‘Zorba The Buddha’ is a five-part fiction podcast which charts the demise of Bhagwan Rajneesh/Osho and his sanyassins in his brief exile in Crete in the 80s. The novella by Katerina Cosgrove has been adapted into an audio-drama by Elizabeth Nabben (Belvoir 25A, Red Stitch) who directs actors Nicholas Brown as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and 2019 Helpmann Award-winner, Vaishnavi Suryaprakash (‘Counting and Cracking’) as Ma Anand Sharabo, Anita Hegh (A Room of One’s Own, Janet King) as Ma Yoga Mukunda, the Greek shipping heiress and Josh McConville as Shakti, the Oregon farm-boy.
In the first episode of Zorba and the Buddha we meet all four principal characters. We begin with Guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, lunatic to some and guru to others, as he wakes in Crete in 1986 to a horde of journalists and TV crews with their relentless questions. We meet Mukunda, a follower of Bhagwan, who hears of his arrival in Greece and drops everything to rush to him. However, their meeting is not as she expected. Shakti, another character, has reluctantly accompanied Mukunda, his former lover, and remembers their time together at the commune in Oregon with regret. Sharabo, the final character, exchanges letters with Bhagwan, he in Crete, she in prison in California. She begs for his forgiveness, but he refuses, his disappointment in her palpable.
Daily life at Rajneeshpuram is revealed as we jump back two years in time to the day Bhagwan arrives at the commune’s location in Oregon. Shakti tells of his initiation into the commune as a local teenager of the small rural town of Antelope, and the exhausting and restrictive lifestyle required. Mukunda reminisces about her old relationship with Shakti, the time when she first spotted him as in a diner and brought him into the commune. Sharabo writes another letter to Bhagwan, detailing the sacrifices she made for him and begging for a response. Back in Greece, Bhagwan contemplates his own mortality.
In Crete in 1986, Bhagwan presents a discourse that inspires Mukunda and bores Shakti. Shakti and Mukunda fight after he reveals he wants to go home. Sharabo continues her campaign with two more letters to Bhagwan, still beginning for forgiveness and revealing some of the questionable and illegal acts she committed in his name. Back in Oregon in 1984, Bhagwan watches Sharabo grasping for power and control. Mukunda and Shakti come face to face with the extreme and dangerous lengths Sharabo goes to in order to win them an election.
We finally learn about Sharabo’s betrayal of Bhagwan as he recounts the day he discovered she had fled to Germany and his subsequent escape from Oregon himself. Mukunda tells of the downward spiral Bhagwan and the commune endured after Sharabo’s departure, when they learned details of all her crimes and then saw Bhagwan himself apprehended by law enforcement. As Shakti prepares to leave Greece and Mukunda, he is wracked by guilt over his own actions at Rajneeshpuram and remembers his final encounter with her father as the FBI became involved. Sharabo writes another letter to Bhagwan, but her tone has taken quite a shift.
In the final episode instalment of Zorba the Buddha Shakti finally cuts ties and moves back to Oregon but finds the adjustment more difficult than expected. Bhagwan begins a vendetta against a Greek bishop and Mukunda faces her religious upbringing to confront said bishop for him. Sharabo writes her final letters to Bhagwan, reaffirming her love for him. Finally, when Bhagwan’s actions catch up with him, he must decide how to accept his fate.
Bonus Episode
Author Katerina Cosgrove talks about what inspired her to write Zorba The Buddha, about the research she undertook into the cult and its leader and what learnings she took from the experience.
About this podcast ‘Zorba The Buddha’ is an adaptation of the novella written by Katerina Cosgrove, an author of Greek heritage and regular writer for SBS. The four-part audio-drama is directed by Elizabeth Nabben (Belvoir 25A, Red Stitch). Actors include Nicholas Brown as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and 2019 Helpmann Award-winner, Vaishnavi Suryaprakash (‘Counting and Cracking’) as Ma Anand Sharabo, Anita Hegh (A Room of One’s Own, Janet King) as Ma Yoga Mukunda, the Greek shipping heiress and Josh McConville as Shakti, the Oregon farm-boy.
Sound design by Jeff Zhang. Produced by Spineless Wonders Audio.
About the author
Katerina Cosgrove is the author of The Glass Heart, Bone Ash Sky and Intimate Distance, which won the Griffith Review Novella Prize. She has written for local and overseas publications such as Al-Jazeera, SBS Voices, Island, Daily Life, The Big Issue and has co-judged the Nib Award for Literature from 2014. Zorba The Buddha was a finalist in the Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award and won the Wollahra Digital Literary Award. It was published as part of the small format series for Spineless Wonders’ ten-year anniversary.
About the cast
Crew
