Osho claimed that the greatest values in life are (in no specific order) awareness, love, meditation and laughter. He said that enlightenment is everyone's natural state,[1] but that one is distracted from realizing it – particularly by the human activity of thought, as well as by emotional ties to societal expectations, and consequent fears and inhibitions.
He was a prolific speaker (in both Hindi and English) on various spiritual traditions including those of Buddha, Krishna, Guru Nanak, Jesus, Socrates, Zen masters, Gurdjieff, Sufism, Hassidism, Tantra and many others. He attempted to ensure that no "system of thought" would define him, since he believed that no philosophy can fully express the truth.
An experienced orator, he said that words could not convey his message[2], and that his basic reason for speaking was to give people a taste of meditation:[3]
I am making you aware of silences without any effort on your part. My speaking is being used for the first time as a strategy to create silence in you.
This is not a teaching, a doctrine, a creed. That’s why I can say anything. I am the most free person who has ever existed as far as saying anything is concerned. I can contradict myself in the same evening a hundred times. Because it is not a speech, it has not to be consistent. It is a totally different thing, and it will take time for the world to recognize that a tremendously different experiment was going on.
Just a moment … when I became silent, you become silent. What remains is just a pure awaiting. You are not making any effort; neither am I making any effort. I enjoy talking; it is not an effort.
I love to see you silent. I love to see you laugh, I love to see you dance. But in all these activities, the fundamental remains meditation.[4]
He was often called the "sex guru" after some speeches in the late 1960s on sexuality. These were later compiled under the title From Sex to Superconsciousness. According to him, "For Tantra everything is holy, nothing is unholy",[5] and all repressive sexual morality was self-defeating, since one could not transcend sex without experiencing it thoroughly and consciously. In 1985, he told the Bombay Illustrated Weekly,
“ I have never been a celibate. If people believe so, that is their foolishness. I have always loved women – and perhaps more women than anybody else. You can see my beard: it has become gray so quickly because I have lived so intensely that I have compressed almost two hundred years into fifty.[6] ”
Osho said he loved to disturb people – only by disturbing them could he make them think.[7] Accordingly, his discourses were peppered with offensive jokes[8] and outrageous statements lampooning key figures of established religions such as Hinduism, Jainism or Christianity. Concerning the virgin birth, for example, he said that Jesus was clearly a bastard, since he was not Joseph's biological son, and that the Holy Ghost was a rapist – or God's genitalia.[9] An attempt on his life[10] was made by a Hindu fundamentalist in 1980. Osho, however, said that the only thing he was serious about in his discourses were the jokes – they were the main thing, and everything else was spiritual gossip.[11]
[edit] Osho on meditation
According to Osho, meditation is a state of watchfulness that has no ego fulfillment in it, something that –
... happens when you are in a state of not-doing. And that is the question: how to do that non-doing? If you ask how, you have missed the point, because "how" means doing. ... You will have to understand that no doing is going to help. In that very understanding, non-doing happens.[12]
He said it is very difficult for modern man to just sit and be in meditation, so he devised so-called Active Meditation techniques to prepare the ground. 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 meditation techniques are known as "Dynamic Meditation", "Kundalini Meditation", "Nadabrahma" and "Nataraj". They have a strong physical element. He said Dynamic Meditation was –
... absolutely necessary for the modern man ... If people are innocent there is no need for Dynamic Meditation. But if people are repressed, psychologically are carrying a lot of burden, then they need catharsis. So Dynamic Meditation is just to help them clean the place. And then they can use any method ... It will not be difficult. If they, right now, directly try, they will fail.[13]
He also reintroduced minimal parts of several traditional meditation techniques, stripped of what he saw as ritual and tradition, and retaining what he considered to be the most therapeutic parts. He believed that, given sufficient practice, the meditative state can be achieved and maintained while performing everyday tasks and that enlightenment is nothing but being continuously in a meditative state:
Nature has come to a point where now, unless you take individual responsibility, you cannot grow. More than this nature cannot do. It has done enough. It has given you life, it has given you opportunity; now how to use it, it has left up to you.
Meditation is your freedom, not a biological necessity. You can learn in a certain period of time every day to strengthen meditation, to make it stronger – but carry the flavor of it the whole day.
