Mood

Do you have some sort of contraption in your room with which you control or alter the moods of everyone in the ashram, putting everyone into the same or similar mood at the same time? It seems that everyone goes through the same cycle or phases, not as individuals but as a community. What's up?

And the third: IS THERE A COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS AT THE ASHRAM? EVERY OTHER QUESTION I HAVE THOUGHT TO ASK HAS BEEN ASKED BY SOMEONE ELSE, OR YOU HAVE ANSWERED IT ANYWAY. If you go to the source of the Ganges it is just drops dripping. In Gangotri, the source of Ganges, there is a marble cow mouth and the Ganges comes out of it. So small. How can you hope it will reach the ocean? But millions of tributaries, millions of small streams and rivers, pool their energies and the Ganges becomes a great river. then nothing can hold it. Then it reaches the ocean. A commune is an effort to create a Ganges of consciousness. It is happening. And it will be happening more and more if you become more co-operative and more conscious of it. Don't create any conflict here. Don't be resistant about small things. Relax, co-operate.…

Osho, you said today that there is nothing like a 'group soul', but I have been strongly feeling something like that in the commune. Not only that, but this feeling of a collective soul is becoming more and more intense and attuned day by day. It is something new for me, and very beautiful, and actually l experience it as the most beautiful thing that is happening for me here. I know that each of us has to awaken alone, but I feel that this 'collective soul' is a tremendous help, at least for us not to create other dreams.... Am I dreaming now of a 'collective soul'?

NO, IT IS A FACT, you just don t know the right word for it. 'Collective soul' is not the right term; it is very misleading. Soul can only be individual. Then what is happening here in this commune? Anybody who enters the ashram for the first time immediately becomes aware of something. He can see it on people's faces, he can see it in their walk, he can see it in the way they are working. He can see that it is no ordinary humanity. Some grace he can feel, some joy permeating the whole place, some playfulness, some sense of humor. And people are working seven days a week. Nobody is looking at the clock...except the Indians! People are enjoying the work: it is play, it is creativity. They are not tired. In fact, the deeper they go into this creativity, the more nourished they feel he more…

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…

This is the function of the commune, where so many people are just happy for no reason at all, where life is just fun, every moment of it. We can radiate from this commune for miles around. New people coming from some other country outside America have reported to me that the moment they enter Rancho Rajneesh something in the air changes. Suddenly they feel as if they have come home, and they have never been here before. Perhaps never in their millions of lives -- I don't think they have been born in the Big Muddy Ranch, but suddenly they feel at home, as they have never felt even in their own home. And as they come closer to the commune, a great joy starts arising in them for no visible reason.