तुम्हें याद होगा - वी एच एस टेप का जमाना उसके बाद आया। जनता ने सिनेमा हॉल जाना बंद कर दिया। जगह.जगह कैसेट लायब्रेरी खुल गयी।

मेरे एक मित्र हैं - संजय गुप्ता। उनकी अपनी वीडियो लायब्रेरी थी। हमलोग वीएचएस कैमरे से शादी भी शूट करते थे। तब एक-एक दिन न जाने कितनी फिल्में उसके ड्रॉइंग रूम में देखी होगी।

तब भी हॉल में जाकर फिल्म देखना हमेशा अच्छा लगता था। इस बीच भेलूपूर में दो नए हाल आकर पुराने हो गये थे - गुंजन और विजया।

गुंजन में हमने 'मदर इंडिया' पहली बार देखी थी। मेरे नए नए जवान होने के उस दौर में श्याम बेनेगल की फिल्मों की भी यादें हैं। विश्वास नहीं होता अब 'अंकुर', 'निशांत', 'भूमिका', 'मंथन', 'मंडी' जैसी फिल्मों को एक छोटे शहर में सिनेमा हॉल में देखा जा सकता था। ओर धर्मेन्द्र-हेमामालिनी, रेखा, अमोल पालेकर, संजीव कुमार, राजेन्द्र कुमार, वैजन्ती माला-दिलीप कुमार राज कपूर, देव आनंद जैसे नाम आप के जीवन पर किस कदर प्रभावित करते थे।

हिंदी सिनेमा और हिंदी गीतों का प्रेमी प्रेम सीखता है - सितारों से। रफी, किशोर, लता, आशा, गुलजार, मजरूह, आ डी, साहिर, मदन मोहन से।

मुझे पक्का भरोसा है आज भी अपने देश के सूदूर कोनों में लोग जवान हो रहे होंगे। वैसा ही प्रभाव होगा। वैसी ही सनक होगी। बस सितारों के नाम अलग होंगे - शाहरुख, सलमान, संजय दत्त, रानी, करीना, दीया, कंगना, आमिर ... इत्यादि।

तुम्हारा
रवि

Bombay Roads

2008-08-06T20:21:00.000-07:00

like every citizen of the this economic capital of India, i am also fade-up with the
bombay roads.it is raining since last 10days and the roads are full of path holes.
but we do not have a system to correct it.
this is the hight of the most visible corruption in the country.
we have news papers publishing the images almost ever day.
but there is nobody in this country who can black list the people who are responsible for this condition.
shame to us mumbaikars who are tolrating this nonsence for years!

love, sex and infant

2008-08-05T20:05:00.000-07:00

i am little cocern about the babies- who can not decide for themselves.
we humans has conditioned to use sex for personal pleasure and do not think babies- who come as the by product of the personal pleasure.
we have our own laws to deal with different kind of situations.
and then we realise that we ar not free.
we have the LAW to decide for our fate.
I am writing these lines in the refrance of two headlines.

you can not take decisions about the birth of your own child.
even mothers can not take decisions about their own babies.
a woman can use advance medical help to borrow the womb for becoming a mother. then get divorce and disown the baby.
then again there is a law-
the father can not take the girl child.

I am worried.
what kind of human race we are becoming?

fashion show at ncpa

2008-08-04T20:54:00.000-07:00

like ever man with a camera- I also enjoy shooting fashion.
these pictures I shot with the theam in the mind not focusing on the model- but on the dress and the beauty.

Splitsvilla

2008-08-04T19:47:00.000-07:00

here are few photos from the Mtv SPLITSVILLA
all the photos were clicked by me as I was shooting pulicity stills for them.
it was very hectic shoot.
there was no fix time table.
crew was working almost round the clock.
and girls were not getting their beauty sleep.

chavanni chap -the world of hindi cinema

2008-08-04T19:34:00.000-07:00

my friend ajay Bramhatmaj writes a blog chavanni chap on the bollywood in hindi.
if you know hindi and wish to keep yourself update with the world of hindi cinema.
I wrote about myy early days of growing up with hindi cinema in his blog-
filmen dekhana ek jaruri kaam hai

2008-07-17T21:43:00.000-07:00

I just finished the book- WAYS OF SEING - John Berger
we are surrounded by words.
but seeing comes before words.
now we all prefer reading than looking at the visual and undersatnd it as much as possible. we are looking towads some one who can explain the visual in to the words.
then we go back to the visual and confirm or acknowledge what has been said.

here i would love to share few quotes-

Publicity is the culture of the consumer socity.
they tell you- you are what you have

Publicity is, in essence, nostialgic. it has to sell the past to the future.
it can supply the standards of its own clame.

Publicity is the process ofmanufacturing glamour.

ART is the sign of affluence.

daily notes

2008-07-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

I have been writing regularly.
but no one was reading it.
not even me.
that time I was writing about myself.
a diary.
now I wish to share my life....

I have been reading lots of OSHO books and much in to it.
recently I was listening to his commentry on TAO.
if you wish to listen and know about it follow the link