They arrested me
without any warrant. They did not tell me why I was arrested; their answer was
the points of their guns. Whenever a government goes mentally bankrupt, this
happens. Then they forced me into jail to sign under a false name, David
Washington. I refused. The U.S. Marshal who was telling me to sign under a
false name asked me, "Why are you making a fuss about it? You can sleep; I
can go to sleep. It is midnight." I said, "I don't care about you and
your sleep, but I want to know, What kind of justice is this? You arrest me and
you want me to sign under David Washington's name. That means you never
arrested me -- because you have no warrant -- and if I sign under David
Washington's name, you can kill me and there will be no proof that I ever
entered the jail. I will simply disappear into thin air. You write the name of
David Washington; fill the form in your own handwriting -- and I will
sign." He thought I was willing to sign David Washington, so he filled it
in his own handwriting -- and I simply signed my own name. He said, "What
are you doing?" I said, "Exactly what should be done. This is my name
-- and now you are caught. Tomorrow morning in all the newspapers and on all
the televisions and radios the news will be there. You cannot throw away this
form. My signature is known all over the world, and it is not easy to copy it.
In the first place it
is difficult to understand what it is... You have written everything in your
own handwriting -- you are the criminal." The last thing they did --
because they had nothing against me: before the trial the government attorneys
came to my attorneys, which is a rare thing. Only the weaker party goes to the
stronger party for negotiations. They came to negotiate the case before the
trial began; and the negotiations they were proposing... I will tell you
exactly how cunning it was. The condition was: "If Osho accepts the guilt
on two small counts, then we will allow him to leave the jail. We will allow
the judge to release him with only one condition: that he will not be able to
enter America for five years. "If you don't accept the terms and you want
to fight the case -- although we know and you know that we don't have any case
against him -- then we will not allow him to be bailed out. And the case can be
prolonged for five years, ten years, fifteen years. We know you will win the
case, so we will prolong it as much as possible. And the whole pressure of the
government is on it; it is a question of prestige. We don't want to be defeated
by a single individual." My attorneys came with tears in their eyes. They
were not sannyasins; they were the topmost attorneys in the United States. But
in these twelve days while I was in jail they were coming to see me, and by and
by something of love, something of respect had already happened.
They would come into
the jail and they would say, "We cannot sit on the chair in front of you;
it feels strange. Allow us to sit on the floor just the way you allow your
sannyasins to sit." They came with tears, and they said, "They have
proposed such a thing that we are in a dilemma. We know you are not guilty and
we know that you are not going to accept that you are guilty. But they are not
going to accept bail at any cost -- ten million dollars, twenty million
dollars. They say no; at no cost is it possible to take him on bail. We are
afraid that they will kill you, they will torture you, they will harass you.
"And they can continue it for years. Your whole movement will be
suffering, thousands of sannyasins will be suffering. We have seen: there are
many sannyasins who have not eaten anything since you have been in jail. So
just think of those sannyasins, the people who love you, and accept on the two
minor points." Seeing the whole situation, just for you I have accepted
that I am guilty. And you can see the cunningness of the government: they had
said that they would simply release me and keep me out of America for five
years, but once I accepted the guilt, the judge immediately gave the fine of
four hundred thousand dollars -- and five years of no entry to America. These
four hundred thousand dollars were not part of the negotiations, but the judge
was not part of the negotiations either -- although he knew exactly on which
points I was willing to accept that I was guilty.
There were thirty-four
points, but only on those two points on which I had agreed with the attorneys.
The judge asked, "Do you feel you are guilty or not?" He was
certainly aware of the negotiations, and the people who were negotiating were
aware that four hundred thousand dollars would be the fine. All these liars,
cunning people... No, my people do not know the whole story yet. I am going to
tell them. That is one of the purposes of my world trip, so everybody becomes
aware of the ugly face of the American government. It is a fascist government.
