Osho and his ninety-six Rolls Royces

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Osho had always liked to live with gardens and beautiful birds and animals. He wanted a deer park to be created at Rajneeshpuram, and we were to grow “alfa-alfa” for the deer, to attract them away from the hunters. He told a story of a place in India. He used to visit near a waterfall where there were hundreds of deer. At night they would come to the lake to drink, “and their eyes would shine like a thousand flames, dancing in the dark.”

At the bottom of the garden, before Basho Pond, where black swans resided on one side of the bridge, and white on the other, there was the garage in which were the famous ninety-six Rolls Royces. In India Osho’s one Mercedes created an uproar, but in America it took almost a hundred Rolls Royces to achieve the same effect. 

For many people these cars were a barrier between them and Osho. They could not see past the cars.

It is said that Sufi masters create disguises so that they may go about their business unrecognized and do not have to waste time with people who are not seekers. 

“There was no need for ninety-six Rolls Royces. I could not use ninety-six Rolls Royces simultaneously – the same model, the same car. But I wanted to make it clear to you that you would be ready to drop all your desires for truth, for love, for spiritual growth to have a Rolls Royce. I was knowingly creating a situation in which you would feel jealous.”

“The function of a master is very strange. He has to help you come to an understanding of your inner structure of consciousness: it is full of jealousy.”

“…Those cars fulfilled their purpose. They created jealousy in the whole of America, in all the super-rich people. If they were intelligent enough, then rather than being my enemies they would have come to me to find a way to get rid of their jealousy, because it is their problem. Jealousy is a fire that burns you, and burns you badly.” (Beyond Psychology)

“Everything that I have done in my life has a purpose. It is a device to bring out something in you of which you are not aware.” …Osho

My Diamond Days with Osho, ma prem shunyo