Osho, Everybody's Birthright - Nobody's Copyright

Regarding this futile controversy, which the OIF (Osho International Foundation) has been causing, I can only say one thing and that's "If you want to copyright Osho, then first copyright Krishna, Buddha, Mahaveera, Jesus, Moses, Allah, Mohammed, Tao and all the Masters that have ever existed on this planet."

And why do you want to copyright Osho? Just because you want to command over the mass! Haven't you all had enough with the commandments of the society, the politicians, the teachers and the family over us. At least Osho showed us the door to freedom, and now you, his so-called 'sannyasins' want to take that away from us too. Anyway what are we doing? Aren't we spreading the message of the masters just like you guys have been doing, or pretending to be doing? So, what is your problem?

Instead of wasting your time in the courts fighting over baseless issues and squandering money, which otherwise could have been used sensibly; you guys (OIF) could have done a lot of productive works, spreading the Master's message, teaching people his meditation techniques and spreading the aromatic fragrance of love and bliss that emanates from his flowers.

I have come across many people and what I've found out is that that already they have so much of wrong notions about Osho; courtesy such as the articles in Wikipedia, which is nothing but heaps of one-sided lies. And instead of spreading the truth about the Master, you guys are fighting like immature kids. Shame on you! What a disgrace! Just because you camouflage yourself with orange robes, you don't become a sannyasin. If you consider yourself to be an Osho Sannyasin, bring that to reality.

Make love, not war. We have had enough of that, haven't we?

"Osho Friends‘s efforts resulted in TTAB sustaining its opposition and petitions for cancellation. In an unanimous verdict by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on 13 January 2009, it has established that Osho and His works cannot be trademarked. In response to the opposition lodged by Osho Friends International (OFI) India, the Board ruled that Osho’s name is used to describe the teachings and meditation techniques of the mystic Osho and the spiritual and meditative movement that grew up around him. Since “Osho” does not identify only one Osho group as the source, it cannot serve as a trade mark owned by Osho International Foundation, Zurich. As a result defendant OIF can not foreclose others from utilising the term OSHO."

Below are some excerpts of Osho which I've collected from this beautiful site called Osho Friends International.

"I want my sannyasins to inherit my freedom, my awareness, my consciousness. And each sannyasin has to be my successor, has to be me. There is no need for anybody to dominate. There is nobody for anybody to dictate to. They are on their own. If they want to be together they can be together. Out of their own freedom, it is their choice and their decision. If they want to move free they have all the rights to move free."

OSHO, The Last Testament Vol-2

“I cannot see you dependent. I cannot see you being harassed, tortured, ordered, made to obey—no. Hence, I say to you: My way of life is not a religion. It is certainly a kind of religiousness. To be religious without being attached to a religion is the most beautiful experience of life. Then religiousness is a quality, not a faith”.

OSHO, From Bondage to Freedom, Chapter 15, Question 2

“The world headquarters will be publishing my books, will be releasing my tapes, videotapes, will be doing every kind of work. But it has no domination over anybody. All communes of the world are independent. All centers of the world are absolutely free. They are under nobody’s guidance. My sannyasins are directly related to me. The world headquarters will simply function so that you can have a connection with me. Otherwise you don’t have any place to whom to ask where I am, what is happening to me. The world headquarters is not in any way a power over any sannyasin, over any other sannyas centers, ashramas, communes. It has nothing to do with that. It is my secretariat. And its function is to convey to me messages of importance and to convey to the sannyasins my messages of any importance to anybody. It is not an organization. It is not a structure. It is simply a functional office”.

OSHO, The Last Testament, Vol. 5, Chapter 12

"I hate the word “ism.” I hate collectivities. I respect the individual. Collectivities are mobs, and the mob psychology has to follow the lowest denominator. Only individual peaks can become Everests. Collectivities become only flat ground. Do you want to be just a flat ground? Wouldn’t you like to be an Everest, reaching higher and higher towards the stars?

I cannot see you dependent. I cannot see you being harassed, tortured, ordered, made to obey—no. Hence, I say to you: My way of life is not a religion. It is certainly a kind of religiousness. To be religious without being attached to any religion is the most beautiful experience of life. Then religiousness is a quality, not a faith."

OSHO, From Bondage to Freedom, Chapter 15, Question 2

“Nobody can ever be coerced into meditation, because coercion is violence. How can one coerce meditation? It comes when it comes. But you can persuade.”

