OREGON;FROM DESERT TO OASIS.''OSHO''

BELOVED BHAGWAN,TO GO BACK TO AMERICA AGAIN, APART FROM THE CHRISTIAN

PRESSURE ON YOU, WHAT OTHER PRESSURES DO YOU THINK WERE ON

YOU?

 The political pressure was there because I had created a commune which was

really a far more superior form of communism that exists anywhere else in the

world because there was no dictatorship, no government at all, yet five thousand

people were living, working, meditating.

These five thousand people transformed a desert into an oasis, made it capable of

feeding all the people, made the houses for all the people -- beautiful houses with

all modern facilities. The whole city was centrally airconditioned, perhaps the

only city in the whole world.

Five thousand people were eating into one restaurant, one kitchen for all. There

was no use of money in the society and that was my basic idea: to drop poverty,

richness, without any dictatorship, without any enforcement.

Everything that you needed was provided by the commune. Money could not be

used. You can donate to the commune but you cannot purchase anything by

money. Money was just useless.

People started to come to see because this land has been lying dead for almost

fifty years. Nobody was ready to purchase it. And it was not a small piece, it was

one hundred twenty-six square miles. It was almost a small country.

And they were all thinking that we are going to fail, we cannot make that land to

produce anything. And we produced everything. Food, vegetables, fruits, milk

products... and our people lived with such comfort and luxury that it became

necessarily a target for jealousy of the neighbors. They have been working in

their ranches which were better lands, for generations and they could not

manage to have such luxury. And the government became aware that we don't

have any power, we don't have much money, and yet we have been able to

manage a society for four years without any crime, without a single beggar. No

rape, no murder, no suicide, nobody going mad.

The politicians certainly became aware that soon this will become a comparison:

`What you are doing?'

And we had invited the president, the governor, the attorney-general -- all the

people concerned, to come and be our guest and see what we have done. And we

are ready to teach the other ranchers in Oregon whatever we have done.

But not a single politician dared to come. On the contrary they started hundreds

of legal cases against us, unbased because we won almost in all the cases but it

was sheer wastage of energy. Four hundred sannyasins were continuously

engaged in legal battles with the government and soon they became aware that

legally they cannot defeat us. Then they started being illegal, and arresting me

was absolutely illegal.

They had no warrant, they could not show me any reason why they are arresting

me and they arrested me with twelve guns surrounding me, a man who has

nothing but a robe on his body, and in the court for three days they could not

prove anything against me. The U.S. attorney accepted on the last day that "We

failed to prove anything, but still we will not give bail to Bhagwan here, we

would like him to appear in Oregon's court... the bail will be decided there."

Now this was very strange because six of my companions were given bail. To me

they will not give bail and they have not proved any crime.