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Osho
Born	11 December 1931 Kuchwada, India
Died	19 January 1990 Pune, India
Nationality	Indian
Movement	Jivan Jagruti Andolan; Neo-sannyas

"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, guru and philosopher.

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 also the international press. Towards the end of the 1960s, he settled for a while in Mumbai (Bombay). In 1970, 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 from Mumbai to Pune (Poona) in 1974, he established an Ashram in Pune that began to attract increasing numbers of Westerners. The Ashram offered various 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.

In 1981, Osho moved to the United States. His followers established an intentional community in Oregon, incorporated as the City of Rajneeshpuram. In this period, Osho attracted media attention for his large and ever-expanding collection of Rolls-Royce motorcars. Subject to intense hostility and coordinated pressures from many sections of the Oregon population, the Oregon commune collapsed in 1985, when Osho revealed that the commune leadership had committed a number of serious crimes, including a salmonella attack on the citizens of The Dalles. Shortly after, Osho himself was arrested and charged with immigration violations. He left the United States in accordance with a plea bargain. Following a world tour during which twenty-one countries denied him entry, Osho eventually 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 in his view are suppressed by adherence to static belief systems, religious tradition and socialisation. His teachings have had a considerable impact on Western New Age thought; in his home country, India, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant figures of the 20th century.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Osho was born Chandra Mohan Jain (Hindi: चन्द्र मोहन जैन) in Kuchwada, a small village in the Narsinghpur District of Madhya Pradesh state in India, as the eldest of eleven children of a cloth merchant.^[1] His parents, who were Taranpanthi Jains, sent him to live with his maternal grandparents until he was seven years old.^[2] By Osho's own account,^[3] 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, he went back to his parents. Apparently, he received a similar kind of respect from his paternal grandfather who was staying with them; he was able to be very open with his grandfather, who was fully supportive of him.^[4] He said he resisted his parents' pressure to get married.^[5]

He was a rebellious, but gifted student, and became a formidable debater.^[6] He started his public speaking at the annual Sarva Dharma Sammelan held at Jabalpur since 1939, organised by the Taranpanthi Jain community into which he was born. He participated there from 1951 to 1968.^[7] Eventually the Jain community stopped inviting him because of his radical ideas.

Osho later said he became spiritually enlightened on 21 March 1953, when he was 21 years old.^[8] He said he dropped all effort and hope.^[9] 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:^[8]

He finished his studies at D. N. Jain College and the University of Sagar,^[11] receiving a B.A. (1955) and an M.A. (1957, with distinction) in philosophy.^[12] He then taught philosophy, first at Raipur Sanskrit College, and then, until 1966, as a Professor at Jabalpur University.^[12] At the same time, he travelled throughout India, giving lectures critical of socialism and Gandhi, under the name Acharya Rajneesh (Acharya means "teacher"; Rajneesh was a nickname used by his family^[6]).^[13] In 1962, he began to lead 3- to 10-day meditation camps, and the first meditation centres (Jivan Jagruti Kendras) started to emerge around his teaching, then known as the Life Awakening Movement (Jivan Jagruti Andolan).^[14] He resigned from his teaching post in 1966.^[15]

In 1968, he scandalised Hindu leaders by calling for freer acceptance of sex; at the Second World Hindu Conference in 1969, he enraged Hindus by criticising all organised religion and the very institution of priesthood.^[16] In 1969, a group of Osho's friends established a foundation to support his work. They settled in an apartment in Mumbai where he gave daily discourses and received visitors. The number and frequency of visitors soon became too much for the place, overflowing the apartment and bothering the neighbours. A much larger apartment was found on the ground floor (so the visitors would not need to use the elevator, a matter of conflict with the former neighbours).

