I first heard about the Gond tribe in Osho talks about their life and culture. He spoke about the time he spent with them and learning about their lives. The gond tribe is 1.3million strong group spread out in madhya pradesh and neighbouring states. Osho’s main interest in their culture was the system of Ghotuls. Ghotuls are places in the centre of a gond village where the youth of the village would live together, form sexual bonds freely . Osho called this concept to be a revolutionary concept which would be necessary if the modern society has to get rid of the negative sexual conditionings. He had mentioned of absence of rape and sexual violence in this tribe. After spending 3 years in a ghotul the youth find their right partner and get married.
I was living in Delhi when i had my first encounter with Gond tribal Art especially their paintings on Tree of Life.
The paintings of their sacred trees Mahua and Saga with birds,animal and humans in play inspired my imagination towards the goal of enlightenment to be one with nature. I was hooked and starting collecting tribal art paintings. In December 2016 i made a trip to Bhopal to meet tribal artists. I had read a lot about their musical traditions about the Bana Players.
Bana is a tribal violin instrument. As i landed at the airport i was welcomed by Gond tribal paintings in airport arrival area . That set the mood for the entire trip . I visited Bhopal bhavan and new Tribal Art museums. I met artists Subash Vyam, Japani Shyam, Nankushiya shyam.They are all family of Jangarh singh shyam the master gond tribal artist.
They gave me all contacts necessary for the realisation of my goal to meet the Bana player.
I travelled by road to Dindori district, the heartland of the Gond tribes.
There are certain things which have to said about Tree of life, this mythology appears in all religions of the world. In the Sanchi Stupa near Bhopal the enlightened ones are depicted as the Tree of life. 
Travelling from bhopal to jabalpur, i stopped at the Bhimbetka caves. These caves are a unesco world heritage sites with tribal paintings going back to stone age. This place is a cradle for all tribal arts of the indian subcontinent. Its a time logue of the journey of consciousness of india.
After 2 days by road with stopover at Jabalpur, we made it to patangarh village in dindori district. This is a village where Jangarh singh shyam was discovered by Jagdish swaminathan. Its close to Amarkantak the point from where Narmada river arises.
It was impressive to see lot of painters at work in the village.
Finally as the Sun was setting we made our way to a neighbouring village of GarakMatta where i was to meet Pradhan Marawi , the Bana musician. This meeting was no less than meeting a enlightened man. In a short time we were able to build a bond and we travelled musically to different eras. I heard stories from the origin of mankind to the great gond queen Rani Durgavati. Rani Durgavati build the temples of Khajuraho which are the world heritage sites. Osho has spoken a lot about these temples in his lectures on Tantra. We had Floral drink of Mahua as well. Mahua is an incredible local made liqour from the flowers of the Mahua tree.
This was probably the best christmas of my life.
In the morning i looked at beautiful tribal art paintings and walked around the village, looking at the natural rhythms of the village. I had bought beautiful pieces of tree of life and made beautiful connections with this village and tribe.
We headed back to Jabalpur where we went to see the Moulsri tree where Osho attained enligtenment.
It was pleasure to see this tree and to see that not far from where he attained enligtenment is a giant statue of Rani durgavati. The two most powerful forces of Indian philosophical thought.
I am currently running Atelier OM a meditation centre and tribal art gallery bringing Osho’s philosophical thought and Gond Tribal tree of life to people in the French Riviera.
Dr sunny sandhu
www.atelierom.guru
