In the morning we moved to Ireland. Perhaps the man did not take note of my name amongst the passengers. We had asked just to stay for two, three days – “At the most seven, if you can give us.” We wanted time because some other decision was being made, and they were delaying it, and our movement was dependent on that decision.

The man was really generous…must have taken too much beer: he gave everybody twenty-one days. We moved to the hotel and immediately the police arrived at the hotel to cancel it, saying, “That man is mad – he does not know anything.”

They canceled the visas, but they were in a difficult situation – what to do with us? We were already in the land, we were in the hotel; we had passed a few hours in the hotel. They had given us twenty-one days on the passports. Now he had canceled them, and we were not ready to go. We had to wait still a few days.

You can see how bureaucracy covers its own errors. They said, “You can stay here, but nobody should come to know about it – no press, nobody should come to know that Osho is here because then we will be in trouble. And of course we cannot do anything, because that will stir up problems immediately.

“If you don’t want to go…and we have given you twenty-one days’ permission – on what grounds are we canceling? You have not done anything – you have only slept the night here, unless sleeping is a crime – so we are in a difficulty. The only way is you remain silent and absolutely hidden.”

Now, it was absolutely illegal to stay without a visa; and the police were suggesting to us to remain silent so that nobody knows it – and leave silently. And they were keeping the press away; they were giving them false clues so they were looking in some different places.

But the strange thing is that these people are in direct communication with the government. The question was raised in the parliament, “What happened? Their jet is standing at the airport. They have entered the country – where have they disappeared to?”

The minister simply lied, saying, “They had come, and they have left.” We were in the country, and the parliament was told that we have left the country….

This whole journey has been an exposure of the bureaucracies.

And just now I have received the information that all the countries of Europe, jointly, are deciding that I cannot land my plane at any airport. How will that effect their morality – refueling the plane?

They simply want to cut me off from humanity. That’s why I had to leave India. Their conditions were clear: they wanted me to remain in India – naturally they cannot deny me; it is my birthland. “You can remain,” they said, “but no foreign disciple can be allowed to reach you, and no news media can be allowed to reach you.”

That was a way to cut me off from the world, from my people, and even from news media, so nobody knows whether I am alive or dead. It was a strategy to make me almost dead – although I am alive – to cut me away from everybody.