On September 26, 1970, he initiated his first disciple or sannyasin at an outdoor meditation camp, one of the large gatherings where he lectured and guided group meditations. His concept of neo-sannyas entailed wearing the traditional orange dress of ascetic Hindu holy men, including a mala (beaded necklace) carrying a locket with his picture. However, his sannyasins were not expected to follow an ascetic lifestyle.^[16]

[edit] 1971–1980

In 1971, he adopted the title Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.^[17] Shree means Sir or Mister; the Sanskrit word Bhagwan means "blessed one".^[18] It is commonly used in India as a respectful form of address for spiritual teachers.^[19]

The new apartment also proved insufficient, and the climate of Mumbai was deemed detrimental to his health, since he had developed diabetes, asthma and numerous allergies.^[17] So, in 1974, on the 21st anniversary of his enlightenment,^[20] 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.^[21] Pune had been the secondary residence of many wealthy families from Mumbai because of the cooler climate (Mumbai lies in a coastal wetland, hot and damp, Pune is inland and much higher, so it is drier and cooler). Osho taught at the Pune Ashram from 1974 to 1981.

The two adjoining houses and six acres 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 and video recording of his discourses and, later, printing for worldwide distribution, which enabled him to reach far larger audiences internationally. The number of Western visitors increased sharply, leading to constant expansion.^[22] 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.^[23]

Following the arrival of several therapists from the Human Potential Movement^[24] in the early seventies, the Ashram began to offer a growing number of therapy groups as well as meditations.^[25] Some of the early therapy groups, such as the Encounter group, were experimental and very controversial, since they allowed a degree of physical violence as well as sexual encounters between participants.^[25][26] Conflicting reports of injuries sustained in encounter group sessions^[27][28][29] and allegations of drug use amongst sannyasins began to mar the Ashram's image.^[30] 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."^[31]

The Pune Ashram was, by all accounts, an exciting and intense place to be, with an emotionally charged, madhouse-carnival atmosphere.^[23][32] 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.^[33]

By the latter half of the 1970's 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.^[33] Sannyasins from around India started looking for property that could be purchased and used for a larger Ashram and alternatives were found, including in the province of Kutch, Gujarat and in the Himalayas.^[33][34] Nothing came of many of the ideas, although a castle at Saswad, in the hills above Pune, was purchased and work started on a community there.^[34]

However, 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.^[34] Land use approval was denied and, more importantly, the government placed a moratorium on visas for foreign visitors who indicated the Ashram as their main destination in India.^[35]

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.^[36] 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.^[36] During one of Osho's discourses in May 1980, an attempt on his life was made by a young Hindu fundamentalist.^[33][37]

[edit] 1981–1985

By 1981, Osho's Ashram hosted 30,000 visitors per year.^[38] 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,^[34] and satsangs (silent sitting and music, with some readings from spiritual works such as Khalil Gibran's The Prophet) took the place of his discourses. Then, in mid-1981, Osho went to the United States in search of better medical care (apart from his other health issues, he now suffered from a persistent and very painful back problem).^[39] The move to America seems to have been a unilateral decision on the part of Osho's secretary, Ma Anand Sheela, who wished to ensure the availability of medical facilities in the event of any further deterioration in Osho's health.^[39][40] Others attributed the move to the various conflicts that had marred the period preceding his departure from Pune.^[41] There is evidence that Osho had not initially intended to reside permanently in the United States.^[42]

After a brief spell in Montclair, New Jersey,^[43] Sheela bought (for US$6 million) a 64,000-acre (260 km²) ranch in Wasco County, Oregon, previously known as "The Big Muddy Ranch", and immediately began setting up the so-called Rancho Rajneesh commune. 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.^[44] This conflict escalated to bitter hostility, and over the following years, the commune was subject to consistent and coordinated pressures from various coalitions of Oregon residents.^[44][45] In May of 1982, the residents of Rancho Rajneesh (having grown larger in number than the local inhabitants) voted to incorporate the city of Rajneeshpuram.^[44]

Osho greeted by sannyasins on one of his daily "drive-bys" in Rajneeshpuram, 1982.

