The Colour Orange

 "Sannyasin" is a word that was, until recently, not to be found in a Western vocabulary. It is an Eastern concept, a term used to describe traditional Hindus who have renounced the world and the accumulation of material possessions in favour of their search.to attain "Moksha", a state of enlightenment, and thereby, avoid reincarnation.

In ancient Eastern cultures the tradition was that around the age of forty, which during that time was the average lifetime expectation, that people would begin to prepare for death by meditating and praying, wandering around, dressed in Orange or Saffron coloured robes, these men used to come begging at the gate of my childhood home in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

 As a child, born into a Christian Colonial family, I was warned about these men, by my "ayah”, or nanny, who looked after me. She told me that these sannyasins had evil powers and could put me under a spell. I grew to regard these "holy men" with a sense of danger. This first impression happened around the age of two. I can still, more than fifty years later recall the exact scene vividly. First impressions leave strong imprints, that have consequences in the future.

 My ayah was Buddhist. Together with our other Buddhist servants, she would sometimes take me with them to their temple. There, the monks also wore Orange and Saffron, the same colours as the Hindu Sanyassins This aroused my curiosity. Even the wooden Buddha statues were robed in Orange.

 Orange or Saffron robes worn by those who renounced material life among the, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain seems to be Vedic in origin. The very first mantra of the Rig Veda extols Agni. Meaning fire. Agnimile purohitam yagnasya devam rtvijam, hotaram ratna dhatamam. The colour of Agni or fire is saffron. In ancient times it was customary to keep fire lit in houses for cooking which was later ritualized as fire worship on a daily basis. Similarly, when Rishis went from one place to another or from one Ashram to another it was customary to carry fire with them. In the mind of the ancients, fire or Agni symbolized the Supreme being.

 About twenty years later, after I had moved from Colombo to London with my family, I was confronted by a man, standing at my front door dressed completely in the colour Orange, trousers and shirt, glowing radiantly. He was there to visit a woman with whom I lived in a city commune. He also wore a wooden bead necklace to which was attached a locket. The photograph on the locket was of a face which made me notice. There was a recognition. The man in the photograph, kept my focus There was a feeling of knowing this person. There was also a sense of danger. This was the first glimpse I had of the man who was to become the main guiding influence of my adult years. First impressions go deeply, as I have said before...

 It is said that the master chooses the disciple. I had at that time no active interest in finding a master, though by then I had been long disillusioned with Christianity. The visitor, described himself as a sanyassin. He outlined to me the concept of "Neo Sannyas" initiated by a Master known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who lived at that time in Bombay. This was not a way of renouncing the world, rather a way of embracing and living life totally. This "Bhagwan" was also the author of a book entitled "From Sex To Superconsciousness" This I found fascinating. and set about to find out more. It all sounded very easy. But there again was a sense of danger. You could say I was captivated from the beginning....

Upon visiting my parents, immediately after my first encounter with a "Neo Sanyassin”, I stirred up my whole family with by asking about those old Hindu Sanyassins from my childhood memories. My poor father had immediate visions of me joining the Hari Krishna movement. There was that sense of danger again! I was already moving beyond the bounds of their comprehension.

 In less than a year I was dressed completely in Orange, bought in the stores that outfitted rock bands in fashionable London streets. I managed to combine being vain with being spiritual. 

 At the time I was working in my first Architectural job. My clothes stood out amongst the dark colours worn by the other men. Strangers would ask me whose photograph I wore around my neck.in the locket. No stranger to attention seeking, I now had to face new challenges.

  Initiation into sannyas was not as I recall, a decision. Something was burning deep inside that has continued. From then on. My life took on an intensity in pace. I experienced it as a calling, with hindsight, I would describe Sannyas Initiation as a commitment to consciousness. It can be linked to the old Sannyas as also being a preparation for death. but instead of renunciation, it is about living life so full heartedly that we can go gracefully into death.

  Sannyas is something which happened before I was to meet Osho personally. I could rationalize it later as an opportunity to be with a living modern day "Jesus", someone of the same level as my Christian conditioning would allow. But as I have experienced it, Sannyas Initiation is a break with the conditioning. My logical mind brought up all kinds of rationale about why I should not make this step. I did not understand either the full significance of what I was doing, though this is now clear to me. It just made sense at the time, even though it meant that I stood out in my Orange attire. It provoked a lot of reactions from many people.

 My peer group in the Therapist Training I was at that time in were the most critical! My family were even more shocked! It meant that I was to use a name that was not what they had chosen. Sannyas Initiation meant also getting a new name chosen by Osho, to signify a new spiritual beginning.,

 I was anyway working on myself psychologically, now I went into even further exploration, beyond the comprehension of those who had brought me up into their values of life. Dynamic meditation, which I had begun to practice daily, restored in me a grounding that had been missing since I emigrated at the age of twelve to Britain, I was discovering my own authority. The question "Who Am I?" was fully one I was fully busy with. This quest is one that I have described in a previous article in the Satori issue of this magazine. 