First, while you are awake – the moment you wake up, immediately catch hold of the thread of remaining alert and conscious, because that is the most precious moment to catch the thread of consciousness. Many times in the day you will forget – but the moment you remember, immediately start being alert. Never repent, because that is a sheer wastage of time. Never repent, "My God, I forgot again!"
In my teachings there is no place for any repentance. Whatever has happened is gone, now there is no need to waste time on it. Catch hold again of the thread of awareness. Slowly, slowly you will be able to be alert the whole day – an undercurrent of awareness in every act, in every movement, in everything that you are doing, or not doing. Something underneath will be continuously flowing.
Even when you go to sleep, leave the thread only at the last moment when you cannot do anything because you are falling asleep. Whatever is the last thing before you fall asleep will be the first thing when you wake up. Try it. Any small experiment will be enough to prove it. Just repeat your own name while you are falling asleep: half awake, half asleep, go on repeating ... Slowly, slowly you will forget repeating, because the sleep will grow more and more and the thread will be lost. It is lost only because you are asleep, but underneath your sleep it continues. That's why in the morning when you wake up and just look around, the first thing you will remember will be [the sound of your name]. You will be surprised: Why? What happened? You slept eight hours, but there has been an undercurrent.
And as things become deeper and clearer, even in sleep you can remember that you are asleep. Sleep becomes almost a physiological thing and your spirit, your being, becomes a flame of awareness, separate from it. It does not disturb your sleep; it simply makes your sleep very light. It is no more the sleep of the old days, when your house was on fire and you went on sleeping – that was almost like a coma, you were so unconscious.
Your sleep will become thin, a very light layer, and your inside will remain alert. Just as it has been alert in the day, it will be even more alert in the night, finally, because you are so silent, so relaxed. The whole nuisance world becomes completely silent.
Patanjali, the first man in the world to write about meditation, says that meditation is almost like dreamless sleep, but with only one difference. In dreamless sleep you are not aware; in samadhi, in the ultimate state of meditation, there is just a little difference – you are aware.[4]
Early life
Osho was born Chandra Mohan Jain in Kuchwada, a small village in the Narsinghpur District of Madhya Pradesh state in India. At the time, an astrologer predicted that he might die before he was seven years old according to the birth chart.[14] His parents, who were Taran Panthi Jains, sent him to be with his maternal grandparents until he was seven years old.
Osho said this was a major influence on his growth because his grandmother gave him the utmost freedom and respect, leaving him carefree; without an imposed education or restrictions.
At seven years old he went back to his parents. He explained 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."[15]
He was a rebellious, but gifted student, winning the title of All-India Debating Champion.[1]
He started his public speaking at the annual Sarva Dharma Sammelan held at Jabalpur since 1939, organized by the Jain community into which he was born. He participated there from 1951 to 1968.[16] Eventually the Jain comunity stopped inviting him because of his radical ideas.
Osho said he became spiritually enlightened on 21 March 1953, when he was 21 years old. He said he dropped all effort and hope and after an intense seven-day process went out at night to a garden, where he sat under a tree:
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.[17]
He finished his studies at D. N. Jain College and Saugar University, receiving a B.A. (1955) and an M.A. (1957) in philosophy. He then taught philosophy, first at Raipur Sanskrit College, and then, until 1966, as a Professor at Jabalpur University. At the same time, he traveled throughout India, giving lectures critical of socialism and Gandhi, under the name Acharya Rajneesh (Acharya means "teacher"; Rajneesh was a nickname[18] he had acquired). In 1964, he led his first meditation camp. He resigned from his teaching post in 1966.
In 1968, he offended Hindu leaders with his non-traditional views on sex; at the Second World Hindu Conference in 1969, he enraged Hindus by criticizing all organized religion and the very institution of priesthood.[19]
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 neighbors. 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 neighbors).
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. However, his sannyasins were not expected to follow an ascetic lifestyle.
[edit] 1971–1980
From 1971, he was known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Shree means Sir; the Sanskrit word Bhagwan, which can also be used to refer to an aspect of the supreme being, means "blessed one"[2]. It is commonly used in India as a respectful form of address for spiritual teachers[3][4][5][6]
The new apartment also proved insufficient and the climate of Mumbai was deemed very bad for his delicate health. So, in 1974, on the 21st 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 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.
During one of his discourses in 1980, an attempt on his life was made by a Hindu fundamentalist.[20]
Osho taught at the Pune Ashram from 1974 to 1981.
