Rajneesh: Difference between revisions

| name            = Rajneesh

| caption          = Rajneesh in 1981

| birth_place      = Kuchwada, [[Bhopal State]], [[British Raj|British India]]

| nationality      =  

| education        = [[University of Sagar, Madhya Pradesh]] ([[Master of Arts|MA]])

'''Rajneesh''' (born '''Chandra Mohan Jain'''; 11 December 1931{{spnd}}19 January 1990), also known as '''Acharya Rajneesh''',<ref name="Gordon26-27">{{Harvnb|Gordon|1987|pp=26–27}}</ref> '''Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh''',<ref name="Chryssides 2001"/> and later as '''Osho''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|oʊ|ʃ|oʊ}}), was an Indian [[Godman (India)|godman]],<ref>{{harvnb|Mehta|1993|pp=83–154}}</ref> [[philosopher]], [[Mysticism|mystic]], and founder of the [[Rajneesh movement]].<ref name="Chryssides 2001"/> He was viewed as a controversial [[new religious movement]] leader during his life. He [[Anti-religion|rejected institutional religions]],<ref>{{Cite web|author=Osho |title=14.&nbsp;The Only Hope: The Enlightenment of Humanity |url=https://www.osho.com/osho-online-library/osho-talks/religion-being-atheism-3f1213a0-2d0?p=789176b1b3274ece433bab8494a34af1|url-status=live|work=From Personality to Individuality|via=Osho.com}}</ref><ref name="Chryssides 2001"/><ref>{{Cite news|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=30 April 2014|title=Commentary: Chanting 'Osho' and letting go|agency=[[Religion News Service]] |first=Chhaya |last=Nene |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/commentary-chanting-osho-and-letting-go/2014/04/30/46427bf8-d098-11e3-a714-be7e7f142085_story.html|url-status=live}}<!-- This is an opinion piece from the personal perspective of the author, which makes it non-authoritative unreliable personal commentary. It also does not say what this says that it says. It says he "rejected all institutionalized religion", not that he rejected all religion and was an anti-religious atheist. --></ref> insisting that spiritual experience could not be organized into any one system of religious [[dogma]].<ref name="Britannica">{{cite web |last1=Melton |first1=J. Gordon |title=Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bhagwan-Shree-Rajneesh |website=Britannica |access-date=14 November 2022}}</ref> As a [[guru]], he advocated [[meditation]] and taught a unique form called [[dynamic meditation]]. Rejecting traditional [[ascetic]] practices, he advocated that his followers live fully in the world but without attachment to it.<ref name="Britannica"/> In expressing a more progressive attitude to [[human sexuality|sexuality]]<ref name="Joshi 1982 pp=1–4"/> he caused controversy in India during the late 1960s and became known as "the sex guru".<ref name="Chryssides 2001"/><ref name="HBU-ZTB82">{{harvnb|Urban|1996|p=82}}</ref><ref name="Carter45">{{harvnb|Carter|1990|p=45}}</ref>  

He became briefly associated with [[socialism]] and two [[Indian independence movement|Indian nationalist organisations]]: the [[Indian National Army]] and the [[Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh]].<ref name="FF1-77" /><ref name="JSG23">{{harvnb|Gordon|1987|p=23}}</ref><ref name="Joshi38">{{harvnb|Joshi|1982|p=38}}</ref> However, his membership in the organisations was short-lived as he could not submit to any external discipline, ideology, or system.<ref>{{harvnb|Joshi|1982|p=11}}</ref>