It tried to kill me. Afraid that if bail was granted and having no chance to
win in the trial, they had put a bomb in the room where I was to come back from
the court to collect my clothes. But they missed by a little bit: they had no
idea at what time I would be coming, and it was a time bomb. The whole area was
empty; everybody knew something was going to happen. Even the person who
brought me in said to me, "You sit down, and I will be coming soon with
the signature of my boss. Then I can release you." He locked the door from
outside, and even he disappeared. And from everybody's face, the person who
brought me to the jail, the person who said, "I am going to take the
signature..." I could see that there was some conspiracy behind it. But
that's what I say: my trust in existence... They defeated their own conspiracy.
They could not manage
to keep me there for as long as they had set the time on the bomb. They had to
release me, and immediately after my release the bomb was found exactly under
my chair. I am going to tell everybody -- not only my people but all the
people; not only non-Americans, but Americans too through the news media --
that they are living under another fascist regime, under another Adolf Hitler,
Ronald Reagan, who is millions of times more powerful than poor old Adolf
Hitler... My whole effort will be to expose America completely. It is not
against the American people -- I love them, they are beautiful -- it is against
the bureaucracy and the politicians. They have to be overthrown. They are the
most dangerous people in the world today, because they have the greatest power,
and I don't think they have any brains. I am reminded of a story... It must
have been an American politician whose brain was being operated on -- brain
surgery. They had taken out his whole brain, and they were working on it in the
next room while he was silently sleeping. At that very moment a man came into
the room and said, "What are you doing here? Have you not heard? -- you
have been chosen for president!" He said, "My God, and I am lying
down here!" He stood up, went out of the hospital... When the surgeons
came they could not find him. They said, "What has happened?"
Somebody told them, "He has been chosen for president."
They said, "But
the brain is still here." They phoned the president, "Please come
back and take your brain." He said, "As long as I am president I
don't need it!" HOW DO YOU FEEL NOW, PERSONALLY, AFTER ALL THE COMMOTION
THAT HAPPENED PRIOR TO YOUR DEPARTURE FROM THE USA?
As far as I am
concerned, I simply feel great, just as great as before all the commotion, as
great as I was in the commotion. There is no change in my inner consciousness.
It is utterly silent and utterly rejoicing, in every situation. Even the
American jailer, after twelve days, had to accept me. He said, "I am an
old man and I am just going to be retired soon, but you are my first prisoner
-- thousands of people have been in this prison -- to be going out of the
prison looking better, healthier than you entered twelve days ago. What is the
secret?" I said, "The secret is simple: I enjoyed the whole scene. It
was a great learning for me, and all your efforts to harass me..." They
did not allow me to sleep for twenty-four hours in the whole twelve days. They
would put me in a cell exactly between two television sets, and the television
sets would be going as loud as possible from the early morning till midnight,
continuously. And they had made arrangements that after the television sets
were silent, then the inmates would start talking from one cell to another --
loudly of course, because if you are talking from one cell to another cell, you
have to talk very loudly.
And this continued till
the television sets would start again. So I said, "It has been a great
opportunity for me. I rested, and my rest is something that you cannot disturb.
I am the center of the cyclone. And I am looking better because you have been
refusing me vegetarian food. You have been telling me that there is no special
arrangement, that I have to eat whatsoever is available. I have asked if you
can just give me milk, if you can give me fruit or vegetables. You said no,
that whatever is available and is given to every prisoner would be given to me.
"So I was not eating, and I saw that the prisoners were more human than
the bureaucrats. Seeing the situation, they started bringing their milk, their
fruit, and they would tell me, `Osho, I know they are torturing you. There are
fruits, there are vegetables, there is milk. We are given everything, but we
can eat meat; there is no problem, you can take....' So I have lost eight
pounds in weight, which my personal physician Dr. Devaraj was continuously
wanting. That's why I am looking good." A tremendous feeling has arisen in
me that even if you throw me into hell -- you have already done that -- you
cannot disturb my paradise. Wherever I am, my paradise will be with me. You can
kill me, but you cannot kill my spirit.
OshO
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