Rajneeshpuram Osho Tapovan Ashram on the lines of Rajneeshpuram of Oregon in the US will be built in Kheda’s Kapadvanj taluka, announced Osho’s disciple Swami Gyansagar in Ahmedabad Wednesday.
“All types of meditations invented by Osho will be taught to the people (at the ashram) and will be open for all,” he told mediapersons. He added that Osho always wanted to build his ashram in Gujarat. He had even chosen a land in the Kutch region but due to some reason it was opposed then and the meditation centre was built in Pune.
The Tapovan will be built in Kosam village, about 50 kms from Ahmedabad, under the aegis of Gyaansagar’s Rashtriya Agnee Sena. It will be constructed on 11 acres of land and the construction will cost about Rs 80 crore. The primary approval and construction of the centre has already started, informed Gyaansagar.
The announcement came amid a tussle for the Osho International Meditation Resort in Pune. According to Sanjay Patel—one of Osho’s disciples—and petitioners opposing the sale of the meditation centre by the trustees, four trustees of the Osho International Foundation sold 1.5 acres of the Pune centre for Rs 107 crore under the garb of facing losses during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A protest by Osho’s disciples from across the country will be organised on March 21 outside the Pune ashram opposing the four trustees—Mukesh Sarda, Laal Singh, Devendra Deval and Sadhna Belapurkar.
“I was the first one who got to know about their misdeeds. They had earlier, too, tried to sell the property but we managed to stop. This time, too, we have managed to hold such a sale through an application to the Maharashtra Charity Commission. The matter is in the Bombay High Court,” Sanjay told The Indian Express.
The trustees have filed an affidavit stating that there is no samadhi at the centre and hence, not a matter of faith, as claimed by the disciples of Osho opposing the sale. But an order from the Bombay HC has stated that the samadhi is present and the disciples, who were banned from entering the premises and were asked entry fees as high as Rs 976 to visit the samadhi, should be allowed to do so, Sanjay claimed.
It has been alleged that the trustees sold the property in secret in their planned attempt to erase the legacy and teachings of Osho.