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Osho |
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This article or section has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page. (November 2008) |
| Osho | |
 Osho ("Rajneesh" Chandra Mohan Jain, रजनीश चन्द्र मोहन जैन) |
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| Born | 11 December 1931 Kuchwada, India |
| Died | 19 January 1990 (aged 58) Pune, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Movement | Jivan Jagruti Andolan; Neo-sannyas |
| Works | From Sex to Superconsciousness My Way, the Way of the White Clouds The Book of Secrets |
| Influenced by | G. I. Gurdjieff |
| Influenced | Peter Sloterdijk |
"Rajneesh" Chandra Mohan Jain (Hindi: रजनीश चन्द्र मोहन जैन) (December 11, 1931 – January 19, 1990), also known as Acharya Rajneesh from the 1960s onwards, calling himself Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh during the 1970s and 1980s and taking the name Osho in 1989, was an Indian mystic and spiritual teacher.
A professor of philosophy, he travelled throughout India in the 1960s as a public speaker, raising controversy by speaking against socialism, Mahatma Gandhi and institutionalised religion. He advocated a more open attitude towards sexuality, a stance that earned him the sobriquet "sex guru" in the Indian and later the international press. In 1970, he settled for a while in Mumbai (Bombay). He began initiating disciples (known as neo-sannyasins) and took on the role of a spiritual teacher. In his discourses, he reinterpreted writings of religious traditions, mystics and philosophers from around the world. Moving to Pune (Poona) in 1974, he established an ashram that attracted increasing numbers of Westerners. The ashram offered therapies derived from the Human Potential Movement to its Western audience and made news in India and abroad, chiefly because of its permissive climate and Osho's provocative lectures. By the end of the 1970s, there were mounting tensions with the Indian government and the surrounding society.
In 1981, Osho relocated to the United States, and his followers established an intentional community, later known as Rajneeshpuram, in the state of Oregon. Within a year, the leadership of the commune became embroiled in a conflict with local residents, primarily over land use, which was marked by bitter hostility on both sides. In this period Osho attracted notoriety for his large collection of Rolls-Royce motorcars. The Oregon commune collapsed in 1985, when Osho revealed that the commune leadership had committed a number of serious crimes, including a bioterror attack on the citizens of The Dalles. Shortly after, Osho was arrested and charged with immigration violations. He was deported from the United States in accordance with a plea bargain.123 Following an enforced world tour during which twenty-one countries denied him entry, Osho returned to Pune, where he died in 1990. His ashram is today known as the Osho International Meditation Resort.
Osho's syncretic teachings emphasise the importance of meditation, awareness, love, celebration, creativity and humour – qualities that he viewed as being suppressed by adherence to static belief systems, religious tradition and socialisation. His teachings have had a notable impact on Western New Age thought,45 and their popularity has increased markedly since his death.67
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Osho was born Chandra Mohan Jain (Hindi: चन्द्र मोहन जैन) in Kuchwada,8 a small village in the Narsinghpur District of Madhya Pradesh state in India, as the eldest of eleven children of a cloth merchant.9 His parents, who were Taranpanthi Jains, sent him to live with his maternal grandparents until he was seven years old.10 By Osho's own account,11 this was a major influence on his development, because his grandmother gave him the utmost freedom, leaving him carefree without an imposed education or restrictions.
At seven years old, his grandfather, whom he adored, died, and he went back to live with his parents.12 He was profoundly affected by his grandfather's death, and again by the death of his childhood sweetheart and cousin Shashi from typhoid when he was 15, leading to an extraordinary preoccupation with death that lasted throughout much of his childhood and youth.1213 In his school years, he was a rebellious, but gifted student, and acquired a reputation as a formidable debater.14 As a youth, Osho became an atheist; he took an interest in hypnosis and was briefly associated with socialism and two Indian independence movements: the Indian National Army and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.141516
In 1951, aged nineteen, Osho began his studies at Hitkarini College in Jabalpur.17 After acute conflicts with an instructor, the principal asked him to leave the college, and he transferred to D. N. Jain College, also in Jabalpur.18 He began speaking in public, initially at the annual Sarva Dharma Sammelan held at Jabalpur, organised by the Taranpanthi Jain community into which he was born, participating there from 1951 to 1968.19 He resisted his parents' pressure to get married.20 Osho later said he became spiritually enlightened on 21 March 1953, when he was 21 years old.21 He said he dropped all effort and hope.22 After what he describes as an intense seven-day process he says he went out at night to the Bhanvartal garden in Jabalpur, where he sat under a tree:21
| “ | The moment I entered the garden everything became luminous, it was all over the place – the benediction, the blessedness. I could see the trees for the first time – their green, their life, their very sap running. The whole garden was asleep, the trees were asleep. But I could see the whole garden alive, even the small grass leaves were so beautiful. I looked around. One tree was tremendously luminous – the maulshree tree. It attracted me, it pulled me towards itself. I had not chosen it, god himself has chosen it. I went to the tree, I sat under the tree. As I sat there things started settling. The whole universe became a benediction.23 | ” |
