posted December 06, 2007 05:32 PM         

Rajneesh was directly responsible for the twisted mix of totalitarian slavery and libertine indulgence that the commune represented. According to highly credible published reports, Rajneesh allowed middle aged men to have sexual intercourse with prepubescent girls at the commune in the name of sexual freedom, yet his disciples were not allowed to have a mind of their own and had to totally surrender to the great Bhagwan's will. Disciples were often forced to work 12 hours a day in cold and difficult conditions, while Rajneesh himself experienced "groovy spaces" in his private heated indoor pool and watched countless movies on his big screen projection television, all the while enjoying his daily supply of drugs. Rajneesh showed his divine love for his disciples by squandering millions in hard earned commune assets on his car collection and expensive jewelry, and all in the name of egolessness and spiritual surrender.

He constantly put his disciples through great physical hardships, which resulted in serious illness and even death for some, yet he himself lived in luxury and could not endure physical discomfort without complaining loudly like a baby.

In Poona, Rajneesh gave an infamous lecture in which he stated that Jews had given Hitler "no choice" but to exterminate them. In his last years Rajneesh declared that "I have fallen in love with this man (Adolf Hitler). He was crazy, but I am crazier still."

While living in Bombay, Rajneesh made one young woman pregnant through an aggressive and unasked for seduction. The woman was highly upset and forced by circumstance to have an abortion. In order to protect his image as a great guru, Rajneesh lied about his involvement and claimed that the girl had imagined the whole affair.

Rajneesh often asked women half his age to strip in front of him so that he could "feel their chakras." To facilitate this practice, he installed an electric lock on his bedroom door that could be activated from a button on his desk. Rajneesh groped the breasts of two of my women friends and "felt the chakras" of a third. I soon began to realize that like so many other girl grabbing Indian gurus who had made the headlines, Rajneesh on the human level was just an ordinary sexually immature Indian male. My lady friend who suffered the chakra feeling incident was so put off that she never came back to see him again. He had told her "Don't worry. You are mine now." That grasping statement had chilled her as much as the sexual advance. The young woman was a student of Indian music and had previously been sexually exploited by a famous Indian musician. She knew first hand what many Indian men were like. Rajneesh proved himself to be predictably and disappointingly the same.

After Rajneesh started having sexual intercourse on a regular basis, the spiritual need for him to "feel the chakras" of his female disciples mysteriously vanished. Rajneesh rationalized having sex with his female disciples by claiming that the act would bless them so much that they would become enlightened in some future lifetime. His admission years later that there is no such thing as reincarnation made his sexual rationalizations appear even more ridiculous and self-serving.

posted December 06, 2007 05:56 PM         

The man contradicts his whole teaching,
he says, "there is reincarnation",
then he says, "there is no reincarnation",
he says, "there is enlightenment",
then he says "there is no enlightenment",...
he has claimed infallibility,
and claimed to have reincarnated,
then retracted both claims.
He abused his followers, was a drug addict, and a criminal.
He advocated sexual abuse, and,
according to some accounts, genocide.
He was one of the grossest materialists I've ever heard of.

He may have had a philosophical mind,
but he used it to promote selfish ends.
He admitted to lying,
and claimed that his lies
were superior to universal truths.

How can you believe anything he says?

In my estimation, you are a born sucker,
if you go on defending him as a spiritual hero,
and will not even read the accounts
of credible witnesses (three of the people
to denounce him are the three people
whom he was closest to for many years,
and other critics include his own disciples)
and of verified historical incidents.

You may see a sage in those videos.
As a Scorpio (with a full appreciation of the Tao),
I look at him and I see a man doped up on Valium,
thinking and talking very slowly,
to a group of clapping seals,
and saying nothing new.
When he does say something original,
it smacks of egotism and sensationalism.

But far be it from me,
to try to pull back the curtain
on anybody's cherished idols.

Nevermind the strings and loose ends.
Ignore the man behind the curtain.

You just go ahead and enjoy the show.

Thats all it is anyway.