 To work with this enquiry, as I have learned, to fully dismantle my conditioning. Here the use of technique has been of enormous value. With Soho’s Sannyas, there is not just one method of seeking, there are hundreds! This quest has required a discipline.

 Sannyas, is a discipline. If one is a disciple then one has to be in discipline Issues of condition came up daily during my years spent living in Osho´s communes in India and America It is difficult to summarize those experiences into a few words. Osho has defined the word discipline as "Having the willingness to learn. " This, from the original Greek translation. This translation has done wonders to dispel my previous

concept of Discipline. It meant something else entirely to my father. He had spent some time during the war, in the Royal Navy of Ceylon, as it was then called.

 This willingness to learn has taken me on a journey of discovery of inner and outer landscapes. I could not possibly have imagined a life that included conducting wildly expressive Therapy groups in an ashram in India and working on a ranch, in Oregon USA, milking cows and riding horses just like the cowboys in the movies that I saw in my childhood. These have been some of the highlights.

 "This life of celebration” as is it described in a song, however has not simply been a bed of roses. Far from it...! Living under a "fascist regime" as Osho described the people who were running the ranch in Oregon" is an experience that took me a long time to integrate. To me, it was a test of fire. “The search is difficult, because the seeker has to risk his whole life for it”. (Osho The Search.)

 Within these settings I have confronted many aspects of my identity and conditioning. Mostly, I have found how bizarre and humorous life can be.  In order to become centered, I have learned, it is necessary to experience extremes.

 The declaration of Sannyas is a recognition of consciousness. In the shadows of this consciousness are the aspects that are sooner or later brought to light in the expanding of consciousness...Meditation is a much-needed tool in the processing of these elements of unconsciousness. Meditation is the core in the entire range of Osho´s legacy.

 Sannyas, is to me now an inner discipline. The outer symbols of Sunset colours and wooden mala have long been discarded as outer symbols. “Awareness is choice less"

 It is continuing willingness to let life take me on my journey of discovery.

 " The search is individual, full of danger, alone one has to move. But that is the beauty of it. In deep aloneness, only in deep aloneness, where not even a thought is present, God enters you, or is leaving you" (Osho : The Search # 2 )

 The danger of being with a master is that of having the ego exposed for what it is. "Ego" as I have come to learn is everything that is false about me; all of the masks of the personality; that which is not essential. To my great shame, I once declared, that I was bored with Osho discourses. Hepointed out to me, in a public discourse (From the false to the Truth#12) that he was the first master to bring humour into the the temple. He also instilled in me the lesson to listen to his silences. Now, in my silences, I find Osho. 

The worst thing Osho did, in my opinion, was to leave.....with his physical departure I have had to look more at myself than ever. Only since then do I consider that I have really become a meditator. I am grateful that my destiny brought me onto the path with the Master of Masters. This path is one of facing vulnerability as an individual. Those who become initiated into Osho´s sannyas now seem to me to have great courage. I have no idea how it must be to take this step. To me this step would not have been possible without having the Master there in his body. He inspired in my being, the trust to be myself and face the consequences. "Just be yourself and watch" (Osho)

 There is still the legacy of Osho´s work. Hundreds of volumes of the spoken word. To examine Osho´s concepts such as "Always remember that you are a Buddha” and to make of them, my own experience is my ongoing quest in life. I still, often wear the colour Orange, just because it suits me. I have not lost my sense of style!

  "The search for the truth is in one way hard and in another easy - for it is

 evident that no one of us can master it thoroughly, nor miss it wholly. Each one of us adds a little to our knowledge of nature and from all the facts assembled arises a certain grandeur". - Aristotle 350 y B

 To live in truth from the heart is not something that can be entered into lightly, but in some lives, there is no choice. To be an outsider or "misfit "in society is something I became accustomed to from an early age. To be views as "different" is painful, especially to be looked at with suspicion through the eyes of people who see sannyas as a sect or a cult.

 From the outset, there has been a history of Osho´s message being misinterpreted and interfered with by those in favour of using dogma as a control. This is fully illustrated in books such as Max Brecher`s "A Passage To America", a journalistic account about the conspiracy to destroy Osho´s life and work, during the time Osho spent in America. When Ronald Reagan died recently, so much of this replayed itself in my mind. Here in Germany, Osho was featured in a documentary entitled "Legends" Within his lifetime, there was no such recognition. 

 Yet, more than ever, people are becoming disillusioned with organised religion or politics as ideals and looking to themselves.

 "A Sannyasin cannot belong to any religion, for his is a life of independent thought, which draws from all religions; his is a life of realisation, not  merely of theory or belief, much less of dogma."

 Osho, in many hundreds of volumes of discourses, has outlined all the various Spiritual paths and disciplines. His message is about going beyond dogma. His legacy is vast..." I will be dissolved in my people. Just as you can taste the sea from any place and it is salty, you will be able to taste any of my sannyasins and you will find the same taste: the taste of Bhagwan, the taste of the Blessed One. (Osho: The Goose is Out.)