He completed his B.A. in philosophy at D. N. Jain College in 1955 and joined the University of Sagar, where he earned his M.A. in philosophy in 1957 (with distinction).2425 He immediately secured a teaching post at Raipur Sanskrit college, but soon became controversial enough for the Vice Chancellor to ask him to seek a transfer, as he considered him a danger to his students' morality, character and religion.26 From 1958, he taught philosophy as a lecturer at Jabalpur University, being promoted to professor in 1960.26 A popular lecturer with a "golden tongue" in Hindi, he was acknowledged by his peers as an exceptionally intelligent man who had been able to overcome the deficiencies of his early small-town education.27
In parallel to his university job, he travelled throughout India, giving lectures critical of socialism and Gandhi, under the name Acharya Rajneesh (Acharya means teacher or professor; Rajneesh was a nickname he had acquired in childhood).261428 Socialism, he said, was a dead loss that would only socialise poverty.28 Gandhi was a masochist and reactionary who worshipped poverty.1428 To escape its backwardness, Osho said, India needed capitalism, science, modern technology and birth control.14 He criticised orthodox Indian religions as dead, filled with empty ritual, oppressing their followers with fears of damnation and the promise of blessings.2814 Such statements made him controversial: they shocked and repelled many, but attracted others.14 He gained a loyal following that included a number of wealthy merchants and businessmen.29 These sought individual consultations from him about their spiritual development and daily life, in return for donations – a commonplace arrangement in India, where people seek guidance from learned or holy individuals the way people elsewhere might consult a psychologist or counsellor.29 The rapid growth of his practice was somewhat out of the ordinary, suggesting that he had an uncommon talent as a spiritual therapist.29 From 1962, he began to lead 3- to 10-day meditation camps, and the first meditation centres (Jivan Jagruti Kendra) started to emerge around his teaching, then known as the Life Awakening Movement (Jivan Jagruti Andolan).30 After a speaking tour in 1966, he resigned from his teaching post.26
In a 1968 lecture series, later published under the title From Sex to Superconsciousness, he scandalised Hindu leaders by calling for freer acceptance of sex.31 His advocacy of sexual freedom caused public disapproval in India, and he became known as the "sex guru" in the press.32 When he was invited in 1969 – despite the misgivings of some Hindu leaders – to speak at the Second World Hindu Conference, he used the occasion to raise controversy again.31 In his speech, he said that "any religion which considers life meaningless and full of misery, and teaches the hatred of life, is not a true religion. Religion is an art that shows how to enjoy life."33 He characterised priests as being motivated by self-interest, incensing the shankaracharya of Puri, who tried in vain to have his lecture stopped.33
At a public meditation event in spring 1970 Osho presented his Dynamic Meditation method for the first time.34 At the end of June 1970, Osho left Jabalpur for Mumbai.35 On September 26, 1970 he initiated his first group of disciples or sannyasins at an outdoor meditation camp, one of the large gatherings where he lectured and guided group meditations.36 His concept of neo-sannyas entailed assuming a new name and wearing the traditional orange dress of ascetic Hindu holy men, including a mala (beaded necklace) carrying a locket with his picture.37 However, his sannyasins were expected to follow a celebratory, rather than ascetic lifestyle.38 They would be free, creatively responding to the present situation, as comfortable with being loving as with being alone.38 He himself was not to be worshipped, but was rather like a catalytic agent, "a sun encouraging the flower to open, but in a very delicate way".38
He had by then acquired a secretary, who as his first disciple had taken the name Ma Yoga Laxmi.14 Laxmi was the daughter of one of his early followers, a wealthy Jain who had been a key supporter of the National Congress Party during the struggle for Indian independence, with close ties to Gandhi, Nehru and Morarji Desai.14 She raised the money that enabled Osho to stop his travels and settle down.14 In December 1970, Osho thus moved to Woodlands Apartments in Mumbai, where he gave lectures and received visitors, among them the first Western visitors.35 He now travelled very rarely, and stopped speaking at open public meetings.35 In 1971, he adopted the title Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.37 Shree means Sir or Mister; the Sanskrit title Bhagwan means "blessed one", indicating a human being in whom the divine is no longer hidden, but apparent.3940
The hot, humid climate of Mumbai appeared to have proved detrimental to Osho's health; he had developed diabetes, asthma and numerous allergies.37 So, in 1974, on the 21st anniversary of his enlightenment,41 he and his group moved from the Mumbai apartment to a property in Koregaon Park, Pune, which was purchased with the help of Catherine Venizelos (Ma Yoga Mukta), a Greek shipping heiress.42 Osho taught at the Pune ashram from 1974 to 1981. The two adjoining houses and 6 acres (24,000 m2) of land became the nucleus of an ashram, and those two buildings are still at the heart of the present-day Osho International Meditation Resort. This space allowed for the regular audio recording of his discourses and, later, video recording and printing for worldwide distribution, which enabled him to reach far larger audiences internationally. The number of Western visitors increased sharply, leading to constant expansion.43 The ashram soon featured an arts-and-crafts centre that turned out clothing, jewelry, ceramics and organic cosmetics and put on performances of theatre, music and mime.43 Following the arrival of several therapists from the Human Potential Movement in the early seventies,44 the ashram began from 1975 to complement its meditation offerings with a growing number of therapy groups.45 These became a major source of income for the ashram.4647
