According to Osho, there’s essentially no difference in spiritual possibility between this commune and others; sannyas is a heart-to-heart love, not location-bound. My physical presence adds only a temporary push in intensity, but distance does not matter. Each sannyasin is directly connected to me, unique, and can flower—yes, even become enlightened—anywhere; differences among communes are just flavors, not barriers.
It doesn’t matter which place you’re in; your loving connection to the master is what helps you wake up, anywhere.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
I come from a european commune, and feel that here everything is more intense and more relaxed. Is there a difference between this commune and all the others around the world? Can sannyasins become enlightened in other communes? If a sannyasin dies here within a twenty-four-mile radius of you, they get enlightened. Can that happen in the communes?
Just a few days ago one Italian journalist -- a lovely and intelligent person, was taking my interview. I told him, "I recognize my people immediately." He asked me, "What do you mean?" I said, "I have recognized you. You are going to be my sannyasin soon!" He looked all around, because he had perhaps never thought of sannyas. He has come to know the commune, the sannyasins, what is happening here. And just the other day, Savita informed me he has taken sannyas. Intelligence, wherever it is, is going to belong to me sooner or later. You ask if any man dying here within a twenty-five-mile radius will become enlightened: the same will start happening in other communes soon. I am preparing for it. I am consolidating small centers into bigger communes, because a certain quantity of energy is needed. So if a commune has at least five hundred…
Beloved Osho, you have spoken to us about being in the world yet not of it. How come you have not spoken to us about being in the commune yet not of it?
The KGB, the Intelligence Department, has caught hold of twenty sannyasins and has interrogated them continuously for weeks, harassed them just because they had my books. They have taken away all their books, and they were trying to force them to tell who the other sannyasins are. And because they were not telling, they were harassed continuously in the middle of the night; they would be called to the police station and the whole night continuous interrogation... and this is revolution! Man has become even more a slave than he was ever before. Man was not such a slave even in the days of the czar before the revolution; society was not so dominant and so afraid of people and their freedom. America makes claims of democracy. I lived there for five years, and there is no democracy at all. It is one of the most hypocritical societies; it is…
Beloved master, if buddha did not really need to leave his wife and children in order to attain enlightenment, then can enlightenment happen anywhere? Why do I feel that I need to be in your buddhafield?
And man has the capacity to renew himself -- to die to the past and to be reborn. Man has the capacity for resurrection. But the earth is almost like a desert today and small oases are needed everywhere, so those who are thirsty cannot say, "What can we do? The water is not available. How can we quench our thirst?" We have to make God available to every possible seeker all over the world. Yes, even in countries like China, Soviet Russia, and other communist countries, my effort is to create small oases there too. They have started: they are underground there -- they have to be underground there. You will be surprised, but in one Russian town we have twenty-five sannyasins -- of course not in orange. They have made their own malas, and when they meet in some underground basement they wear orange clothes, listen to the…
Osho, our commune is not like any of the traditional ashrams or monasteries. Would you talk to us more about the function of your commune?
IT is necessary first to understand the traditional structure of an ashrama, and also of a monastery. It will give you the background to understand the meaning of my commune. The ashrama is an Eastern concept based on renouncing society, its comforts, conveniences. An ashrama is a group of people living together in austerity, self-imposed poverty, starvation in the name of fasting; torturing the body in order to have control over the physical by the spiritual; doing all kinds of exercises so that they become able to concentrate on the idea of God if they are Hindus, or on the idea of the ultimate growth of human consciousness if they are Buddhists and Jainas. But the goal is far away for all the three -- you can call it God, you can call it the Buddha, you can call it the Jina. They are different words signifying nothing, but pointing…
Does enlightenment need a special place, a special time, to happen?
Every place is special, because every place is overflowing with God. No place is ordinary. Enlightenment can happen even in your toilet! Enlightenment is not afraid of your toilet! It can happen anywhere. You need not go to sacred places; there are none. All existence is sacred! You need not go to Varanasi or Jerusalem or Kaaba -- all nonsense. All places are full of God. Every point is special. And what special time are you asking about? Is there a season, a certain climate for enlightenment? Enlightenment is not really a happening. If it were a happening, then maybe, in a certain soil, in a certain climate, in a certain place, on certain days it would be more possible. But enlightenment is not a happening. Enlightenment is simply a recognition -- a recognition that you have always been enlightened, that never, for a single moment, have you lost it;…