Osho resided at Rajneeshpuram, living in a purpose-built trailer complex with an indoor swimming pool and other amenities. Over the coming years, he achieved notoriety for the large number of Rolls-Royce luxury cars^[46] that his followers bought for his use, eventually numbering 93 vehicles.^[47][48]

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.^[49] In 1983, Sheela announced that he would henceforth speak only with her.^[50] He would later claim that she kept him in ignorance.^[49] Many sannyasins expressed doubts about whether Sheela truly represented Osho.^[51] An increasing number of dissidents left Rajneeshpuram, citing disagreements with Sheela's autocratic leadership style.^[51]

In October 1982, an article in the Rajneesh Foundation International Newsletter announced that Osho had said an apocalyptic future was now almost inevitable, declaring that "... all the causes for a third world war have already happened. There is therefore only a very remote possibility that the conflict itself will not take place. It would take something totally unpredictable – such as, for example, contact with an intelligent life form from another galaxy – to change the direction in which humanity is heading ... the third world war ... will begin sometime between 1993 and 1999."^[52]

In 1983, Sheela announced that Osho had predicted the death of two-thirds of humanity from AIDS.^[53][54] As a precaution, sannyasins were required to wear rubber gloves and condoms while making love and to refrain from kissing.^[55][56] This was widely seen as an extreme overreaction, as AIDS was not considered a heterosexual disease at the time and the use of condoms was not yet widely recommended for AIDS prevention.^[54]

A book entitled "Rajneeshism" was published by Sheela in 1984, claiming that Rajneeshpuram was in essence a "Noah's Ark of consciousness," a "still centre in the midst of the cyclone" – in short, a safe haven for those who chose to follow Osho's path.^[54] Osho had in previous years commented on the need for a "new man", or a quantum leap in human consciousness, to avoid a third world war, and these apocalyptic themes were now being used by management as a means to enforce discipline within the commune.^[57]

Osho ended his period of public silence in October 1984, announcing that it was time for him to "speak his own truths."^[58] In July 1985, he resumed his daily public discourses in the commune's purpose-built, two-acre meditation hall. According to statements he made to the press, he did so against Sheela's wishes.^[59]

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."^[60] He accused them of having committed a number of serious crimes, most of these dating back to 1984, and invited the authorities to investigate.^[60] 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.^[60] The subsequent investigation by the U.S. authorities confirmed these accusations and resulted in the conviction of Sheela and several of her lieutenants.^[61] There was no evidence to link Osho himself to these crimes.^[62][61]

On 23 October 1985, a federal grand jury issued a thirty-five-count indictment charging Osho and several other disciples, including Sheela, with conspiracy to evade immigration laws.^[63] The indictment was returned in camera, but word was leaked to Osho's lawyer.^[63] Negotiations to allow Osho to surrender to authorities in Portland if a warrant were issued failed.^[63][64] On 28 October 1985, Osho, his personal physician and a small number of sannyasins accompanying them were arrested aboard a rented Learjet at a North Carolina airstrip; the group were apparently en route to Bermuda ($58,000 in cash and 35 watches and bracelets worth $1 million were also found on the aircraft).^[65][66] Osho had by all accounts been neither informed of the impending arrest nor of the reasons for the journey.^[64]

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.^[67] Officials took the full ten days legally available to them to transfer him from North Carolina to Portland for arraignment.^[67] 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 two counts of making false statements to a federal official.^[61][68] 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.^[61][66][69]

[edit] 1986–1990

Osho then began a somewhat enforced world tour, speaking in Nepal, Crete and Uruguay, among others.^[70][71] Being refused entry visas by twenty-one different countries, he returned to India in July 1986, and in January 1987, to his old Ashram in Pune, India.^[72]

He resumed discoursing there, although with interruptions due to intermittent ill health.^[73] Publishing efforts and therapy courses quickly resumed as well, though now in a less controversial style, and the Ashram experienced a renewed period of expansion.^[73] It now presented itself as a "Multiversity", a place where therapy was to function as a bridge to meditation.^[73] 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.^[73]

