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The music coordinator during my time at the Oregon Ranch, Garimo, once said to me, “We don’t know why people take sannyas.” Her words have stayed with me over the years. Initially, I was surprised by this statement. Living in the commune, I naively assumed that we all shared similar thoughts and feelings—at least those similar to my own! However, her statement opened my mind to the diverse perspectives that others might hold. It served as a powerful reminder that we are all individuals, each a unique universe unto ourselves. 

Every time someone takes sannyas at an event, I find myself faced with a conundrum. The word “conundrum” perfectly encapsulates my predicament because I also don’t understand why people choose to take sannyas. I can explain why I made that decision and what it means to me. But when it comes to understanding the motivations of others—why they would make seemingly illogical or crazy choices—it remains a mystery. 

Sometimes, I ask people directly, “Why do you want to take sannyas? Your life is fine as it is. What do you hope to gain from it?” Most of the time, they look at me, fall silent, and are unable to articulate their reasons. Their inability to express their motivations might actually be the closest explanation of sannyas. 

In my view, sannyas is akin to love; it exists in a similar dimension. When someone is in love and is asked why, they often can’t articulate a reason. They may look at you as if YOU are the crazy one! Love, much like sannyas, confounds the mind. It is inexplicable, yet its essence is undeniable. Even if one cannot explain it, one knows it. 

I was reminded of this once again at Oshofest Dallas 2025 when three individuals decided to take the leap into sannyas. As I tuned my guitar for the celebration, I pondered, “What compels a person to reach such a pivotal moment in their life?” This highlights the beautiful mystery that defines sannyas. Sannyas represents a leap—a significant leap of faith—a life-changing plunge into uncharted waters. Only those who have taken that leap truly understand its meaning. Such is the paradox of love and sannyas. 

We celebrate the sannyas of Ma Deva Nalini, Ma Anand Amiyo, and Ma Deva Mamta, honoring them with our songs and dances as they embark on what can only be described as an inexplicable journey.

In the words of Osho: 

“Meditation is the awareness that I am not the mind. When the awareness goes deeper and deeper in you, slowly slowly, few moments arrive, moments of silence, moments of pure space, moments of transparency, moments when nothing stirs in you and everything is still. In those still moments, you will know who you are. And you will know what is the mystery of this existence. And once you have tasted those few dewdrops of nectar, great longing will arise in you to go deeper and deeper into it. Irresistible longing will arise in you, a great thirst. You will become afire. That’s what sannyas is all about: when you have tasted few moments of silence of joy of meditativeness, you would like this state to become your constant state, a continuum. The desire to make meditation your whole lifestyle is what sannyas is all about.”  Philosophia Perennis, Series 2, Chapter 5

I would like to share some insights from the three-day Oshofest festival  in Dallas, Texas, October 2024. It was a high-energy event filled with joy, heart, silence, and of course … Osho!

Initially, I created a clip to share with the participants via their mobile devices (hence the formatting) and neglected to post it on the One Sky YouTube channel. However, it’s never too late. For celebration!

I want to extend my deepest gratitude to Sangeeta (our organizer), her family, and the beautiful Osho Simran Center who continue this yearly tradition with grace and generosity.

Also, a big thank you to the talented One Sky Band, which for this festival included Rishi on drums, Prabodh on bass, and Lee on saxophone.

https://youtube.com/shorts/jPR3RQIn5q4?feature=share

It was a wonderful one-day event in Manhattan, June 1st. It had the perfect title: “Nothing To Lose But Your Head”. Indeed, this is what happened. How quickly we all slipped into meditation and celebration; hearts opened as we sang and danced; connections with ourselves and others flowed effortlessly.

Although this clip features Morning Satsang and Heart Dance, powerful sessions were also shared by Deva Sofia (Breath and Movement) and Teerth (Drumming Circle). Sofia had played in Oshofest Dallas the week before and brought some of that high energy with her.

It was great to see some of the older NYC network in attendance. There were new faces, too, some traveling as far away as Virginia, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Upstate New York — everyone adding their unique spice to what was truly a transforming feast.