The Pune ashram was, by all accounts, an exciting and intense place to be, with an emotionally charged, madhouse-carnival atmosphere.434849 A typical day in the ashram began at 6:00 a.m. with Dynamic Meditation.5051 At 8:00 a.m., Osho gave a 60 to 90-minute spontaneous lecture in the ashram's "Buddha Hall" auditorium, either commenting on literature from a religious tradition, or answering questions sent in by visitors and disciples.5143 Until 1981, lecture series held in Hindi alternated with series held in English.52 During the day, various meditations and therapies took place, whose intensity was ascribed to the spiritual energy of Osho's "buddhafield".48 Evenings were for darshans, where Osho engaged in personal conversation with small numbers of individual disciples or visitors and gave sannyas.4351 Sannyasins came for darshan when departing or returning to the ashram, or if they had an issue that they wanted to discuss with Osho.4351
To decide which therapies to participate in, visitors either consulted Osho or made selections according to their own preferences.53 Some of the early therapy groups in the ashram, such as the Encounter group, were experimental and very controversial, allowing a degree of physical violence as well as sexual encounters between participants.5455 Conflicting reports of injuries sustained in Encounter group sessions began to appear in the press.565758 Richard Price, at the time a prominent Human Potential Movement therapist and co-founder of the Esalen institute, found that Osho's version encouraged participants to be violent rather than play at being violent (the norm in Encounter groups conducted in the United States), and he criticised the therapies for featuring "... the worst mistakes of some inexperienced Esalen group leaders".59 Price is alleged to have exited the Poona ashram with a broken arm following a period of eight hours locked in a room with participants who were armed with wooden weapons.59
Violence in the therapy groups eventually ended in January 1979, when the ashram issued a press release stating that violence "had fulfilled its function within the overall context of the ashram as an evolving spiritual commune."60 Besides the controversy around the therapies, allegations of drug use amongst sannyasins began to mar the ashram's image.61 Some Western sannyasins were financing their extended stays in India through prostitution and drug running.6263 A few of them later claimed that, while Osho was not directly involved, they discussed such plans and activities with him in darshan, and he gave his blessing.64
By the latter half of the 1970s it had become clear that the property in Pune was too small to contain the rapid growth of the ashram and Osho asked that somewhere larger be found.65 Sannyasins from around India started looking for property that could be purchased and used for a larger ashram and alternatives were found, including one in Gujarat, in the province of Kutch, and two more in India's mountainous north.65 Plans for a large utopian commune in India were never implemented, as mounting tensions between the ashram and the conservative Hindu government led by Morarji Desai resulted in an impasse.65 Land use approval was denied and, more importantly, the government stopped issuing visas to foreign visitors who indicated the ashram as their main destination in India.6566 In addition, Desai's government cancelled the tax-exempt status of the ashram, resulting in a claim of current and back taxes estimated at $5 million.67 Conflicts with various Indian religious leaders added to the situation – by 1980, the ashram had become so controversial that Indira Gandhi, despite a previous association between Osho and the National Congress Party dating back to his early speeches made in the sixties, was unwilling to intercede for it after her return to power.67 During one of Osho's discourses in May 1980, an attempt on his life was made by a young Hindu fundamentalist.6568
By 1981, Osho's ashram hosted 30,000 visitors per year.69 In stark contrast to the period up to 1970, when his following was overwhelmingly Indian, daily discourse audiences were at this time composed predominantly of Europeans and Americans.7071 Many observers noted that Osho's lecture style changed in the late seventies, becoming intellectually less focused and featuring an increasing number of jokes intended to shock or amuse his audience.65 On 10 April 1981, having discoursed daily for nearly 15 years, Osho entered a three-and-a-half-year period of self-imposed public silence, and satsangs – silent sitting and music, with readings from spiritual works such as Khalil Gibran's The Prophet or the Isha Upanishad – took the place of his discourses.7273 Around the same time, Ma Anand Sheela (Sheela Silverman) replaced Ma Yoga Laxmi as Osho's secretary.74
On 1 June 1981, Osho travelled to the United States on a tourist visa, for medical purposes; he reportedly had a prolapsed disc which had already been treated by several doctors, including James Cyriax, a leading orthopedic surgeon flown into India from London.757476 The move seems to have been instigated by Sheela,77 who claimed Osho might have died if he had stayed in India and would find the medical assistance he required in America in the event that he needed emergency surgery.787475 Sheela had apparently been urging Osho to move to America for some time, and had discussed a new commune in the United States with him as early as late 1980.74 Laxmi told Frances FitzGerald, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who wrote a study of Osho's years in America for The New Yorker magazine, that she blamed herself for the move to America; she had been unable to find a suitable property in India, and thus, when the medical emergency arose, the initiative had passed to Sheela.76
Other authors have attributed the move to mounting tension, criticism and possible punitive action by the Indian authorities, which may have created an impetus for Osho to relocate to the U. S.798081 The U.S. authorities believed that Osho had a preconceived intent to remain in the United States.76 He never sought outside medical assistance while in America, and the INS would later contend that false statements had been made on his visa application.76 Osho spent several months at Kip's Castle in Montclair, New Jersey.82
