The Gachchhamis
In this double
paged picture from the German edition of the Rajneesh Times of
December 7th. 1984, we see that it is one of the most important
meditations of Rajneeshism, the religion Sheela attempted to create, to experience daily life as an exercise
in awareness, which is called worship. In Rajneeshism every place
where there's any kind of work or worship becomes a temple, the
kitchen, the disco, the laundry, the offices, the workshops,
and Rajneeshies begin and end their worship with the Gachchamis.
While doing the Gachchamis they become aware of what they are doing
and why they are in the commune.
Worship can be illustrated by a quote from Rajneeshism, the
little red book Sheela compiled from Osho's lectures.
A quote from Osho's which wasn't in Rajneeshism is this one:
"All rituals are just strategies to create a belief that you are
doing something special, something sacred. You are simply being
stupid, nothing else."
If this quote had been spread amongst sannyasins in
Rajneeshpuram, the awareness it could have brought to the Gachchamis
might have made them less of a collective, formalised ritual,
because a daily life as worship is a great thing, but only if
rightly understood.
The quote from Rajneeshism:
"Real worship consists of living. Real worship consists of small things. a religious man lives day-to-day, moment-to-moment. Cleaning the floor, and there is worship. Preparing food and there is worship. Worship is a quality - it has nothing to do with the act itself, it is the attitude that you bring to the act. Recognize! See! And there is worship."
It was taken from this larger quote:
"Your idea of God is an escape from living. You are afraid of
life, of love, you are afraid of death. You are afraid of ten
thousand things, and they are there and you don't want to see them
eye-to-eye. You don't want to know what exactly the case is. How to
avoid it? You become engaged somewhere else. You create a great
desire in your mind, a distant desire - somewhere in the future it
will be fulfilled - and you become obsessed with it. Then you
worship God, and you are worshipping a false God.
All worship is false, because real worship consists of living,
not of worship. Real worship consists of small things. Not that you
do rituals - all rituals are just strategies to create a belief
that you are doing something special, something sacred. You are
simply being stupid, nothing else. You can decorate your stupidity
- you can chant Vedas and you can read Bibles and you can make
great rituals in the churches and temples and you can sit around a
fire and chant great songs - but you are simply being stupid; this
is not being religious at all.
But a religious man lives day-to-day, moment-to-moment. Cleaning
the floor, and there is worship. Preparing food for the husband, and
there is worship. Taking a bath, and there is worship. Worship is a
quality - it has nothing to do with the act itself, it is the
attitude that you bring to the act. If you love the man and you are
preparing food for him it is worship, because the man is divine.
Love makes everyone divine, love reveals the divinity. Then it is
not just your husband, it is God in the form of your husband. Or it
is in your wife in the form of a woman - but it is God, ultimately
God and always God. A child, your child: God has come in a certain
form to you.
Recognize! See! And there is worship. You may be just playing
with your child and it is worship - far more significant than what
you do in the temples; the worship in the temples is just plastic."
Notes:
- Sambodhi, Nura, Samarpan, and Felix took a daytrip to what used to be Rajneeshpuram. Now it is a
Young Life youth camp.
Watch: - A witness account by a sannyasin who lived in Rajneeshpuram
During the Rajneeshpuram period, the gachchamis were introduced. Osho had already mentioned them in 1980, in two darshan diaries:
In the first one, Dance Till the Stars Come Down From the Rafters, Osho says:
"They are known as the three great shelters in Buddhism:
- Buddham sharanam gachchami - I go to the feet of Buddha.
- Sangam sharanam gachchami - I go to the feet of the Buddha's commune.
- The last shelter: Dhammam sharanam gachchami - I go to the feet of the eternal law, the Dhamma, Tao."
In the second diary, Just the Tip of the Iceberg, Osho says:
"True religion has nothing to do with Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism. It
certainly has something to do with Christ, Krishna and Buddha. True religion has
been experienced only by very few people in the world; others have simply
followed borrowed knowledge.
My effort here is not to make a Buddhist out of you but a Buddha. Less than that
is meaningless. One should not settle for anything less. If you can be a Buddha,
why be a Buddhist? If you can be a Christ, why be a Christian? Leave it for the
cowards to be Christians and Buddhists and Hindus and Mohammedans. The brave
one, the courageous one, would like to know the truth on his own. He would not
like to know the truth through others, he would like to experience it himself -
because unless you drink the water your thirst is not going to be quenched.
Buddha may have drunk the whole Ganges - that is not going to make any
difference to you. Just a glass of water will do for you but you have to drink
it.
But people are so foolish that they go on worshipping Buddha and Krishna and
Christ, and hoping that their thirst will be quenched they go on worshipping
scriptures - Dhammapada, Koran, Bible. It is like a thirsty man worshipping a
book of chemistry which explain that water is H2O. You can go on worshipping the
book; you will remain thirsty. You are simply proving yourself silly and nothing
else.
Or you can go on repeating the mantra "H2O, H2O, H2O...", "Buddham sharanam
gachchhami, Buddham sharanam gachchhami, Buddham sharanam gachchami". It is not
going to help, it is just H2O - you have to drink it yourself.
That is the whole significance of sannyas, I am not creating any religion, I am
simply imparting to you a glimpse into true religion and helping you to know it
on your own. Truth liberates but it has to be your own experience, only then
does it liberate, otherwise it creates a great bondage."
And yet, notwithstanding Osho’s stance against an organised religion, the
gachchamis were introduced, to be performed by all the sannyasins present in
Rajneeshpuram on a regular basis. One can only assume that it was at Sheela's
instigation and that of her small group of associates. In the course of time
Sheela had started to dress like a priestess and had taken steps to turn the
sannyas movement into a formal religion, called Rajneeshism, in order for it to
be acceptable to the American government. In the US constitution freedom of
religion is a basic right and in the conflict between the Rajneeshpuram
management and the government of state and country, abolishment of a religion
would have meant an anti-constitutional act.
After Sheela and her associates had left, the little red books in which she had
stipulated the essentials of Rajneeshism were burnt together with her priestly
outfits.
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Members of the Rajneesh commune in Oregon |