In 1981, the increased tensions around the Pune ashram, along with criticism of its activities and threatened punitive action by Indian authorities, provided an impetus for the ashram to consider the establishment of a new commune in the United States.<ref>{{harvnb|Wallis|1986|p=}}, reprinted in {{harvnb|Aveling|1999|p=147}}</ref><ref name="Lewis124">{{harvnb|Lewis|Petersen|2005|p=124}}</ref><ref>''Guru in Cowboy Country'', in: ''Asia Week'', 29 July 1983, pp. 26–36</ref> According to [[Susan J. Palmer]], the move to the United States was a plan from Sheela.<ref>{{harvnb|Palmer|1988|p=127}}, reprinted in{{harvnb|Aveling|1999|p=377}}</ref> Gordon (1987) notes that Sheela and Rajneesh had discussed the idea of establishing a new commune in the US in late 1980, although he did not agree to travel there until May 1981.<ref name=Gordon94>{{harvnb|Gordon|1987|pp=93–94}}</ref> On 1 June that year he travelled to the United States on a tourist visa, ostensibly for medical purposes, and spent several months at a Rajneeshee retreat centre located at [[Kip's Castle Park, New Jersey|Kip's Castle]] in [[Montclair, New Jersey]].<ref name="America" /><ref name="NYT160981">{{Cite news|last=Geist |first=William E. |title=Cult in Castle Troubling Montclair |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=16 September 1981 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/16/nyregion/cult-in-castle-troubling-montclair.html |access-date=27 November 2008 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120423054925/http://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/16/nyregion/cult-in-castle-troubling-montclair.html |archive-date=23 April 2012 }}</ref> He had been diagnosed with a [[prolapsed disc]] in early 1981 and treated by several doctors, including [[James Cyriax]], a [[St. Thomas' Hospital]] musculoskeletal physician and expert in epidural injections flown in from London.<ref name=Gordon94 /><ref name=Meredith308309 /><ref name="FF1-86">{{harvnb|FitzGerald|1986a|p=86}}</ref> Rajneesh's previous secretary, Laxmi, reported to [[Frances FitzGerald (journalist)|Frances FitzGerald]] that "she had failed to find a property in India adequate to Rajneesh's needs, and thus, when the medical emergency came, the initiative had passed to Sheela".<ref name="FF1-86" /> A public statement by Sheela indicated that Rajneesh was in grave danger if he remained in India, but would receive appropriate medical treatment in America if he needed surgery.<ref name=Gordon94 /><ref name=Meredith308309>{{harvnb|Meredith|1988|pp=308–309}}</ref><ref name="JMF22">{{harvnb|Fox|2002|p=22}}</ref> Despite the stated serious nature of the situation, Rajneesh never sought outside medical treatment during his time in the United States, leading the [[Immigration and Naturalization Service]] to contend that he had a preconceived intent to remain there.<ref name="FF1-86" /> Years later, Rajneesh pleaded guilty to immigration fraud, while maintaining his innocence of the charges that he made false statements on his initial visa application about his alleged intention to remain in the US when he came from India.<ref group="nb">"His lawyers, however, were already negotiating with the United States Attorney's office and, on 14 November he returned to Portland and pleaded guilty to two felonies; making false statements to the immigration authorities in 1981 and concealing his intent to reside in the United States." ({{harvnb|FitzGerald|1986b|p=111}})</ref><ref group="nb">"The Bhagwan may also soon need his voice to defend himself on charges he lied on his original temporary-visa application: if the immigration service proves he never intended to leave, the Bhagwan could be deported." (''Newsweek'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20090710170848/http://www.nealkarlen.com/newsweek/bhagwan.shtml Bhagwan's Realm:] The Oregon cult with the leader with 90 golden Rolls-Royces, 3 December 1984, United States Edition, National Affairs Pg. 34, 1915 words, Neal Karlen with Pamela Abramson in Rajneeshpuram.)</ref><ref group="nb">"Facing 35 counts of conspiring to violate immigration laws, the guru admitted two charges: lying about his reasons for settling in the U.S. and arranging sham marriages to help foreign disciples join him." (American Notes, ''Time'', Monday, November 1985, available [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1050625-2,00.html here] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090709072745/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1050625-2,00.html |date=9 July 2009 }})</ref>

The salmonella attack is considered the first confirmed instance of chemical or biological terrorism to have occurred in the United States.<ref>{{harvnb|Carus|2002|p=50}}</ref> Rajneesh stated that because he was in silence and isolation, meeting only with Sheela, he was unaware of the crimes committed by the Rajneeshpuram leadership until Sheela and her "gang" left and sannyasins came forward to inform him.<ref name="UM118">{{harvnb|Mehta|1993|p=118}}</ref> A number of commentators have stated that they believe that Sheela was being used as a convenient scapegoat.<ref name="UM118" /><ref name="TLS205">{{harvnb|Aveling|1994|p=205}}</ref><ref name="FF2-109">{{harvnb|FitzGerald|1986b|p=109}}</ref> Others have pointed to the fact that although Sheela had bugged Rajneesh's living quarters and made her tapes available to the U.S. authorities as part of her own plea bargain, no evidence has ever come to light that Rajneesh had any part in her crimes.<ref>{{harvnb|Aveling|1999|p=17}}</ref><ref name="JMF50">{{harvnb|Fox|2002|p=50}}</ref><ref name="JSG210">{{harvnb|Gordon|1987|p=210}}</ref> Nevertheless, Gordon (1987) reports that Charles Turner, [[David Frohnmayer]], and other law enforcement officials, who had surveyed affidavits never released publicly and who listened to hundreds of hours of tape recordings, insinuated to him that Rajneesh was guilty of more crimes than those for which he was eventually prosecuted.<ref name=Gordon210241>{{harvnb|Gordon|1987|pp=210, 241}}</ref> Frohnmayer asserted that Rajneesh's philosophy was not "disapproving of poisoning" and that he felt he and Sheela had been "genuinely evil".<ref name=Gordon210241 />  

