Who is Osho? Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)

This is probably why, first of all, you need to say who Osho is, because not everyone can know this.

Osho. Brief biography

Chandra Mohan Jain(December 11, 1931 - January 19, 1990) from the early seventies, better known as Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh (that blessed one who is god) and later as Osho (oceanic, dissolved in the ocean) - a famous neo-Hindu guru and mystic, the inspirer of the neo-Orientalist Rajneesh movement, preacher " philosophy of “total liberation”, calling it by the Sanskrit term “sannyas”.

Criticism of socialism, Mahatma Gandhi and traditional religions made Osho a controversial figure during his lifetime. In addition, he defended the freedom of sexual relations, in some cases he organized sexual meditation practices, for which he earned the nickname “sex guru.”

Osho is the founder of the system of ashrams (religious communities) in many countries. The ashram, according to the students' descriptions, was at once "an amusement park and a madhouse, a house of pleasure and a temple."
While in the United States, he founded the international settlement of Rajneeshpuram, several of whose residents committed serious crimes until September 1985, including a bioterrorism act (infecting more than 750 people with salmonella).

During the four years that Osho lived there, Rajneeshpuram's popularity grew.
So, about 3,000 people came to the festival in 1983, and in 1987 - about 7,000 people from Europe, Asia, South America and Australia.
The city opened a school, post office, fire and police departments, and a transport system of 85 buses.
Between 1981 and 1986, the Rajneesh movement amassed approximately $120 million through various meditation workshops, lectures and conferences, with admission fees ranging from $50 to $7,500.
By "the end of 1982, Osho's net worth had reached $200 million, tax-free."
Osho also owned 4 airplanes and 1 combat helicopter. In addition, Osho owned “almost a hundred (numbers vary) Rolls-Royces.”
His followers reportedly wanted to increase the number of Rolls-Royces to 365, one for each day of the year.
In 1984, the Federal Bureau of Investigation “initiated a criminal case against the Rajneesh sect” because in Antelope “weapons depots and drug laboratories were discovered in the territory of the Rajneesh center.”

On October 23, 1985, Rajneesh was arrested.
“The call for total freedom, coupled with very liberal views on marriage and sexuality, has caused public outrage throughout the world.
Osho dissolved his ashram in Oregon and publicly declared that he was not a religious teacher and stated that the "Rajneesh Bible" was published without his knowledge.
Also, his disciples burned 5 thousand copies of the book “Rajneeshism,” which was a 78-page compilation of the teachings of Bhagwan, who defined “Rajneeshism” as a “non-religious religion.”
After being deported from America, Rajneesh was denied entry by 21 countries or declared him “persona non grata.”

In a number of countries, Osho’s organization was classified as a destructive sect and cult and was banned, including in the USSR.

Teaching.
Osho's teachings are extremely eclectic (largely borrowed from other philosophical systems).
It is a chaotic mosaic composed of elements of Buddhism, yoga, Taoism, Sikhism, Greek philosophy of Sufism, European psychology, Tibetan traditions, Christianity, Hasidism, Zen, Tantrism and other spiritual movements, as well as its own views.

He himself spoke about it this way: “I don’t have a system. Systems can only be dead. I am an unsystematic, anarchic flow, I am not even a person, but simply a process. I don't know what I told you yesterday"
Many of Osho's lectures contain contradictions and paradoxes, which Osho commented as follows:
“My friends are surprised: Yesterday you said one thing, and today you said something else. What should we obey? I can understand their confusion. They only grasped at the words. Conversations have no value for me, only the spaces between the words I speak are what are valuable. Yesterday I opened the doors to my emptiness with the help of some words, today I open them with the help of other words.”

“The ultimate goal of Rajneesh’s religious practice is to achieve a state of enlightenment and total liberation. The ways to achieve this state are to discard stereotypes of culture, upbringing, traditions, and to reject everything that society imposes.” At the same time, “the destruction of “social barriers and stereotypes” should occur during communication with the “teacher,” and the acquisition of inner freedom through the practice of “dynamic meditation” and sexual orgies presented under the guise of tantrism.”

Despite hundreds of dictated books, Rajneesh did not create a systematic theology. During the period of the Oregon commune (1981-1985), a book called “The Bible of Rajneesh” was published, but after the dispersal of this commune, Rajneesh declared that the book was published without his knowledge and consent, and called on his followers to get rid of “old attachments” to to which he also attributed religious beliefs.

Osho also used a wide range of Western concepts. His views on the unity of opposites are reminiscent of Heraclitus, while his description of man as a mechanism, condemned to uncontrollable impulsive actions arising from unconscious neurotic patterns, has much in common with Freud and Gurdjieff.
His vision of a “new man” transcending the limitations of tradition is reminiscent of Nietzsche’s ideas in Beyond Good and Evil.
Osho's views on the liberation of sexuality are comparable to those of Lawrence, and his dynamic meditations are indebted to Reich.

Osho calls for doing what comes from feeling, flows from the heart: “Never follow reason... do not be guided by principles, etiquette, norms of behavior.”
He denied the asceticism and self-restraint of classical Patanjali yoga and stated that “the craving for violence, sex, acquisitiveness, hypocrisy is a property of consciousness,” also pointing out that in “inner silence” there is “neither greed, nor anger, nor violence,” but there is love.

He encouraged followers to throw out their base desires in any form, which was expressed “in convulsive shudders and hysterical behavior.”
It is considered likely that for this reason Rajneesh's ashrams became the object of criticism for antisocial activities: promiscuity (promiscuous, unrestricted sexual intercourse with many partners), accusations of crime, etc.
Osho promoted free love and often criticized the institution of marriage, calling it a "coffin of love" in early conversations, although he sometimes encouraged marriage for its opportunity for "deep spiritual communion."

“I am the founder of the only religion,” Rajneesh declared, “other religions are deception.
Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha simply seduced people...
My teaching is based on knowledge, on experience.
People don't need to believe me. I explain my experience to them. If they find it right, they accept it. If not, then they have no reason to believe in him.”
Osho's conversations, recorded between 1969 and 1989, have been collected and published by followers in the form of several hundred (more than 600) books.

Sexual practices and tantra
Osho gained fame as a sex guru in the 1970s because of his tantric teachings on the “integration of sexuality and spirituality”, as well as his -for the work of some therapeutic groups and the encouragement of sexual practices among sannyasins.
Osho believed that tantra influenced his teachings to the greatest extent along with Western sexology, based on the works of Wilhelm Reich. Osho tried to combine traditional Indian tantra and Reich-based psychotherapy and form a new approach:
"All our efforts hitherto have brought wrong results because we have not made friends with sex, but have declared war on it; we have used repression and lack of understanding as ways of solving sexual problems... And the results of repression are never fruitful, never pleasant, never healthy."
Tantra was not the goal, but the method by which Osho freed his followers from sex:

"The so-called religions say that sex is a sin, and tantra says that sex is only a sacred thing... After you are cured of your disease, you don't continue to carry the prescription and the bottle and the medicine. You give it up."
Osho believed that only through intense “experience of sexual emotions” is it possible to “understand their nature” and liberation from sexual “passion-weakness.”

According to eyewitnesses, there was a problem of emotional abuse in the Osho movement, which was especially pronounced during the period of Rajneeshpuram.
Some people were seriously injured.
They returned with stories of “sexual perversion, drug dealing, suicide,” as well as stories of physical and mental damage from Pune's programs.
But even among those who were traumatized, many rated their experience positively, including those who had already left the movement. In general, the majority of sannyasins assessed their experience as positive and defended it with arguments

New man
Osho's neo-sannyasins reject the past and the future, living here and now, but do not reject sex and material wealth.
Desires were to be accepted and transcended, not denied. Once the inner flowering occurs, cravings, such as sex, will be left behind.
Rajneesh called himself a “guru for the rich” and said that poverty was not a true spiritual value.

Rajneesh sought to create a "new man" combining the spirituality of Gautama Buddha with an interest in the life of Zorba, embodied in the novel Zorba the Greek by Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis. By Zorba, Osho meant a person who “is not afraid of hell, does not strive for heaven, lives fully, enjoying the little things in life... food, drink, women. After a hard day’s work, he picks up a musical instrument and dances on the beach for hours.”

The new man, according to Osho, will no longer be trapped by institutions such as family, marriage, political ideologies and religions...
(Wikipedia)
In full: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki....8%F8%29

For example, quotes about love, but when you look at the source, love turns out kind of strange.

He says “enjoy, live here and now,” but at least grass won’t grow there.
The result is indiscriminate group sex, elevated to the rank of “meditation” in ashrams and outside ashrams.
And since I have children from “pleasure,” he offers sterilization, which is actively, and, as they say, under pressure from the leadership, practiced in ashrams.
And this was called "freedom". And what does love have to do with it, it’s not clear at all.

And where is the enlightenment? Really blinding. However, no one was forced into Osho’s disciples or into these ashrams. People came to him voluntarily. And even the majority of people assessed their experience as positive and defended it. To each his own, I guess. For me, this is a sect, in which there is no smell of freedom.

As Osho teaches, you need to do, but not be a “doer.” There is a Movement. Perpetual motion. But this is a movement from one stage to another, from one milestone to another milestone. There is action. And the action provides the result. There is no result - the action loses its meaning.

All this is banal. Truly a mosaic of many teachings.

No comments.

"Here is an excerpt from a recollection of a visit to an ashram in Pune around 1980:
“Murders, rapes, mysterious disappearances of people, threats, arson, explosions, abandoned children of “ashram residents” begging on the streets of Pune, drugs - all this [here] is the order of the day...
Christians working in the Pune mental hospital will confirm all of this, not forgetting to mention the high level of mental disorders, due [in particular] to the fact that the ashram took political power into its own hands and there was no one to complain about it."
(Martin W. Op. op. p. 288).
But this is the external side.

But internally, that is, the teaching:
"Rajneesh preached freedom of fornication and perversion, while calling family and children an unnecessary burden. He said:

"There is nothing sinful in pure simple sex..."
Who can argue with this? This is true. Intimate relationships are not sin or immorality.
But promiscuous sex (or fornication according to the church), as a source of infectious diseases and many human misfortunes, is certainly condemned by both society and religions.

And further:
“There is no obligation, no duty, no obligation in this. Sex should be full of play and prayer” (Osho. Sex. Quotes from conversations. M., 1993).
In this regard, “when Rajneesh hinted that a woman burdened with children could not achieve enlightenment, many female sannyasins were surgically sterilized at the cult center in Laguna Beach.”

“Develop your sexuality, don’t suppress yourself!.. I don’t inspire orgies, but I don’t forbid them either” (“Paris-match”, 11/08/1985. Quoted from: Privalov K. B. S. 35).

After which:
"Visitors to the commune in Pune returned with stories of such sexual orgies, as well as perversions, drug addiction and drug trafficking! suicides among ashram residents. It happened that meditation sessions in Rajneesh ashrams ended in fights and stabbings. Many lost their health after experiencing the "therapy "Rajneesha. (Barker A. Op. op. p. 244).

He promised "a bird in the hand", or even a cranein the form of freedom, enlightenment without any labor, without any restrictions, on the contrary, through the cultivation of the basest passions and vices that a person has.
There is no God, no morality, no prohibitions, no obligations..., but everything that brings pleasure and wealth is permitted. Those who had a need for any of the above went to his ashrams, because his ideology allowed them to justify themselves, primarily in their own eyes, and not feel like moral outcasts or monsters in their environment or society.
Besides, I think he had hypnotic powers. The Internet is full of videos of his performances.
Complete demagoguery, but the people are spellbound. You don’t have to be a big specialist to, by looking at their faces, determine that the audience, who is more and who is less, is “influenced”.

"Love yourself.
Don't judge yourself. You have been condemned so much, and you accepted all this condemnation. Now you continue to harm yourself..."

What an attractive ideology for many, a kind of “sweet candy” for morning tea.
No matter what offense you commit (they don’t condemn you for good), no matter what harm you cause, no matter how scum you are, “don’t judge yourself...”, but “be yourself and enjoy...”

Conscience and repentance are counterbalances and stoppers to non-competition, including repeated, of something subject to condemnation (and this is always harm caused to someone/something and someone’s pain), they, therefore, are on the side, forget about them and do it whatever you want, even walk over corpses, as long as it makes you feel good, and most importantly, “don’t judge yourself,” so as not to interfere with yourself “enjoying,” but “be yourself.”

And who would doubt that with such a formulation of the question, the ashrams will be bursting with people who want to do it.
But what about enlightenment? It doesn't fit into this scheme.

Zombification based on meditative techniques and breathing exercises

The only religion of Osho Shri Rajneesh

Originated in India in 1970, based on the philosophy of Zen Buddhism.

It is not without trepidation that I begin the story about the teachings of the great teacher Osho Shri Rajneesh, which I followed for several years.

Like most religious teachers of the East, Osho presented his teachings, referring not to any earlier schools and philosophies, but to his own spiritual experience of development. In the late sixties, the Teacher came to the conclusion that all the beliefs existing on Earth are false, and it is time for people to open their eyes to the one and only true religion.

Thanks to his great prophetic gift, Osho was able to gain a large number of followers and in 1971 he founded his first ashram in Pune. Until 1981, up to fifty thousand people a year passed through this school, which once again testifies to the high spiritual richness of the new teaching.

In 1981, the government of Indira Gandhi banned the sect on the pretext that drugs were used to achieve nirvana in Osho Sri Rajneesh's ashram, and fights and stabbings occurred during meditation. The teacher was forced to move to the United States, where he was elected mayor of Entelope, Oregon. There he founded a new ashram. Soon, rumors began to spread throughout the area about strange deaths among the town's homeless beggars and tramps, as well as about rampant sexual orgies within the walls of the sect. Under pressure from the “public opinion of free America,” Osho was arrested, and in order to avoid the escalation of the conflict, he publicly announced the dissolution of the sect. For greater effect, five thousand brochures, specially printed for this occasion, were burned in front of journalists and television cameras.