On 13 June 1981, Sheela's husband bought, for US$5.75 million, a 64,229-acre (260 km2) ranch located across two Oregon counties (Wasco and Jefferson), previously known as "The Big Muddy Ranch".83 The following month, work began on setting up the so-called Rancho Rajneesh commune; Osho moved there in late August.84 The initial reactions of the host community ranged from hostility to tolerance, depending on the observer's distance from the ranch.85 Within a year of arriving, Osho's followers had become embroiled in a series of legal battles with their neighbours, the principal conflict relating to land use.86 The commune leadership was uncompromising and behaved impatiently in dealing with the locals.87 They were also insistent upon having demands met, and engaged in implicitly threatening and directly confrontational behaviour.87 The repeated changes in their stated plans looked like conscious deception, whether it was or not.87 In May of 1982, the residents of Rancho Rajneesh voted to incorporate the city of Rajneeshpuram on the ranch.86 The conflict with local residents escalated, with increasingly bitter hostility on both sides, and over the following years, the commune was subject to constant and coordinated pressures from various coalitions of Oregon residents.8688
Osho resided at Rajneeshpuram, living in a purpose-built trailer complex with an indoor swimming pool and other amenities. He achieved notoriety for the large number of Rolls-Royce luxury cars89 that his followers bought for his use, eventually numbering 93 vehicles.9091 As part of his withdrawal from public life, Osho had given Ma Anand Sheela limited power of attorney in 1981, and removed the limits in 1982.92 In 1983, Sheela announced that he would henceforth speak only with her.93 He would later claim that she kept him in ignorance.92 Many sannyasins expressed doubts about whether Sheela truly represented Osho.94 An increasing number of dissidents left Rajneeshpuram, citing disagreements with Sheela's autocratic leadership style.94
The following years saw an increased emphasis on Osho's prediction that the conventional world would destroy itself by nuclear war or other disasters sometime in the 1990s.95 Osho had said as early as 1964 that "the third and last war is now on the way", and had commented in the intervening years on the need to create a "new humanity" to avoid global suicide.96 By the early 1980s, this had become the basis for a new exclusivism, with a 1983 article in the Rajneesh Foundation Newsletter announcing that "Rajneeshism is creating a Noah's Ark of consciousness ... I say to you that except this there is no other way".96 These warnings contributed to an increased sense of urgency in getting the Oregon commune established.96 In March 1984, Sheela announced that Osho had predicted the death of two-thirds of humanity from AIDS.9697 As a precaution, sannyasins were required to wear rubber gloves and condoms while making love and to refrain from kissing.9899 The measures were widely seen as an extreme overreaction; AIDS was not considered a heterosexual disease at the time, and the use of condoms was not yet widely recommended for AIDS prevention.100
Osho ended his period of public silence on 30 October 1984, having announced that it was time for him to "speak his own truths."101102 In July 1985, he resumed his daily public discourses in the commune's 2-acre (8,100 m2) meditation hall. According to statements he made to the press, he did so against Sheela's wishes.103 On 16 September 1985, Sheela and her entire management team having suddenly left the commune for Europe a few days prior, Osho held a press conference in which he labelled Sheela and her associates a "gang of fascists."104 He accused them of having committed a number of serious crimes, most of these dating back to 1984, and invited the authorities to investigate.104 The alleged crimes, which he stated had been committed without his knowledge or consent, included the attempted murder of his personal physician, poisonings of public officials, wiretapping and bugging within the commune and within his own home, and a bioterror attack on the citizens of The Dalles, Oregon, using salmonella.104 While his allegations were initially greeted with skepticism by outside observers,105 the subsequent investigation by the U.S. authorities confirmed these accusations and resulted in the conviction of Sheela and several of her lieutenants.106
The salmonella attack was noted as the first confirmed instance of chemical or biological terrorism to have occurred in the United States.107 Osho claimed that because he was in silence and isolation, meeting only with Sheela, he was unaware of the crimes committed by the Rajneeshpuram leadership until Sheela and her "gang" left, and sannyasins came forward to inform him.108 A number of commentators have stated that in their view Sheela was being used as a convenient scapegoat.108109110 Others have pointed to the fact that although Sheela had bugged Osho's living quarters and made her tapes available to the U.S. authorities as part of her own plea bargain, no evidence has ever come to light that Osho had any part in her crimes.111112113 Even though there was not enough evidence to bring charges against Osho, Gordon (1987) reports that Charles Turner, David Frohnmayer and other law enforcement officials who had surveyed affidavits that were never released publicly, and who had listened to the hundreds of hours of tape recordings that were retrieved from the ranch, insinuated to him that Osho was guilty of more crimes than those he was eventually prosecuted for.114 Frohnmayer, who had written his Harvard honours thesis on Nietzsche and Lenin,nb 1 asserted that Osho's philosophy was not "disapproving of poisoning", and that he felt he and Sheela had been "genuinely evil".114 Turner, identifying himself as a born-again Christian, was no less emphatic, describing Osho's eyes as "luminous, almost with a satanic glow in them."114