Many thanks to Niseema for coordinating. And a big thank you to the musicians (Milarepa, Sofia, Teerth). Ripples from the new Heart Dance song were felt long after last goodbyes and hugs were shared.

We open our arms
To welcome the sun
Hand in hand
Our journey’s begun

Lift our song
Up to the sky
Heart to heart
Ready to fly

“Meditation’s ultimate conclusion is: live the moment to its totality, intensively, joyously … Live moment to moment, trusting the whole existence as the birds are trusting it, as the trees are trusting it. Don’t separate yourself from existence. Become part of it and existence will take care of you.” Osho, paraphrased from “The New Dawn”

https://youtu.be/xL9zmQLinHk

Oshofest Dallas 2025: What wonderful festival! Many thanks to Anurag and Sangeeta of the beautiful Osho Simran Center for welcoming all of us so gracefully.

And to the talented One Sky Band (Lee, Rishi, Prabodh, and Sofia), I bow to each of you, flowers that you are.

Peak after sunlit peak, spirits soared higher with each meditation. I think I speak for everyone: it took a long time to come back to earth. I dare say, the ripples of transformation will go on and on for a long time to come.

Last but hardly least, gratitude to Osho for lighting the way forward with meditation, love, laughter, and celebration.

https://youtu.be/loQuFzpUWwY

Oshofest Dallas May 23 – 26, 2025

Featuring the One Sky Band with Lee, Milarepa, Prabodh, Rishi and special guest Sofia

* Recharge with active and silent meditations, song, dance, and heart-opening activities

* Delicious vegetarian cuisine

* Relax and unwind

* Set the busy mind aside. Let go and drop stress. Enjoy a break from the demands of work

* Reconnect with yourself and inner silence

Location: Dallas, TX 76226

For details and reservations, contact Sangeeta at (214) 724-1991 /  oshomeera1313@gmail.com

Video Invite (https://youtu.be/ldnOrutAEkI)

 

OSHOfest Dallas

May 23 – 26, 2025

Featuring the One Sky Band with Lee, Milarepa, Prabodh, Rishi and special guest Sofia (flute)

* Recharge with active and silent meditations, song, dance, and heart-opening activities

* Delicious vegetarian cuisine

* Relax and unwind

* Let go, drop the stress, and enjoy a break from the demands of the world

* Reconnect with inner silence

Location: Dallas, TX 76226
Contact Sangeeta (214-724-1991) / oshomeera1313@gmail.com

Before I describe the East/West event at Osho Nisarga this March, I want to start with a powerful insight I had with Osho many years ago.

I arrived in Uruguay on April 10, 1986, to join a small group of friends caring for Osho during his stay in Punta del Este. There were maybe fifteen or sixteen of us in total. Kendra managed the household affairs and shared with me that Osho wanted each of us to have a small task—nothing like the long fifteen-hour days at the Ranch, just something light and fun so we could relax and enjoy ourselves. Kendra assigned me the job of cleaning the small living room where the discourses would take place. It felt like bliss.

As luck would have it, Osho decided to start speaking on the very day I arrived. I had just come from Los Angeles, where I worked as a bulldozer driver leveling hilltops for housing developments, as well as a parking lot attendant in Santa Monica. I was also having fun with my appearance. I had dyed my hair black, shaved, and begun dressing like an actor from the television show, “Miami Vice”.

That evening, I took a seat in the back of the room. It was so small that every seat felt like the front row. Halfway through the discourse, I must have dozed off because I suddenly felt on full alert inside. It was as if someone was shining a flashlight on my closed eyes. Tuning into what Osho was saying, he was describing a man without a beard as akin to a woman with a mustache. At that moment, I realized that the “light” I was sensing was Osho focusing in on me. Red alert. Then I heard him say, “Just look at Milarepa sitting there in the back without a beard looking like a complete idiot.” Laughter filled the room. It was Osho’s way of saying hello and welcoming me. By the way, I grew my beard back VERY quickly.

Weeks went by. I was blissfully soaking up Osho’s presence and silence. Sannyasins were instructed not to come to the property as it was too small to accommodate many people. Additionally, there was a concern about upsetting the Uruguayan government, which was under pressure from the United States regarding Osho. However, one day Nivedano showed up. Gayan, his beloved, was part of the household. She was working in the sewing room stitching beautiful new robes for Osho.