On November 14, 1985, in Portland, Oregon, after a high-profile trial, Osho Shri Rajneesh was sentenced to ten years in prison... suspended, and quietly released on all four sides.

On his grave in Pune, India, lies a white marble slab with a laconic inscription: “Never was born and never died, just visited this land from 1931 to 1990,” and the teaching continues to live and develop in almost the entire civilized world and traditionally Buddhist countries.

The basis of this scandalous religion is Zen (Chan) Buddhism, and when giving recommendations for self-improvement, Osho often directly refers to famous representatives of various movements of Zen, as well as Confucian philosophers. The main differences from traditional schools include the use of motor meditative techniques and the theory of “reasonable egoism” created by the teacher.

It was the stay in the Osho sect of Shri Rajneesh that showed me the entire abyss that separates those who convince people to abandon sectarianism and those who are in sects. Thus, popularizers speak about Osho’s teachings at this level:

“He preached liberation from one’s own “I”, from conscience. You need to live without thinking about anything, without burdening yourself with thoughts about the past, or the future, or about family, or about your daily bread. And the way to this is through meditation, chants, ritual dances, similar to the dances of the first hippies, only you need to hang an image of a guru on a wooden chain around your neck... But, as Rajneesh taught, you cannot survive in this world without love. “Develop your sexuality, don’t suppress it! - he urged. - Love is the beginning of everything. If you missed the beginning, you will not have an end...” And he added: “I do not inspire orgies, but I do not prohibit them either. Everyone decides for themselves."

CONTINUATION IN COMMENTS

Osho was a Master, an Indian enlightened man. Many also knew him as Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh. For about 25 years he talked with his students, and the materials of these conversations, Osho’s aphorisms, his beliefs and views were immortalized in books, which were then distributed throughout the world, and were translated into dozens of other languages.

Life as a path to enlightenment

Osho was born in 1931 on December 11th. From an early age he was interested in spiritual teachings; he sought to know his body and soul, to explore his capabilities. The young master tried different paths to enlightenment, practiced meditation, but at the same time harshly condemned social prejudices, did not want to believe in religions and observe.

Perhaps the most surprising thing is the master’s cheerfulness. He taught people not to take life too seriously and to laugh more.

Osho believed that any action can lead to quick results. For him, a person’s purpose in life was considered important. He defended his own opinion and taught it to others, taught his followers to rely only on their own opinion.

The master said that each person is unique, and his individuality can only be revealed in the process of life; only through trial and error can you find out what is for you and what is not.

God is love

He associated God with love, meaning that love can come to everyone in the most unexpected guise, but it must be accepted.

Osho loved life; he considered it a mystery that cannot be predicted. He said that if everything was known in advance, life would not be so interesting. But the Indian philosopher taught his followers not to be afraid of life and risk, since without risk there is no spiritual growth.

He considered solitude a good way to feel happy. She, according to Osho, helped to feel one’s unity with higher powers, to realize one’s strength and spiritual fullness. Then communication with other people will become more fruitful and bring pleasure.

Play, because life is a game

The philosopher’s judgments about wealth are also interesting. He taught the rich modesty, because it only helps to preserve wealth. And he urged the poor to freedom from mortal thoughts, to courage in their actions, he convinced his students that life is just a game, and suffering is just the result of taking it too seriously.

Changes in a person occur constantly, every moment, since life itself is like the flow of a river. Everything is decided only by our attitude towards it, which is why it is so important to listen to ourselves, to constantly learn from life everything that it can offer. These were the views

Chandra Mohan Jain(Hindi चन्द्र मोहन जैन , December 11, 1931 - January 19, 1990) since the early seventies is better known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (English pronunciation(inf.), Hindi भगवान श्री रजनीश - Russian the blessed one who is god ) And Acharya, and later as Osho(Hindi ओशो - Russian. oceanic, dissolved in the ocean ) - Indian spiritual leader and mystic, attributed by some researchers to neo-Hinduism, the inspirer of the neo-Orientalist and religious-cultural movement of Rajneesh (English) Russian. . A preacher of a new sannyasa, expressed in immersion in the world without attachment to it, life affirmation, renunciation of the ego and meditation and leading to total liberation and enlightenment.

Criticism of socialism, Mahatma Gandhi and traditional religions made Osho a controversial figure during his lifetime. In addition, he defended freedom of sexual relations, in some cases he organized sexual meditation practices, for which he earned the nickname “ sex guru". Some researchers call him the “guru of scandals.”

Osho is the founder of the ashram system in many countries. While in the United States, he founded the international settlement of Rajneeshpuram, several of whose residents committed serious crimes, including a bioterrorist act, before September 1985. After being deported from America, Rajneesh was denied entry by 21 countries or declared him “persona non grata.” Osho's organization was classified as a destructive sect in official documents of Russia and Germany, as well as by individual specialists. In the USSR, the Rajneesh movement was banned for ideological reasons.

After Osho's death, attitudes towards him in India and around the world changed, and he became widely regarded as an important teacher in India and an attractive spiritual teacher throughout the world. His teachings became part of popular culture in India and Nepal, and his movement gained some currency in the culture of the United States and around the world. Osho's conversations, recorded between 1969 and 1989, have been collected and published by his followers in the form of more than 1000 books.

• 1 Names
• 2 Biography
  • 2.1 Childhood and youth (1931-1950)
  • 2.2 Years of study (1951-1960)
  • 2.3 Lecture tours
  • 2.4 Bombay
    • 2.4.1 Neo-Sannyasa Movement Foundation
    • 2.4.2 Bhagwan
  • 2.5 Ashram in Pune (1974-1981)
    • 2.5.1 Development and growth
    • 2.5.2 Group therapy
    • 2.5.3 Daily events at the ashram
    • 2.5.4
    • 2.5.5
  • 2.6 Stay in the USA (1981-1985)
  • 2.7
  • 2.8 Pune (1987-1990)
• 3 Teachings of Osho
  • 3.1 Ego and mind
  • 3.2 Meditation
  • 3.3
  • 3.4 Zen
  • 3.5 Renunciation and the “new man”
  • 3.6 "Ten Commandments" Osho
• 4 Osho movement
  • 4.1 Followers in Russia
• 5 Criticism
• 6 Responses to criticism
• 7 Legacy
  • 7.1 In India
  • 7.2 Osho International Meditation Resort
  • 7.3 Worldwide
  • 7.4 Cultural heritage
• 8 Selected works
• 9 Literature

Names

Osho used various names throughout his life. This was in accordance with Indian traditions and reflected a consistent change in his spiritual activity. Below are the meanings of Osho's names at different periods of his life:

• Chandra Mohan Jain(Hindi चन्द्र मोहन जैन ) is a real civilian name.
• Rajneesh(Hindi रजनीश) - This name was the nickname given to Osho as a child by his family. It literally translates as “lord of the full moon.”
• Acharya Rajneesh(Hindi आचार्य रजनीश ) - that's what it was called from the mid-sixties to the early seventies. Acharya means "teacher" or "spiritual master", and also in some cases "professor".
• Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh(Hindi भगवान श्री रजनीश ) or briefly Bhagwan- Osho bore this name from the early seventies until the end of 1988. Bhagwan means "enlightened" or "awakened". In India the word Sri used as an everyday address, its meaning is close to the address "Mr." At the end of 1988, he abandoned this name, which also meant divine status, with the comment: “Enough! The joke is over."
• Osho(Hindi ओशो) - this is what he called himself in the last year of his life, from the beginning of 1989 until his death on January 19, 1990. In Zen Buddhism "Osho" is a title that literally translates as “monk” or “teacher.” This is how Bodhidharma, the first Chan patriarch, was addressed with respect. Name "Osho" was suggested to him by his students, as it was often mentioned in the Zen parables that he commented on. Osho once added a new meaning to this word, linking it with the concept of “oceanic” by William James (in English the word “ocean” sounds like “ocean”). In the literature of the Rajneesh movement, another interpretation is presented: the syllable "O" means love, gratitude and synchronicity, and "sho" means the expansion of consciousness in all directions. All new editions of his books and his other works are published today under the name Osho.

Biography

Childhood and youth (1931-1950)

Chandra Mohan Jain was born on December 11, 1931 in Kuchwad, a small village in the state of Madhya Pradesh (India). He was the eldest of eleven children of a cloth merchant and was raised by his grandparents for the first seven years. His family, who belonged to the Jain religious community, gave him the nickname Rajneesh or Raja ("King"). Rajneesh was a capable student and did well at school, but at the same time had a lot of trouble with teachers because of his disobedience, frequent absences from school and all sorts of provocations towards his classmates.

Rajneesh had an early brush with death. His grandfather, to whom he was strongly attached, died when he was seven years old. When he was fifteen years old, his friend (and cousin) Shashi died of typhoid fever. The losses affected Rajneesh deeply and his quiet teenage years were marked by melancholy, depression and chronic headaches. It was at this time that he ran from 15 to 25 km a day and often meditated to the point of exhaustion.

Rajneesh was an atheist, criticized faith in religious texts and rituals, and showed an interest in hypnosis as a teenager. For some time he participated in the communist, socialist and two nationalist movements that fought for the independence of India: the Indian National Army and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. However, his membership in these organizations was short-lived as he did not want to follow any external discipline, ideology or system. Rajneesh was also well-read and knew how to conduct discussions. He had a reputation as a selfish, arrogant, even rebellious young man.

Years of study (1951-1960)

At the age of nineteen, Rajneesh began his education in philosophy at Hitkarine College in Jabalpur. After a conflict with his teacher, he had to leave the college and move to D. N. Jain College, also located in Jabalpur. While still a student in Jabalpur, on March 21, 1953, while meditating during the full moon in Bhanvartal Park, he had an extraordinary experience during which he felt overwhelmed with happiness - an experience that he later described as his spiritual enlightenment:

That night I died and I was reborn. But the person who is reborn has nothing in common with the one who died. It is not a continuous thing... The person who has died has died totally; there is nothing left of him... not even a shadow. The ego died totally, completely... On that day, March 21, a personality who had lived many, many lives, millennia, simply died. Another being, completely new, completely unrelated to the old, began to exist... I became free from the past, I was torn out of my history, I lost my autobiography.

He graduated from DN Jain College in 1955 with a bachelor's degree. In 1957 he graduated with honors from Saugar University, receiving a Master of Philosophy degree. After this, he became a teacher of philosophy at the Raipur Sanskrit College, but soon the vice-chancellor asked him to look for another job, as he considered that Rajneesh had a detrimental effect on the morality, character and religiosity of students. In 1958, Rajneesh began teaching philosophy at the University of Jabalpur, and in 1960 he became a professor. A renowned lecturer, he was recognized by his peers as an exceptionally intelligent man who overcame the shortcomings of his early education in a small town.

Lecture tours

In the 1960s, Rajneesh, whenever his teaching work allowed him, made large lecture tours throughout India, in which he parodied and ridiculed Mahatma Gandhi and criticized socialism. He believed that socialism and Gandhi celebrated poverty rather than rejecting it. He argued that in order to overcome poverty and backwardness, India needed capitalism, science, modern technology and birth control. He criticized orthodox Hinduism, calling the Brahminical religion dead, filled with empty rituals, oppressing its followers through fear of damnation and promises of blessings, and said that all political and religious systems are false and hypocritical. These statements made Rajneesh unpopular among most, but they brought him some attention. At this time he began to use the name Acharya. In 1966, after a series of provocative speeches, he was forced to resign from his teaching position and began individual practice and teaching meditation.

Acharya Rajneesh's early lectures were in Hindi and were therefore not aimed at Western visitors. Biographer R. C. Prasad noted that Rajneesh’s amazing charm was felt even by those who did not share his views. His performances quickly earned him a loyal following, including among wealthy businessmen. These visitors received individual counseling about their spiritual development and daily life in exchange for donations. The tradition of seeking advice from a scholar or saint is a common practice in India, similar to how Westerners seek advice from a psychotherapist or counselor. Based on the rapid growth of practice, American religious scholar and Ph.D. James Lewis suggested that Rajneesh was an unusually gifted spiritual healer. Beginning in 1962, Rajneesh held meditation camps several times a year with active purification techniques, and at the same time the first meditation centers began to appear (Jeevan Jagrati Kendra or Centers for Awakened Life).

His Awakened Life Movement (Jeevan Jagrati Andolan) during this period consisted mainly of members of the Jain religious community in Bombay. One such member of the movement participated in India's struggle for independence and held a significant position in the Indian National Congress Party, and also had close connections with the country's leaders such as Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Morarji Desai. This politician's daughter, Lakshmi, was Rajneesh's first secretary and his devoted student.

Acharya Rajneesh claimed that shocking people was the only way to wake them up. Many Indians were shocked by his 1968 lectures, in which he sharply criticized Indian society's attitudes towards love and sex and advocated the liberalization of relationships. He said that original sexuality is divine, and that sexual feelings should not be suppressed, but should be accepted with gratitude. Rajneesh argued that only by recognizing one's true nature can a person be free. He did not accept religions that advocated abandonment of life; true religion, according to him, is an art that teaches how to enjoy life to the fullest. These lectures were later published as a book entitled "From Sex to Superconsciousness" and were published in the Indian press, which called him a "sex guru." Despite opposition from some established Hindus, he was, however, invited to speak at the Second World Hindu Conference in 1969. There, he took the opportunity to criticize all organized religions and their priests, which infuriated the Hindu spiritual leaders present at the conference.

