About Osho-Nisarga

We have both mentioned Osho-Nisarga now so maybe it’s time we elaborate a bit. You already know we have both taken sannyas with Osho and that he is our spiritual guide. Ok, so before he left the body he was last set up with his people in Pune (city), Maharastra (State), India. Back in the 70s and 80s this was a real human laboratory from what we are told. Osho designed and guided numerous meditation techniques, and workshops brought in and mixed all kinds of expertise. After he left the body his people continued in Pune, but other centres also opened up across the world which were run by his sannyasins.

Recently, one such centre has opened up near Dharamsala and Mcleodganj in Northern India. This is run by Swami Tatagarth and Ma Neelam. Tatagarth manages things behind the scenes and doesn’t get involved with the programming or the workshops much. Ma Neelam and her daughter Ma Priya handle that. Ma Neelam was Osho’s personal secretary for several years up until he left the body. She was with him for many years and was very close to him; her love and passion for him is evident. She says that Osho talked about having a centre somewhere near the Himalayas near a river… and so she and Tatagarth did just that. And they named it Osho-Nisarga. Nisarga means divine nature. As you can see from the pictures, it is set amidst a beautiful and fruitful valley, on the outskirts of a local village, with the Himalayas as the backdrop, and the said river running through it.

We love to stay in the rooms right next to the river, leave only the screen door shut, and listen to the sound of the river all day and night. Several nights back in April and May we slept out on the porch of the room all night, and once we even dragged out a couple of mattresses and laid them on the grass by the edge of the river and spent the night under the open sky surrounded by fireflies. You can climb down into the river and depending on the time of year and rain fall/ melting of ice there is either a rush of water you can barely stand in because it’s so strong, or a calm flow. The rushing water is like a jacuzzi on steroids. When there is time we can do yoga on the porch or the grass, or just lay there and enjoy the sun. There are also wonderful walking opportunities in any which direction, it’s just nature that surrounds this place.

It is not a big centre like Pune, and has the capacity to host about 50 participants at a time. There are different kinds of sleeping quarters, ranging from simple double rooms and up. When I say simple I do not mean ashram simple by any stretch of the imagination; the rooms are very nice! Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks are served in the cafeteria and there is a nice courtyard where you can eat if you wish. There is also a hammock where y

ou can relax. And there is one meditation hall, where the workshops are held (only one workshop/ group at a time). In addition, they own some land where they grow vegetables and so many of the dishes prepared are from their organic farm. The food is completely vegetarian and delicious. There are maids who come and clean the rooms every other day, and staff for cooking meals and washing up afterwards. The water comes from their private well which, unfiltered, is good enough to be bottled!

This is the centre’s third year of calendar activities. Since Ma Neelam has such a history with Osho she personally knows many of the sannyasins who were with Osho back then and were guided by him to lead different types of techniques and meditations. While most of these people are now based in different parts of the world, they are coming to Osho-Nisarga to guide meditations, often sharing these techniques in India for the first time since leaving Pune. We are truly blessed to be able to receive guidance from these original teachers, who were guided by Osho himself and who have decades of experience. The participants are a mix between Indians and non-Indians, with a huge range in age (we were in a workshop in May where there were a couple of set of parents there with their teenage kids!), and from all kinds of walks of life. And… this is where we met!

The pictures you see in this post and subsequent posts, and the picassa album, were taken March-June 2008 and August 2008.

If you would like to check out Osho-Nisarga please go to www.oshonisarga.com which is also listed in our favourite websites.

For more pictures from Osho-Nisarga, go to the picassa album: http://picasaweb.google.com/nisargaanddeepa/OshoNisarga#