During his residence in Rajneeshpuram, Osho dictated three books while undergoing dental treatment under the influence of nitrous oxide (laughing gas): Glimpses of a Golden Childhood, Notes of a Madman, and Books I Have Loved.115 Following her departure from Rajneeshpuram, Sheela claimed in media interviews that Osho took sixty milligrams of Valium each day and was addicted to nitrous oxide.116117118 Osho denied these charges when questioned about them by journalists.116119
On 23 October 1985, a federal grand jury issued a thirty-five-count indictment charging Osho and several other disciples with conspiracy to evade immigration laws.120 The indictment was returned in camera, but word was leaked to Osho's lawyer.120 Negotiations to allow Osho to surrender to authorities in Portland if a warrant were issued failed.120121 Having listened to hundreds of hours of tape recordings that Sheela had made, including conversations with Osho, the Oregon state police believed there was a plan to create a human wall of sannyasin women and children should authorities attempt to arrest their guru.122 Tension peaked amid rumours of a National Guard takeover, a planned violent arrest of Osho and fears of shooting.123 On 28 October 1985, Osho, his personal physician and a small number of sannyasins accompanying them were arrested without a warrant aboard a rented Learjet at a North Carolina airstrip; the group were en route to Bermuda ($58,000 in cash and 35 watches and bracelets worth $1 million were also found on the aircraft).124125123 Osho had by all accounts been neither informed of the impending arrest nor of the reasons for the journey.121
Osho's imprisonment and transfer across the country took the form of a public spectacle – he was displayed in chains, held first in North Carolina, then Oklahoma, and finally in Portland.126 Officials took the full ten days legally available to them to transfer him from North Carolina to Portland for arraignment.126 After initially pleading not guilty to all charges and being released on bail, Osho, on the advice of his lawyers, entered an "Alford plea" – through which a suspect does not admit guilt, but does concede there is enough evidence to convict him – to one count of having concealed his intent to remain permanently in the U.S. at the time of his original visa application in 1981,nb 2nb 3nb 4 and one count of conspiracy to have followers stay in the country illegally by having them enter into sham marriages.127 Under the deal his lawyers made with the United States Attorney's office, he was given a 10-year suspended sentence and placed on five years' probation; in addition, he agreed to pay $400,000 in fines and prosecution costs, to leave the United States and not to return for at least five years without the permission of the United States Attorney General.1061251128
After leaving the United States, Osho returned to India, landing in Delhi on November 17th. He then travelled up to Himachal Pradesh where he stayed for six weeks. When his followers' visas were revoked by the government, he moved on to Kathmandu, Nepal. A few weeks later he moved on to Crete in Greece. After being arrested by the KYP, he flew to Geneva, Switzerland, who refused him entry. Then to Stockholm, Sweden, and to Heathrow, UK, which also refused entry. He flew to Canada next, which refused landing permission so they turned back to Shannon, Ireland in order to refuel. He was allowed to stay for two weeks, at the Limerick Hotel, on condition that he did not go out and did not give any talks. A visa was arranged for Uruguay, and they took off again, stopping at Madrid on the way, where the plane was surrounded by the Guardia Civilia. The next stop was Dakar, Senegal where he was allowed to spend the night. The next day the party continued on to Recife, Brazil, and finally on to Montevideo, Uruguay. In Uruguay the group moved to a house at Punta del Este where Osho again began speaking to his followers. He had been granted a Uruguyan identity card, one-year provisional residency and a possibility of permanent residency. On June 19, for no official reason, Osho was 'invited to leave'. A two-week visa was arranged for Jamaica, but on arrival in Kingston, the police gave the group 12 hours to leave the country. After refuelling in Gander, Canada, (despite being refused permission) and again in Madrid, Spain, Osho returned to Mumbai, India, on July 30th, 1986.129130131
In January 1987, Osho returned to his old ashram in Pune.132133 He resumed discoursing there, although with interruptions due to intermittent ill health.134 His discourses were now held in the evenings.135 Publishing efforts and therapy courses quickly resumed as well, though now in less controversial style, and the ashram experienced a renewed period of expansion.134135 It now presented itself as a "Multiversity", a place where therapy was to function as a bridge to meditation.135 Osho devised a number of new meditation techniques, among them the "Mystic Rose" method, and, after a gap of more than ten years, began to lead meditations personally again.134135 Among his followers, the previous preference for communal living styles receded, most of them preferring to live ordinary and independent lives in society.136 The former red or orange dress code for sannyasins and the mala, which had both been optional for some time, were abandoned in 1987.135
In November 1987, Osho expressed his belief that his deteriorating health was the result of some form of poison administered to him by the U.S. authorities during the twelve days he was held without bail in various U.S. prisons.137 His doctors hypothesised that he had been poisoned by radiation and thallium, and that he must have slept on his right side on a deliberately irradiated mattress, since his symptoms were concentrated on the right side of his body,137 but Osho's followers presented no hard evidence in support of this theory.138 Osho's former attorney, Philip J. Toelkes (Swami Prem Niren), also claimed that radiation poisoning was the cause of Osho's nausea, fatigue, pain in his extremities and a lack of resistance to infection, but conceded that no evidence had been found to support the notion that the United States government conspired to murder the guru. Toelkes' comments led U.S. attorney Charles H. Hunter to describe the allegations as "complete fiction", while others speculated that Osho's ill health might have stemmed from exposure to HIV.13978 A less conspiratorial explanation relates to the fact that Osho's chronic diabetes, in conjunction with the stress he had experienced, may have led to systematic physical deterioration.140