[edit] 1981–1990
On 1 May 1981, having discoursed daily for nearly 15 years, Osho entered a three-and-a-half-year period of self-imposed public silence[7], and satsangs (silent sitting, with some readings from his works and music) took the place of his discourses.[21]
In mid-1981, Osho went to the United States in search of better medical care (he suffered from asthma, diabetes and severe back problems). His followers 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.[8]
Osho stayed in Rajneeshpuram as the commune's guest, living in a trailer.[22][9] Over the coming years, he acquired fame for the large number of Rolls-Royces[10] his followers bought for his use.
Osho ended his period of silence in October 1984. 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 the wishes of Ma Anand Sheela, his secretary and the commune’s top manager.[23]
Increasing conflicts with neighbours and the state of Oregon,[24] as well as serious and criminal misconduct by the commune's management (including conspiracy to murder public officials, wiretapping within the commune, the attempted murder of Osho's personal physician, and a bioterrorism attack on the citizens of The Dalles, Oregon, using salmonella), made the position of the Oregon commune untenable. When the commune's management team guilty of these crimes left the U.S. in September 1985, fleeing for Europe, Osho convened a press conference and called on the authorities to undertake an investigation.[11]
In late October 1985, Osho himself was arrested in North Carolina as he was allegedly fleeing the U.S. Accused of minor immigration violations, Osho, on 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 – and was given a suspended sentence on condition that he leave the country.
Osho then began a world tour, speaking in Nepal, Greece and Uruguay, among others. Being refused visas by several dozen countries, he returned to India in July 1986, and in January 1987, to his old Ashram in Pune, India. He resumed discoursing there.
In 1989, he said he no longer wished to be referred to as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and took the name Osho.
On January 19, 1990, four years after his arrest, Osho died, aged 58, with heart failure being the publicly reported cause. Prior to his death, Osho had expressed his belief that his rapid health decline was caused by 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. In a public discourse on 6 November 1987, he said that a number of doctors that were consulted had variously suspected thallium, radioactive exposure, and other poisons to account for his failing health:
“ It does not matter which poison has been given to me, but it is certain that I have been poisoned by Ronald Reagan's American government.[25] ”
His ashes were placed in his newly built bedroom in one of the main buildings (LaoTsu House) at his last place of residence, 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."
Today, excerpts and quotes from Osho's works appear regularly in the Times of India newspaper.[12] [13] His Ashram in Pune has become the Osho International Meditation Resort, a popular tourist destination.[14]
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.[15]
[edit] Controversy and criticism
Osho had a penchant for courting controversy.[26]
His libertarian views on sex and emotional expression, and the resulting unrestrained behavior of sannyasins in his Pune Ashram,[27] at times caused considerable consternation, dismay and panic among people holding different views on these matters, both in India and the U.S.[28] A number of Western daily papers routinely, and falsely,[29] claimed that Bhagwan, a traditional title[16][17] for spiritual teachers in India, meant "Master of the Vagina", and focused their reporting on sexual topics.
Osho claimed that he was "the rich man's guru",[30] and that material poverty was not a spiritual value.[31] He was photographed wearing sumptuous clothing and hand-made watches.[26] He drove a different Rolls Royce[18] each day – his followers wanted to buy him 365 of them, one for each day of the year.[32] Publicity shots of the Rolls-Royces (more than 90 in the end) appeared in the press.[33] Yet Osho himself said about the Rolls Royce collection:
And do you think a certain simple law of diminishing returns...? If you get one Rolls Royce, you are immensely happy. I have ninety. What difference does it make to me that in the garage there are ninety-one? The number of that one will come in three months' time only for one day for ninety minutes. What does it matter to me? For that I will commit suicide?
I have never gone to the garage. I have never looked into the garage, how many cars are there, what kind of cars are there. And that too belongs to a trust.
I had declared that all those cars should be given to the commune. They are basically commune property. I don't own anything. For thirty years I have not owned a single cent.[34]
In his discourses, Osho consistently attacked organizational principles embraced by societies around the world – the family, nationhood, religion.[35] He condemned priests and politicians with equal venom,[36] and was in turn condemned by them.[37]
In a 1998 preface to Osho's book Books I Have Loved, his personal dentist, Swami Devageet, stated that 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. This led to widespread allegations that Osho was addicted to nitrous oxide gas. In addition, on the American CBS television show 60 Minutes, his former secretary, Ma Anand 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".[38]
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