Among his followers, the previous preference for communal living styles receded, most of them preferring to live ordinary and independent lives in society.^[74] The former red or orange dress code for sannyasins, which had been optional for some time, was finally abandoned in 1987.^[74]

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.^[75] 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.^[75] This allegation, as disseminated by Osho's one-time attorney, Philip J. Toelkes (Swami Prem Niren), was dismissed outright by U.S. attorney Charles H. Hunter, who stated: "It's a total and complete fiction and you have to consider the source ... the man has no credibility." Indeed, Toelkes conceded that there was no evidence to support the claim.^[76] A less sinister explanation is that Osho, who had been a diabetic for many years, may have suffered from a series of systemic breakdowns in the final stages of his chronic disease, perhaps exacerbated by the stress he had experienced.^[75]

From early 1988, his discourses focused exclusively on Zen.^[73] 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.^[73] His health continued to weaken, and he delivered his last public discourse in April 1989.^[75] In the remaining months of that year, he only sat in silence with his followers.^[75]

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."

[edit] Legacy

The Osho International Meditation Resort in Pune, India, at 200,000 visitors annually, is one of the largest resorts of its kind in the world today.

The events around Rajneeshpuram during the eighties had brought Osho and his movement into disrepute.^[77] But since Osho's death, there has been a sea change in public opinion in India.^[78] 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".^[79] Since then, his teachings have progressively become part of the cultural mainstream of India^[78] and Nepal,^[80][81] perhaps in part because of his status as a figure who had a large Western following.^[82]

More than 350 books are attributed to Osho, expressing his views on all facets of human existence.^[45] Virtually all of these are renderings of his taped discourses, often reinterpreting the teachings of various religious traditions.^[45] His books are available in 55 different languages^[83] and have entered best-seller lists in such varied countries as Italy and South Korea.^[77][79]

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).^[78] 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,^[84] and the noted Indian novelist and journalist, Khushwant Singh.^[84] The Osho disciple Vinod Khanna, who worked as Osho's gardener in Rajneeshpuram,^[85] served as India's Minister of State for External Affairs from 2003 to 2004.^[86] In the West, figures such as the American poet and Rumi translator Coleman Barks,^[87] the American novelist Tom Robbins^[88] and the German philosopher, author and TV host Peter Sloterdijk^[89] have championed Osho.

Osho's Ashram in Pune has become the Osho International Meditation Resort,^[90] one of India's main tourist attractions.^[91][92] According to press reports, it attracts some 200,000 visitors from all over the world each year.^[84][93] Politicians, media personalities and the Dalai Lama have visited the Meditation Resort.^[91] HIV/AIDS is still a concern for the Osho movement, and AIDS tests are mandatory for those wishing to enter the resort.^[94]

[edit] Teaching

A true iconoclast, Osho spent a lifetime challenging systems, institutions, and governments that he considered to be atrophied, corrupt, neurotic, or anti-life.^[95] His teachings were not static but changed in emphasis over time, forming an enormous body of work that is impossible to cover in full.^[95] The fact that he revelled in paradox and inconsistency makes it even more difficult to present more than a flavour of his work.^[95]

His teachings were not presented in a dry, academic setting, but were interspersed with jokes and delivered with an oratory that many found spellbinding.^[96][97] He was a genuinely gifted speaker – many have said hypnotic – and extremely well read.^[98] Conversant with the whole range of traditional Eastern religious thought – Buddhism, Hassidism, Sufism, Tantrism, Taoism, to name but a few – he also drew on a great number of Western influences in his teaching.^[99]

[edit] On the ego: man as a machine

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.^[98][100] His vision of the "new man" who transcends the constraints of convention is reminiscent of Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil.^[101] His views on sexual liberation bear comparison to the thought of D. H. Lawrence.^[102] And while his contemporary Jiddu Krishnamurti does not seem to have been too fond of Osho's mission, there are clear similarities between their respective teachings.^[98]

