Pune Lifestyles

Pune has a great cafe called the German Bakery. It's long picnic benches under a tent with Christmas lights inside, and every time you sit down you meet someone new. It's close to the Osho compound, so lots of Osho-ites, clearly identifiable by their scarlet red robes (which are mandatory inside the compound), but plenty of locals there too.

Camp Osho is somewhat secretive... visitors are only allowed to take a brief silent guided tour at 9 AM and 2 PM. You see strange things inside, like I saw two people greet each other hello in normal social fashion accompanied by a standard hug, only once the hug started, they just froze in that position for about 5 minutes. Completely silent and motionless. It looked uncomfortable to me.

The burning question on my mind was why there is an HIV test required to attend the camp, even for just a day. Does this imply that it's sort of a sex camp? The answer seems to be that it is not at all a sex camp, and the test is mainly just a relic from when Osho himself passed away in 1990. At the time, AIDS was new and there was a lot of hysteria, so he instituted this policy, and after his passing they just haven't changed it.

Osho's attitude to sex was described to me this way: sex is healthy and natural, but it is just the beginning of your journey towards meditation. But without the beginning you'll never reach the end, so he therefore encouraged it for anyone who wanted or needed it, as part of his larger philosophy that people should freely follow their own paths wherever they may lead. Sound familiar? See my post on train tracks...

Anyway, I decided my path would not take me into the camp, as I prefer to practice my zen in the real world, not so much in sequestration from it. I think they try to foster an environment of fun, experimentation, and emotional support there though, which seems good, but I also got the sense that the people there were a bit lost, looking for some sense of purpose in life, which they hoped to find through meditation and casual dabbling in abstract painting, abstract dancing, archery, etc. It popped into my head that these people were musicians without instruments. I think ultimately enlightenment is a solo journey.

I met many people at the German Bakery, travellers, Osho-ites, Indians, hippies, local college students. I even was addressed in Icelandic at one point by a guy who overheard me explaining my background to the person across from me at dinner. He was also half Icelandic like me, and had also left at a young age. He had been an Osho-ite for many years.

There's a nice internet cafe in town owned by a young man who has 2 wives. They are Muslims, so this is not unusual. One wife sits behind the counter, I thought looking a bit wistful for something... I didn't meet the other. I got to talking with him outside and I asked him whether they all sleep together or whether they had separate bedrooms. He said no never together, because the wives would fight. He said fighting between them is a constant headache for him, and it for the first time struck me that the special intimacy and companionship that a husband and wife normally enjoy must be a bit strained for them. I imagined ordinary activities like walking in the park or having dinner, and I thought about how the dinner conversation would go. Strained, awkward, and formal is my best guess. Somehow it didn't seem as fun now as I'd always imagined it to be. Sour grapes on my part? Perhaps... but I don't think so actually.

I see many of my burning fantasies and illusions being laid to rest on this trip, I'm learning so much. I see both the good and the bad in India, the good and bad in the people, and it's healthy for me. Of course many people have already criticized me for carrying a delusionally rosy picture of India in my head, but like Osho said, without the beginning you'll never reach the end, and so I had to come and come again and still once more in order to grow to the next stage. I love India and Indian culture, but living in Camp Osho won't bring you enlightenment or happiness or much of anything really. It is a beginning for some, but only a beginning. I don't need to be in India to practice my zen.