Nivedano approached me and said, “We have to get some instruments and play.” Inside, I was thinking, “Oh no. Why would we want to do this?” The silence I was enjoying felt too precious to disturb. Sensing my resistance, and not taking no for an answer, he asked Nirvano to ask Osho if he would like us to play for the discourses. The answer came back a definitive “Yes.” Before I knew it, with all my resistance in tow, I found myself in a car heading to the nearby city of Montevideo in search of music stores.

It was a long day, but I eventually found a guitar, and Nivedano some small percussion instruments. That same night, we played as Osho entered the room. And he didn’t just come in; he came in DANCING. At that moment, seeing him beaming and surrounded by His joyous people, I realized that the silence Osho speaks of is not the silence of a graveyard; it is the silence of celebration. This insight penetrated deeply and has remained with me ever since. Several weeks later the Uruguayan government asked Osho to leave and I found myself at the airport in a situation I would have wished otherwise: celebrating Osho’s departure.

 
Fast forward thirty-nine years to early February of this year. Priya was offering the Silent Retreat group some tips during the orientation as we were about to begin. One sentence she said particularly resonated with me: “Make your silence a celebration.” I remembered her words many times throughout the retreat. It always brought me an inner smile, knowing that the East/West event in March would be a celebration of this insight.

Between the Silent Retreat and East/West event, I had a few days to prepare the schedule, set up and rehearse and sound-check with the band. It was lovely to welcome Chandira, who traveled from Germany to play bass, keyboards, and sing. She and I share a time-tested connection and intuitive communication from our years of touring together. We comprised the “Western” element of the band while Vatayan (drums) and Milind (bansuri), along with our guest percussionist, Tejas, represented the East. However, as musicians know well, there are no borders or boundaries in music; it is a universal language. Especially today, with so much cultural crossover, you can see how music distinctions have merged and evolved. What began with The Beatles when George Harrison introduced Western audiences to the sounds of the sitar and tablas—not to mention the groundbreaking fusion band, “Shakti”—has transformed music beyond what anyone could have imagined sixty years ago.

As the event unfolded, the musicians and beautiful gathering of participants connected and our spirits soared. With each meditation, our hearts opened, silence deepened, and our energies harmonized. Raju and his kitchen also seemed to catch the vibe. Every meal served to the group was infused with a healthy dose of love and celebration.

Each day began with Dynamic Meditation, setting the tone for the Morning Satsang. Throughout the day, various meditations such as Nataraj, Stop! Dance, Laughing Drums, Heart Dance, and Kundalini added variety and spice to the schedule. During Evening Satsang, enthusiastic shouts of “Osho! Osho! Osho!” echoed through the Buddha Hall so loudly that I’m sure the nearby Himalayas heard us. The last night went so high in Sannyas Celebration and Energy Darshan it took everyone a while to come back to Earth. On Day 5, our gathering came to a gentle close with Dynamic Meditation, Satsang, and Sufi Whirling, while Raju’s lunch provided the perfect finishing touch to what was truly a canvas of the divine—a celebration of silence.

The photos from Uruguay are from my archive, while many of the lovely event photos were taken by Rahi (https://www.rahiadventure.com). A heartfelt thank you to him, as well as to Priya and her entire Osho Nisarga team (https://www.oshonisarga.com). Finally, I want to express my gratitude to all the wonderful participants who brought their joy and dancing hearts to the meditations. I can only say, Osho! Osho! Osho!

I have always considered India to be my “home” — not in a physical sense, but on a deeper, inner level. This sentiment has compelled me time and again to embark on journeys from afar, returning home, so to speak. 

This year in January, I set out once again on such a pilgrimage. I packed a large suitcase filled with warm clothes (Dharamsala can be quite cold in February), a smaller suitcase filled with music cables and microphones (for the upcoming East/West March event), and not one, but two guitars. When at last I arrived to the gates of Osho Nisarga Meditation Center, what a relief it was to set down my heavy travel load.

