Money: Spending, Investing, Budgeting

Interview with Shikhara, Financial Executive director of the Humaniversity

by Chandrika, 29th December 2008

Shikhara is a dear, long term friend of Veeresh. 30 years ago the Osho Humaniversity was founded from scratch and is now a financially independent organization. Since its establishment in 1978, Shikhara has held the position of 'Executive Director of Finance'. He set up a practical accounting system and has persistently cared for all legal and financial matters in this dynamic community.

Since a long time you are taking care of the financial management of the Humaniversity. What exactly are you doing ?

Actually, I try to do nothing. I love it when I have nothing to do, because then I have more time for other things. I translate it as "not standing in the way of the work Veeresh is doing already for 30 years". Administration is actually on the side. It is very much needed to create stability, but it is not the main thing. The main thing is the people and in order to do what Veeresh wants to do, you need to have a group room, a tape recorder, mattresses, tissues, and to charge a fee for it. At the moment we have a complete administration with computers, registration and an enormous amount of files which we have collected. In the beginning we didn't have the money for all this and we didn't need it, because we were a group of people that started experimenting after meeting Bhagwan in Pune one.  Therapists or not, we were touched by the ideas of Osho and we started with the Kundalini and the Dynamic meditation in the living room with a tape recorder on the side, asking for a little fee. This was the starting point for everything that came afterwards. What is special about the Humaniversity is that Veeresh added right from the start long term trainings. They consist of one weekend a month for people to go deeper in their process. For that we needed mattresses, space to stay over, food, etc.

In the beginning we offered a cup of coffee with the meditation classes. But with groups that took a longer time, like the 7 days Working with People, suddenly we were forced to rent a bigger space, to build showers, and to paint the whole place because it looked unacceptable. We changed everything into what was for us at the time a perfect group atmosphere. 30 years ago it was something else than what we have now at the Humaniversity. Now we have many different departments like administration, cleaning, studio, building, maintenance, graphics, and a huge kitchen, in which we are able to cook whatever food we want, but mainly vegetarian. We are a self help program, like Phoenix House New York, where all the participants are involved in everything that happens on the campus. That is a special flavour which you actually don't find in any other community.

Since the beginning, we picked up people that needed more care, and created space for them to live and get treatment with us. My function here is to be present, to see what is needed, and if I can do it I will do it. Most of the time I let things happen, and I'm checking, if all goes well. When I see something that needs attention, I have my friends to talk with, and if it is within my area, I change it into something that works better.

You are responsible that the ship is staying on course. What are the challenges you have to deal with and take care of?

When we started the Humaniversity, I had a conversation with Veeresh and some other people: Is it a one-term thing, or longer? We all decided that we are into something that goes on forever; that means it goes beyond the people who were sitting there. From that group of people there are only two left: Veeresh and myself.

I always saw that the idea of the Humaniversity is for a wider group of people, not only for Veeresh and I. I see that I can contribute by getting the concept ready so that others are willing to take it over, continuing to do it forever, and committing themselves for this goal. The course is always good, if the outcome is looking like this, that the boat can float on in the designated direction, a timeless goal, so to say. Perhaps it is a little a bit over the top to expect that you can keep the feelings and ideas together in an organisation, and that it can be transferred. But I'm very much reminded of all the stories that Osho told how the Zen masters were transferring their power to the next successor. That is the challenge in front of us: there comes a point that we have to pass it over to somebody or a group. I believe very much in a group process which is lead by the wisest of the bunch. The group as such needs to understand the direction and the course that takes us further.

What drives you?

I am very much a person that when I promise something to you, I want to do it the best way I can. I don't commit myself quickly. I am not running after people, but I sometimes get moved by an idea.

I think this drive was awakened in me in Pune, and consequently it was followed up by me meeting Veeresh. At the time Veeresh got the RTI (Rajneesh Therapy Institute), which was before the Humaniversity Foundation. He was collecting people through his friends, and I was one of them. I never had done a group with Veeresh. I knew that he was in Holland, because I read in the newspaper that he was working with heroin addicts in The Hague. That was news at the time. I had never met a heroin addict in my life. I did not move in those circles.
A friend recommended that I join one of the sessions, the Kundalini meditation. I liked it very much and I asked: "Where is this coming from?" They told me it comes from Pune and that Veeresh introduced it here. This was for me the reason to write directly a letter to Pune and I got an answer which said: Come! That's how I went to Pune. I stayed for four months and it took me 3,5 months to take Sannyas. Something changed me, and that is where the drive comes from.


What are your values in this field of taking care of the finances?

In the first place, it has to fit. If you do a game like administration, it has to fit. If it doesn't fit, what kind of administration do you have? If you count the people, who are doing the group, and you have 23 on the list and you have 22 in the room, where is the missing one? First you check that out, then you start the group. That is a value from administration.

I did my first administrative work in the Humaniversity with people who didn't know anything about figures. I worked out a system, so that if you do it accurately, in the very end you end on zero. Then you know that the calculation is right, and we can take it further into a more elaborate administration like the book keeping. The administration has to have a purpose. I don't do senseless administration, like collecting figures for no reason at all.

In the very beginning I talked with my dear friend Swami Krishna Ali, our first chairman of the board, and he said to me: "If I am the chairman of the board, then I expect from you to produce a year-end report by a registered accountant, so that I can say everything is all right." When I became responsible for the financial administration, I was depending on the foundation board for making decisions. I asked for the power of attorney so that I can execute. I see it as a big trust what was handed over to me.

One of the values is trust. Lots of financial administrations are based on distrust. It is a big thing in many companies that people in positions grab money that does not belong to them and put it in their own pocket, because nobody is able to control it.

What is special about my administration is that it is based on trust. I believe that you can make a mistake, but I don't see that the Humaniversity gets ripped off. And if I don't have to execute the administration based on distrust, I have a much easier administration to deal with.

What does money represent for you?

I value more the things that money can't buy like the quality of life and friendship. But I love to have good things around me. When you live in a community, you need to have top quality, otherwise it will not last; in a community things break in a hot second.

My position is: I'm not in it for the money. I am in it, because I committed myself, because Bhagwan guided me in that direction, and because I met friends on the way. For me money is more a lubrication for dealing with society, because you need to pay bills and taxes; you need money for a lot of things. It is a practical tool.

If I look to the front of our building, at our cars, our reception, then I see the development. We made this old fashioned building into a modern professional group institute. In the beginning we had one group a month, so much income, so much to spend. If your expenses and your income equals zero, how much did you earn? And that's why I love things that end up in zero, because that zero is also the zero point in meditation.