OSHO, The Passion for the Impossible, Chapter-20

“I am not going to leave any successor because we have seen what happens to successors. Two thousand years of popes coming and going.... If you want to find idiots in history, it is so easy -- take the names of all the popes, because other names have disappeared. These popes are representing Jesus Christ, and because they are representing Jesus Christ they are infallible. I am not going to leave any successor behind me, because in the first place I, myself, am fallible. How can my representative be infallible?”

OSHO, From Death to Deathlesssnes

“But nobody is my follower. Nobody is going to be my successor. Each sannyasin is my representative. When I am dead, you all -- individually -- will have to represent me to the world. There is not going to be any pope. There is not going to be any shankaracharya. Each sannyasin, in his own capacity, has to represent me. This has never happened -- but it is going to happen! You are all my successors. When I am dead, that simply means I have left this body and entered all the bodies of my people. I will be within you. I will be part of you.”

OSHO, From Death to Deathlesssnes

“But as far as I am concerned, it is not needed at all for any buddhas to have preceded me or to precede you. I don't accept any followers and I don't accept any predecessors. Successors or predecessors are not needed, you are enough unto yourself. It is just a question of awakening. So everybody will wake up -- how long can you sleep? We will go on harassing you.”

OSHO, The Miracle

"I want my sannyasins to inherit my freedom, my awareness, my consciousness. And each sannyasin has to be my successor, has to be me. There is no need for anybody to dominate. There is nobody for anybody to dictate to. They are on their own. If they want to be together they can be together. Out of their own freedom, it is their choice and their decision. If they want to move free they have all the rights to move free." It is quite clear then that he was neither interested nor intended that his discourses and meditations be copyrighted or trademarked.”

OSHO, The Last Testament

“The very idea of succession is not the right idea in the world of consciousness. That's why I have said, I will not have successors. But you are right in saying that you will carry in your bones and in your blood my love, my insight. But don't use the word `successor', rather use the words `you will be me'. Why be so far away, a successor, when you can be me? Be so empty that I can make a home in you, that your emptiness can absorb my emptiness, that your heart can have the same dance as my heart. It is not succession; it is transmission.

The very idea of succession is political. Only one person can be a successor, so there is bound to be competition, ambition. There is bound to be a subtle struggle to be closer to the master, to force others away. It may not be on the surface but, underneath, the problem will remain in the disciples: "Who is going to be the successor?"

I destroy the whole conception. Every disciple who has loved has become one with the master. There is no need of any competition, nor one successor. It is for everybody who has offered himself in deep gratitude, who has become one in a certain sense with the master's presence. There is no need of any competition. Thousands can have the same experience, millions can have the same experience.

To avoid politics in religion, I have said that I will not have successors. I want religion to be absolutely devoid of ambition, competition, being higher than another, putting everybody lower than oneself. With me you are all equal. And I trust and love you, that you will prove this equality. In equals there is no competition; there is a combined effort. You will all carry my message, but nobody will be higher or lower, nobody will be a successor. All will be my lovers and they will carry me.”

OSHO, Nansen: The Point of Departure

“Once I am gone, the serious people are dangerous. They can take possession, because they are always in search of taking possession of things. They can become my successors, and then they will destroy. So remember this: even an ignorant person can become my successor, but he must be able to laugh and celebrate. Even if somebody claims that he is enlightened, just see his face: if he is serious, he is not going to be successor to me! Let this be the criterion: even a fool will do, but he should be able to laugh and enjoy and celebrate life. But serious people are always in search of power. People who can laugh are not worried about power -- that is the problem. Life is so good, who bothers to become a pope? Simple people, happy in their simple ways, don't bother about politics.”

OSHO, Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega

So when I say, "Spread the word," I mean whatever I have been telling you, go on spreading in as many ways as possible. Use all the news media, use everything that technology has provided, so that the word reaches to every nook and corner of the earth. And remember, it is far more powerful than any nuclear weapons because nuclear weapons can only bring death -- that is not power. But the word which has come from an enlightened consciousness can bring new life to you; it can give you rebirth, resurrection -- that is power.

OSHO, The Path of the Mystic

To know details of the case and the controversy and how Osho friends fought for the rights and freedom of Sannyasins like us, please visit: Osho Friends International.