I went to Bombay on the morning of 4th September, 1971. I had five rupees in my pocket. A taxi from railway station was too expensive so I took a bus and went to Jeevan Jagruti Kendra to find out Osho’s residential address. The office boy, Balkrishna directed me to “A-1 Woodlands Apartments, Peddar Road” and told me how to get there by bus. When I reached Woodlands, at the entrance of the apartment I saw a notice board saying that Meeting Time with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (the former name of Osho) from 9.30am to 11.00am and 2.30pm to 4.00pm. I had arrived too late for the morning meeting, so I waited around in that area and returned at 2.30 p.m. for my first meeting with the Master. I entered the apartment and introduced myself to his secretary, Ma Yoga Laxmi, who was sitting at the reception desk. Also there were a few cheerful sannyasins sitting nearby laughing and having fun.
I asked Ma Laxmi if I could meet Bhagwan Shree.
“Have you heard his discourses?” she asked.
“I have been reading his books.” I replied.
“Then it would be better,” she said if you first attended his discourses in the Patkar Hall, before coming for Darshan.”
“No,” I replied, I have read his books and feel ready to see him right away. There is no need for me to wait for some days.”
“No,” she responded, “you can’t see him right away.”
But I was determined that I should see him there and then, so I just sat there and waited. “Who is this secretary who is preventing me from seeing him?” I kept asking myself. “I will catch him when he comes out of his room.”
I waited until 4 o’ clock. The afternoon meeting time was over. Then suddenly I had an idea.
“Please give me a note-pad,” I said to Laxmi. “I will write him a note to read.”
Laxmi gave me a note-pad and I wrote this to him in Hindi:
Bhagwan Shree I have come from so far away and there was no problem. Now I am sitting here and you are sitting there-- a few yards away. What are these walls between us? What is this distance? Why I have come, I can’t express-- I won’t be able to express. I have come-- this is my expression.
I am unable to remember the exact words.
Laxmi took the message in without reading it, and very quickly returned saying, “He is calling you. Just go into that room.”
Now! The full stop to the entire struggle! I was so used to the mind struggling and keep saying, “No.” I was used to it. But the mind doesn’t know how to react to a positive invitation that comes like a lightning. The mind simply stops. To me it seemed the right thing for the mind to stop before one going in to see the Master.
In that state --something of the mind and of no-mind-- I took a few steps nearer the room where the Master was sitting. Laxmi had not accompanied me. Very softly I opened the door.
Then I SEE HIM!
The Master sitting there in his revolving chair, there is a glass wall behind him, the sun is shining and He is aglow. The chair is simple and small. He is sitting in it, but he is really all over the room. The empty room is filled, vibrating with His glowing presence. GRACE is all there is--nothing else.
Looking at me He says softly, “Chale Aao, Chale Aao! Main tumhara intezar kar raha tha.”(“Come on in! come on in! Come, I was waiting for you.”)
It feels as if there is something within me has already reached him and surrendered at his feet. Very softly I take a few steps, go close to him and sit there with my head bending down looking at his feet.
“ Kaise Aana Hua?” I hear him say softly. “What brought you here?”
I was looking downward, unable to speak.
He asked the question again : “Kaise Aana Hua?”
I felt I should be saying something. In the train journey I had been thinking of all the things I would be asking him. But now, what happened to all those things? Where were all my questions?
Mustering all my courage, I answered: “I have come to be with you”
“Here! With Me!”
There is a long pause. Then the Master laughs-- I hear this laugh so loud as if it filled the whole cosmos.
Then he says, “Oh you want to take Sannyas?”
“Yes,” I replied, “whatever the way to be with you......”
“Have you any responsibilities at home?” he asked.
“No, none, “I said. Forget about my home.”
After asking me questions about my education and listening to my reply he called Madhu through the intercom:
Madhu, mala lao. (“Madhu, bring a mala”.)
He turned and took up his paper. I looked up towards him, but immediately looked downward as he turned to look at me. Suddenly Madhu was there with a mala. He takes it, and garlands my neck saying: “I give you a new name, Swami Chaitanya Keerti.”
He introduces me to Ma Anand Madhu. She was the coordinator of the Kirtan Mandali that was due to leave the next day, travelling around Gujarat, and reaching the following month at Mount Abu for the next meditation camp.
“You join this group, sing and dance with this group and we will meet in Mount Abu next month.” he said.
I go to Ma Madhu to touch her feet.
“You touch only his feet.” she says.
Then after Osho has told Madhu to get me orange clothes, I leave with her and was given instructions on how to find the Kirtan Mandali. Ma Laxmi welcomes me with a cup of chai (tea). I knew that now that I had been accepted and blessed by the Master that I got a new birth as a different person. With the mala around my neck, my eyes had an otherworldly glow.
Utterly thrilled and blessed I came out of the Woodland Apartment and found the whole of Bombay celebrating...dum dum dum loud drum-beats. People were carrying Lord Ganesha idols and there were processions after processions--very crazy and very colourful.
I found myself dancing with them--I had met the ultimate in human form and my happiness knew no bounds. I was not a dancer type. I was a very serious person. Osho had filled me a new consciousness that made me dance--an unknown dance. And the journey of dance had begun.
Chaitanya means consciousness and Keerti means glory. Keerti also has something to do with Kirtan which is essentially singing and dancing. In Kirtan we sing and dance the glory of your favourite gods, as Meera did, or as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did. My name means singing and dancing the glory of consciousness--in simple terms, meditate and celebrate!
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