Bombay

Neo-Sannyasa Movement Foundation

At a public meditation event in Bombay (now Mumbai) in the spring of 1970, Acharya Rajneesh presented his dynamic meditation for the first time. In July 1970, he rented an apartment in Bombay, where he received visitors and also began holding talks with small groups of people. Although Rajneesh, according to his own teachings, did not initially seek to found an organization, he created the first school of “neo-sannyasins” on September 26, 1970, during a meditation camp in Manali. ", who are now more often called simply "sannyasins". Initiation into sannyas meant receiving a new name from him, for a woman, for example, such as “Ma Dhyan Shama”, for a man, for example, “Swami Satyananda”, as well as wearing orange clothes, a mala (necklace) with 108 wooden beads and a medallion with the image of Rajneesh.

Orange clothing and mala are the attributes of traditional sannyasins in India, who are considered there as holy ascetics. There was an element of chance in choosing such a deliberately provocative style. This happened after Acharya Rajneesh saw Lakshmi wearing orange clothes, which Lakshmi spontaneously chose for herself. His sannyas, according to Rajneesh, should be life-affirming because it celebrates "the death of everything you were yesterday." Rajneesh himself should not have been worshiped in the context of sannyas. The Acharya was seen by sannyasins as a catalyst or "the sun pushing the flower to open." In 1971, the first disciples began to arrive from Western countries and join the movement. Among them was a young Englishwoman who received the name “Vivek” from Acharya Rajneesh. Rajneesh came to the conclusion that in a past life she was his friend Shashi. Before her death, Shashi promised Rajneesh that she would return to him. After her "return", Vivek was Rajneesh's constant companion in subsequent years.

Bhagwan

That same year, Rajneesh dropped the title "Acharya" and adopted instead the religious name Bhagwan (literally: Blessed One) Shri Rajneesh. The title was criticized by many Hindus, but Bhagwan seemed to enjoy the controversy. He later said that the name change had a positive effect: "Only those who are ready to merge with me remain, everyone else has fled." At the same time, he also shifted the focus of his activities. He was now less and less interested in giving lectures to the general public; instead, he stated that he would primarily deal with the issue of transforming people who had an internal connection with him. As more and more students came to him from the West, Bhagwan began giving lectures in English. In Bombay his health began to deteriorate; Due to the poor quality of Bombay's air, asthma, diabetes, and his allergies began to worsen. His apartment became too small to accommodate visitors. His secretary Lakshmi went in search of a more suitable place to stay and found it in Pune. Money for the purchase of two neighboring villas, occupying an approximate area of ​​2.5 acres, came from patrons and students, in particular from Catherine Venizelos ( Ma Yoga Mukta), heir to the fortune of a famous Greek figure.

Ashram in Pune (1974-1981)

Development and growth

Bhagwan and his followers moved from Bombay to Pune in March 1974. Health problems bothered him for some time, but the construction of the ashram in Koregaon Park continued uninterrupted. Sannyasins worked in the ashram and often received free room and board for some time. The following years were marked by constant expansion of the ashram, with the number of visitors from the West becoming larger and larger. By 1981, the ashram had its own bakery, cheese production, arts and crafts centers for tailoring, jewelry, ceramics and organic cosmetics, as well as a private medical center with more than 90 employees, including 21 doctors. Performances, musical concerts and pantomimes were held. The increase in the flow of people from the West was partly due to the return of some Western students from India, who often founded meditation centers in their own countries. Some people reported that they had never come into contact with sannyasins, and that only after seeing a photograph of Bhagwan somewhere, they felt an inexplicable connection with him and after that they knew that they had to meet Bhagwan. Others read Bhagwan's books and thus they also began to want to see him. Bhagwan received a significant influx of feminist groups; Most of the ashram's economic activities were led by women.

Bhagwan, the description said, was “a physically attractive man with hypnotic brown eyes, a beard, chiseled features and a winning smile, his defiant actions and words, as well as his idiosyncrasy and apparently fearless and carefree behavior attracted a large number of disappointed people from the West, being signs that some real answer may be found here." In addition, he was distinguished by the fact that he accepted modern technology and capitalism, had nothing against sex and was very well read - he easily quoted Heidegger and Sartre, Socrates, Gurdjieff and Bob Hope, and also spoke freely about tantra, the New Testament, Zen and Sufism.

Group therapy

In addition, the syncretic combination of Eastern meditation and Western methods of therapy played a significant role. European and American practitioners from the humanistic psychology movement came to Pune and became Bhagwan's students. “They came to him to learn from him how to live meditatively. They found in him a spiritual teacher who fully understood the concept of holistic psychology they had developed and was the only one they knew who could use it as a tool to bring people to higher levels of consciousness,” writes Bhagwan’s biographer. The therapy groups soon became an essential part of the ashram, as well as one of the largest sources of income. In 1976, there were 10 different therapies, including Encounter, Primal and Intensive Enlightenment, and a group in which participants had to try to answer the question “Who am I?” In subsequent years, the number of available methods increased to approximately eighty.

To decide which therapy groups to attend, visitors either consulted Bhagwan or made a choice according to their preferences. Some of the early ashram groups, such as Encounter, were experimental and allowed physical aggression as well as sexual contact between participants. Conflicting reports of injuries sustained during Encounter group sessions began to appear in the press. After one of the participants suffered a broken arm, violent groups were banned. Richard Price, then a well-known therapist in the humanistic psychology movement and co-founder of the Esalen Institute, found that some groups encouraged participants to “be cruel” rather than “play the role of cruel” (the norm for encounter groups held in the United States) and criticized for "the worst mistakes of some of Esalen's inexperienced group leaders." Nevertheless, many sannyasins and visitors were interested in participating in an exciting experiment for them. In this sense, they were inspired by Bhagwan's words: “We are experimenting here with all the ways that make it possible to heal human consciousness and enrich man.”

Daily events at the ashram

A typical day at the ashram began at 6 a.m. with one hour of dynamic meditation. At 8 o'clock Bhagwan gave a public lecture in the so-called "Buddha Hall". Until 1981, lecture series in Hindi alternated with series in English. Many of these lectures were spontaneous commentaries on texts from various spiritual traditions or were responses to questions from visitors and students. The conversations were peppered with jokes, anecdotes and provocative remarks that constantly brought out bursts of amusement from his devoted audience. Various meditations took place throughout the day, such as “meditation kundalini", "meditation nataraj” and therapies, the high intensity of which was attributed to spiritual energy, Bhagwan’s “Buddha Field”. In the evenings, Darshans took place, personal conversations between Bhagwan and a small number of devoted students and guests, and initiation of students (“acceptance into sannyas”) took place. The occasion for darshan was usually the arrival of a student at the ashram or his upcoming departure, or a particularly serious matter that the sannyasin would like to discuss personally with Bhagwan. Four days a year had special significance, these days were celebrated: the enlightenment of Bhagwan (March 21); his birthday (December 11) and the birthday of Guru Purnima; the full moon, during which the spiritual teacher is traditionally venerated in India, and Mahaparinirvana, the day when all departed enlightened ones are venerated. For visitors, a stay in Pune was usually an intense and very vivid experience, regardless, ultimately, of whether the visitor "took sannyas" or not. The ashram, according to the descriptions of the students, was at once “an amusement park and a madhouse, a house of pleasure and a temple.”

Bhagwan's teachings emphasized spontaneity, but the ashram was not free from rules. There were guards at the entrance, smoking and drugs were prohibited, and some parts of the territory, such as House of Lao Tzu, in which Bhagwan lived, was available only to a limited number of students. Those who wanted to attend a lecture in Buddha Hall (“Please leave your shoes and your brains at the door,” said a sign at the entrance) had to first take an odor test because Bhagwan was allergic to shampoos and cosmetics. And those who had such odors were denied access.

Negative media reports

In the 1970s, Bhagwan first came to the attention of the Western press as a "sex guru". Criticism has focused on his therapy groups, Bhagwan's attitude towards sex and his often humorous but sharply social values ​​statements (“Even people like Jesus remain a little neurotic”). The behavior of sannyasins has become a separate subject of criticism. In order to earn money for their further stay in India, some of the women went to Bombay and engaged in prostitution. Other sannyasins tried to smuggle opium, hashish and marijuana, some of them were caught and imprisoned. The reputation of the ashram suffered from this, among other things. In January 1981, Prince Wolf of Hanover ( Swami Anand Vimalkirti), cousin of Prince Charles and descendant of Emperor William II, died of a stroke in Pune. After which, the alarmed relatives wanted to make sure that his little daughter would not grow up with her mother (also a sannyasin) in Pune. Members of the anti-cult movement began to claim that sannyasins were forced into therapy groups against their will, that they suffered nervous breakdowns, and that they were forced into prostitution and drug dealing.

The hostility of the surrounding society was demonstrated to some extent to Bhagwan when an attempt was made on his life in 1980. A young Hindu fundamentalist, Vilas Tupe, threw a knife at Bhagwan during a morning lecture, but missed. A banned film about the ashram appeared in India, which censored footage of therapy groups and footage of Bhagwan openly criticizing then Prime Minister Morarji Desai, the head of the Indian government, who proposed taking a tougher stance against the ashram. On top of all this, the ashram's tax exemption was retroactively revoked, resulting in millions in tax claims. The government stopped issuing visas for foreign visitors who listed the ashram as their primary destination.

Change of plans and beginning of Bhagwan's silent phase

Considering the ever-increasing number of visitors and the hostile attitude of the city administration towards people moving in with Bhagwan, the students began to consider moving to Saswad, located about 30 km from Pune, where they wanted to build an agricultural commune. However, the arson and poisoning of the fountain in Saswad made it clear that the activities of the ashram there were also not welcomed. Subsequent attempts to acquire land for an ashram in Gujarat failed due to opposition from local authorities.

Bhagwan's health deteriorated in the late 1970s, and his personal contact with sannyasins decreased from 1979 onwards. Evening Darshans began to be held in the form of energy Darshans - instead of personal conversations, there was now a “transfer of energy”, which happened when Bhagwan touched the middle of the student’s forehead or “third eye” with his thumb. On April 10, 1981, Bhagwan began a silent phase and began holding satsangs (silent congregational sitting with short periods of reading from various spiritual works and live music) instead of daily discourses. Around the same time, Ma Anand Sheela (Sheela Silverman) replaced Lakshmi as Bhagwan's secretary. Sheela came to the conclusion that Bhagwan, who was then suffering from a very long-term and painful problem of a slipped disc, should travel to the United States to receive better treatment. Bhagwan and Vivek initially did not seem to be particularly supportive of this idea, but Sheela insisted on moving.

Stay in the USA (1981-1985)

In the spring of 1981, after a long illness, Osho entered a period of silence. On the recommendation of doctors, in June this year he was taken to the United States for treatment, as he suffered, in particular, from diabetes and asthma.

Osho's followers bought a ranch for $5.75 million Big Muddy area of ​​64 thousand acres in Central Oregon, on the territory of which the settlement of Rajneeshpuram (now a suburb of Antelope) was founded, where the number of adherents reached 15 thousand people. In August, Osho moved to Rajneeshpuram, where he lived in a trailer as a guest of the commune.

During the four years that Osho lived there, Rajneeshpuram's popularity grew. So, about 3,000 people came to the festival in 1983, and in 1987 - about 7,000 people from Europe, Asia, South America and Australia. The city opened a school, post office, fire and police departments, and a transport system of 85 buses. Between 1981 and 1986, the Rajneesh movement amassed approximately $120 million through various meditation workshops, lectures and conferences, with admission fees ranging from $50 to $7,500.

Religious scholar A. A. Gritsanov notes that “ by the end of 1982, Osho's fortune reached $200 million, tax-free" Osho also owned 4 airplanes and 1 combat helicopter. In addition, Osho owned “almost a hundred (numbers vary) Rolls-Royces.” His followers reportedly wanted to increase the number of Rolls-Royces to 365, one for each day of the year.

At the same time, contradictions with local authorities regarding construction permits intensified, as well as in connection with calls for violence from residents of the commune. They intensified in connection with statements by Osho's secretary and press secretary, Ma Anand Sheela. Osho himself continued to remain silent until 1984 and was practically isolated from the life of the commune. The management of the commune was taken over by Sheela, who took on the role of the sole intermediary between Osho and his commune.

Internal contradictions also intensified within the commune. Many of Osho's followers, who disagreed with the regime established by Sheela, left the ashram. Faced with difficulties, the board of the commune, led by Sheela, also used criminal methods. In 1984, salmonella was added to the food of several restaurants in nearby Dallas to test whether the outcome of the upcoming election could be influenced by reducing the number of people eligible to vote. On Sheela's orders, Osho's personal physician and two Oregon government officials were also poisoned. The doctor and one of the employees became seriously ill, but eventually recovered.

In 1984, the Federal Bureau of Investigation filed a criminal case against the Rajneesh sect"since in Antelope" weapons warehouses and drug laboratories were discovered on the territory of the center of Rajnesh».

After Sheela and her team hastily left the commune in September 1985, Osho called a press conference at which he reported information about their crimes and asked the prosecutor's office to initiate an investigation. As a result of the investigation, Sheela and many of her employees were detained and later convicted. Although Osho himself was not involved in criminal activities, his reputation (especially in the West) suffered significant damage.

On October 23, 1985, a federal jury in closed session considered an indictment against Osho in connection with violations of immigration laws.