From early 1988, Osho's discourses focused exclusively on Zen.134 In late December 1988, he said he no longer wished to be referred to as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and in February 1989 took the name Osho Rajneesh, shortened to just Osho in September 1989.134141 His health continued to weaken; he delivered his last public discourse in April 1989, and from then on only sat in silence with his followers.137 The wearing of red robes – only while on ashram premises – was reintroduced in summer 1989, with white robes worn for meditation, and black robes worn by leaders of therapy groups.135 Malas were not worn.135 Shortly before his death, Osho claimed that audience members who attended evening meetings at the Pune ashram (now referred to as the White Robe Brotherhood) were subjecting him to some form of evil magic.142143 A search for protagonists was undertaken, but none could be found.142143 On January 19, 1990 Osho died, aged 58, with heart failure being the publicly reported cause. His ashes were placed in his newly built bedroom in one of the main buildings (LaoTsu House) at the Pune ashram. The epitaph reads, "OSHO. Never Born, Never Died. Only Visited this Planet Earth between Dec 11 1931 – Jan 19 1990."
While Osho's teachings met with strong rejection in his home country during his lifetime, there has been a sea change in Indian public opinion since Osho's death.144 As early as 1991, an influential Indian newspaper counted Osho, among figures such as Gautama Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi, among the ten people who had most changed India's destiny; in Osho's case, by "liberating the minds of future generations from the shackles of religiosity and conformism".145 Since then, his teachings have progressively become part of the cultural mainstream of India144146 and Nepal,147148 perhaps in part because of his status as a figure who had a large Western following.6
Osho is one of only two authors whose entire works have been placed in the Library of India's National Parliament in New Delhi (the other is Mahatma Gandhi).144 Excerpts and quotes from his works appear regularly in the Times of India and many other Indian newspapers. Prominent admirers include the Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh,149 and the noted Indian novelist and journalist, Khushwant Singh.149 The Osho disciple Vinod Khanna, who worked as Osho's gardener in Rajneeshpuram,150 served as India's Minister of State for External Affairs from 2003 to 2004.151
Over 650 books152 are credited to Osho, expressing his views on all facets of human existence.153 Virtually all of them are renderings of his taped discourses.153 His books are available in 55 different languages154 and have entered best-seller lists in such varied countries as Italy and South Korea.155145
After almost two decades of controversy and a decade of accommodation, Osho's movement has established itself in the international market of new religions.156 His followers have redefined his contributions, reframing central elements of his teaching so as to make them appear less controversial to outsiders.156 Societies in North America and Western Europe have met them half-way, becoming more accommodating to spiritual topics such as yoga and meditation.156 His followers run stress management seminars for corporate clients such as IBM and BMW, making between $15 and $45 million annually in the U.S.157158
Osho's ashram in Pune has become the Osho International Meditation Resort,159 one of India's main tourist attractions.160161 Describing itself as the Esalen of the East, it teaches a variety of spiritual techniques from a broad range of traditions and promotes itself as a spiritual oasis, a "sacred space" for discovering one's self and uniting the desires of body and mind in a beautiful resort environment.7 According to press reports, it attracts some 200,000 people from all over the world each year;149162 prominent visitors have included politicians, media personalities and the Dalai Lama.160 HIV/AIDS is still a concern for the Osho movement, and AIDS tests are mandatory for those wishing to enter the resort.163
Osho's thought was rooted in Hindu advaita, which considers all reality as being of a single divine essence.164 In this mystical ontology, the human experiences of separateness, duality and temporality are understood to be illusions produced by the mind.164 The dualistic and transient phenomena of the world are the dance, the external play, of cosmic consciousness.164 In this dance, every thing, every happening is sacred, has absolute worth, and is an end in itself.164
Osho's discourses were not presented in a dry, academic setting, but were interspersed with jokes, and delivered with an oratory that many found spellbinding.165166 His teachings were not static but changed in emphasis over time: he revelled in paradox and contradiction, adding to the difficulty of summarising his work.167 Conversant with all the Eastern religious traditions, he also drew on a wide and eclectic range of Western influences in his teaching.168
Osho's view of man as a machine, condemned to the helpless acting out of unconscious, neurotic patterns, reflects the thought of Gurdjieff and Freud.169170 His vision of the "new man" who transcends the constraints of convention is reminiscent of Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil.171 His views on sexual liberation bear comparison to the thought of D. H. Lawrence.172 And while his contemporary Jiddu Krishnamurti did not approve of Osho, there are clear similarities between their respective teachings.169
