The Last Rajneeshee Commune : Faithful Mark Guru Birthday

“Happy Birthday Bhagwan--We Love You” read the rainbow-colored sign over the familiar portrait of the smiling man with a flowing gray beard and tightly knitted cap.

On the stage below, brightly clad musicians plucked out Indian melodies as the disciples seated on the floor in front of them meditated, swayed and broke out in fits of exuberant dance.

This was satsang , an hour of silent meditation that the disciples of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh at the Utsava Rajneesh Meditation Center in Laguna Canyon normally do while watching a video of their guru, flown in from the group’s Oregon commune.

Guru Is in India

But the guru is in India, having left the country after pleading guilty to charges of violating immigration laws. And the ranch, as disciples call the group’s commune in Antelope, Ore., has been dismantled and is up for sale. The Laguna Canyon center is now the only Rajneeshee commune in the country. The last words of the last discourse of Rajneesh, according to Ma Prem Guha, a disciple at the Laguna Canyon center who spent two years at the commune, were: “It is finished.”

Wednesday night, however, about 300 followers expressed their continued devotion to Rajneesh by paying $15 a head to celebrate their master’s 54th birthday with satsang , champagne, dancing and a buffet that featured vegetarian sushi. Handshake greetings were replaced by embraces that lasted minutes and sometimes ended on the floor. Most devotees wore orange and purple clothes and malas --beaded necklace pendants carrying a picture of Rajneesh--despite an announcement two months ago by the Bhagwan that such practices were no longer necessary.

“It just feels right to put it on in the morning,” said Guha, fingering the long brass bead with the Bhagwan’s signature that served as a bus pass at the Oregon commune. “But I like being without it now, too. It’s an attachment, a device, just like anything else.”

Guha, 46, said she left the Oregon ranch when her rotation ended about two months ago, shortly before the Bhagwan was arrested while trying to flee the country in a private jet. The Bhagwan’s absence and the dismantling of the ranch, she said, “at first caused a lot of sadness. I think a lot of people inside were depending on the Bhagwan, but that drops away. Each of us is responsible for ourselves, and there is an openness here now that wasn’t there before. We still feel connected to him . There is a lot of joyfulness--you have to celebrate your sadness.”

Some residents of Laguna Beach had speculated that many of the 3,000 disciples at the Oregon ranch would now gravitate to their city to be near the commune. The center was more crowded than usual Wednesday night, several followers commented, but no mass migration of Rajneeshees into Orange County is expected, according to Guha. The commune itself can only house about 20 people, and it is currently full.

Many Followers in Area

Many followers who had to leave the ranch unexpectedly are staying in the area for a short time while they plan their next move, however. Swami Dhyan Naresh, 39, left the ranch just last week and came to Laguna Canyon “to get it together” before he moves on, probably to India, he said.

“It was really hard to leave the ranch, and it’s nice to be able to step into something that’s supportive before jumping into Madison Avenue,” Naresh said in a thick Australian accent. “The ranch was a unique place--the softest, most loving environment I’ve ever lived in. And the epitome of it was Bhagwan.

“It was a beautiful, crisp day when he flew out. I had an overwhelming feeling--I knew he was leaving, but I was closer to him than I ever had been before.”

Naresh, a qualified mechanic, supervised repairs on the ranch’s 300 vehicles--”not including the Rolls-Royces, those were separate,” he said. He speaks reverently of his stay at the ranch and of Rajneesh but bitterly of those who in his mind brought a premature end to “an incredible experiment.”

“It used to blow me away, the lack of response to him in America,” he said. “One day the full opportunity of the ranch will become apparent. The Oregon politicians are the new Jews, the new Pharisees--they blew it with Jesus, and now they blew it with Bhagwan.”

Naresh, now a committed disciple, said his devotion to Rajneesh “was not my first attempt at finding something. I was into the self-realization fellowship in Los Angeles for eight years. But the Bhagwan is what’s happening now. How many enlightened masters are there in the world?”