In each jail they tried different ways to affect my life. In one jail they put me into a cell with an inmate who was dying with an infectious disease. And for the six months since this man had come the cell was never given to anybody else; he had lived alone because the doctor had said that anybody living with him was bound to catch the disease. And I was, in the middle of the night, given that cell. The doctor was present, he did not object; the jailer was present, the marshal was present. The man, who was just dying--I heard later on that he died on the third day after I left the jail--could not speak, he had become so weak. He wrote on a small piece of paper, "Osho, I have been seeing you on the television. And I know that these people want to kill you; that is the reason they have put you in this cell. Don't touch anything. Just stand near the door and knock on the door till they come, and force them to change your cell. Because I am dying, and I don't want you to catch my disease. For six months they have not given this cell to anybody--and you are not even a prisoner."

It took one hour of me knocking on the door, and then the jailer appeared and the doctor appeared. And I said to the doctor, "What has happened to your tongue? For six months you have been saying that nobody should be given this cell. Why have you remained silent?" He was just embarrassed. I said, "You are a medical man. You have taken the oath of Hippocrates in your medical college before you got your degree, that you will serve life, not death. And this is not serving life."

He said, "I am sorry, but...orders from above. I am a poor doctor, I cannot disobey; just excuse me." And immediately my cell was changed.

They were giving me medicines--which I never took; I accepted them and threw them in the wastepaper basket, because those medicines I had no need for. I told them, "My problem is my back, which you are destroying"--because the same kind of driving continued from one jail to another jail, it was pre-planned; from jail to airport, from airport to jail, the same kind of driving continued for twelve days--"and for my back there is no medicine. For what are you giving me medicine? for my allergies? I have allergies, but for my allergies you have made every arrangement."

In every jail they had put all the heavy smokers in the same cell where they put me. So for twenty-four hours a day people were smoking--because they knew that I am allergic to smoke, dust, perfume, any kind of smell. They managed in every way to destroy my body. And I asked, "For what are these medicines?" Certainly those medicines would have made me sick....

In one jail they told me, "If you don't like to take medicines orally we can give you injections."

I said, "Never. Don't touch my body. If you touch my body, if anything happens to me, you will be responsible. It is up to me to take medicine or not. And I am not sick, I don't need your medicines. And the problems that I have, you don't give any medicine for--for that you have created exactly the situation in which my problem will increase."

My other medical problem was allergies. That too is incurable. It is inheritance. For certain things I am allergic--wool, perfume, any kind of smell, dust, smoke, particularly tobacco smoke. In the jails they managed everything. They will put me in the dirtiest cell, where there was nothing but dust; even to walk into it was to raise dust. They will give me the dirtiest blankets, and I told them "I don't want these blankets because they are woollen and I cannot use them." They said that they don't have any cotton blankets, which is a lie; because later on when it went to the press that they are not giving me cotton blankets, immediately they appeared. The pillows appeared. Just one day before they were non-existent.

They will put me with twelve other cell mates around me. Perhaps particularly chosen because all were chain smokers. That was a rare combination that all twelve people with whom I am put are all chain smokers. From the morning to the middle of the night they are smoking. So my eyes was continuously with tears, because that smoke I cannot tolerate. My throat was choking, my breathing was difficult, and I was afraid that any moment it may trigger my asthma attacks....

In every jail they will put me between two television sets on both the sides of the cell, which will run full-speed loudly, six in the morning till twelve in the night. And then they must have managed that when the televisions will become silent, then the inmates will start talking, cell to cell. They didn't allow me to sleep for a single moment for twelve days.

They did everything that they could indirectly, because they knew all my diseases; and to the press they will, because the press was continuously after them--the press and the news media helped me immensely, otherwise they would have kept me for two three months without trial, without arrest warrant, without any show cause.

But because the press was surrounding every jail, wherever they were keeping me, hundreds of television stations, newspapers, radios, and they were so much afraid of the media that they could not do anything directly, because they knew that if they do anything, even if they touch my body, it will be soon around the world and the whole world is watching....

But these twelve days have been of immense help. First, I could see that a country like America, which pretends to be the biggest democracy in the world, is not democratic. It is simply a hypocrisy.

Secondly I could see that American bureaucracy and government is not only deceiving the whole world; it is also deceiving its own people. The people are beautiful. They are just as loving as anywhere else, perhaps more. But they are not aware what is happening behind walls.

Thirdly, I became aware that in five jails, which were the biggest jails in America, not a single white prisoner. It seems all the crimes are committed by the blacks; that no white commits any crime. It made me clear that those jails are not for criminals, but for those people who they want to repress. And I came across people in the jails who said, "We have been six months here, nine months here, waiting for the trial." Pre-trial arrest is absolutely inhuman. You should bring the person to the court first, and if the court sentences him that's perfectly okay. But you are already punishing him. You have punished nine months a person, without even telling him what he has done. And all the jails were full of black people; totally, not a single exception.

Fourthly I saw that the inmates in the jail who are thought to be criminals are far more human, far more loving, than the people who are pretending to be democrats, humanitarian, and are trying save the whole world. I would ask for a toothpaste, or for a brush, or for a comb, or for a soap, and it will take two days that a brush will appear. But there is no toothpaste. Then the toothpaste will appear.

But when I asked the jail authorities, the inmates heard and they started bringing things. They say, "Bhagwan this is absolutely fresh, we have not used it, and those people are really ugly with you because when we ask they immediately give us, and when you ask it takes two days for them to bring a toothbrush." So I got everything from the inmates; the soap, the toothbrush, the comb, or anything that I needed; not from the authorities.

And they are all so happy that I am with them, and they said, "Now that we don't think this place as a jail. If you are here it has become a temple for us." Small gestures of love; somebody will bring a flower which he has picked while he has gone for the lunch, and I saw the other world that perhaps exists in every country, the world of the criminals. They are our brothers and our sisters, and we have put them in such a situation that they are almost another world, they are not part of this world, nobody knows about them, what is happening to them. If they can try to torture me, who was in the eyes of the whole world; thousands of telegrams every day, thousands of telephones every day, and the whole jail was surrounded by the press people; if they can torture me, or try to torture me, what they will be doing with these poor people, who nobody knows, who nobody will ever inquire whether they are alive or dead?

Strangely, for three days continuously in the smoke, my allergy was not disturbing me. Otherwise, just a little perfume, a little smoke, a little dust, and I will have an asthma attack. But I left the body outside, and I slipped as deep inside as possible to be far away from the smoke--let the body tackle it.

The doctors said, "You are allergic to smoke, but there is continuous smoking and you are not affected."

I said, "It is because I have not been in the body for three days. I have been trying hard to keep myself as much inside as possible--indoors."

I was not eating much, because it was all non-vegetarian food and the orders from above were that no special attention should be given to me. So they would not give me vegetarian food. I said, "Don't be worried..." The inmates of the jail would bring their fruits, their milk. And they would say, "You are not eating anything and they are not giving you vegetarian food. But we get one apple every day, one glass of milk every day--and we are twelve people. You don't be worried: you can have twelve glasses of milk, twelve apples."

But I said, "It is better not to eat. I will take a little bit of the fruit you have brought with such love and I will drink the milk, but I simply want my body not to function much. Digestion means making the body function. So let it sleep--almost dead, no function. I don't want them to know that they can create my asthma."

And for twelve days they tried hard, but they could not create any problem for me. And every doctor from every jail had to write that my health was perfect and fine.

The situation was created to be totally destructive to my health. I lost eight pounds of weight, but there was no suffering. In fact, as I came out of the jail, Vivek told me, "You are looking better than you ever looked before."