Milarepa Quotations

When I took sannyas in 1976, Osho was living in Pune, India. During these early years, I came and went from the ashram many times. When I was there I meditated, did groups, attended discourse, and finally at some point jumped into work. Osho seemed like god to me then representing something unreachable, unattainable.

I felt like I was standing in a deep valley looking at a far away Himalayan peak. I can see now this was more my own projection for my understanding since is: The master is only as far away as you are from yourself.

Osho used me and Shunyo (my girlfriend at the time) as an example of how he envisioned men and women should relate. He shared a story he had often told in discourse of a man and woman who lived at opposite ends of a lake. They were deeply in love but only met by chance when sometimes out rowing on the water. He said it was beautiful how Shunyo and I met like this couple. When we had the feeling to be together, we would meet and enjoy. And when we were apart, we were also happy and content in our aloneness.

One day in Los Angeles, I received an unexpected phone call from Dhyan Yogi, the person responsible for looking after the many practical things connected with Osho's World Tour. He invited me to come to Uruguay where Osho was staying at the time. Often people ask me about these times in Uruguay, what it was like to be there. Have you ever read 'Mojud: The Man with the Inexplicable Life'? This story is a good description of how I felt being there. In other words, incredible!

I always felt teasing came alongside a deeper meaning, as if [Osho] wanted to convey something immensely valuable to me.

When Pune Two came along, I sometimes thought I had somereal questions to ask. Serious questions! And yes, to answer your question. There was still a lot of playfulness, laughter and humor. From both sides.

Osho reported at the end of discourse he had heard a rumor I was going to England. When asked by someone what he thought he said, "All I can say is God save the Queen." Osho certainly loved to tease me.

The ecstasy of celebration was rising higher everyday as, in retrospect, the master was preparing to leave his body. The intensity in fact was often overwhelming. I remember sometimes feeling inadequate with just my guitar and songs to offer and expressed this in a question Osho answered on Enlightenment Day, March 21, 1987. He seemed surprised and responded that the offerings of the heart are more valuable than any mundane thing the world has to offer and that I should understand this.

Shunyo, who had been present in the discourse, told me of how Osho had been joking about me having a big reputation with women, calling me a 'Lord Byron type'. He said he was puzzled, though, because whenever he stopped his car in front of me "He could see the drum, but not the drummer." I had been playing a drum at Osho's drive-by - a highly celebrative daily event that happened each day after lunch where the entire Commune would line the road to greet him on his drive with wild singing and dancing.

Shunyo and I were staying in the room right under Osho's. One night as we were going to bed, about eleven o'clock, Amrito (Osho's personal physician) knocked on our door. "Milarepa, I have a message for you from your master," he said. "I was on my way out of Osho's room, and as he was pulling up the blankets over his head to go to sleep, he seemed to suddenly remember something: 'Oh, and give Milarepa the Osho Institute of Music and Celebration. And make him its director.' "