Sheela initiated attempts to murder Rajneesh's caretaker and girlfriend, Ma Yoga Vivek, and his personal physician, Swami Devaraj (George Meredith), because she thought that they were a threat to Rajneesh. She had secretly recorded a conversation between Devaraj and Rajneesh "in which the doctor agreed to obtain drugs the guru wanted to ensure a peaceful death if he decided to take his own life".<ref name=Zaitz5 /> When asked if he was targeted because of a plan to give the guru euthanasia in an 2018 interview with ‘The Cut’, Rajneesh's doctor denied this and claimed that  “She attacked his household and everybody in it and found any excuse she could to do that. She constantly hated the fact that we had access to Osho. We were a constant threat to her total monopoly on power. “<ref>{{Cite web|last=Silman|first=Anna|date=24 April 2018|title=Bhagwan's Doctor Gives His Take on Wild Wild Country|url=https://www.thecut.com/2018/04/bhagwans-doctor-gives-his-take-on-wild-wild-country.html|access-date=18 December 2021|website=The Cut|language=en-us}}</ref>

As to "preconceived intent", at the time of the investigation and prosecution, federal court appellate cases and the INS regulations permitted "dual intent", a desire to stay, but a willingness to comply with the law if denied permanent residence. Further, the relevant intent is that of the employer, not the employee.<ref name = immigration>{{cite journal |last= Bell |first= Steven |year= 1986 |title= Recent Judicial, Legislative and Administrative Developments Relating to Immigration and Nationality Law |journal= Immigr. & Nat'lity L. Rev. |publisher= Immigration & Nationality |pages= xiii–xiv, xxxi }}</ref> Given the public nature of Rajneesh's arrival and stay, and the aggressive scrutiny by the INS, Rajneesh would appear to have had to be willing to leave the U.S. if denied benefits. The government nonetheless prosecuted him based on preconceived intent. As to arranging a marriage, the government only claimed that Rajneesh told someone who lived in his house that they should marry to stay.<ref name = immigration /> Such encouragement appears to constitute [[incitement]], a crime in the United States, but not a [[conspiracy (criminal)|conspiracy]], which requires the formation of a plan and acts in furtherance.

From early 1988, Rajneesh's discourses focused exclusively on [[Zen]].<ref name="JMF34"/> In early 1989, Rajneesh gave a series of some of the longest  lectures he had  given, titled "Communism and Zen Fire, Zen Wind", in which he criticised capitalism and spoke of the possibilities of sannyas in Russia. In these talks he stated that communism could evolve into spiritualism, and spiritualism into anarchism.<ref name=":6">{{harv|Sam|1997|page=247}}</ref><ref name=":7" /> “I have always been very scientific in my approach, either outside or inside. Communism can be the base. Then spirituality has to be its growth, to provide what is missing."<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|last=Anand Urmila|first=Ma|title=Osho: Call of the Ocean|publisher=Zorba Designs, Hotel Surya Villa, Koregaon Park, Pune|year=2006|location=India|page=101}}</ref> In late December, he said he no longer wished to be referred to as "Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh", and in February 1989 took the name "[[Oshō|Osho]] Rajneesh", shortened to "Osho" in September.<ref name="JMF34"/><ref name="Süss30">{{harvnb|Süss|1996|p=30}}</ref> He also requested that all trademarks previously branded with "Rajneesh" be rebranded "OSHO".<ref>{{cite web|title=OSHO: Background Information |url=http://www.osho.info/trademark_information.asp |format=[[etext]] |access-date=10 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220235038/http://www.osho.info/trademark_information.asp |archive-date=20 February 2012 }}</ref><ref name="osho.com"/> His health continued to weaken. He delivered his last public discourse in April 1989, from then on simply sitting in silence with his followers.<ref name="JMF35-36" /> Shortly before his death, Rajneesh suggested that one or more audience members at evening meetings (now referred to as the ''White Robe Brotherhood'') were subjecting him to some form of evil magic.<ref name="JMF37">{{harvnb|Fox|2002|p=37}}</ref><ref name=Shunyo252253>{{harvnb|Shunyo|1993|pp=252–253}}</ref> A search for the perpetrators was undertaken, but none could be found.<ref name="JMF37" /><ref name=Shunyo252253 />

