Socrates if found guilty and sentenced to death by poisoning by the Athenian Senate for the crime of “not worshipping the gods the state worships but introducing other, new divinities. Further, he is guilty of corrupting the young by teaching them accordingly.” Socrates says, “I am fairly certain that this plain speaking of mine is the cause of my unpopularity; and this really goes to prove that my statements are really goes to prove that my statements are true…I would have you know that if you kill such a one as I am, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me…”
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is escorted to his private jet by police officers after bring arrested as a “public menace” on the island arrested as a “public menace” on the island of create and presented with deportation papers. The arrest and deportation was the effort of the Greek Orthodox clergy, who said of Bhagwan, “He destroys our youth, our morality and our religion. Either he stops preaching or blood will flow.”
What took Socrates a lifetime of 71 years to accomplish, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was able to do in only 15 days.
Arrested on Greek Island, to be deported.
Agios Nikolaos, Crete (A.P.) – Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the Indian guru ousted from the United State last November, was arrested Wednesday at a villa on this southern Aegean island and was to be immediately expelled from Greece, local police said. “They just burst into Bhagwan’s room and took him away,” reported a follower, by telephone, to the Associated Press.
A local police spokesman said, “We had a signal from the Ministry of Public Order ordering us to pick him up prior to his being deported. There was no specific charge given.”
The spokesman, who asked not to be identified, also said that Rajneesh’s one – month residence permit was not due to expire until March 15.
Associated Press, March 5, 1986.
[Bhagwan was expelled] just for his ideas, nothing more. If ideas are still persecuted in Greece, tomorrow they will be after me, the day after tomorrow, after you. And we will be back to where we started from… His deportation is a shame…I feel ashamed.
Nikos Koundouras Greek film director and owner of the villa where Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was staying as a guest.
Although there are many similarities between Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and Socrates – their absolute devotion to the truth, their emphasis on a continuous search within ourselves, their emphasis on meditation and on dropping all conditionings to uncover our original faces – there is no doubt that Bhagwan is infinitely more than a new Socrates. He is also Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Plotinus and all that is highest in the ancient Greek spirit and philosophy.
And much more: Bhagwan is very much alive – now – and with his unique wisdom and his infinite mystical insight and poetic expression, he has discovered in himself and revealed to the whole world the inner essence, the immense beauty and the powerful actuality of the greatest peaks of human consciousness: Buddha, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Jesus, Zarathustra, Krishna, Bodhidharma, Rumi, Gurdjieff…
Socrates’ action was confined to the small city of Athens, while Bhagwan’s resurrecting influence is world – wide.
Bhagwan’s message, as it is exposed in the pages of this volume, comprising his talks in Crete, is simple but revolutionary:
“The most fundamental thing about religion is meditation…
“This is my whole effort: to teach meditation to people. Meditation is the art of cleaning your mirror of all the dust that the society, the religions, the educational systems have poured on you; to take away everything that has not been born with you, to bring you to your absolute innocence, as you were born as a child. I call this ‘rebirth’. And after rebirth you are just a mirror.”
“Me is a search within. You are. You are alive. You are conscious. But you are not aware what this consciousness is. Meditation is the way to know what this consciousness is… The same consciousness exists all over the universe.”
“My trip around the world is to make people free who are suffering under unnecessary slavery, suffering through belief systems…And unless you know the truth of your being, you will never feel the great benediction of life. You will never be able to overflow with joy, just for the sheer fact of existence. If you cannot experience with this vast cosmos which is your home…”
However incredible it may appear, this simple but so wonderful message, which both, Bhagwan and Socrates are proclaiming, has raised the enraged opposition of the vested interests of religions, priests, politicians, and of all those who endeavor to keep the people in darkness.
Bhagwan’s systematic persecution all over the world – and his slow poisoning – was organized by American secret services, which succeeded in expelling him from the USA, dismantling his commune in Oregon and then exerting an extraordinary pressure, by the most illegal means, on the other countries to deny him entrance.
Greece was the only European country which had the courage to temporarily resist this unprecedented foreign conspiracy. So for fifteen days Bhagwan was allowed to speak twice a day in Crete and deliver the extremely beautiful discourses you will read in the following pages.
Of course, all the intelligent Greeks – who know that the original religion of their ancestors (“Be know thyself and keep the measure,” as it was engraved on the ancient most temple of Delphi) does not really differ from Bhagwan’s existential teaching – now feel ashamed. They were unable to prevent their authorities from treating in such a barbarous way the most extraordinary human being who ever visited their country – who visited it out of genuine love for both its ancient legacy and for its contemporary people (Zorba…the Buddha!).
But we expect that very soon things will change completely and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh will be recognized and invited, this time officially, by the universities, the communal spiritual centers and the really cultured Greeks, to come again for a long stay in the country of Socrates and speak freely.
Truth cannot be poisoned. Finally it is always triumphant and it radiates all over the world. Bhagwan is the only hope for the survival of humanity and he is certainly able to overcome all resistances and raise human consciousness to unknown heights.
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