Rajneesh

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Rajneesh Chandra Mohan Jain (December 11, 1931 - January 19, 1990), better known during the 1970s as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and later as Osho was an Indian spiritual teacher or guru. He lived in India and the United States and was the spiritual head of the Osho-Rajneesh movement, a controversial new religious movement.

Osho was known as Acharya Rajneesh (teacher Rajneesh) during his early years as a spiritual teacher. In 1971 he asked his disciples to start calling him "Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh." The Sanskrit word Bhagwan means "Blessed one" (historically, it is used to refer to a Hindu god, such as Bhagwan Ram or Bhagwan Krishna or to a spiritually awakened being in Mahayana Buddhism). It is also used to denote individuals who possess a great wealth of spiritual knowledge. Shree (more commonly transliterated as Shri or Sri) in Sanskrit means "spiritual wealth" and is thus roughly equivalent to the English word "Lord". It derives this meaning from its use as another name Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of prosperity.

In February 1989, following a request from Swami Harideva, the well known American disciple who had introduced Rajneeshs'work and mediatations to the West in 1971, Rajneesh changed his name to "Osho". 'Osho' is an ancient Japanese term that is used to address a spiritual master in certain Zen traditions. The name "Osho" in this context means "The Friend". It fit how Rajneesh wanted to be known by his followers and lovers.

Unsuccesful attempts have been made by a few lawyers to trademark the name "Osho". All legal attempts by the Canadian lawyers to try and "own" the name Osho have met with failure in the courts. The courts have ruled that it was as outrageous as trying to own the name "God" or "Buddha" or "Jesus".

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Osho's philosophy

Osho (Rajneesh) claimed that the greatest values in life are (in no specific order) love, meditation and laughter, and that the sole goal of human life was to reach spiritual enlightenment.

He extracted and expounded truth and techniques from various spiritual sources. He was a prolific speaker both in Hindi and English on various spiritual traditions including those of Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, Socrates, Zen masters, Hassid, Sufism and many others. His lectures were mixed with wit and jokes. His discourses have been printed in several hundred books and are available in audio and video recordings.

An experienced orator, he used it to convey his message, but insisted that the only reason he kept on talking was to eventually convince his listeners to start on a path of meditation.

In India he was often called the "sex guru" after some speeches in the late 1960s on sexuality in an orthodox society, which were later compiled under the title "From Sex to Superconsciousness". According to him, "For Tantra everything is holy, nothing is unholy".

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Osho on meditation

Osho had a different view of meditation than the usual one. According to him, meditation is a state beyond mind. It is not concentration. It is not about spiritual thoughts; it is a state of thoughtlessness. It is something that can just happen, it is a state that one can be in, it is not something that one can do. But he said that it is very difficult for modern man to just sit and be in meditation, so he devised some active meditation techniques that naturally take one into meditation. These techniques allow a person to unburden by expressing whatever is repressed in him.

Some of these preparatory exercises can also be found in western psychological therapies (i.e. gestalt therapy), such as altered breathing, gibberish, laughing or crying. His most significant meditations are referred to as Active Meditations, such as "Dynamic Meditation", "Kundalini Meditation", "Nadabrama", "Nataraj" and are quite demanding physically.

He also reintroduced several traditional meditations reducing them to their most minimal expression, stripping them off of ritual and tradition, retaining the most therapeutic parts. He also recognizes that, given sufficient practice, the meditative state can be achieved and maintained while performing everyday tasks. Furthermore, enlightenment is nothing but being continuously in a meditative state.

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Biographical notes

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Childhood and awakening

Osho was born at Kuchwada, a small village in Raisen District of Madhya Pradesh state in India. At the time, the astrologer predicted that he might die before he was seven years old according to the birth chart. His parents, who were Jains, chose to send him to be with his maternal grandparents until he was seven years old.

Osho explains that this was a major influence on his growth because his grandmother gave him the utmost freedom and respect, and also made the other people including her husband do the same. So, Osho was left reckless and carefree without education or restrictions.

Osho explains that children, during their first seven years, have their development affected by being forced to learn and having their dignity ignored. He says ideally it should be the opposite. People can learn from children that which they themselves have forgotten. If a child is allowed freedom during his initial years, he will grow in strength and have enough intelligence to decide and to discuss.

This, as he puts it, was what happened to him. When he joined the first school, he was able to discuss with and convince his teacher who was very strict with children. Osho explains that if the child receives respect, he is more obedient to his parents. If the parents ignore the child's individuality, the child would in turn ignore them.

