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We are staying with a very orthodox Jaina family in Ahmedabad. Osho has dinner by 6:00pm before He goes to evening discourse. These days He has been reading late into the night and I tell Him, “Osho, you are eating dinner so early, you will be hungry in the night.” He simply smiles.
At 11:00pm, Kranti tells me that Osho wants to eat. I am puzzled. What to do now? I tell her, I will go to the kitchen and see if I can arrange some food.” Very silently, like a cat, I enter the kitchen. There are lots of containers in a row on the shelf above the kitchen counter. I am confused. There is no label on them. I close my eyes, stand silently for a couple of moments and follow my intuition. I take one plate and start to open the containers whichever I feel to open. To my surprise, I am getting all types of snacks which Osho likes. I am excited and try to get a few more kinds of snacks.
Suddenly I find the housewife standing near me and she asks what I am doing. I simply freeze. She is a very orthodox Jaina woman who believes eating in the night is a great sin and is already against Osho. I gather my courage and tell her, “I am hungry and I want to eat something.” She gets furious and starts dumping more containers before me and asks me to eat everything. There is nothing to say and I walk out of the kitchen with my plate. She starts following me.
I enter Osho’s room, where He is sitting in a chair reading some book. I put the plate on the little table in front of the chair and sit on the floor. Somehow I feel like protecting Osho that He doesn’t eat in the night. I tell Kranti and tell her, “Let us eat.” We both start eating while this woman is standing there watching us. She is very tense. To divert her mind, I ask her, “Who prepares all these delicious snacks? They are very tasty.” She doesn’t reply. By now, Osho also put His book away and joins us in eating. I can see this woman bubbling with anger. Not finding any words, finally she leaves.
I tell Osho what
had happened in the kitchen and He laughs and laughs like a child and tells
me, “Tomorrow, tell her that we don’t want to go to heaven. We are preparing
for going to hell by committing all kinds of sins.” I crack up with laughter
which releases all my tension and we enjoy eating all kinds of snacks until
the plate is totally empty.
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