Osho taught that every human being is a potential Buddha, with the capacity for enlightenment.173174 According to him, everyone capable of experiencing unconditional love and of responding rather than reacting to life: "You are truth. You are love. You are bliss. You are freedom."173 He suggested that it is possible to experience innate divinity and to be conscious of "who we really are", even though our egos usually prevent us from enjoying this experience: "When the ego is gone, the whole individuality arises in its crystal purity."173 The ego, in Osho's view, represents the social conditioning and constraints a person has accumulated since birth, creating false needs that are in conflict with the real self.175 "The whole of religion is nothing but that: dropping the ego, disappearing as your own master ... Then life becomes such a grace; because all tension arises out of ego ... all anxiety, anguish, despair, frustration. All illness of the mind is because we have taken this wrong attitude ... Dissolve yourself as a separate entity. Become part of the cosmic whole."175 The problem, he said, is how to bypass the ego so that our innate being can flower; how to move from the periphery to the centre.173175
Osho views the mind first and foremost as a mechanism for survival, replicating behavioural strategies that have proved successful in the past.173175 But the mind's appeal to the past, he says, deprives human beings of the ability to live authentically in the present.173175 Individuals would continually repress their genuine emotions, shutting themselves off from joyful experiences that arise naturally when embracing the present moment: "The mind has no inherent capacity for joy. ... It only thinks about joy."176175 The result, he stated, is that people poison themselves with all manner of neuroses, jealousies and insecurities.177 In the case of sexual feelings, for example, Osho believed that repression only makes these feelings re-emerge in another guise, and that the final result was a society that was obsessed with sex.177 Instead of suppressing, Osho argued, people should trust and accept themselves unconditionally: "We have been repressing anger, greed, sex ... And that's why every human being is stinking. ... Let it become manure, ... and you will have great flowers blossoming in you."175176 This solution could not be intellectually understood, as the mind would only assimilate it as one more piece of baggage: instead, what was needed was meditation.177
According to Osho, meditation is not just a practice, but a state of awareness that can be maintained in every moment.177175 It is this total awareness that awakens the individual from sleep, and from mechanical responses to stimuli, conditioned by beliefs and expectations.175 Osho employed Western psychotherapy as a means of preparing for meditation – a way to become aware of one's mental and emotional hang-ups – and also introduced his own, "Active Meditation" techniques, characterised by alternating stages of physical activity and silence.178 In all, he suggested over a hundred meditation techniques.178179
The most famous of these remains his first, known today as OSHO Dynamic Meditation.178179 This method has been described as a kind of microcosm of Osho's outlook.179 It comprises five stages that are accompanied by music (except for stage 4).180 In the first, the person engages in ten minutes of rapid breathing through the nose.180 The second ten minutes are for catharsis: "[L]et whatever is happening happen. ... Laugh, shout, scream, jump, shake – whatever you feel to do, do it!"178180 For the next ten minutes, the person jumps up and down with their arms raised, shouting Hoo! each time they land on the flats of their feet.181180 In the fourth, silent stage, the person freezes, remaining completely motionless for fifteen minutes, and witnessing everything that is happening to them.181180 The last stage of the meditation consists of fifteen minutes of dancing and celebration.181180
There are other active meditation techniques, like OSHO Kundalini Meditation and OSHO Nadabrahma Meditation, which are less animated, although they also include physical activity of one sort or another.178 His final formal technique is called OSHO Mystic Rose, comprising three hours of laughing every day for the first week, three hours of weeping each day for the second, with the third week for silent meditation.182 The result of these processes is said to be the experience of "witnessing", enabling the "jump into awareness".178 Osho believed such cathartic methods were necessary, since it was very difficult for people of today to just sit and be in meditation. Once the methods had provided a glimpse of meditation, people would be able to use other methods without difficulty.183
Another key ingredient of his teaching is his own presence as a master: "A Master shares his being with you, not his philosophy. ... He never does anything to the disciple."184 He delighted in being paradoxical and engaging in behaviour that seemed entirely at odds with traditional images of enlightened individuals.184 All such behaviour, however capricious and difficult to accept, was explained as "a technique for transformation" to push people "beyond the mind."184 The initiation he offered his followers was another such device: "... if your being can communicate with me, it becomes a communion. ... It is the highest form of communication possible: a transmission without words. Our beings merge. This is possible only if you become a disciple."184 Ultimately though, Osho even deconstructed his own authority.185 He emphasised that anything and everything could become an opportunity for meditation.184
Osho saw his sannyas as a totally new form of spiritual discipline, or "a totally ancient one which had been completely forgotten".186 He felt traditional sannyas had turned into a mere system of social renunciation and imitation.186 His neo-sannyas emphasised complete inner freedom and responsibility of the individual to himself, demanding no superficial behavioral changes, but a deeper, inner transformation.186 Desires were to be transcended, accepted and surpassed rather than denied.186 Once this inner flowering had taken place, even sex would be left behind.186
Osho said that he was "the rich man's guru" and taught that material poverty was not a genuine spiritual value.187 He had himself photographed wearing sumptuous clothing and hand-made watches,188 and while in Oregon drove a different Rolls-Royce each day – his followers reportedly wanted to buy him 365 of them, one for each day of the year.90 Publicity shots of the Rolls-Royces (93 in the end) were sent to the press.189187 As a conscious display of wealth, they reflected both Osho's embrace of the material world and his desire to provoke American sensibilities, much as he had enjoyed offending Indian sensibilities earlier.190187