After Osho was seven, he went back to his parents. Osho explains that 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. His grandfather used to tell him, "I know you are doing the right thing. Everyone may tell you that you are wrong. But nobody knows which situation you are in. Only you can decide in your situation. Do whatsoever you feel is right. I will support you. I love you and respect you as well".

On 21 March 1953, when Osho was 21 years old, Osho explains that he became spiritually enlightened. It was the day of the full moon and he went out to the garden and sat under the bodhi-tree (bo-tree). During the 1960s he served as philosophy professor at the University of Jabalpur while touring India lecturing on his philosophy.

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The Commune

In 1969 a group of his disciples established a foundation to support his work and allowed him to drop his university job. 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 in a ground floor (so the visitors would not need to use the elevator, a matter of conflict with the former neighbours).

On September 26th, 1970 he initiated his first disciple or sannyasin in an outdoors meditation camp one of the large gatherings of his followers where he lectured and guided group meditations.

Still the new and bigger apartment proved insufficient and the climate of Mumbai was very bad for Osho's health, so a new place had to be found. On March 21st, 1974, an anniversary of his enlightenment a caravan of cars departed from the Mumbai apartment to the newly purchased property in Koregaon Park, in the city of Pune, a four hour trip from Mumbai. 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).

The two adjoining houses and 6 acres of land had known better times but in little time the nucleus of an Ashram started to grow and those two buildings are still at the heart of the present day Osho International Commune. This stable and ample space allowed for the regular audio and video recording of his discourses and later printing for worldwide distribution, which allowed him to reach far larger audiences internationally.

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The U.S. chapter

In 1981, Rajneesh was taken to the United States in search of better medical care (he suffered from diabetes and severe back problems) and also, reportedly, to escape tax evasion charges in India. His followers, at his request, bought (for US$6 million) a ranch in Wasco County, Oregon, previously known as "The Big Muddy", but later renamed Rajneeshpuram where they settled for the next several years.

Disagreements over zoning rules and building codes in the beginning continued to escalate between not only his followers and the inhabitants of Wasco County, but eventually with the rest of the state. His followers, known as Rajneeshees, settled en bloc in Antelope, Oregon, and were able to elect a majority of the town council. Comments by his public spokeswoman, Ma Anand Sheela, only increased tensions. Matters were not helped by Rajneesh's vow of silence, or the 93 Rolls-Royces his followers bought him as gifts - they said that he wanted 365cars so that he had a new one for each day of the year (technically, he did not have income or own any property). One of his followers explains this in what is called "Face to Faith Parable of the Rolls Royces." When the Rajneeshees subsequently recruited homeless people from across the United States to settle at Rajneeshpuram, it was widely seen as an attempt to use the ballot box to seize control of Wasco County.

At the same time the commune offered an international refuge for his followers to live Osho's teaching; the ideal of meditating, celebrating, and trusting in love. At its largest, Rajneeshpuram consisted of some 7,000 members on a 100-square-mile ranch in Antelope. It included homes, meditation centers, its own road system, power grid, bus service, schools for children, and even a small airport.

In 1984, a bioterrorist attack involving salmonella typhimurium contamination in the salad bars of the 10 restaurants at The Dalles, Oregon, was traced to the Rajneeshee group. The attack sickened about 750 people and hospitalized forty-five; none died. It was the first known bioterrorist attack of the 20th century in the United States, and is still known as the largest germ warfare attack in the U.S. Eventually Sheela and Ma Anand Puja, another of Osho's close advisors, confessed to the salmonella attack and to attempted poisonings on county officials. About this time, Sheela was removed from her post in the Rajneesh's service, and shortly afterwards left for Germany.

While these controversial events brought much negative publicity to the commune, it is worth noting that Osho himself spoke very strongly against these acts, and that it was only a handful of people who were responsible out of the thousands of people who were living in the communce either permanently or temporarily. Osho never apologized to any of the victims of the germ attack, which was orchestrated by his own hand picked disciples. Some of the victims were women and small children.

In May 1985, Sheela called a meeting of Rajneesh's inner circle to plot the assassination of Charles Turner, the U.S. Attorney for Oregon, after the attorney was appointed to head a grand jury investigation into the commune. Catherine Jane Stubbs, known as Ma Shanti Bhadra, volunteered to be the killer. She later bought weapons and scouted Turner's property.