On October 29, 1985, after Bhagwan's personal plane landed for refueling in Charlotte, North Carolina, he was detained without an arrest warrant and without formal charges being filed at that time. The motive for the detention was said to be Bhagwan's unauthorized attempt to leave the United States. (According to Rajish, he and his 8 close associates were going to fly to Bermuda on vacation). For the same reason, Bhagwan was denied bail. He was placed in a pre-trial detention center, having previously been registered in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary under the name “David Washington.” On the advice of his lawyers, who reached an agreement with the accusing party, Bhagwan signed Alford plea- a document according to which the accused admits the charges and at the same time maintains his innocence. As a result, Bhagwan admitted 2 of the 34 counts of violating the immigration law against him. As a result, on November 14, Bhagwan was given a suspended sentence of 10 years in prison, he was fined $400,000, and after that Bhagwan was deported from the United States without the right of return for 5 years. Bhagwan disbanded his Oregon ashram and publicly declared that he was not a religious teacher. Also, his disciples burned 5 thousand copies of the book “Rajneeshism,” which was a 78-page compilation of the teachings of Bhagwan, who defined “Rajneeshism” as a “non-religious religion.” Rajneesh said he ordered the book to be burned to rid the sect of the last traces of the influence of Sheela, whose clothes were also "added to the fire."

On December 10, 1985, Rajneeshpuram's registration was invalidated by District Judge Helen J. Fry for violating the constitutional provisions of the separation of church and state. Later, in 1988, the US Supreme Court upheld the legality of Rajneeshpuram.

Around the World (1986)

On January 21, 1986, Bhagwan announced his intention to travel around the world to visit his followers living in various countries. In February 1986, Bhagwan arrived in Greece on a 30-day tourist visa. After this, the Greek Orthodox Church demands that the Greek authorities expel Bhagwan from the country, arguing that otherwise “blood will be shed.” On March 5, without any permission, the police entered the villa of a local film director where Bhagwan lived and arrested the mystic. Bhagwan pays a fine of $5,000 and flies to Switzerland on March 6, making the following statement to Greek journalists before leaving: “If one person with a four-week tourist visa can destroy your two-thousand-year-old morality, your religion, then it is not worth preserving. It must be destroyed."

Upon arrival in Switzerland, he receives the status of “persona non grata” due to “violation of US immigration laws.” He flies on a plane to England, where he is also not allowed to stay, and then, on March 7, flies to Ireland, where he receives a tourist visa. The next morning, the police come to the hotel and demand Bhagwan's immediate flight out of the country, but the authorities later allow him to remain in Ireland for a short time due to Canada's refusal to allow Bhagwan's plane to land in Grenada to refuel the plane. At the same time, Bhagwan was denied entry by Holland and Germany. On March 19, an invitation to visit with the possibility of permanent residence was sent by Uruguay, and on the same day Bhagwan and his followers fly to Montevideo. In Uruguay, sannyasins discovered the reasons for refusals to visit a number of countries. These reasons were telexes containing "diplomatic classified information" in which Interpol reported allegations of "drug addiction, smuggling and prostitution" among people around Bhagwan.

On May 14, 1986, the Uruguayan government intended to announce at a press conference that Bhagwan would be granted permanent residence. But according to a number of sources, on the evening of the previous day, Sanguinetti, who was the president of Uruguay, was contacted by American authorities and demanded that Bhagwan be expelled from the country, threatening otherwise to cancel the American loan to Uruguay and not provide loans in the future. 18 June Bhagwan agrees to leave Uruguay. On June 19, he flies to Jamaica on the 10-day visa he received. Immediately after arrival, a US Air Force plane lands next to Bhagwan's plane. The next morning, all visas of Bhagwan and his followers are invalidated. After this, he flies to Lisbon and lives in a villa for some time until the police come to him again. As a result, after Bhagwan, under pressure from the United States, was denied entry by 21 countries or declared him “persona non grata,” he returned to India on July 29, where he lived in Bombay with his friend for six months. In India, Osho opens a center for psychotherapeutic and meditation programs.

Religious scholar A. S. Timoshchuk and historian I. V. Fedotova note that “ The call for complete freedom, coupled with very liberal views on marriage and sexuality, has caused public outrage around the world and may have played a sinister role».

Pune (1987-1990)

On January 4, 1987, Osho returned to Pune to the house where he lived most of his life. Immediately after news of Osho's return became known, the city's police chief ordered him to immediately leave Pune on the grounds that Rajneesh was a "controversial personality" and "could disrupt order in the city." However, the Bombay High Court overturned this order on the same day.

In Pune, Osho holds discourse evenings every day, except when they are interrupted due to ill health. Publications and therapies resumed and the ashram was expanded. It was now called the Multiversity, where the therapy would work as a bridge to meditation. Osho developed new meditation-therapeutic methods, such as the “Mystical Rose”, and began to lead meditations in his discourses after a break of more than ten years. The flow of visitors increased again. But now, having gone through the experience of joint activities in Oregon, most sannyasins no longer sought to live together with other sannyasins, but began to prefer an independent lifestyle in society. Red/orange clothing and malas have been largely phased out, having been optional since 1985. The wearing of red robes exclusively in the ashram was reinstated in the summer of 1989, along with white robes for evening meditation and black robes for group leaders.

By the end of 1987, thousands of sannyasins and visitors were passing through the gates of Osho Commune International in the Indian city of Pune every day. Osho conducts daily darshans, but his health is steadily deteriorating. In conversations, Osho often repeats that he cannot stay with his people for a long time, and advises listeners to focus on meditation.

In November 1987, Osho expressed his belief that his deteriorating health (nausea, fatigue, pain in the limbs and insufficient resistance to infection) was caused by his poisoning by the US authorities while he was in prison. His doctor and former lawyer Philip J. Toelkes (Swami Prem Niren) suggested that radioactive thallium was in Osho's mattress since the symptoms were concentrated on the right side, but provided no evidence. Federal prosecutor Charles H. Hunter described it as "a complete sham," while others suggested exposure to HIV or chronic diabetes and stress.

Since early 1988, Osho's discourses have focused exclusively on Zen. His daily lectures now take place in the evening, rather than in the morning, as was previously the case.

In late December, Osho announced that he no longer wished to be called "Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh", and in February 1989 he took the name "Osho Rajneesh", which was shortened to "Osho" in September. He also demanded that all brands previously branded "RAJNEESH" be rebranded internationally as "OSHO". His health continued to weaken. He made his last public speech in April 1989, and after that he simply sat in silence with his followers. Shortly before his death, Osho suggested that one or more people at the evening meetings (now referred to as the White Robe Brotherhood) were subjecting him to some form of evil magic. An attempt was made to search for the criminals, but no one could be found.

On October 6, 1989, Osho chooses the “inner circle” - this group consists of twenty-one closest disciples, who are entrusted with the responsibility of administrative management and solving basic practical issues in the life of the commune. A sannyasin university was founded in June-July. It consists of a number of faculties covering various seminars and group programs.

On January 17, 1990, Osho's health condition deteriorated significantly. Osho appeared at the evening meeting only to greet those gathered. When he entered the hall, it was noticeable that it was extremely difficult for him to move.

Osho died on January 19, 1990 at the age of 58. An autopsy was not performed, so the cause of death has not been established. There are several unconfirmed versions; according to the official statement of Osho’s doctor, death occurred from heart failure caused by complications of diabetes and asthma. According to followers close to Osho, death occurred due to the slow action of thallium, which Osho was poisoned with during his imprisonment in the United States. Before his death, Osho refused doctors’ offers to carry out urgent medical intervention, telling them that “the Universe itself measures its own time.” Osho's body was taken to the hall where a mass gathering took place and then cremation. Two days later, the ashes remaining from Osho's body were transferred to the Chuang Tzu Hall - to the very room that was to become his new bedroom. Some of the ashes were also transferred to Nepal, to the Osho-Tapoban Ashram. A sign was placed over the ashes with the words that Osho himself had dictated a few months earlier: “OSHO. Never born, never died, only stayed on this planet Earth from December 11, 1931 to January 19, 1990.”

Osho's teachings

Osho's teachings are extremely eclectic. It is a chaotic mosaic composed of elements of Buddhism, yoga, Taoism, Sikhism, Greek philosophy, Sufism, European psychology, Tibetan traditions, Christianity, Hasidism, Zen, Tantrism and other spiritual movements, as well as its own views. Religious scholar L.I. Grigorieva wrote that “ Rajnesh's teachings are a mixture of elements of Hinduism, Taoism, Sufism, etc." He himself spoke about it this way: “ I don't have a system. Systems can only be dead. I am an unsystematic, anarchic flow, I am not even a person, but simply a process. I don't know what I told you yesterday»; « ...the flower is rough, the fragrance is subtle... That's what I'm trying to do - to bring together all the flowers of Tantra, Yoga, Tao, Sufism, Zen, Hasidism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism...»; « Truth is outside of specific forms, attitudes, verbal formulations, practices, logic, and its comprehension is carried out by a chaotic, not a systematic method» ; « “I am the beginning of a completely new religious consciousness,” said O. “Please do not connect me with the past - it is not even worth remembering.”»;« My message is not a doctrine, not a philosophy. My message is a kind of alchemy, the science of transformation, so only those who manage to die as they are and be reborn so renewed that they cannot even imagine it now... only those few brave souls will be ready to hear, for to hear is to go at risk».

Many of Osho's lectures contain contradictions and paradoxes, which Osho commented as follows: " My friends are surprised: Yesterday you said one thing, and today you said something else. What should we obey? I can understand their confusion. They only grasped at the words. Conversations have no value for me, only the spaces between the words I speak are what are valuable. Yesterday I opened the doors to my emptiness with the help of some words, today I open them with the help of other words» .

Religious scholar M.V. Vorobyova noted that the main goal of Osho’s teachings is “ immersion in this world and in this life" Religious scholar S.V. Pakhomov pointed out that the goal of Osho’s teachings is “ loss of self in the oceanic consciousness" Pakhomov also noted that Osho developed a variety of meditative practices to achieve this goal, including the practice of dynamic meditation, which has gained the greatest popularity among all practices.

Religious scholar L.I. Grigorieva wrote that “ The ultimate goal of Rajneesh's religious practice is to achieve a state of enlightenment and total liberation. The ways to achieve this state are to discard stereotypes of culture, upbringing, traditions, and to reject everything that society imposes."At the same time" the destruction of “social barriers and stereotypes” should occur during communication with the “teacher,” and the acquisition of inner freedom through the practice of “dynamic meditation” and sexual orgies presented under the guise of tantrism A".

Candidate of Philosophy S. A. Selivanov pointed out that Osho’s distinctive “calling cards” are: dynamic meditation, neo-sannyas, the idea of ​​a “commune” implemented in Pune, which contains halls for meditation, therapy, music, dance, painting and others arts, and the idea of ​​​​Zorba the Buddha, a new whole person. Selivanov also noted that Osho formed four paths of development for followers of his teachings:

1. Independent analysis of events, resistance to the influence of any ideology and independent resolution of one’s own psychological problems.
2. Acquiring one’s own experience of “living life to the fullest”, abandoning life “by the book”, searching for “the causes of suffering, joy, dissatisfaction”.
3. The need to bring out one’s internal and psychologically destructive “hidden desires” in the process of self-realization.
4. “Enjoy simple things... - a cup of tea, silence, conversation with each other, the beauty of the starry sky.”

Religious scholar B. K. Knorre believes that Osho’s teachings are a philosophy of vitalism of “pure vitality,” in which a person’s initial sensations are more important than any social norms. Knorre figuratively describes the return to “pure feeling” before the acquisition of various stereotypes and civilizational complexes as enjoying life without asking “why” and “why.” To return to this state and liberate the “true self,” psychophysiological training is used.

Combining many traditions, Osho gave a particularly important place to the Zen tradition. For followers, meditation occupies the most important place among all Osho's teachings. The ideal in Osho's teachings is Zorba the Buddha, who combines the spirituality of Buddha with the features of Zorba.

Despite hundreds of dictated books, Rajneesh did not create a systematic theology. During the period of the Oregon commune (1981-1985), a book called “The Bible of Rajneesh” was published, but after the dispersal of this commune, Rajneesh declared that the book was published without his knowledge and consent, and called on his followers to get rid of “old attachments” to to which he also attributed religious beliefs. Some researchers believe that Rajneesh used all the major world religions in his teachings, but preferred the Hindu concept of "enlightenment" as the main goal for his followers.

Osho also used a wide range of Western concepts. His views on the unity of opposites are reminiscent of Heraclitus, while his description of man as a mechanism, condemned to uncontrollable impulsive actions arising from unconscious neurotic patterns, has much in common with Freud and Gurdjieff. His vision of a “new man” transcending the limitations of tradition is reminiscent of Nietzsche’s ideas in Beyond Good and Evil. Osho's views on the liberation of sexuality are comparable to those of Lawrence, and his dynamic meditations are indebted to Reich.

Osho calls for doing what comes from feeling, flows from the heart: “Never follow reason... do not be guided by principles, etiquette, norms of behavior.” He rejected the asceticism and self-restraint of Patanjali's classical yoga and stated that " craving for violence, sex, acquisitiveness, hypocrisy - is a property of consciousness”, also indicating that in the “inner silence” there is “neither greed, nor anger, nor violence,” but there is love. He encouraged his followers to throw out their base desires in any form, which was expressed by “ in convulsive shudders, hysterical behavior" It is considered likely that for this reason Rajneesh's ashrams became the target of criticism for antisocial activities: promiscuity, accusations of delinquency, etc.

Osho was a supporter of vegetarianism and had an ambivalent attitude towards alcohol and drugs. According to critics, the latter circumstance was one of the main factors that made his teaching attractive to the counterculture generation in Western countries. Drugs were prohibited at Osho's ashram.

