by Prem Patipada
The movie 'Little Big Man, starts with Dustin Hoffman, who plays a real old Indian chief, being interviewed by a newspaper man about his life and especially about the great battles he fought.
After reading Patipada's book I had this picture of how you could make a similar movie from her reminiscences. It would start with this 47 year old grandmother sitting in a rocking chair telling tales to her grandchildren about the last twenty years of her life - and slowly the film would pan back to where the book starts.....
... It's 1975 and there is this 26 yr old single mother, who's been doing a bit of self-searching and become a little messed up and she walks into a bookstore and buys a $12 book that totally transforms her life. Like bang, transformation - she wants to shout from the rooftops "Look at this book-do you know what is being said in here!?" Like bang, transformation - she gets onto the telephone to Air India and finds out the cost to travel to India to see the author. Like bang, transformation- she's off to do a group at the local meditation centre - next thing you know she is in India meeting the man himself. No ordinary man, mark you, this was the famed Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. STOP!
STOP, because this film could never get made. This book is no ordinary book.
On the surface there are the stories she tells of her life in the Rajneesh Ashram in Poona, of becoming one of the coordinators of the commune at Rajneeshpuram, the city built by devotees of Bhagwan on 90 square miles of arid ranch-land in Oregon. Stories of how she was closely involved with the people who planned and executed crimes against representatives of the US government and how she possibly betrayed her Master. Stories of returning to the feet of the Master and facing the music, of going to court as a witness for the prosecution against old friends And stories of birth and death, of her grandchildren, her parents, her lovers, her friends. Stories all intermingled with feelings and glimpses of what was going on inside her, and tales of beautiful people, love, music and song. But this is only the surface, because beneath there is so much more. Here you are looking at the story of a journey of self exploration, a story that will never end. As you travel along the way you can see and feel within the words the processes of a heart opening wider and wider. Yes, there is mind still there, there is ego, yet beneath there is something else. This is a search on the pathless path.
When you read this book you will share an intimate personal journey.
As Patipada says at the end.
"When Bhagwan came into my life...my heart flew out of my chest...and landed in his hands. It has been in his hands ever since. I have no control over this.
...I find myself in a gesture of namaste - physically bringing both of my hands together in deep love to the air. My heart is full of my master. I am so grateful to him that I cannot do anything but cry. Tears and laughter seem to be the only way to express what is inside.
As I sit here...crying...I cannot imagine what my life would have been like, if I had not found him. If he had not said to me, Follow your heart, Let your love out."
I am so flooded with light - I call this ...Gratefulness."
And later.
"For in living through these experiences, a bigger trust inside was growing without me knowing it. No longer was it only a trust for my Master...it had become a trust in Existence. The moment this trust was born a beautiful dance began. it is not a visible dance from the outside. it is more like my heart is dancing all the time........
...A secret has been revealed...and the simple everyday life has become so rich. My heart knows that Existence is forever taking care...."
Read it and enjoy a good story, read it and be touched.
Sw Dyhan Sammoda
Forever Is Not Long Enough is available:
USA
Invitation: Tel: (520) 615-0212 or 1-800-777-3003
Fax: (520) 615-0215
Viha Connection: Tel: (415) 381-9681
Fax: (415) 381-6746
Europe
Osho Publications - Amsterdam Tel: (31) 20 696 9372
Fax: (31) 20 691 5642