In 1985, Rajneesh was arrested in North Carolina as he was allegedly fleeing the U.S. On October 23, 1985, a federal grand jury in Portland, Oregon had secretly indicted Rajneesh, Sheela, and six others of his followers for alleged immigration crimes. Two days later, a Wasco County grand jury returned indictments against Sheela and two others, charging them with the attempted murder of Swami Devaraj, Bhagwan's personal doctor. Rajneesh on advice of his lawyers entered an "Alford plea," also called a no-contest plea, and was given a suspended sentence on condition that he leave the country.

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Back in Pune

On January 19, 1990, four years after his arrest, Osho died, with "heart failure" being the publicly reported cause. Osho claimed that his rapid health decline leading to his death was caused by his poisoning with the element thallium by US authorities while he was in prison. He claimed a plot led by the CIA and Ronald Reagan to assassinate him had been carried out due to their fear of Osho's controversial and counter-cultural teachings combined with his powerful ability to influence people. There has never been any evidence to support this claim, which is contradicted by the fact that thallium poisoning causes dramatic hair loss within one week of exposure. Osho never experienced any abnormal hair loss and he died with a full beard.

Osho was chronically ill most of his adult life and he was exceptionally sensitive to smells and chemicals, a condition known as "multiple chemical sensitivity." Those wishing to meet him were first sniffed by helpers to make sure they were not wearing perfume. It is a matter of record that he was addicted to the prescription drug Valium in the 1980s and was a heavy user of nitrous oxide gas. On the CBS television show 60 Minutes, Ma Anand Sheela stated that Rajneesh took sixty milligrams of Valium every day.

In a 1998 preface to Books I Have Loved, Osho's personal dentist, Swami Devageet, states that Osho dictated three books under the influence of nitrous oxide. They were Glimpses of a Golden Childhood, Notes of a Madman, and Books I Have Loved. Refering to his own nitrous oxide use, Rajneesh himself stated that "Actually oxygen and nitrogen are basic elements of existence. They can be of much use, but for reasons the politicians have been against chemicals of all kinds, all drugs."

After the Rajneeshpuram commune was abandoned, it was discovered that Rajneesh had installed nitrous oxide spigots in his home by his bedside. This was widely reported in newspapers and verified first hand by the FBI and former Oregon Congressman Jim Weaver, who wrote the following in a newspaper article.

"A few years later, I went through the abandoned city of Rajneeshpuram and saw things that were almost unbelievable. Ma Anand Sheela's headquarters, a group of mobile homes pieced together, was a hive of secret doors and hidden tunnels, her private room a command post with electronic listening gear tapped into every room in the development. The Bhagwan's parquet-paneled quarters had nitrogen oxide spigots by his bedside, and was surrounded by huge bathrooms with multiple showers." - Jim Weaver

Osho was 58 years old when he died. His ashes were placed in a reconstructed meditation hall, at his last home place, his Ashram in Pune, India. The epitaph reads, "OSHO. Never Born, Never Died. Only Visited this Planet Earth between Dec 11 1931 - Jan 19 1990."

In 1999, Sheela was convicted by a Swiss court. In September 2005, Catherine Stubbs pled guilty to conspiring to kill Turner, 15 years after being indicted; she had fled to Germany, where she is a naturalized citizen. In 1991, Germany had declined an extradition request from the United States.

The Osho Commune in Pune, India is now called the Osho Meditation Resort. It offers daily Osho Active Meditations, workshops through its "Multiversity," and many resort amenities including pool, jacuzzi, sauna, tennis, parties and entertainment. Though Osho's teachings still remain at the core of the day-to-day activities, there is currently less emphasis on Osho the man, and much more on his practices.

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Quotations

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  • "Love is far more mysterious than life itself, because it has life in it and something more; it is life plus death. And only those who are ready to die will know the life of love. Those who are afraid to die will never enter the mystery of love."
  • "Meditation is the only way to make you aware. And once you are fully aware, all around is the ocean of godliness. The very life, the very consciousness is divine."
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See also

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Bibliography

  • Judith M. Fox, Osho Rajneesh: Studies in Contemporary Religion Signature Books, 2002
  • Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Philosophia Perennis by Osho international Foundation, 1981
  • Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, The Hidden Harmony, discourses on the fragments of Heracletus by Osho International Fondation, 1976
  • Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, 'The Mustard Seed, commentaries on the fifth gospel by Saint Thomas, 1975
  • Osho, Meditation The First And Last Freedom, St. Martin's Press, New York
  • Osho, The Book of Secrets, St. Martin's Press, New York
  • Osho, Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic, St. Martin's Press, New York, 2000
  • Osho, Tao: The Living Treasure
  • Osho, The Empty Boat
  • Tal Brooke, "Riders of the Cosmic Circuit - The Dark Side of Superconsciousness"
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External links

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