Ultimately, Osho's message was a positive one.^[103] He taught that we are all potential Buddhas, with the capacity for enlightenment.^[103] According to him, every human being is capable of experiencing unconditional love and of responding rather than reacting to life.^[103] He said: "You are truth. You are love. You are bliss. You are freedom."^[104] 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.^[103] "When the ego is gone, the whole individuality arises in its crystal purity."^[105] 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.^[103]

Osho views the mind first and foremost as a mechanism for survival, replicating behavioural strategies that have proved successful in the past.^[103] But by repeating the past, he says, we lose the ability to live authentically in the present.^[103] We continually repress what we genuinely feel, closing ourselves off from experiencing the joy that arises naturally when we move into the present.^[103][106] "The mind has no inherent capacity for joy. ... It only thinks about joy."^[107] The result, he states, is that we unconsciously poison ourselves with various neuroses, jealousies, fears, etc., rather than living in joyous, authentic awareness.^[106] By repressing sexual feelings, for example, we hope to pretend they do not exist.^[106] But repression only leads to the re-emergence of these feelings in another guise to haunt our lives.^[106] The result is a society that is obsessed with sex.^[106] Instead of repressing, he argues, we should accept ourselves unconditionally.^[106] "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."^[108] 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.^[106]

[edit] On meditation

According to Osho, meditation is not just a practice, but a state of awareness that can be maintained in every moment.^[106] He used 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.^[109] In all, he suggested over a hundred meditation techniques.^[109]

The most famous of these remains his first, known today as OSHO Dynamic Meditation.^[109] This method has been described as a kind of microcosm of Osho's outlook.^[110] It comprises five stages that are accompanied by music (except for stage 4).^[109] In the first, the person engages in ten minutes of rapid breathing through the nose.^[109] The second ten minutes are for catharsis:^[109] "[L]et whatever is happening happen. ... Laugh, shout, scream, jump, shake – whatever you feel to do, do it!"^[111] 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.^[111] In the fourth, silent stage, the person freezes, remaining completely motionless for fifteen minutes, and witnessing everything that is happening to them.^[111] The last stage of the meditation consists of fifteen minutes of dancing and celebration.^[111]

There are further 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.^[109] 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. The result of these processes is said to be the experience of "witnessing", enabling the "jump into awareness".^[109]

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.^[112]

[edit] On the function of the master

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."^[113] He delighted in being paradoxical and engaging in behaviour that seemed entirely at odds with traditional images of enlightened individuals.^[113] All such behaviour, however capricious and difficult to accept, was explained as "a technique for transformation" to push people "beyond the mind."^[113] 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."^[113] Ultimately though, Osho even deconstructed his own authority.^[114] He emphasised that anything and everything could become an opportunity for meditation.^[113]

[edit] On the "New Man"

By the aforementioned means, 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:^[113] "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."^[115] This new man, "Zorba the Buddha", should reject neither science nor spirituality, but embrace them both.^[113] He 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.^[113]

The new man would no longer be trapped in institutions such as family, marriage, political ideologies, or religions.^[116] In this respect, Osho has much in common with other counter-culture gurus, and perhaps even certain postmodern and deconstructional thinkers.^[117] 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.^[116]

[edit] Summary

In the course of his life, Osho spoke on all the major spiritual traditions, including Tantra, Taoism, Christianity, Buddhism, Yoga, the teachings of a variety of mystics, and on sacred scriptures such as the Upanishads and the Guru Granth Sahib.^[116] But the topic that predominated, and on which he came to focus exclusively towards the end of his life, was Zen.^[116]

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.^[117] His early lectures were famous for their humour and their refusal to take anything seriously.^[117] 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.^[116]

[edit] Reception and controversies

"If you really want to know who I am, you have to be as absolutely empty as I am. Then two mirrors will be facing each other, and only emptiness will be mirrored. Infinite emptiness will be mirrored: two mirrors facing each other. But if you have some idea, then you will see your own idea in me." – Osho^[118]

[edit] Appraisal as a thinker and speaker

There are widely diverging views on Osho's qualities as a thinker and speaker. It seems these opinions say as much about the people holding them as they do about Osho.