Osho hoped to create "a new man" combining the spirituality of Gautama Buddha with the zest for life embodied by Zorba the Greek in the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis: "He should be as accurate and objective as a scientist ... as sensitive, as full of heart, as a poet ... [and as] rooted deep down in his being as the mystic."184191 This new man, "Zorba the Buddha", should reject neither science nor spirituality, but embrace them both.184 He should be "all for matter, and all for spirit."190 Osho believed humanity to be threatened with extinction due to over-population, impending nuclear holocaust, and diseases such as AIDS, and thought that many of society's ills could be remedied by scientific means.184 The new man would no longer be trapped in institutions such as family, marriage, political ideologies, or religions.192193 In this respect, Osho has much in common with other counter-culture gurus, and perhaps even certain postmodern and deconstructional thinkers.193 His term the "new man" applied to men and women equally, whose roles he saw as complementary; indeed, most of his movement's leadership positions were held by women.192
In his early days as Acharya Rajneesh, a correspondent once asked Osho for his "Ten Commandments". In his letter of reply, Osho noted that it was a difficult matter, because he was against any kind of commandment, but "just for fun" agreed to set out the following:
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He underlined numbers 3, 7, 9 and 10.194 The ideas expressed in these Commandments have remained a constant leitmotif in his movement.194
In the course of his life, Osho spoke on all the major spiritual traditions, including Hinduism, Hassidism, Tantrism, Taoism, Christianity, Buddhism, the teachings of a variety of Eastern and Western mystics, and on sacred scriptures such as the Upanishads and the Guru Granth Sahib.168 But the topic that predominated, and on which he came to focus exclusively towards the end of his life, was Zen.192 If Osho's teachings seemed mad, playful or simply absurd, this was no doubt intentional: as an explicitly "self-deconstructing" or "self-parodying" guru, his teaching as a whole was said to be nothing more than a "game" or a joke.193 His early lectures were famous for their humour and their refusal to take anything seriously.193 His message of sexual, emotional, spiritual, and institutional liberation, as well as his contrariness, ensured that his life was surrounded by conjecture, rumour, and controversy.192
Osho was notorious all his life, becoming known as the "sex guru" in India, and as the "Rolls-Royce guru" in the United States.196 His movement was widely feared and loathed as a cult, in much the same way as Scientology or the Unification Church.197 Like L. Ron Hubbard, Reverend Moon and other cult leaders, Osho was seen to live in ostentation and offensive opulence, while his followers might be at mere subsistence level.197 He is generally considered one of the most controversial spiritual leaders to have emerged from India in the twentieth century.198 Surrounded by scandals and accusations, he continued to attract crowds and retained a large number of disciples to the end of his life and beyond.6198 According to the Indian sociologist Uday Mehta, his appeal to his Western disciples was based on his social experiments, which established a philosophical connection between the Eastern guru tradition and the Western growth movement.198
There are widely diverging views on Osho's qualities as a thinker and speaker. Khushwant Singh, eminent author, historian and former editor of the Times of India, has described him as "the most original thinker that India has produced: the most erudite, the most clearheaded and the most innovative".199 In his view, Osho was a "free-thinking agnostic" who had the ability to explain the most abstract concepts in simple language, illustrated with witty anecdotes, who mocked gods, prophets, scriptures and religious practices and gave a totally new dimension to religion.200 Osho's commentary on the Sikh scripture known as Japuji was hailed as the best available by Giani Zail Singh, the former President of India.144
The German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk has called Osho a "Wittgenstein of religions", ranking him as one of the greatest figures of the 20th century; in his view, Osho had performed a radical deconstruction of the word games played by the world's religions.201 The American poet and Rumi translator Coleman Barks likened reading Osho's discourses to the "taste of fresh springwater."202 The American author Tom Robbins, while stressing that he was not a disciple, expressed his conviction, based on reading Osho's books, that he was the 20th century's greatest spiritual teacher, and probably also one of the most maligned figures in history, given the amount of vicious propaganda and slanted reports published about him.199
During the early 1980s, a number of commentators in the popular press were dismissive of Osho.203 The Australian critic and cynic Clive James scornfully referred to him as "Bagwash", likening the experience of listening to one of his discourses to sitting in a laundrette and watching "your underwear revolve soggily for hours while exuding grey suds. The Bagwash talks the way that looks."203 James finished by saying that Osho was just a "rebarbative dingbat who manipulates the manipulatable".203 Responding to an enthusiastic review of Osho's talks by Bernard Levin in The Times, Dominik Wujastyk, also writing in The Times, similarly expressed his opinion that the talk he heard while visiting the Pune ashram was of a very low standard, wearyingly repetitive and often factually wrong, and stated that he felt disturbed by the personality cult surrounding Osho.203204
Osho attacked traditional concepts of nationalism, expressed undisguised contempt for politicians and poked fun at leading figures of various religions.205 Religious