Highly recommended (by Neeten)

Seeing, Watching, Living with the Master and
Being at Home
by Ma Yoga Neelam

It was in December 2022 that Neelam’s long-awaited book on her life with Osho was finally made available to all of us. On his birthday, naturally...

To me, this launch was nothing but a wonder to be experienced in terms of minor divine coordination. This is due to the fact that a 15-year project of writing and compiling ‘Osho Source Book’ was completed that very month, with references to hundreds of biographical books by sannyasins narrating their lives, encounters, and mistakes. So Neelam’s book just came out in due time to be included and to let everyone know the full story of the spiritual events that took place on this planet in the 20th century.

And what a contribution to the myriads of books on Osho! Priya has graciously allowed me to include quite a few excerpts from Neelam’s saga on her days with Osho, from her very first shy meeting with a man who was to change her life through their intimate experiences over the years until their ways as physical bodies finally had to part. And all the way through Neelam’s writing, it is evident how Osho was bestowing his energy on Priya’s upbringing and later education.

No need to conceal that among all books on Osho I do find Neelam’s Seeing, Watching, Living with the Master and Being at Home belongs in a category of its own. Why’s that? Because Neelam is an Indian by birth, which, to my humble understanding, presents her with a frame of reference supporting her spiritual growth in a way that, to other seekers, may turn out to be more complicated and not so natural as for seekers coming from a culture that, for thousands of years, has found it worthwhile to explore spiritual dimensions and phenomena like enlightenment. Not that these issues are off-limits to seekers from other cultures, but I might say that Indian explorers do have some advantage in reaching out for higher and deeper levels of existence. Certainly, Neelam’s book is soaked in the phenomenon of bhakti, devotional yoga as a pure love affair between disciple and master, also shared by Osho’s Indian secretary Laxmi, while Sheela’s ideas happened to be of another kind.

Twenty-two years after Osho had first given Neelam the assignment to share the experiences and events of her life – and indeed, right after the editor and herself had finalized the second edit – Neelam consciously left her body. Several synchronized missions completed! As for the book, it turned out to be an accurate and captivating historical document, told with an emotional nerve in Neelam’s terminal and lively recall of people she met on the path and the bumps she experienced on her own spiritual journey.

While reading her book – slowly, oh so slowly to let it seep in and last for still more days – I was somehow caught between the captivation of the moment and my acceptance of the dreadful truth that we’re not to have any more stories told from Neelam’s pen. Which is just one more excuse for celebrating all that she achieved during her years on this planet, not only in true words that will stand the test of time but also in her lifelong devotional support of Osho’s work.

So it may not be a mistake on my part that among the 20 notable books written on Osho I’ve dared to highlight, Neelam’s book is the one labelled ‘Highly recommended’!

Swami Anand Neeten
Pierre Evald, Associate Professor (Retired),
Royal School of Library and Information Science

Next article -

• Book Review by Moulik