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",^[119] writing that "Osho is really a free-thinking agnostic. He [...] can explain the most abstract conception in simple language illustrated with witty anecdotes. He mocks gods, prophets, scriptures and religious practices and gives a totally new dimension to religion."^[120] 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.^[78]

The German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk has called Osho a "Wittgenstein of religions", "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."^[121] The American poet and Rumi translator Coleman Barks likened reading Osho's discourses to the "taste of fresh springwater."^[122] The American author Tom Robbins wrote, "I am not, nor have I ever been, a disciple ... [of Osho], but I’ve read enough of his brilliant books to be convinced that he was the greatest spiritual teacher of the 20th century – and I’ve read enough vicious propaganda and slanted reports to suspect that he was one of the most maligned figures in history."^[119]

Others, expressing themselves in a context that was almost completely hostile, cynical or sarcastic about Osho's movement, found themselves unimpressed by his oratory.^[123] The author and broadcaster Clive James, for example, scornfully referred to him as "Bagwash", a title which he found it "impossible not to call him if you have ever sat in a laundrette and watched your underwear revolve soggily for hours while exuding grey suds. The Bagwash talks the way that looks."^[124] Responding to a fulsome and 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 was of an extremely low standard, often factually wrong, and wearyingly repetitive."^[124][125]

The religious scholar Hugh B. Urban, Assistant Professor of Religion and Comparative Studies at Ohio State University, found Osho's teachings "neither original nor particularly profound", but "consisting in large part of material borrowed from Eastern and Western philosophies." What he found most original about Osho was his keen commercial instinct or "marketing strategy", by which he adapted these teachings to meet the changing desires of his audience,^[117] a theme also picked up on by Gita Mehta in her book Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East.^[126] Bob Mullan, a sociologist from the University of East Anglia, summed up Osho's vast body of writings as a kind of "postmodern pastiche". Although he considered his range and imagination second to none, and acknowledged that many of his statements were quite insightful and moving, even profound at times, what remained was a "potpourri of essentially counter-culturalist and post-counter-culturalist ideas, namely: strive for 'love' and freedom, live for the moment, self is important – 'you are okay', there is mystery in life, the fun ethic, the individual is responsible for his own destiny, drop ego (including fear and guilt), and so on."^[127]

[edit] Charisma

Most people who saw Osho in person, whether detractors, admirers, sannyasins or disaffected followers, appear to agree that he was possessed of extraordinary charisma.^[128] Many sannyasins and ex-followers have stated that hearing Osho speak, they "fell in love with him."^[128][129] Sally Belfrage, who penned a rather disparaging account of life in Osho's Ashram in India, nevertheless confessed on viewing him in person that "he was AB-SO-LUTE-LY RI-VET-ING."^[128] Frances FitzGerald, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who wrote a study of Rajneeshpuram for The New Yorker magazine, stated, "He was – in a way that could not be appreciated on videotape – a brilliant lecturer ... what I had not gathered from reading the lecturers was his talent as a comedian. The jokes sounded better than they read, but far better were the comic riffs he would go off into once or twice in a lecture – little experiments in language and the play of associations. Also, Rajneesh was a world-class hypnotist. One of his lectures ended with a description of a dewdrop sliding off a lotus leaf and being carried down a stream to the ocean. It put virtually everyone in his audience into an alpha-wave state at ten in the morning."^[130] Hugh Milne, an ex-follower, writes of his first meeting with Osho, "Whatever this marvellous being is doing, it is far more than the words that are passing between us. There is no invasion of privacy, no alarm, but it is as if his soul is slowly slipping inside mine, and in a split second transferring vital information.^[131]