He spoke on major spiritual traditions including [[Jainism]], [[Hinduism]], [[Hassidism]], [[Tantrism]], [[Taoism]], [[Sufism]], [[Christianity]], [[Buddhism]], on a variety of Eastern and Western mystics and on sacred scriptures such as the ''[[Upanishads]]'' and the ''[[Guru Granth Sahib]]''.<ref name="BM33" /> The sociologist Lewis F. Carter saw his ideas as rooted in Hindu [[advaita]], in which the human experiences of separateness, duality and temporality are held to be a kind of dance or play of cosmic consciousness in which everything is sacred, has absolute worth and is an end in itself.<ref name=Carter267>{{harvnb|Carter|1990|p=267}}</ref> While his contemporary [[Jiddu Krishnamurti]] did not approve of Rajneesh, there are clear similarities between their respective teachings.<ref name="JMF2"/>

Rajneesh developed other active meditation techniques, such as the [[Kundalini]] "shaking" meditation and the Nadabrahma "humming" meditation, which are less animated, although they also include physical activity of one sort or another.<ref name="JMF5" /> He also used to organise [[Gibberish]] sessions in which disciples were asked to just blabber meaningless sounds, which according to him clears out garbage from mind and relaxes it.<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 30, 2010 |first=Chaitanya|last=Keerti|title=It's all gibberish|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/speaking-tree/its-all-gibberish/articleshow/6836508.cms |access-date=1 May 2022 |website=The Times of India |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=OSHO Gibberish Meditation |url=https://www.osho.com/meditation/osho-active-meditations/osho-gibberish-meditation |access-date=1 May 2022 |website=OSHO – Transform Yourself through the Science of Meditation}}</ref> His later "meditative therapies" require sessions for several days, OSHO Mystic Rose comprising three hours of laughing every day for a week, three hours of weeping each day for a second week, and a third week with three hours of silent meditation.<ref name="TLS198">{{harvnb|Aveling|1994|p=198}}</ref> These processes of "witnessing" enable a "jump into awareness".<ref name="JMF5" /> Rajneesh believed such cathartic methods were necessary because it was difficult for modern people to just sit and enter meditation. Once these methods had provided a glimpse of meditation, then people would be able to use other methods without difficulty.{{citation needed|date=December 2016}}

Writing in the [[Seattle Post Intelligencer]] in January 1990, American author [[Tom Robbins]] stated that based on his readings of Rajneesh's books, he was convinced Rajneesh was the 20th century's "greatest spiritual teacher". Robbins, while stressing that he was not a disciple, further stated that he had "read enough vicious propaganda and slanted reports to suspect that he was one of the most maligned figures in history".<ref name=Bhawuk /> Rajneesh's commentary on the [[Sikh]] scripture known as ''[[Japuji]]'' was hailed as the best available by [[Giani Zail Singh]], the former [[President of India]].<ref name="TJ" /> In 2011, author [[Farrukh Dhondy]] reported that film star [[Kabir Bedi]] was a fan of Rajneesh, and viewed Rajneesh's works as "the most sublime interpretations of Indian philosophy that he had come across". Dhondy himself said Rajneesh was "the cleverest intellectual confidence trickster that India has produced. His output of the 'interpretation' of Indian texts is specifically slanted towards a generation of disillusioned westerners who wanted (and perhaps still want) to 'have their cake, eat it' [and] claim at the same time that cake-eating is the highest virtue according to ancient-fused-with-scientific wisdom."<ref>(25 April 2011) [[Farrukh Dhondy]]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20121022014849/http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/ColumnsOthers/God-knows/Article1-689600.aspx "God Knows"], ''[[Hindustan Times]]''. Retrieved 10 July 2011.</ref>

* 1989: Another documentary, named ''Rajneesh: Spiritual Terrorist'', was made by Australian film maker Cynthia Connop in the late 1980s for [[ABC TV (Australia)|ABC TV]]/[[Learning Channel]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080512001600/http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/makers/fm681.shtml Cynthia Connop], Women Make Movies. Retrieved 10 July 2011.</ref>

'''On ''[[Ashtavakra Gita:]]'''

* {{Citation |last=Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh |title=Glimpses of a Golden Childhood |publisher=Rajneesh Foundation International |location=Rajneeshpuram |isbn=0-88050-715-2 |year=1985}}.

* {{cite book |title=Oranges & Lemmings: The Story Behind Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh |last=Wright |first=Charles |date=1985 |publisher=Greenhouse Publications |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Oranges_Lemmings/ErUlOQAACAAJ?hl=en |access-date=26 November 2021 |pages=166 |isbn=9780864360120}}

* {{cite web |url=http://www.oregonlive.com/rajneesh/index.ssf/page/post.html |title=Rajneeshees in Oregon: The Untold History |newspaper=[[The Oregonian]] |first=Les |last=Zaitz |date=14 April 2011 |access-date=25 April 2018}} (updated 12 July 2017).