Sw Deva

(David Goldberg)

I’m an American who was in Mississippi and Georgia in 1964 for the Freedom Summer, lived with Tim Leary’s Brotherhood in the 60s,

dropped out in Hawaii and delivered my daughter at home in the 70s, moved to India for a number of years and later lived in Europe.

My blog includes my opinions on a million things I care about, some good ideas, as well as stories from an autobiography I will probably never publish called The Pieces Of My Heart. I’m a musician, computer geek, publisher, writer, photographer and all around nice guy.

The Rajneesh Country Band

By Deva - January 17, 2015

My daughter Gyana and I arrived at the Ranch from Gitam when there were just 30 or 40 people there. We were still cooking meals in the original ranch house in what was to become Jesus Grove which was so small we all had to eat out in the yard even in raging snow storms.

Everything was about building then, and creating enough infrastructure – housing, radios and phones, power, plumbing, roads, etc., - to take care of the huge influx of Sannyasins who were being invited to come to live there with Osho and to visit during Celebrations. I had been a Handyman for Ma Deeksha and then run the typewriter and office equipment repair department in Pune and so I was given the job of keeping all the equipment we were using on the ranch running. My Temple was called Gora and eventually I was given a trailer on the muddy main street and a few helpers. I also had a car (a white Dodge Ram Charger) since I was designing and installing the Motorola radio system and then the telephone system. So, I was called Mr. Motorola and had a lot of freedom even though I didn’t have much time for anything other than work.

I had been a guitar player all my life. I had first gone to Poona in 1975 but had not played there much because of my other work and when we came back to America, the music I’d missed most was country/western music (I’m from Arizona) so I had picked up a pedal steel guitar along the way and dragged it to the ranch. I had it set up in a corner of the Gora trailer and late at night, when I was alone, I’d practice.

Someone told me about a guy working on a construction crew who used to sit on the porch of his trailer at night and play banjo which sounded great so I got in touch with him. It was Sw Anand Milarepa. Mili started coming over after work and playing with me and soon he brought Ma Prem Gulabo along to sing. Not long after that, we invited Sw Bodhi, who I’d lived with on Boat Club Road in Poona, to play drums and we had a band. We all liked country music and since we had no idea it would go anywhere else, that’s what we played.

We were just jamming at night in the trailer but soon had enough repertoire that we wanted to play for our friends. Magdalena had just been completed and we’d all started eating dinner there so we set up our equipment at one end of the room and just let it stay there so we could practice and play for everyone after we were done eating. This went on for a while until one day Ma Anand Sheela came by to listen. Not long after that, she came by again with Ma Prem Arup and told us,

“We need a band. I just bought a nightclub in Portland and we need a live band to play there. You’re it. Start practicing.”

Sheila gave us cowboy hats and me a pair of cowboy boots (the best for pedal steel). So, that was the beginning of the The Rajneesh Country Band. Read on there ....

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