Wikipedia
OSHO (11 December 1931 – 19 January 1990) was a mystic, guru, and spiritual teacher, born in India. The international Rajneesh movement has continued after his death.
Osho continues to be published by over 200 publishers worldwide and in over 60 languages. His commune, now known as a meditation resort, is a significant tourist attraction in India, and offers a wide range of meditations.
A professor of philosophy, he travelled throughout India in the 1960s as a public speaker. He was a critic of socialism, Mahatma Gandhi and institutionalised religions. He advocated a more open attitude towards human sexuality, earning him the sobriquet "sex guru" in the Indian and later international press, although this attitude became more acceptable with time. In 1970, Osho settled for a time in Bombay, initiating disciples known as "neo-sannyasins" and expanded his spiritual teaching and work. In his discourses, he gave his original understanding and views on the writings of many religious traditions, mystics, and philosophers from around the world.
He moved to Pune in 1974, where his disciples established a foundation and an ashram for his presence and work, where a variety of transformational tools could be offered to the visitors. Among those transformational tools, the ashram offered various original meditations that Osho developed for the modern man, many with an original musical score specifically designed to accompany each meditation. In addition, therapies derived from ancient and modern Western traditions including the Human Potential Movement were offered in the ashram to function as a cleansing tool before the subject began meditation.
By the late 1970s, tensions mounted between the Indian government and the Ashram, which prevented the Ashram from obtaining a larger property away from big cities. The search then shifted to the United States. In mid-1981, ranch property was found and purchased in the state of Oregon by a US Foundation devoted to Osho's work. The ranch comprised 64,000 acres in the semi-desert, 16 miles from the nearest town, Antelope, Oregon, which had fewer than fifty residents. The Foundation established an intentional community, later known as Rajneeshpuram. Osho came to the Ranch at the end of August 1981. Almost immediately, the development met with intense local, state and federal hostility and opposition from the government, press and citizenry, who took numerous legal actions to limit and ultimately terminate its existence. Citizen groups were formed to stop the development. An Oregon court determined, based on polling evidence, that the group could not receive a fair trial. Multiple litigations sought to slow or stop the development.
In 1985 Osho revealed that his personal secretary and a small number of her close supporters had committed a number of serious crimes against their own community and against local residents and public officials, including the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack on the citizens of The Dalles, Oregon, conspiracy to murder the US Attorney, attempted murder of Osho's physician and the local District Attorney, and a massive wiretap at Rajneeshpuram, including in Osho's bedroom. Osho was deported from the United States in accordance with a plea bargain. After Osho was deported from the US twenty-one countries denied him entry, causing Osho to travel the world before returning to Poona, where he died in 1990.
His ashram is today known as the Osho International Meditation Resort. His syncretic teachings emphasise the importance of meditation, awareness, love, celebration, courage, creativity, and humor— qualities that he viewed as being suppressed by adherence to static belief systems, religious tradition and socialisation. Osho's teachings have had a notable impact on Western New Age thought, and their popularity has increased markedly since his death.
Rajneesh (1931–1990) was an Indian mystic and guru with an international following. Rajneesh may also refer to:
- Antelope, Oregon, a ghost town in Oregon known as Rajneesh in the 1980s
- Rajneesh movement, a new religious movement based on the teachings of Rajneesh
- Rajneesh Duggal, an Indian model and actor
- Rajneesh Narula, a British economist