Your OSHOinUK team (Yoga Christopher, Punya and Veena) thought it might be interesting to introduce ourselves and tell you how the idea for the website came about and why we love doing it.
"There is nothing more significant than sharing truth, love, meditation. You will learn much by helping people to meditate. You will become aware of great energies in yourself the moment you start helping those who need help. And everybody is in great need of spiritual help because everybody is hungry,"
Osho, Zorba the Buddha
Yoga Christopher: The idea for this Osho UK website was first discussed during many Poona dinners with therapy friends in the early 1990’s when we explored how computers and later the Internet could help their work. The ‘Osho in UK’ page was created with links to friends’ work and other Osho sites and, as it was the first in UK, it is high on the search engine listings thus making it very easy to find.
Yoga Christopher and his children
When in spring 2006 it was realised that there was no ‘vehicle’ to advertise all the meditation and related activities that were happening in the UK, Punya and others contacted me and we decided to expand this existing website – rather than create a new one – to include all these very interesting events.
Veena: When I came back from India at the beginning of 2006 I had the idea to make a website – just to create a connection between us here in the UK. I tried to learn how to make a website but soon gave up. Far too difficult for me at my advanced age. Then out of the blue, Punya, a close friend since early Poona days, contacted me and said she was starting a new website and told me all about it. I was so happy and asked if I could do a bit of writing for it.
And so I started doing the profiles of sannyasins. Naturally I am biased but I am truly awed by how beautifully and creatively sannyasins live their lives and by all the amazing things they get up to. I think sannyasins are a living testimony to Osho and, by writing about them, I just wanted to show how, despite negative accusations to the contrary by the media etc, they, myself included, have integrated Osho into the centre of their lives while living efficiently and happily in a huge variety of ways in the marketplace. I thank all those people who have allowed me to tell their stories and look forward to hearing and writing many more.
And, as art is very much my thing and as many of my friends are artistic in one way or another, I suggested to Punya that we could have a virtual Art Gallery on the site which would make it visually more interesting and beautiful and give us all a chance to enjoy the artists’ work. I love looking at the latest work of art, be it a painting, a sculpture, a photograph or an illustration. I thank all the artists for contributing their work and, and if there is anybody else in the UK who would like to show their stuff, I would be very happy to hear from them.
Soon, hopefully, we will be able to include sound tracks of music as well. Punya‘s skills are amazingly non-ending!
I so often think how Osho would have been absolutely fascinated and thrilled with the possibilities the internet provides for helping us to stay connected around the globe! I hope this website helps in some small way.
Veena and Punya together in Scotland last year
Punya: The re-make of the Osho UK page on Omweb offered me an irresistible opportunity to test a new code language I had just learnt while commuting to work. But little did I know that from the initial idea of adding calendar entries on a monthly basis, we were going to expand the site with weekly Profiles, News, an Art Gallery, classifieds, editorials, music clippings – and soon the launch of a Newsletter.
If it is not me pushing my mind‘s limits, then it is now Veena and Yoga Christopher with their creative new ideas!
While updating the site one day, I realized that it encompasses much of the work I have done in the past and that I can therefore use and ride on that experience – graphic design, advertising, publications, multimedia and PR. (I met Veena while we both worked as tour guides on the Ranch and, previous to that, while I was running the Osho Meditation Centre in Geneva where she came to visit me.)
Every week I enthusiastically look forward to reading what is being sent to me and feel connected – even from bonny Scotland (and now from my hotel room in Slovakia) – to whatever is happening down south. I am told that the same connection is being felt by those visiting the site.
Promoting Osho and his meditations is the best way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon!
December 2006