Osho promoted free love and often criticized the institution of marriage, calling it a "coffin of love" in early conversations, although he sometimes encouraged marriage for its opportunity for "deep spiritual communion." Later in the movement, marriage ceremonies and a focus on long-term relationships appeared. Early calls against marriage came to be understood as a "desire to live in love and harmony without contractual support" rather than as an unequivocal rejection of marriage. At the same time, sannyasins also took into account the fact that Osho opposed dogma in his teaching.

Osho was convinced that most people could not be trusted to have children, and also that the number of children being born throughout the world was too high. Osho believed that “twenty years of absolute birth control” would solve the problem of overpopulation of the planet. Osho also pointed out that childlessness will allow one to achieve enlightenment faster, since in this case it is possible to “give birth to oneself.” Osho's call for sterilization was followed by 200 sannyasins, some of whom subsequently recognized this decision as erroneous. Sociology professor Lewis Carter suggested that the words about recommended sterilization were said by Rajneesh in order not to complicate the planned and secret move from Pune to America.

Osho considered women to be more spiritual than men. Women occupied more leadership positions in the community. Among followers, their ratio to men also varied from 3:1 to 6:4. Osho wanted to create a new society in which there would be "sexual, social and spiritual liberation of women."

Religious scholar A. S. Timoshchuk and historian I. V. Fedotova noted that Osho “ argued that all religions of the past are anti-life", and in turn " his teaching is the first to consider man in his entirety, as he is" Osho said that " Christianity is a disease", and often criticized Christianity, finding masochistic practices in it. Religious scholar L.I. Grigorieva noted on the same occasion “ He denies all religions: “I am the founder of the only religion, the other religion is a fraud. Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha simply seduced people.““The same statement by Osho as a self-description is cited by the representative of the American Christian counter-cult movement and apologist Walter Martin. A. A. Gritsanov cites the same statement in a different version: “ “I am the founder of the only religion,” Rajneesh declared, “other religions are deception.” Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha simply seduced people... My teaching is based on knowledge, on experience. People don't need to believe me. I explain my experience to them. If they find it right, they accept it. If not, then they have no reason to believe in him.».

Osho's talks were not presented in an academic setting; his early lectures were known for their humor and Osho's refusal to take anything seriously. This behavior was explained by the fact that it was a “method of transformation”, pushing people “beyond the mind.”

Ego and mind

According to Osho, every person is a Buddha with the potential for enlightenment, unconditional love and response (instead of reaction) to life, although the ego usually prevents this by identifying with social conditioning and creating false needs and conflicts and an illusory self-awareness.

Osho views the mind as a survival mechanism, copying behavioral strategies that have proven effective in the past. Turning the mind to the past deprives people of the ability to live authentically in the present, causing them to suppress genuine emotions and isolate themselves from the joyful experiences that arise naturally from accepting the present moment: “The mind has no innate capacity for joy... It only thinks about joy.” As a result, people poison themselves with neuroses, jealousy and insecurity.

Osho argued that psychological repression (repression or repression), often advocated by religious leaders, causes repressed feelings to reappear in a different guise. For example, in the case of sexual repression, society becomes obsessed with sex. Osho pointed out that instead of suppressing, people should trust themselves and accept themselves unconditionally. According to Osho, this cannot be understood only intellectually, since the mind can only perceive it as another piece of information; meditation is necessary for a more complete understanding.

Meditation

Osho presented meditation not only as a practice, but also as a state of consciousness that will be maintained in every moment, as a complete understanding that awakens a person from the sleep of mechanical reactions caused by beliefs and expectations. He used Western psychotherapy as a preliminary to meditation to give sannyasins an understanding of their "mental and emotional garbage."

Osho proposed a total of more than 112 meditation methods. His methods of “active meditation” are characterized as successive stages of physical activity and tension, ultimately leading to silence and relaxation. The most famous of these is dynamic meditation, which is described as a microcosm of Osho's worldview.

Osho has developed other active meditation techniques (for example, Kundalini meditation, which consists of shaking, Nadabram meditation, which consists of humming), which are less active, although they also include physical activity. His later meditation therapies required multiple sessions over several days. So the Mystic Rose meditation included three hours of laughter every day for the first week, three hours of crying every day for the second week, and three hours of silent meditation every day for the third week. These processes of "witnessing" allowed the sannyasin to realize the "leap into awareness." Osho believed that such cathartic, cleansing methods were necessary as a preliminary stage, since many modern people found it difficult to immediately use more traditional methods of meditation due to great internal tension and the inability to relax.

Traditional meditation methods given to sannyasins included zazen and vipassana.

Osho emphasized that absolutely everything can become an opportunity for meditation. As an example of the temporary transformation of dance into meditation, Osho cited the words of the dancer Nijinsky: “ When the dance reaches a crescendo, I am no longer there. There is only dance».

Sexual practices and tantra

Osho and the Osho movement are known for their progressive and ultra-liberal views on sexuality. Osho gained fame as a sex guru in the 1970s due to his tantric teachings on the "integration of sexuality and spirituality", as well as the work of some therapy groups and the encouragement of sexual practices among sannyasins. Ph.D. sociologist Elisabeth Puttick has pointed out that Osho believed that tantra influenced his teachings most, along with Western sexology, based on the works of Wilhelm Reich. Osho tried to combine traditional Indian tantra and Reich-based psychotherapy and form a new approach:

All our efforts up to now have brought wrong results because we have not made friends with sex, but have declared war on it; we have used repression and lack of understanding as ways to solve sexual problems... And the results of repression are never fruitful, never pleasant, never healthy.

Tantra was not the goal, but the method by which Osho freed his followers from sex:

So-called religions say that sex is a sin, and tantra says that sex is only a sacred phenomenon... After you are cured of your disease, you do not continue to carry the prescription and the bottle and the medicine. You throw it away.

Religious scholar A. A. Gritsanov pointed out that sexual meditation, related to the direction of tantra, was a way in Osho’s teachings “ achieving superconsciousness", and Osho himself believed that only through intense " experiencing sexual emotions" Maybe " understanding their nature"and liberation from sexual" passions-weaknesses". Religious scholar S.V. Pakhomov pointed out that Osho “ encouraged sexual liberation among his adherents, considering “tantric” sex to be the driving force leading to “enlightenment”". Religious scholar D. E. Furman noted that tantric sex was one of the methods that Osho gave to some students for " comprehension of the absolute».

There are rumors that Osho had sexual relations with female followers. The main source of these rumors is the unreliable book of Hugh Milne. Osho's personal physician, G. Meredith, described Milne as a "sexual maniac" who made money from the pornographic desires of his readers. In addition, several women said that they had sexual relations with Osho. Some followers pointed out unrealized sexual fantasies about Osho. There is no reliable evidence to support rumors of Osho's sexual relationships. Most followers believed that Osho was celibate.

There was a problem of emotional abuse in the Osho movement, and it was especially pronounced during the period of Rajneeshpuram. Some people were seriously injured. Sociologist of religion Eileen Barker has pointed out that some of Pune's visitors returned with stories of "sexual perversion, drug dealing, suicide," as well as accounts of physical and mental harm from Pune's programs. But even among those who were traumatized, many rated their experience positively, including those who had already left the movement. In general, the majority of sannyasins assessed their experience as positive and defended it with arguments.

Religious scholar A. A. Gritsanov pointed out that in the critical press of the 70s there were publications about orgies in communities, and also that the nickname “ sex guru"Osho received from journalists of that time. At the same time, A. A. Gritsanov wrote: “ Some researchers believe that the word “orgies” is hardly applicable to Osho’s practices, since Rajneesh does not explicitly separate the various manifestations of life into positive and negative: like many Hindu cults, in Osho’s doctrine the concepts of “good” and “evil” are blurred", also noting that there were few groups with nudity and sexual practices as cathartic processes at the Pune ashram, but " These are the groups that attracted the most attention from the press» .

Religious scholar L.I. Grigorieva believed that in Osho communities there were widespread “ sexual orgies presented under the guise of tantrism» .

Religious scholar and Indologist A. A. Tkacheva noted that “dynamic meditation” contributed to the “unblocking” of the nervous system of Osho’s followers through strong chaotic movements and the “splashing out” of the “repressions” and “complexes” that arose during socialization. Here the action used was completely opposite to the normal one. Tkacheva notes that since Osho combined tantra with Freudianism in his practice, hence he was 99% convinced that all human complexes are based on sexual grounds. Therapy in this case is expressed in group sex. Blockages and complexes were perceived as “karmic traces” that block the path to achieving enlightenment, and jumps and leaps were supposed to help reach a state of “liberation”, “catharsis”.

Religious scholar A. S. Timoshchuk and historian I. V. Fedotova noted that about Osho’s meditation camps, which were organized in various parts of India, “ often told"how about places" where you can take part in orgies and indulge in drugs" They also write that currently “ it's hard to say what really happened there“, since Osho does not distinguish the manifestations of life into good and bad, but considers them one and the same. Osho " taught to accept all people and oneself completely, including sexual energy».

Zen

Of all the traditions, Osho especially singled out the Zen tradition. In later conversations, Osho indicated that Zen was his “ideal of religiosity”:

All religions except Zen are already dead. They have long turned into compacted fossil theologies, philosophical systems, dry doctrines. They have forgotten the language of the trees. They forgot about the silence in which even a tree can be heard and understood. They forgot the happiness that naturalness and spontaneity brings to the heart of any living being.<…>I call Zen the only living religion because it is not a religion, but religiosity itself. There are no dogmas in Zen; Zen does not even have founders. He has no past. To tell the truth, he can't teach anything. This is almost the strangest thing that has happened in human history - strange, because Zen rejoices in emptiness, flourishes when there is nothing. It is embodied not in knowledge, but in ignorance. He does not distinguish between the worldly and the sacred. For Zen everything is sacred.

Childhood of Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh (Osho)

Father Rajneesh, Babulal, born in 1908. He, continuing the family business, was a textile merchant. His distinctive qualities were tenderness, sensitivity, friendliness and generosity. He had a reputation as a religious man. He went to the temple, fasted and read scriptures. He spent the last ten years of his life in Pune at his son's ashram Rajneesh, becoming actually his student, meditating regularly.

Rajneesh's mother, Saraswati Bai was born into a wealthy family. She is known for her hospitality and people have always commented on how completely she complements her husband.

Rajneesh's family professed one of the Indian religions - Jainism. The founder of the religion is Mahavira.

On December 11, 1931, a boy was born into the family of these loving, simple and open people. The grandparents were so happy about this event, and the beauty and attractiveness of the child so strongly suggested that it was a king from some past life who was born in their family, that the child was named “Raja”, which means “king”. Rajneesh Chadra Maham was his name. Rajneesh spent the first years of his life with his grandparents.

Birth Rajneesh was not ordinary. In the first three days of his life, he did not eat anything, did not scream, only on the fourth day, as if nothing had happened, he began to eat. This phenomenon was explained many years later by Rajneesh himself.

His previous birth was 700 years ago in the mountains, where he had his own mystical school that attracted students from many traditions. The master lived 106 years. Before his death, he entered into a 21-day fast, which at its end was supposed to lead him to enlightenment. But he had a choice. He may or may not have taken one more birth before disappearing into eternity. He looked at his students. Among them there were many who stopped on their way and needed help. He also saw great potential from a synthesis of the religions of East and West. He, who had come so close to the ultimate achievement for which he had worked for many lifetimes, decided to come again to this world in a human body. And out of pure love and compassion, he promised his disciples that he would return and share the truth with them, lead them to a state of awakening. There were special spiritual reasons for his 21-day fast and withdrawal thereafter. However, three days before the end of the fast, Rajneesh was assassinated. Returning 700 years later to a human body, the first thing Rajneesh did was end that fast. Three days of fasting were “from there”... People like Buddha die consciously and are born just as consciously. By consciously choosing appropriate parents for yourself and not losing consciousness immediately after birth. Then the “forgetting” mechanisms kick in. But the spiritual potential accumulated in previous lives does not disappear. He is just waiting for his awakening. Waiting to be remembered. In each of us.

Accordingly, many of those who were with him in our time also came “from there.” They simply returned to their Master.

Small Rajneesh continued to surprise those around him with his non-trivial behavior, desire to constantly experiment, constant search for truth and increasingly complex spiritual practices. Death, as a phenomenon, from an early age interested and struck his imagination extremely. At the age of 5, when his little sister, whom he loved dearly, died, Rajneesh refused food and behaved like a traditional Jain monk. Where does this come from in a 5 year old? It was only after considerable persuasion that Rajneesh returned to his normal behavior.

Grandfather Rajneesh, watching my grandson, I couldn’t help but feel that this was an unusual child. In search of an explanation, he turned to a very famous astrologer. The astrologer, however, upset the grandfather, saying that the child may not survive after 7 years. He didn’t count further than 7, because it was meaningless. And so everything is clear. The astrologer himself soon died and his son, continuing to work on Rajneesh’s chart, was even more puzzled. It turned out that the child would face death at 7, 14 and 21 years old. And that at the age of 21 he will definitely die. Subsequently, the reason for such a strange forecast became clear. The ages of 7 and 14 were turning points in which Rajneesh had increasingly profound experiences of death, until finally, at age 21, he died completely without leaving his physical body. It was enlightenment.

When Rajneesh was 7 years old, his beloved grandfather died. Rajneesh survived, but perceived his grandfather’s death as his own. Watching the slow passing of his grandfather over the course of 4 days, Rajneesh felt that the whole world was collapsing. He didn't want to live after this. For 3 days, Rajneesh lay and did not move. He survived, but those three days were his first experience of death.

