Osho on Functioning of His commune and Institutes

BELOVED OSHO,

THE COMMUNE IS NO MORE; OR, EVERY SANNYASIN IS THE COMMUNE. BUT WHAT ABOUT SUCH INSTITUTIONS AS THE ACADEMY, OR FRIENDS, WHICH TAKES CARE OF THE PUBLICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF YOUR WORDS? DO THEY STILL HAVE A FUNCTION, AND HOW CAN THEY FUNCTION?

They still have a function — and they will continue to function — but their function is not dictatorial. Their function is to serve the whole world of sannyasins and the people who love me. So their function is not to govern you, their function is to serve you. And they are not organizations, they are simply institutes.

And their function has become more important now, because for all the languages that books are being translated into, it has to be seen to it that they are not mistranslated — that the translation is right, that it does not harm the spirit of the message. So it is a great work to take care of all the languages — we need the publication institute to check all the language publications before they are published.

Now there are many countries…. Just yesterday, a Korean woman was here, and she informed us that more than thirty of my books are translated into Korean, and thousands of copies are available in all the bookstalls all over the country. We have to take care of things. There are countries which are not members of the Bern Convention: they do not believe in copyright.

Korea is one of those that do not believe in copyright, so they can translate any book, publish any book. But we can at least keep an eye that the translation is done rightly, that the person who is doing the translation understands me. It is not only a question of copyright, it is a question that I should not be presented in a wrong way — which is possible.

Because if they are just earning money, who cares whether the translation is right or wrong?

I informed the woman, “You send…” Because we don’t even know: it may be happening in other countries. There are many countries which are not under the copyright convention. But we can help them, we can suggest to them, “We don’t want any money from you, any royalty from you, but we would like you to represent every book exactly, without any distortion.” And in many countries we will have to take publication into our own hands. For example, it happened in England that one of the presses had published eight or ten books. We came to know later on that it was a Christian press, but to us it was not a problem. To them it became a problem, because when I spoke against Christianity, they simply pulled out all those books that they had published before — books which have nothing to do with Christianity — and informed us that they could not publish our books anymore.

The same has happened in Holland — another publisher, and for the same reason. When I was speaking on Christ, they had published twelve or fifteen books, and now because I have criticized him, they have simply stopped selling the books. They have informed us, “We will not sell them, and we will not publish any more books because ours is a Christian organization.” So it is going to happen everywhere sooner or later. Somebody will be a Mohammedan publisher, somebody will be a Hindu publisher, somebody will be a Christian publisher. So sooner or later we will have to take all our publication into our own hands. We will not be able to give it to others — they will not be ready.

So the Academy, and Friends International, they will still have their functions: publication, keeping contact with all the sannyasins of the world — not control but contact; otherwise all contact will be lost. There is a need for an institute that keeps all the contacts, all the addresses, all the names of sannyasins; where they are, what they are doing. If we need them in some other place…. For example, if we want to keep an eye on all the languages, then we will need people with different languages to be in one place, at the headquarters. So Friends International will be the headquarters for communication for all the sannyasins.

If I am traveling around the world, then somebody, some agency, is needed to inform you where I am; otherwise I may pass through your country and you may not even know.

This is possible, because just now the pope has informed all the Christian publications in Italy, as he heard that I am coming to Italy, that they are not to give me any publicity — neither positive nor negative. They are not to even mention my name. Now, in Italy the pope has great powers — political powers — over the government and over the media. We will need our own media, our own agencies, our own publications to inform you.

And for any information that you want, you need headquarters from where you can get that information; otherwise it will become impossible even for you to find out where I am. But their function is not to govern you; their function is to serve you, just to make me available to you as accurately as possible.

We may need our own radio station somewhere, we may need our own television stations, because these people are going to be cutting off all sources, so that I cannot reach the public.

Now there are countries like Germany who have already made laws that I cannot enter their country. Others may follow in the same way if they see that I am traveling around the world. Then they simply won’t let me in. And there are political pressures, religious pressures. So we need our own independent media which can continue to inform you and other people — so these people cannot do any harm.

Now their only fear is that my words will reach people. This is a great victory for us. That means they have an absolute certainty that they cannot argue: they have no valid arguments against me. Such steps are only taken when you cannot argue; otherwise, what is the need? So this is the world we are in — which is dominated everywhere by rotten ideologies that have no logical support. And they will be trying to prevent us everywhere. And it is so easy. So before they start preventing us, we have to have our own arrangements. So rather than making a commune, my effort is now just to have a perfect publication department for all the languages possible, a satellite somewhere so we can manage radio stations all over the world without any difficulty, and headquarters from where you can get all the information — and through which people can be made aware of where sannyasins are.

I will be living at the headquarters, and we will make arrangements for people so that they can come and be with me. If countries stop me from entering, then the only way is that I should be in some place where my sannyasins are close by, and they can come and be with me. So we have to have these small groups which are not a centralization of power, but are only functionally serving the whole Sannyas commune around the world. And now

every Sannyasin is a small commune.

Source:

This is an excerpt from the transcript of a public discourse by Osho in Buddha Hall, Shree Rajneesh Ashram, Pune. 

Discourse Series: Light on the Path
Chapter #28
Chapter title: Act according to your insight
2 February 1986 am in Kathmandu, Nepal

References:

Osho has spoken on ‘Commune, Sannyasin, function, institute, publication, copyright’ in many of His discourses. More on the subject can be referred to in the following books/discourses:

1. Beyond Psychology
2. From Bondage to Freedom
3. The Last Testament, Vol 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
4. Socrates Poisoned Again After 25 Centuries
5. The Transmission of the Lamp
6. Joshu: The Lion’s Roar
7. From Darkness to Light
8. The Great Pilgrimage: From Here to Here
9. No Mind: The Flowers of Eternity
10. Om Shantih Shantih Shantih
11. Zen: The Special Transmission