At Shree Rajneesh Ashram, it became possible to have these intensive retreats more often, though they were conducted by others who had imbibed them sufficiently to be able to lead them. Traveling to such places came to an end in 1974 after Osho moved to Poona, but the camps did not end. Nargol, Matheran, Mt Abu and others became fabled places in the sannyas iconography. See also Talk:Osho: Call of the Ocean for a nice quote on why camps came about.įrom the back cover of The Perfect Way, an English translation of his discourses at the first camp in 1964: 'These discourses are the outcome of Shree Rajneesh's first testing of a new idea, the meditation camp, envisaging an intensive programme lasting several days, which enabled the seekers to dive totally into an atmosphere of meditation.'Īs they evolved, camps were held several times a year in various formats, lasting a couple of days to as many as fourteen, and in 'exotic' locations mainly around the northwestern states of India: seaside resorts, hill stations, usually but not always away from cities. Most of the day(s) would be spent in self-exploration, using a variety of ways to ask 'Who am I?' Deeper and deeper.

Then it was time to visit the interior landscape, to experiment with his techniques and use his words as signposts of things to look for, guidance regarding pitfalls and so on. He would still speak at these retreats, often at length, but the event was not over when he stopped speaking. Prior to that, Osho was lecturing, traveling and becoming well known as an electrifying speaker, but he saw that people were not being transformed, so he introduced camps, extended retreats where the focus was experiential rather than filling one's head with concepts. Meditation camps (Hindi: sadhana shivir) have been a feature of the sannyas landscape since 1964.

Leading Tratak meditation at one of the That Art Thou camps, see book page for more Overview

Osho krishna meri drishti mein