The feeling of loneliness and the realization that we are all very alone and individual in this world have not left him since then.

After my grandfather's death Rajneesh began to live with his parents near the city of Jabalpur. Rajneesh's grandmother, until the end of her days, loved her grandson very much and considered herself his student. Rajneesh was accepted into the school. But from the very beginning, he found school education too narrow and uncreative, shocking teachers and getting into trouble on this basis. His whole interest from the very beginning was how to transcend the mind. The school couldn't help him. But indirectly for Rajneesh, who was considered selfish, insolent, rude and a rebel, this also had a positive effect. He was rejected by himself and from the school as well. There was only one way - to learn from yourself.

But Rajneesh was not a trivial hooligan and loser. I just learned differently and differently. He became the youngest visitor to the public library. Wrote poetry. I was drawing. His ability to express his thoughts and tell stories made him extremely popular.

Rajneesh considered his first teacher to be a swimming master who lived in their city and loved the river so much that he almost merged with it, spending all his time near it and meditating. His whole life consisted of being close to the river. The master looked at Rajneesh and said: “There is no way to learn to swim. It is impossible to learn. It is a habit, not knowledge,” and threw him into the water. When your life is at stake, you do your best. Rajneesh drowned several times, but swam out. These moments gave him his first experience of total existence. Being "here and now". This was the first meditation.

Since then, Rajneesh often spent hours near the river, meditating on the sand, alone or with friends. Friends really loved spending time with Rajneesh because he was completely unpredictable, it was never clear what he would do next. This gave special interest, and friends indulged in adventures with complete confidence.

Not forgetting death, Rajneesh often visited the cemetery and spent hours there, lying on the cremation ground. Parents, seeing this and remembering the astrologer’s prediction, began to worry, especially when Rajneesh turned 14 years old... At this age he experienced his second death.

Osho's second death

So, the second deadline for Rajneesh’s predicted death has arrived - 14 years. This time Rajneesh decided to meet her deliberately. He told the family that death was certain, so it would be better if he prepared for it. The family was puzzled and shocked, but did not interfere with his plans. Rajneesh decided to put his plan into execution. He first went to school and, telling the director that he was going to die, asked for a seven-day absence. The director could not believe his ears, and, thinking that Rajneesh was planning suicide, demanded an explanation. Rajneesh spoke about the astrologer's prediction and said that he was leaving to await death. If death comes, it would be good to face it consciously so that it becomes an experience. It must be remembered that this was in India, where the ideas of conscious death and plurality of lives are the foundations of local religions. So the director really had nothing to object to. He agreed.

Rajneesh went to an old temple that lay in ruins near the village and asked the local priest not to disturb him, but also to bring him something to eat once a day while he lay in the temple and waited for death.

And although actual death did not occur, Rajneesh did everything to “become dead.” He went through several scary and unusual experiences, but the main thing he realized was that if you feel like you are dying, you become calm and silent.

On the fourth day, a snake crawled into the temple. She came into view. He saw a snake. But there was no fear. He thought: “When death comes, it can come through this snake. What is there to be afraid of? Wait!” The snake crawled over him and slithered away. If you accept death, then there is no fear. If you cling to life, fear will be with you.

If once death is accepted as a reality, its acceptance immediately creates a distance, a point from which a person begins to observe the flow of life events as a spectator. This lifts a person above the pain, sadness, anguish and despair that usually accompany death.

Thus, having gone through the experience of the deceased being intensely and meditatively, Rajneesh became conscious about death very early on. After that, he could continuously meditate and continuously accept what was happening. Even if it is death.

It was this state of all-acceptance that he later developed and strengthened that allowed him to become subsequently enlightened.

Until his next death at the age of 21, Rajneesh lived largely by the interests characteristic of his age. He begins to become interested in politics, gets into all sorts of tricks with his friends, and studies. But he still retains the qualities that have run like a red thread through his entire life. He is intensively engaged in spiritual practice, finding more and more new opportunities for this. He is still at odds with the conventional world around him, getting himself into trouble without giving in to the world.

At the age of 14, a beautiful love story began, which unexpectedly continued then, decades later, in the next life of his beloved...

Love story

Rajneesh's childhood friend, Shashi, lived not far from the very temple where Rajneesh died at the age of 14. She was two years younger, and her father was a doctor. Shashi loved Rajneesh very much. Whenever Rajneesh came to the temple to meditate, she would watch him from the window and sometimes follow him, disrupting his plans to be alone. Sometimes Rajneesh asked one of his friends to guard the temple door so that Shashi could not disturb him during meditation. Despite this, Shashi knew that Rajneesh also loved her very much. He gratefully accepted food from her when she brought it to him after meditation. But the touching childhood friendship soon ended.

When Rajneesh was 16 years old, Shashi died of typhus.

When she was dying, Rajneesh was with her until the end. Death was predetermined, but equally predetermined was Shashi’s desire to return, to be with his loved one, to take care of him. Rajneesh promised that he would call her and bring her back. She also made him promise that he would never love or marry another woman. She didn't want to leave him. Never.

Rajneesh fulfilled these promises.

The death of his girlfriend once again gave him the feeling of death. And it was after this event that Rajneesh was seized by a state of solitude - not sorrowful loneliness, but precisely solitude. He realized that the cause of unhappiness lies in our attachment to another, in our expectation that the other will give happiness. He realized that no other happiness would give him. Happiness is within. Shashi's death finally gave Rajneesh an extraordinary opportunity to understand the limitations of attachment to another and hence transcend duality. He took every chance and made himself truly free, able to be himself. That's why he didn't get married.

24 years later, when they learned about Rajneesh in the West and people began to come to him, feeling the living Buddha in him, one of the first to come from Germany was Christina Wolf, who is now known as Ma Yoga Vivek. She came to his meditation camp and saw people doing dynamic meditation for the first time. For two days she hid in the bushes, not daring to join, until finally Rajneesh, who usually does not insist on anything himself, called her to him. After the conversation, something vague began to happen to her. The next day, Rajneesh hugged her shoulder and said: “You continue to live with me.” And when he said this, she felt something like the continuity of something, something like the feeling of something forgotten and now returned. Before this, she knew nothing about past lives. She was a Christian from birth. She soon left. But she was irresistibly drawn to return. Soon after taking sannyas and attending meditation, she felt a breakthrough. Something clicked. Something came to her and she remembered. She remembered in detail the temple near which she lived, the surrounding landscape, the river, her parents, she remembered how she watched Rajneesh from the window and followed him when he went to meditate, she remembered her death, Rajneesh next to her and the promises she made... And she remembered how Rajneesh called her. He said, “You can come now.” It took her another 2 years to realize all this and give herself to what she had always dreamed of. Since 1973, she lived with him constantly, fully realizing her purpose - to take care of Rajneesh. Just like in my youth...

But this was already after Rajneesh’s enlightenment...

Enlightenment

The intensity of Rajneesh's meditations continued to deepen. One of them, especially powerful, was that he was sitting on the top of a tree with his back to the trunk. About a year before his enlightenment, Rajneesh clearly experienced his first experience of separation from his body. This is how he describes it.

“One night I was so deep in meditation that I did not notice how my body fell down from the tree. I looked around suspiciously and saw my body lying on the ground. I could not understand how it happened that I continued to sit on the tree , and my body lay on the ground. A bright line, a shimmering silver cord, came out of my navel, connecting to me at the top, where I was sitting. It was difficult for me to understand or predict what would happen next, and I was worried about how to get back. into my body. That night I saw my body from the outside for the first time, and from then on, the simple physical experience of my body ended forever for me. And from that time on, death also ceased to exist, because I experienced that the body and the spirit are completely different. things separated from each other. It is difficult to say how long this lasted. At dawn, women carrying bottles from one village to another passed along this road and saw my body... lying there. I saw them examining my body from the top of the tree. I sat. They touched my forehead with their palms and in an instant, as if obeying the force of gravity, I returned inside my body and my eyes opened. After that, I experimented with this phenomenon 6 times."

After this, Rajneesh was thrown back to his center - but now forever. He has lost his ambition. He had no desire to become anyone or achieve anything. He was not concerned with God or Nirvana. The disease of “imitation of Buddha” has completely disappeared. The opportune moment had arrived; the doors were almost open. Living in this state is very similar to dying, and when the person is dead, who will ask questions? All matter about which one can ask has become non-existent. And on March 21, 1953, at the age of 21, Rajneesh finally came to his senses. He became enlightened. Many were enlightened, but no one before him had described this experience in such detail.

Actually, on March 21, 1953, the story of Rajneesh ends. The man, whose name was Rajneesh Chandra Maham, died, as the astrologers said, at the age of 21, and at the same time a resurrection happened, a miracle happened. He was reborn, but not in a physical body: he achieved something, but not from this world - he simply arrived home.

Osho Commune

Perhaps the Osho communes, which still exist in many countries around the world, are one of the most famous phenomena associated with his name.

After graduation Osho For some time he worked as a teacher at the Sanskrit University. Naturally, his unconventional approach to life created a lot of problems. However, this did not stop Rajneesh from becoming a professor of philosophy and enjoying the reputation of a brilliant teacher, both among his colleagues and among students, who often left other lectures specifically to attend Osho’s lectures.

In my life Rajneesh used all three states of the human spirit. This is according to the classification accepted in India - Tamas guna, Rajas guna and Sattva guna. That is why the periods of Osho’s life are so different from each other. At first it was a state of Tamas, inactivity. After receiving my doctorate, a state of Rajas - high activity - began. It was during this period that Rajneesh began his first public speeches and discussions. He travels around the country a lot. And it was during this period that the first meditation techniques and summer camps began to emerge, where those interested and willing to try these techniques gathered. At this time, the principles of neo-sannyasa - initiation into sannyasins - are born. Dynamic meditation, which Osho introduced in 1970, fascinated and stunned everyone at the same time. This has never been seen in India before. Intense travel for 20 years and irregular diet began to take its toll on Osho's health. He showed signs of weakening health, and his diabetes and asthma worsened. It became clear to his followers, of whom there were already many, that it was necessary to find a large permanent location for the ashram in order to stop traveling and at the same time give everyone the opportunity to come. Finally a wonderful location was found at Pune, eighty miles east of Bombay. High mountains, good climate, historical connections of this place with enlightened beings, orthodox community...

In 1974 - 21 years after enlightenment - Rajneesh announced that he was entering the last phase - calm Sattva and settled in Pune. Osho Ashram - a most beautiful place - became a place where everyone could come. Some of the rules that were introduced there are still in effect. Everyone must wear the same orange clothes - both men and women. Everyone must be tested for AIDS. A typical day for sannyasins began at 6 am with Dynamic Meditation for 1 hour. After meditation, the sannyasins gathered to listen to Bhagwan's discourse. Lectures were conducted alternately in English and Hindi. After the discourse, breakfast and at 10:30 the start of work around the ashram. The work took at least 6 hours a day.

Lectures Osho affected all the major religions and philosophies of the world. At the same time, his deep knowledge of all directions immediately allowed his listeners to cross the centuries-old gap in the understanding of philosophy between the West and the East. The Ashram in Pune gradually turned into a real Mecca for modern seekers of truth.

The Indian authorities would have been much more happy if Osho supported one of the traditional Indian religions, but they looked askance at what was happening. Moreover, when a flow of guests from the West and East, of different religions and views, came to India. And not tourists. The government will always find a way to express deep dissatisfaction.

In 1980, a member of one of the traditional Hindu sects attempted to kill Osho during one of his lectures. Despite the fact that official religious and church organizations in the West and East opposed him, and India is generally a religious country where traditions are respected, the number of his students by this time exceeded a quarter of a million.

Due to the sharp deterioration in Rajneesh's health, his doctor and staff were constantly ready to take him to America in case of emergency surgery. There was no way to do what was needed in India. Finally that time has come.

Bible story

Since 1981, Osho stopped giving lectures and entered the phase of “silent communication from heart-to-heart” so that his body, suffering from a spinal disease, could rest. At that time, Osho had quite a lot of students capable of communicating with the Master on such a higher, non-verbal level. The highest wisdom can and should be transmitted from Master to Student. The master is not interested in showing tricks.

Doctor Osho and his attendants transported him to the United States in case of emergency surgery. His students bought a ranch of 126 square meters. miles in Oregon, Osho was invited there and an oasis of the Osho commune arose on a desert plateau. Around Osho, with breathtaking speed and impressive results, a model agricultural commune emerged. Abandoned and depleted lands were reclaimed and turned into an oasis capable of feeding a city of 5 thousand. Every summer there was a celebration of Osho's friends from all over the world, and then this new city of Rajneeshpuram hosted up to 20 thousand guests.

Unfortunately, times change, but people do not. Just as Christ was persecuted 2000 years ago, so the persecution of Rajneesh has begun in our days. All further events are strikingly reminiscent of the gospel story, which happened in our days and with a different ending.

In 1985, Osho's personal secretary and several members of the commune's board suddenly left, and a series of illegal acts committed by them came to light. Osho invited American authorities to fully investigate the case. The authorities used this opportunity to intensify the fight against the commune. On October 29, in Charlotte, North Carolina, Osho was arrested without a warrant. During the bail hearing, Osho was handcuffed. The return to Oregon, where he was to stand trial - a routine five-hour flight - took eight days.

In mid-November 1985, lawyers Osho convinced him to plead guilty to two of the 34 minor "violations of the emigration law" charged against him in order to avoid further danger to life to which he was exposed in the hands of American justice. Osho reluctantly agreed and made the so-called "Alfred Statement", on the basis of which he could admit the charges and at the same time maintain his innocence. He was fined $400,000 and ordered to leave the United States without the right to return for 5 years. On the same day, he flew to India on his own plane, where he rested for some time in the Himalayas. A week later, the Oregon commune was dissolved.