After a few days of settling in, I turned off my cell phone, closed my computer, slipped into maroon clothes, and fully committed myself to the Silent Retreat for the next three weeks. There would be no talking, no eye contact, no reading, no listening to music, and no Osho — nothing at all to pull me outward. 

My daily schedule was intense, beginning with Dynamic Meditation at 7 AM and concluding with a Zen Walk at 8:15 PM. In between were three ninety-minute Zazen sessions, an hour-long nature walk, Kundalini Meditation, meals, and some tea breaks — everything meticulously timed to help quiet the mind’s tendency to engage with the external world.

I would not describe the Silent Retreat as easy; far from it. However, the support of twenty-four committed individuals journeying inward together fostered a tangible sense of oneness within the group as the days progressed. 

During challenging moments, when my mind rebelled, panicked, and wanted to escape to somewhere, anywhere, I would look to the eternal, snow-clad Himalayas in the distance that seemed to whisper, “Go on, go on, keep going.” Charaiveti, Charaiveti.

My seventy-second birthday passed much like any other day, except that the Nisarga staff had decorated the altar in my room during the morning sit in Buddha Hall. What a delightful surprise it was when I opened the door and saw how beautifully and lovingly things had been arranged.

When Day 21 arrived and the group came out of silence, I was filled with overflowing gratitude and joy. An unbearable lightness of being bubbled up from within, while externally existence showered me with blessings. The concept of “Here and Now,” once merely a New Age cliché I had read or heard about, became my reality. I cannot imagine a better birthday gift for myself.

Many of the lovely photos shared here were taken by Rahi (https://www.rahiadventure.com). I extend my heartfelt thanks to him, to Priya and her entire Nisarga team (https://www.oshonisarga.com), and to all the participants who supported my journey — my Journey Home.

“I am an invitation for all those who are seeking, searching, and have a deep longing in their hearts to find their home.

“I am an answer to the question that everybody is, but cannot formulate – a question that is more a quest than a question, more a thirst than a verbal, mental inquiry; a thirst that one feels in every cell and fiber of his being, but has no way to bring to words and ask.

“I am an answer for that question which you cannot ask and you cannot expect that it could be answered. When I say I am the answer, I don’t mean that I can give you the answer. Yes, if you are ready, you can take it. I am just like a well, ready for you to throw your bucket and draw the water for yourself. I have it, but I cannot reach to you without your efforts. Only you can reach to me.

“It is a strange invitation. It will take you on a long pilgrimage and it will end only where you already are. You will have to move many steps and on many paths just to come to yourself, because you have gone far away from yourself. You have completely forgotten the way back. I am a reminder, a remembrance, of the lost home.

“As a person I do not exist. As a person I only appear. I exist as a presence. Since the day I came to know myself, the person disappeared. There is only a presence, a very living presence that can quench your thirst, that can fulfill your longing. Hence, in one word I can say I am an invitation.

“You are as ancient as the whole existence. You have always been here. You may have come across many masters; you may have come close to many buddhas, but you were too much engaged in trivia. You were not aware of your longing. I am an effort to provoke the dormant in you, to wake up the asleep. The fire is there, but is burning very low because you have never taken any care of it. My invitation is to make you aflame. And unless you know a life which is luminous and aflame, all your knowledge is just a deception.

“I am an invitation to take a courageous jump into the ocean of life. Lose yourself, because that is the only way to find yourself.” Osho, paraphrased from “The Invitation, #1” 

I received this New Year greeting from The Humaniversity. It is a sincere and beautifully expressed intention for the year ahead.

“Our wish is that we all create as much peace as possible in each of our hearts. Then we can multiply this peace and make the world a better place. When you love, peace will follow naturally. This is what Veeresh always wanted. And this is the work we carry forward.

“Let the connection with your heart grow deeper and stronger, so that you can look in the mirror and say: “I’m following my heart, transforming and creating the world I want to live in – a world full of peace and kindness!”

“Make a commitment to give and share your heart. Give what you have. Look at someone else and find out what you can do to uplift them. Make this a priority in your life. We all live in abundance, whether we see it or not. Give what you can, to yourself and others, and find peace and love in return.”