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The Great Secret: Talks on the Songs of Kabir

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For first-time readers of Osho (disgraced cult leader) this book will be introduction enough. Those familiar with Osho's recent books will need to remember that these discourses were delivered in 1975 to a predominantly Hindu gathering. By then only a few hundred Westerners had found him.

The discourses are commentaries on ten of Kabir's poems, in which Kabir sings of his love of God.

367 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

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About the author

Osho

4,285 books6,791 followers
Rajneesh (born Chandra Mohan Jain, 11 December 1931 – 19 January 1990) and latter rebranded as Osho was leader of the Rajneesh movement. During his lifetime he was viewed as a controversial new religious movement leader and mystic.

In the 1960s he traveled throughout India as a public speaker and was a vocal critic of socialism, Mahatma Gandhi, and Hindu religious orthodoxy.

Rajneesh emphasized the importance of meditation, mindfulness, love, celebration, courage, creativity and humor—qualities that he viewed as being suppressed by adherence to static belief systems, religious tradition and socialization.

In advocating a more open attitude to human sexuality he caused controversy in India during the late 1960s and became known as "the sex guru".

In 1970, Rajneesh spent time in Mumbai initiating followers known as "neo-sannyasins". During this period he expanded his spiritual teachings and commented extensively in discourses on the writings of religious traditions, mystics, and philosophers from around the world. In 1974 Rajneesh relocated to Pune, where an ashram was established and a variety of therapies, incorporating methods first developed by the Human Potential Movement, were offered to a growing Western following. By the late 1970s, the tension between the ruling Janata Party government of Morarji Desai and the movement led to a curbing of the ashram's development and a back taxes claim estimated at $5 million.

In 1981, the Rajneesh movement's efforts refocused on activities in the United States and Rajneesh relocated to a facility known as Rajneeshpuram in Wasco County, Oregon. Almost immediately the movement ran into conflict with county residents and the state government, and a succession of legal battles concerning the ashram's construction and continued development curtailed its success.

In 1985, in the wake of a series of serious crimes by his followers, including a mass food poisoning attack with Salmonella bacteria and an aborted assassination plot to murder U.S. Attorney Charles H. Turner, Rajneesh alleged that his personal secretary Ma Anand Sheela and her close supporters had been responsible. He was later deported from the United States in accordance with an Alford plea bargain.[

After his deportation, 21 countries denied him entry. He ultimately returned to India and a revived Pune ashram, where he died in 1990. Rajneesh's ashram, now known as OSHO International Meditation Resort and all associated intellectual property, is managed by the Zurich registered Osho International Foundation (formerly Rajneesh International Foundation). Rajneesh's teachings have had a notable impact on Western New Age thought, and their popularity has increased markedly since his death.

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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Profile Image for Aruna Arriane.
151 reviews16 followers
May 11, 2019
What should I say about it? Every poem of Kabir is on a different level after reading Osho's talks. Many questions have been plucked off. Feeling empty and beautiful.
Profile Image for Akhil Jain.
683 reviews49 followers
July 8, 2023
Kabir says, I LAUGH WHEN I HEAR THAT THE FISH IN THE WATER IS THIRSTY.
Profile Image for Tej Kumar Nepal.
59 reviews
January 24, 2021
I look at you and am convinced of one thing, that you once had something - some treasure, some symmetry, some secret, some key - but you have lost it.

Every moment, asleep or awake, you are always busy looking for something. It is quite possible you do not know exactly what you are searching for and that you are unaware of what you have lost, but I see the hunger in your eyes. It is apparent in every beat of your heart.

This quest has been going on for countless lives. Sometimes you call it the search for truth. But you have never known truth, so how can you lose it? And sometimes you search for God. But your meeting with Him has never taken place , so how can you be separated from Him?

You go in search to the temples, to the mosques, to Kashi and to Mecca; you knock on every door you come across in the hope you will find what you have lost. But as long as you do not know exactly what it is you have lost your search cannot be fulfilled.

Love is the ability to experience. Love is sensitivity. Love is experience in which all your impurities are washed away and you throw open all your doors, all your gates.

Then whatsoever stands at your door is no longer an enemy or a friend but a beloved, and you open your door to him.

When you begin to feel the whole world is yours, when you begin to see the beloved in whatsoever comes to your door, when you no longer see strangers or enemies, when you begin to see only friends everywhere - when this phenomenon takes place in you, know that you have found love.

The man who has found love has found the key to the door of God.
Profile Image for arsalan keramat.
19 reviews
September 17, 2024
noktie zibaei ke ketabe raze bozorg dare az nazare man eine ke ein delbastegihaie zaminie ke ensanharo dobare hata bad az margeshoon be ie zendegie zminie dige mikeshoone.delbastegihaie zamini mesle ie roia va khab mimoone hamoontor ke khordane iek khorake khoshmaze dar khab nemitoone ie farde gorosnaro sir kone residane ba tamane lezat haie doniavi nemitoone ensano sir kone va faghat haristaresh mikone.hata ie eshghe zamini hich vaght be rezaiat ba sooroore daemi tabdil nemishe vali age har ensani eshghe vagheie alahio betoone lams kone be raze bozorge hasti reside va dige donbale hich niaze madi nakhahad bood oon vaghte ke age bemire ie marge kamel nasibesh mishe va digelazem nist mesle aksare ensanha ke hanooz dar talabe arezooha vaamiale madishoon hastan dochre ie marge naghs beshe va bad az margesh baz ham be ein donia bargarde
Profile Image for Fatima.
13 reviews20 followers
October 1, 2015
يك شيفته و مجذوب با اندك خرسند مي شود و اينگونه است كه همه چيز به دست مي آورد. به ياد بسپريد هر جه با كم و كمتر راضي قانع شويد بيشتر و بيشتر به دست خواهيد آورد اما وقتي با هر آنچه هستي به رضايت برسي...
بگوييد هر آتچه خواست توست مطلوب من است
Profile Image for Vshman.
33 reviews
August 16, 2013
Spiritual awakening in the presence of poverty is superior than in the edge of wealth.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews

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