In a five-month period from February 1986, 21 countries around the world either expelled him or refused him entry. On July 29, 1986, Osho moved to Bombay, where he lived for 6 months as the personal guest of one of his Indian friends. Here he resumed his daily conversations. India, naturally, could not refuse him entry as its citizen. On January 4, 1987, Osho moved into the same house in Pune where he lived for most of the 70s.

Thousands of disciples came to Pune to be again in the presence of their Master. There, in Pune, Osho lived until the end of his earthly life.

I leave you my dream...

Within a few months, the commune significantly expanded its program. The flow of guests from eastern countries has enriched it with its own specifics. Poor health since mid-1987 Osho often prevented him from having conversations. In April 1989, he gave his last talk, commenting on Zen sutras. In the following months, whenever his health allowed, he went out to his students and meditated with them in silence or to music.

Just a few weeks before he left his body, he was asked how his work should continue after he left. He answered.

"I have absolute trust in existence. If there is any truth to what I say, it will live on. The people who stay are interested in my work will continue to carry the torch, but without imposing anything on anyone. I will remain a source inspiration. And this is what most of my sannyasins will feel. I want them to remain themselves - a quality like love, around which no church can be built; like understanding, which is no one's monopoly; and with the sincere gaze of an observer. I want my people to know themselves and no one else. This is the way."

"There's nothing to say
Rather sing a song,
Or dance.
Or make a cup of tea,
And drink it silently.."
Osho is one of the Enlightened Eastern Masters. He is better known throughout the world as Bhagawan Shree Rajneesh. More than 600 books have been published under this name, which are now published in 55 languages. These books are essentially records of conversations he had with a variety of people over almost 25 years of his life. Shortly before Bhagavan Sri Rajneesh left his earthly body, the seekers of Truth dedicated to him - sannyasins - began to call him “Osho”. This name first appeared in ancient Japan, as students addressed their spiritual mentors. “O” can be translated as: “With great respect, love and gratitude,” and “SHO” as: “Consciousness is like the ocean. Harmony of existence flowing in all directions.”

Osho was born on December 11, 1931 in central India, in a small village in the state of Madhya Pradesh. He was the eldest son in a family that practiced an ancient religion. The maternal grandparents, who fell in love with this first grandson of theirs, immediately took him in and gave him the name Raja (Chandra Mohan). In India it is very rare to find someone with the name Raja, which actually means Ruler. But Nani, the grandmother, did not agree to a lesser name for this child, she said: “He is the Raja of my heart.”
Osho later called his family of these simple and loving old people golden. Until the age of nine he could not read or write at all. The village of Kuchvada not only did not have a primary school, but did not even have a small postal station, and not a single newspaper arrived there. But in this village there was a world of amazing human simplicity and freedom; a river, fields and hills, an ancient pond, on the banks of which lay the stones of a tantric temple.

After the death of his grandfather, Raja moved to live with his parents in , a small, almost unremarkable Indian town. There he began to go to a comprehensive school, and then his name was changed to the generally accepted one - “Rajnish”. During these school years, he became famous as an unusual young man, a debater, and a seeker of answers to the most tricky questions. He was known as a person who was not going to follow any established authorities until he himself verified that they were right.

After graduating from school, Rajneesh became a college student, and then a student, from which he graduated with a gold medal and the title of Professor of Philosophy. During these years he participated in many philosophical university discourses, and never lost them. His brilliant intellect as an orator and debater attracted the attention of many of the most educated people in central India. The room in which he stayed to live eventually turned into a warehouse for pennants for victories in various philosophical competitions.
Once, during one of the university discourses on the topic of Theology, just before the start of the debate, it turned out that his opponent would not be able to attend due to illness. He called and apologized for this, but the audience was already gathering in anticipation of an interesting argument. Rajneesh told him: “Don’t worry, I will conduct this meeting myself.” At this “dispute,” he spoke arguments, after which he moved to the opposite part of the stage and made responses... As a result, according to the unanimous recognition of the jury, he then received three first prizes at once: for the best evidence of the existence of God, for the best refutation of this evidence, and first prize for best eloquence and oratory skills.
However, all philosophy, as he admitted, could not provide answers to the deepest questions of life and existence. It is only capable of logically leading to the point where the laws of logic no longer apply. There are many things in the world that can be explained logically, but there are also things that can only be experienced, comprehended by one’s inner center, something that is an integral part of human consciousness, but stands outside the mind. You cannot explain what love is, you cannot explain what prayer or meditation is, unless you experience it yourself.
From early childhood, Rajneesh studied the ancient methods of Indian meditation techniques, he communicated with the most extraordinary people who could help him in this search. From his youth he became the friend of people who did not belong to the world of commerce or politics. Seekers who can be called rather the kings of human consciousness beyond the mind.
In the East there is a belief that if a soul becomes realized, at least three enlightened people are needed to recognize it and help it on this path. Rajneesh was truly lucky in his life to have such people; he was recognized as the future Buddha not only by the great astrologers of Benares, but also by followers of different movements of Hinduism, Masters who gave him their love.
On March 21, 1953, at the age of just 21, Rajneesh had an experience of true enlightenment. It happened in a very ordinary city recreation park. He was sitting under a shady Maul tree, in the center of a large Indian city. “That whole day turned out to be something completely unusual, stunning. The past disappeared, as if I had never had it, as if I had read all this about myself somewhere. It became like an old dream, like a story I had once heard about someone else’s life. I was parting with the past, breaking ties with my history, I was forgetting my short autobiography, becoming someone non-existent, whom the Buddha called anatta. Borders disappeared, all differences disappeared. The mind itself was disappearing; it was thousands of miles away. He simply didn't interest me. In space everything went as it should. There was no need to preserve old memories. I felt that something was approaching, something was definitely going to happen - perhaps I was just dying - but there was not even a fear of death. I was ready for anything. I was so happy that I would have gladly accepted death.
I fell asleep at home around eight o'clock, but it didn't look much like a dream. Now I understand what Patanjali meant when he said that samadhi is like sleep. There is only one difference: in samadhi you are simultaneously asleep and awake, asleep and awake. The body is relaxed, every cell of the body is asleep, but the light of awareness burns within you. Clear, like the unity of the entire universe. The body rests in deep sleep, and the consciousness rises to the peak of activity. Positive and negative, sleep and wakefulness, life and death merge into one. This is the moment when all boundaries between the Creator and creation disappear. It was as if I had found myself in the center of a typhoon, and was choking in an endless storm of light, joy and bliss.
It was so real that everything else became unreal: the walls of the room, the whole house, my very body. Everything became unreal and only now did I see true reality for the first time. That night I understood for the first time the meaning of the concept "Maya". Is it possible to understand it without experiencing it? That night the doors of a new dimension opened. And there it was - another reality, a special reality, real reality, whatever you want to call it. Call it God, Truth, Nirvana, Moksha - whatever you like, these are only earthly words, it has no name.
I was suffocating, I was dying! It seemed to me that if I lingered even for a minute, this reality would strangle me. And I jumped out of the house and rushed into the yard. I just wanted to be under the open sky, to see the stars, the trees and the earth... As soon as I went out, the suffocation immediately went away. My room was really too small for such a majestic event. For him, even the sky is too small a roof. It is higher than the stars, higher than words!
Even my gait became different, I walked as if the force of gravity had disappeared. I weighed nothing, I found myself in the embrace of a previously unknown energy. From that day on, I could no longer consider myself the same. Only the thinnest thread connects me to my body. I am no longer here on my own, not of my own free will. The will of the whole keeps me here.
That night I became nothing, and then I became everything. I stopped being and became being itself. That night I died and was born again, and the one who was born had almost nothing in common with the one who disappeared. There was no connection. I didn’t change in appearance, but there was nothing in common between the old me and the new me. This is the day of my total change, and the day of my unity with the Truth.”

Enlightenment is the song of existence that man himself composes. Unique, unfamiliar, not like other songs. If, for example, I intended to create a new religion after this, then its main dogma could be the statement: Enlightenment must always be preceded by a nervous breakdown, that is, a real breakthrough into immortality is possible only after disappointment in following organized religions. Enlightenment is a very individual, very personal path for every living person.
How were all the world's established religions created? One person, having seen the light, then imposed his own inner experiences on all humanity, often without taking into account the individual world and the characteristics of other people. Subsequent religious organizers created teachings from these memories: similarities to religious matrices, computer bioprograms for minds (ed.) And this boneiness is the most serious difficulty. Little things in individual differences do not allow “followers of religion” to recognize other teachers as enlightened. They simply do not fit into their religious dogmatic scriptures. To be recognized, they must comply with certain canons, standards, ideas, and such ideas are drawn not from living experience, but from the long-gone founder of the religion. If someone does not correspond to him, religion immediately declares that he is a tempter and not enlightened.

In 1959. Rajneesh became a philosophy teacher in . His classes with students then often turned into discussion clubs. Everyone was allowed to doubt and argue. From time to time, someone began to worry about the level of preparation in the study of the subject, because any issue discussed could turn into the subject of heated debate, which took up most of the time.
“Don’t be afraid,” Rajneesh said then, “I only want one thing: I want to sharpen your mind. The subject of study is not that important. All books on this topic can be re-read in one night. But if your mind is sharp, you can answer any question without even reading textbooks. If the mind is asleep, no books will help, you will not be able to find the answer there. In a book of half a thousand pages, the answer may be hidden in a single paragraph.”
These classes were completely special. Everything could be discussed, everything was subject to analysis - the deepest consideration from all imaginable angles, from all imaginable points of view. The answer was accepted only if it completely satisfied the intellect. Otherwise, the students were not satisfied with the answer, and the dispute was transferred to the next lesson.

“When I became a university teacher, this is what I did first... I walked into the classroom and saw that the girls were sitting on one side and the boys were on the other. In addition, the first five or six rows of the audience were completely empty. “Who will I teach? – I asked. – Empty tables and chairs? Come on, sit closer to me, and mix them up!” The students hesitated. The teachers never insisted that boys and girls sit together. “Nice! – I demanded. “Otherwise I will notify the dean that something completely unnatural and contrary to common sense is happening here.”
They changed seats for a long time, reluctantly... “What is there to think about? – I asked. – Just sit on another chair! In my classes you will not sit separately. By the way, I won't mind if a boy touches a girl and a girl pulls his shirt. I only welcome everything that is natural. I don't need you to sit here frozen. I want you to be happy. I know that you are still passing notes. Now there is no need for this. Just sit next to her, hand the girl a note or tell her what you want to say. This may be news to you, but you are already sexually mature. It's time for you to act. And you sit and only study philosophy! This is crazy! Is it really necessary to study philosophy at your age? You need to roam the streets and fall in love! Philosophy is for old people who are no longer capable of anything else. When you get old, then you’ll study it.”
The students were terribly scared then. The looseness came slowly, but after seeing this, other student groups began to envy mine. Their teachers reported to the dean that I was dangerous, that I was pushing boys and girls to do the most forbidden things. Instead of preventing them from communicating, I help them! That’s what I told them: “Whoever doesn’t know how to write love notes, come to me, I’ll teach you. Philosophy is a secondary matter, and our program is not so rich. We can complete a two-year course in six months. And for the remaining year and a half we will have fun, sing and dance! Who's against it?
Then other university students who had not studied with me began asking to attend my lectures. “Can we walk too?” - they asked.
“Where else can you learn philosophy so much fun? - I said. - Of course, come! Let everyone who wants to come. I don’t check attendance, but – absent, present, absent, present... The main thing is that each student has at least seventy-five percent attendance, otherwise they will not be allowed to take the exams. The rest doesn't bother me. So come."
In my classes in the classroom, there was nowhere for an apple to fall. The students were even sitting on the window sills, although they should have been at other lectures at that time.”
Few people sign up for philosophy classes. Philosophy does not bring much income. But my audience was always crowded. One day, the dean of the university came to a lecture, to whom other teachers were constantly complaining about me. He could barely squeeze inside. I just saw him standing right at the door in the crowd of students and said: “Guys, let your dean through. Let him enjoy it along with everyone else."
But he couldn’t believe his eyes: the boys and girls were sitting mixed together and listening attentively to my lecture. No noise. The dean said: “I can’t believe that with such pandemonium, there is complete silence in the classroom!”
“That’s how it should be, because no one puts pressure on them,” I explained. “I immediately told them that they could leave at any time without asking permission. Anyone can just get up and go out. Anyone can come in and sit down. I don't care how many there are. I enjoy teaching and will continue to do so. And if a student wants to listen, let him listen or go to hell. But to be honest, very few people leave during the lecture.”
The dean said: “Oh, if only it were like this in all classes!.. But I’m not as brave as you. I simply cannot tell the state that this approach is better.”
One day I was called to a seminar where deans and rectors from many universities gathered. They were alarmed by the low level of discipline in schools, colleges and universities. I listened to what they said and asked the audience: “Instead of demanding that students respect their teachers, wouldn’t it be better to think about whether you are hiring bad teachers? Maybe in terms of intelligence they are not teachers at all? Teachers are like poets, they are born. This is great art. Not everyone can be a real teacher.”