[edit] Alleged personality disorder

In his paper The Narcissistic Guru: A Profile of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Ronald O. Clarke, Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at Oregon State University, argued that Osho, like other charismatic religious leaders, possessed all the essential features of narcissistic personality disorder, as defined by the American Psychiatric Association. Basing his study for the most part on statements made by Osho himself, Clarke concludes that Osho exhibited a grandiose sense of self-importance and uniqueness; a preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success; a need for constant attention and admiration; a set of characteristic responses to threats to self-esteem; disturbances in interpersonal relationships; a preoccupation with grooming combined with frequent resorting to prevarication or outright lying; and a lack of empathy. Drawing on Osho's reminiscences of his childhood in his book Glimpses of a Golden Childhood, he argues that Osho suffered from a fundamental lack of parental discipline, due to his growing up in the care of overindulgent grandparents. Osho's self-avowed Buddha status, he argues, was part of a delusional system associated with his severe narcissistic personality disorder; a condition of ego-inflation rather than egolessness.^[132]

[edit] Culpability for crimes committed in Oregon

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.^[133] A number of commentators have stated that they consider this not even remotely possible.^{[133][134][135]} Others have pointed to the fact that although Sheela had bugged his 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.^[136][137]

[edit] Sex guru

Osho's liberal views on sex and emotional expression – first formulated in the sixties in a series of discourses published under the title From Sex to Superconsciousness – earned him the label "sex guru" in the Indian press, a sobriquet that was later also picked up by the Western media.

The unrestrained behaviour of sannyasins visiting his Pune Ashram^[26] at times caused considerable consternation, dismay and panic among people holding more conventional views on these matters, both in India and the U.S.^[43] A number of Western daily papers routinely, and falsely,^[138] claimed that Bhagwan, a traditional title for spiritual teachers in India, meant "Master of the Vagina", and focused their reporting on sexual topics.

[edit] Personal wealth

Osho said that he was "the rich man's guru",^[139] and that material poverty was not a spiritual value.^[140] He was photographed wearing sumptuous clothing and hand-made watches.^[141] He drove a different Rolls-Royce each day – his followers reportedly wanted to buy him 365 of them, one for each day of the year.^[47] Publicity shots of the Rolls-Royces (more than 90 in the end) appeared in the press, apparently as a deliberate taunt.^[142]

[edit] Deconstructionism

Osho attacked traditional concepts of nationalism, expressed undisguised contempt for politicians and poked fun at leading figures of various religions.^[143] His ideas on issues such as sex, marriage, family and relationships contradicted conventional views of these matters, and his outspoken criticisms aroused a great deal of anger and opposition around the world.^[144]

[edit] Alleged drug abuse

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.^[145][146] This led to allegations that Osho was addicted to nitrous oxide gas. In 1985, on the American CBS television show 60 Minutes, Sheela claimed that Osho took sixty milligrams of Valium every day. When questioned by journalists about the allegations of daily Valium and nitrous oxide use, Osho categorically denied both, describing the allegations as "absolute lies".^[147]

[edit] Criminal activity

There have been recurrent allegations that Osho was connected to criminal activity, going back to the early days of the Poona ashram.^[148] There is evidence that some Western sannyasins were financing their extended stays in India through prostitution and drug running.^[149] Some of them have claimed that, while Osho was not directly involved, he was aware of, and gave his blessing to, this kind of activity.^[148]

[edit] Conclusion

The author of a recent academic study of the Osho phenomenon has remarked that the "answer to whether Osho was a manipulator, addicted to power, etc., or a radically enlightened spiritual master who continues to offer a joyful, authentic, and enriching – if at times turbulent – path to those who open their hearts to him, seems to rest with the one asking the question, and with posterity."^[150]

[edit] References

[edit] Citations

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

• Osho International Foundation
• Excerpt of an Osho discourse on youtube
• Osho Bibliography at Sannyas Wiki

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