But Vimal is not a person who will accept any refusal so easily. He asked to see the highest authority. He did not want to deal with an assistant commissioner; he wanted to see the High Commissioner himself: on what grounds is he denying a visa just for three weeks?
The High Commissioner said, “To be frank with you, your girlfriend has nothing – no bank account, no home, no particular reason why she should come back to India again.”
Vimal said to him, “Don’t be afraid about that. We have not been saying it to you, but we are Osho’s disciples. She has every reason to be here. She has no reason to be anywhere else.”
And Vimal has written a note to me, “The British Commissioner immediately gave the visa. He said, ‘If she is Osho’s disciple, then there is no problem.’”
It is the first time that my name has been of help – because that makes it certain that she will not remain in England. “She can go have a three week trip, or if you want, three months…any time. We were worried that she may not come back. But if she is a disciple of Osho, there is no worry.”
Life is very strange. They were hiding my name, but they forgot that my name has to be kept secret if you are coming from England. If you are going to England it is a different story. The High Commissioner was perfectly satisfied; there was no question of asking any more about the woman. She will come back to India.
I have come across many sannyasins who just heard my name and something started – a longing, a desire…as if a forgotten language suddenly is remembered. A master does not work on individuals. He creates an atmosphere and that atmosphere itself goes on becoming every day richer, more dense. Its pull, its gravitation, goes on bringing new people from faraway places.
In Rancho Rajneesh in America…now even the Oregon newspapers are accepting the fact that our presence has made Oregon a world-famous place. In fact the news media – television, radio, newspapers, magazines – they all missed. They had a tremendously beautiful story, with all the colors of the rainbow, with all the rumors that you can manage. We gave them so much material and we allowed them to invent whatever they wanted to invent. We enjoy it anyway, we don’t make much fuss whether it is true or not. We kept the whole news media busy.
It is almost unbelievable that I was, for two years, the first man…. I was a tourist whose tourist visa had expired years before, and I was chosen the man of the year in Oregon because I was discussed more than the president himself.
Many times my people said to me, “These allegations…we should drag them to the court.”
I said, “Stop – don’t bother! Let them make as many allegations as possible. Help to create rumors yourself! Let the whole of America be concerned with you.” And we made, within five years, the whole of America concerned.