During these years, in addition to teaching at the university, Acharya Rajneesh traveled throughout India. His lectures on the most famous mystics of the East gathered audiences of many thousands: they considered him a real ancient Sufi, a real sardar - a possible incarnation of Kalki Avatara, Christian theologians, after his discourses about Christ, in theological institutes and colleges, shook hands and said: “You did for Jesus is greater than all our own missionaries and priests!”
But: “People often just listen to words without understanding their meaning. People understand only the literal meaning; they do not notice the deeper content, because they do not have any personal experience of experiencing the Truth. And I turned their own weapons against them! I commented on religious scriptures while at the same time giving them special meaning! In the depths of my soul I laughed, I did not dissuade them, because this was my way of finding among all these thousands of audiences, real, “mine”, who really understood something, experienced something, to take the next step. The atheists, who also often listened to me, understood me even less. If religious movements include people who have some kind of thirst for searching for truth, answers to deep questions, then those who simply deny God, they often did not even look for any truth.”
“If the people in front of me were not “mine,” I certainly started from the very basics. But then the plane doesn’t take off, the plane has to act as a bus. You can, of course, use an airplane like a bus, but it can take off only after reaching the required speed, and this requires certain conditions.
In India I performed in front of millions of people. I spoke to several thousand at once - some speeches attracted fifty thousand. For fifteen years I wandered all over the country, from edge to edge. And I'm simply tired of all this. I was tired of having to start from scratch every day. “A”, “B”, “C” - no more. And I realized that if I continued this way of life, I would never get to the last letters of the alphabet. So I decided to stop traveling already.”

1962-1974 Years. In addition to lectures and conversations, Acharya Rajneesh also begins to conduct three-ten-day meditation camps, where he communicates with each person individually. Such classes were held in the most beautiful and colorful corners of India:, on, etc. At these campsites, he speaks frankly about his experience of enlightenment, about the path, about the help that a true master can provide in this work.
September 26 to October 5, 1970 Acharya Rajneesh holds a meditation camp in the foothills of the Himalayas, in one of the most picturesque regions of the earth - Kullu-Manali, and he speaks there about the greatest Mystic of all times -. After completing these conversations, at the request of his loving students, he conducts the first sannyasin initiations for those who wish - twenty-one students, giving a new definition of sannyas: “Sannyas is the achievement of the highest in life, this is the highest life realization, it cannot be dark or sad, it should consist of celebration and joy. It will mean a life that expands, deepens, it will mean an abundance of life in all its directions. Until now in India we called a sannyasin someone who left the world, broke with life, but I call a sannyasin a person who chooses final freedom, without restrictions, without prohibitions, without false rules and regulations imposed by someone. For me, sannyas is the flowering of man's ultimate freedom, rooted in his understanding of existence, and in his wisdom."
After this event, the name Acharya Shri Rajneesh, his disciples, changed to Bhagavan Shri Rajneesh, since according to Indian views, the founder of neo-sannyas can only be Bhagavan - the Blessed and Enlightened One.
He told these close disciples: “Your clothes, external signs - all this is not of primary importance. The only thing that matters is what causes an internal revolution, what takes you beyond the boundaries of reason into the world of consciousness. Anything else other than this has no real relation to religiosity. I simply reduce religion to its absolute essence, to meditation. I have learned a lot from the Buddhas of the past. If Jesus hadn’t told people at every corner that he was the son of God, humanity would have treated him much more mercifully.”

During this period of time, the first Western seekers of answers to questions about what real Eastern meditation and mysticism are began to come to him. Among these visitors were many of the most educated people from Europe and America. Specialists in the fields of therapy, medicine, arts and science. There were many representatives of various humanist movements who wanted to take the next step in their inner growth. Rajneesh moves to a large apartment in a forested area of ​​Bombay, where he has ample opportunity to work with everyone who approaches him personally. At this time, he created many of the most unique meditation techniques that can often be necessary for people raised in Western culture. To formalize these “new sannyasin meditation techniques,” musicians are invited to help compose the accompanying music.
On March 21, 1974, exactly twenty-one years after his Enlightenment, Rajneesh and some of his disciples moved to Pune, to the city's Karegaon Park area. Two houses with land were then bought there. From July seventy-four until 1981, Bhagawan Shri Rajneesh held conversations every morning with seekers who came to him then from all over India and the Western world. A month in Hindi, and then a month in English, he comments on the teachings of Enlightened Masters of various traditions: Zen, Tao, Christianity, Hasidic teachings, Sufism, Indian mysticism, Northern Buddhism, Tantra and so on... These stories alternated with the days when he gave answers to listener questions. Each ten-day cycle was published as a separate book. During the seven years of these talks, more than 240 books were published in Pune. By the end of 1977, the Pune ashram becomes the largest and most modern center for human development in the world. The construction of new buildings is being completed, Bhagawan Shree Rajneesh names them after various enlightened mystics. The construction of the Buddha Hall is being completed, the organizational activities of the ashram include book publishing, work with the press, departments of handicrafts, music, silk weaving, clothing design and carpentry. Among other things, musical instruments are made in the ashram, and it also has its own bakery, jewelry, pottery and weaving workshops.
At the end of 1980 and beginning of 1981. educational centers for distributing books, audio and video recordings of conversations of Bhagavan Shree Rajneesh are also appearing in the United States. At the same time, in the spring of 1981, a large seminar called “The Passage of Time” was held in London, which attracted about 500 participants; similar events were also held in other major capitals of the world.

On July 1, 1981, Bhagavan Shree Rajneesh flies from Bombay to New York with a group of close people. A few weeks later, his secretary, Ma Ananda Sheela, draws up a deed for an abandoned plot of land in the desert region of Eastern Oregon, twenty miles from the town of Antelope. Sannyasins want to create their own self-sufficient commune in America, where up to 5 thousand people could live at the same time. A good idea arises to hold large open festivals four times a year and publish books by Bhagawan Shree Rajneesh.
In 1982, the ranchers decided to register this commune as in Vasco County. The county approved it, but a local land-use watchdog group called One Thousand Friends of Oregon immediately filed a lawsuit against the community. The state's chief attorney later questioned the constitutionality of the city's incorporation, citing the procedure as contrary to the thesis of "separation of church and state." Christian preachers are spreading propaganda that Rajneesh is supposedly the Antichrist who came to America, and local farmers, under the influence of this gossip, began to organize rallies for the liquidation of Rajneeshpuram. At this time, the AIDS epidemic appeared in America. Bhagawan Shree Rajneesh proposes to introduce a universal check in the city, which can be passed by both residents of the “city of meditation” and guests. In addition, Rajneesh advises taking precautions to avoid contracting the new deadly virus. Community members who tested positive for AIDS were moved into separate homes and provided with special work, entertainment, and medical care.
The idea of ​​destroying this unusual city, which shocked the whole of America, came from the “Christian-Reagan” elite. They looked for any administrative reasons to find clues. The main reason is the fear of the future destruction of fundamentalism. Analysts calculated that the subsequent influence of this city of meditation in a few decades would be able to undermine the authority of established religions, and primarily the monopoly of Christianity. The first person to be targeted was , who effectively remained the administrator of Rajneeshpuram from the day of its foundation. She organizationally turned this desert into an oasis, arranged life and amenities, despite the hostility to the new city throughout Oregon.
Any coin has two sides: and if someone wants to create a modern city in the desert from scratch, then there will always be a lot of shortcomings and errors that one can find fault with; there is no other way on earth. Sheela was accused of violations both within the commune and for external activities in the state, but through this they really wanted to get to Rajneesh himself. He promised to cooperate with law enforcement, but in reality the grand jury was preparing an indictment against him. He was accused of violating immigration rules, and in the meantime the National Guard took up positions suitable for an invasion of Rajneeshpuram. The threat of a brutal armed attack on the community forced the decision that Bhagawan Shree Rajneesh should fly across America and take refuge in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was assumed that he would be safe there, and in the meantime the lawyers would try to clarify the situation. However, at the Charlotte airport, the plane was met by heavily armed customs officers and bailiffs, informed that they were supposedly facing a most dangerous terrorist. All those who arrived were immediately taken into custody, even without any warrant for their arrest.
At the hearing, which took place three days later, the sannyasins accompanying Rajneesh were released, but the judge ordered him to return to Oregon on a prison plane. This flight took six days; for one day the government refused to even reveal the location of Bhagawan Shree Rajneesh to the lawyers. Over time, it became known that he was being held at the Federal Correctional Institution in Reno, Oklahoma, under an assumed name, allegedly for his own safety.
In Oregon, Rajneesh was released on a fabulous bail, which was required to be paid as soon as possible. He has been charged with violating a number of immigration rules.
Imprisonment had a very serious impact on his health; after some time, doctors began to suspect that he had been poisoned while in custody. British poison experts studied the symptoms and concluded that he had been exposed to thallium. This poison cannot be determined by blood tests - it disintegrates very quickly, but symptoms remain, it is specifically used against political prisoners; if the dose is slightly exceeded, the person dies immediately. That's why Rajneesh was kept in custody for almost twelve days - the poison was given in tiny doses so that he would not die right in prison, because then the whole world would really be outraged.

From America, Bhagavan Shri Rajneesh flew to Delphi, and from there to India, to the Kullu-Manali valley. The Indian government, knowing the widespread propaganda launched by America against Rajneesh, refuses to extend visas to those around him, and he himself is threatened with deprivation of his Indian passport.
The King of Nepal agreed to provide a site for the commune in Nepal, but on one condition: no one should speak out against Hinduism. “I never think in advance what I will say and what I won’t,” said Rajneesh. “I can’t promise anything. If I see something wrong, I don't care whether it is Hinduism, Christianity or Islam. I will still speak out against it.”

On January 21, 1986, Bhagavan Shree Rajneesh says that he intends to travel around the world to meet his disciples who live in many countries around the world. From European countries, widespread propaganda, spurred by America, was immediately launched against him. The European Parliament is discussing steps to ban Rajneesh from staying in any country in the European Community. “Simply amazing!” – he exclaims, “I am discussed in the parliaments of countries where I have never been in my life. They even discuss me there, where none of my sannyasins are there! Like I'm a threat to the world. They have a nuclear Third World War on the horizon, and they are discussing me!”

On April 12, 1986, Bhagawan Shree Rajneesh stays in a large house by the sea in the Uruguayan town of Punte Del Este, where students come to him, but America insists on his deportation even from impoverished Uruguay. As he flew out of the country, Rajneesh said, “It’s okay. My passport has long become a historical value - I was deported from a dozen countries of the world for no reason!”
Immediately after this, the President of Uruguay was invited to the United States, where Ronald Reagan presented him with thirty-six million dollars as a sign of friendship - as a reward for throwing Rajneesh out of the country in thirty-six hours. A million an hour. “Honestly, it’s high time for me to demand from different countries their share of such transactions!” - Bhagavan joked - “Thanks to me they earn a million an hour, I think I deserve at least a couple of percent.”
After this, Bhagavan Shree Rajneesh returns to India again, he spends several months in Bombay, and then leaves for the Ashram built by sannyasins in Pune.

By the end of 1987, thousands of sannyasins and visitors pass through the gate every day. Osho (as his disciples now began to call him) conducts daily darshans, but his health is steadily deteriorating, and he suffers from pain in his bones and joints. In conversations, he often repeats that he cannot remain with his people for a long time, and advises listeners to focus on meditation. “When I stop coming, my absence will highlight your own reality. She never had such an opportunity to manifest herself before. It is very good that you will be left alone, because your pilgrimage will not begin until you realize who you are and where you are. There are very important days ahead, and remember, your reality is everything that you comprehend for yourself. All the forms of meditation that I have given do not necessarily require my presence. Whether I'm nearby or not makes no difference. It all depends on you. Meditation requires your presence, not mine. There is only one religiosity - the religiosity of love. There is only one truth - the Truth of joy, life and happiness. This entire planet earth is one, all humanity is one. We are parts of each other."

On October 6, 1989, Osho chooses an inner circle - this group of sannyasins consists of twenty-one closest disciples, who are entrusted with the responsibility of administrative management and solving some practical issues in the management of the commune.
Osho Sannyasin University was founded in June-July. It consists of many faculties covering various seminars and group programs. For meditations, everyone is now asked to come to the Ashram for evening darshans in white meditation robes, and to wear maroon or burgundy robes for daytime meditations.
On August 31, in the former Chuang Tzu Hall, the arrangement of a new marble bedroom for Osho is completed. He is directly involved in the design of this room, which is finished in Bianca Carrara marble and illuminated by a large round shimmering chandelier. Its huge windows, from floor to ceiling, offer views of a wild garden with a waterfall and birds singing in the spring.
January 17, Osho's personal physician announces that his health has deteriorated greatly. Osho will appear at the evening meeting only to greet those gathered. When he entered the hall, everyone saw that it was already very difficult for him to move.

On January 19, 1990 at five o'clock in the evening Osho leaves his earthly body. He refuses doctors' offers to carry out urgent medical intervention. Osho tells them: “The universe itself measures its time,” closes his eyes and leaves peacefully.
After some time, when the sad news spreads throughout the community, Osho's body is transferred to the hall where a mass meeting of sannyasins is taking place. And then the procession takes him to a cremation site on the river bank located near the Ashram. Throughout the night, a farewell ceremony is held for the earthly body of Bhagavan Shri Rajneesh, followed by his cremation, as is customary in the east.
Two days later, the ashes remaining from Osho’s body are transferred to the Chuang Tzu Hall - to the very room that was to become his new bedroom. There he held conversations and met with seekers of Truth for many years. placed in a place that was previously intended as an area for his sleeping bed. Some of the ashes are also transferred to Nepal, to the ashram.
A sign is placed above Osho Samadhi with the words that he himself dictated a few months earlier:

"OSHO
Never born
Never died
Just visiting
on this planet Earth.
From December 11, 1931 to
January 19, 1990."
Osho left the earth as easily as if he were getting ready for his morning walk, without fear, without regret about anything he had done on earth, in peace and in the harmony of all that is True in the Universe.
Such a short and wonderful life on this sweet and cruel earth.