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Osho Biography

1. Youth - Enlightenment - University studies: 1931-1957

Born in Kuchwada, Madhya Pradesh, India on December 11, 1931, Osho says of his parents, "I had chosen this couple for their love, their intimacy, their almost one-ness." Growing in an atmosphere of tremendous love, freedom and respect, Osho was an intuitive and adventurous child with the knack of penetrating to the very heart of a situation. Exploring life fearlessly and intensely, he insisted on experiencing life for himself rather than acquiring beliefs or knowledge given by others. "My childhood was certainly golden - not a symbol, absolutely golden; not poetically but literally, factually... Those years were unforgettable."
When he was seven years old, his maternal grandfather died with his head in Osho′s lap as they traveled in the back of a bullock cart on the long journey to reach the nearest doctor. This had a profound effect on his inner life, provoking in him a determination to discover that which is deathless.
"I learned much in that moment of his silence...," Osho said later, "I started on a new search, a new pilgrimage." This, and other stories in Glimpses of a Golden Childhood, give rich insight into Osho′s early years, and the innocent spirit of the flame of rebellion and playfulness he brought to every endeavor in his life.
At the age of twenty-one, Osho became enlightened. "For many lives I had been working on myself, struggling, doing whatsoever can be done - and nothing was happening. The very effort was a barrier... Not that one can reach without seeking. Seeking is needed, but then comes a point when seeking has to be dropped... And that day the search stopped... it started happening. A new energy arose... It was coming from nowhere and everywhere. It was in the trees and in the rocks and the sky and the sun and the air - and I was thinking it was very far away. And it was so near..." A full account of his enlightenment can be found in his book The Discipline of Transcendence.
After his enlightenment on March 21, 1953, Osho graduated from the University of Saugar with first class honors in philosophy. While a student, he won the All-India Debating Championship. He was a professor of philosophy at the University of Jabalpur for nine years.

Notes:

• A story about Mataji, Osho′s mother.
• Osho′s home in Kuchwada

2. Travel all over India - lecturing, teaching: 1957 - 1974

Osho (then called Acharya Rajneesh) traveled throughout India giving talks, challenging religious leaders in public debate and meeting people from all walks of life. He read extensively, everything he could find to broaden his understanding of the belief systems and psychology of contemporary man.
Osho had now begun to develop his unique dynamic meditation.
Modern man, he said, was so burdened with the outmoded traditions of the past and the anxieties of modern-day living that he must go through a deep cleansing process before he could hope to discover the thought-less, relaxed state of meditation. He began to hold meditation camps around India, giving talks to the participants and personally conducting sessions of the meditations he had developed.
In 1962 Osho opens his first Meditations Centres known as Jivan Jagruti Kendras (Life Awakening Centres), and names his movement Jivan Jagruti Andolan (Life Awakening Movement). As of 1967 he started to initiate people into sannyas.
In 1969 followers of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi invited Osho to talk to them. This was the first occasion on which Osho addressed a western audience, and the first time he talked publicly at length in English.
In 1970 Osho decided to stop traveling and settled in Bombay where he continued to give regular public lectures. By the following year, he had begun to attract a small Western following, and these early Westerners enjoyed personal and close relationships with their master. Among their number was a shy twenty-two-year-old English woman named Christine Wolff. Taking on the name Ma Yoga Vivek, she became Osho′s constant companion.

Notes:

• Interview with Ma Yoga Vivek, later known as Ma Prem Nirvano.
• The Rising Moon video is a unique recording of the earliest phase: starting with the famous meditation camps in Mount Abu, continuing through Osho staying in a Bombay apartment and up to the Ashram in Poona. An account of what the video is all about.
  Download The Rising Moon video (345 MB, 352 x 288, .mpg-file, right-click and ′save link as′)
• Devotional song excerpted from The Rising Moon Video (4.18 MB, .mp3-file, right-click and ′save link as′)
• There is a short video showing Osho giving sannyas in the seventies.
  Download short video (41.4 MB, .mp4-file, right-click and ′save link as′)
• Osho on the Master-Disciple relationship in chronological order.
• December 23rd, 1967, at Lonavala, Osho sows the seeds of what is to become a worldwide sannyas movement.
• September 26th. 1970, Osho initiated his first disciples at Manali. Here′s a picture:

  
  Read more on who these first sannyasins are.

• Video of Osho′s birthday celebrations December 11th. 1972. It was filmed by one of Osho′s earliest and closest disciples. The 2.12 minutes video is in color but has no audio.
• Osho conducting a meditation camp Pune 1972 (.mp4 file, 20.2 MB, with Italian voice-over)
• Rare video clip of 1972 Osho shares his vision with Italian media in his bedroom in Bombay (.wmv file 20 MB, with Italian voice-over)
  Same video in quicktime format (.mov file, 69 MB)
• Video of Osho lecturing in his Bombay apartment in 1973 (.mp4 video, 1.87 MB)

3. Bhagwan in Poona 1: 1974 - 1981

For more than thirty-five years Osho worked directly with people who came to him, sharing his vision of a "New Man" aka "Zorba the Buddha", and inspiring them to experiment with a life based in meditation. Bridging the ancient truths of simpler times with the current reality of man, he created numerous meditation techniques which give seekers an avenue to experience the ultimate.
Seeing that the complexities of life needed to be addressed, he worked closely with many prominent therapists from the West to create new therapies based in meditation.
Terence Stamp is one of the many who took sannyas from Osho in 1976.
Slowly Osho builds up what he calls a Buddhafield.

Notes:

• When Osho left for the U.S.A, quite a few sannyasins were taken by surprise and felt like they were left behind. A sannyasin remembers...
• A video clip covering a period of time of the 1970′s in Osho′s Ashram in Pune (Poona 1). The electronic music track is by the German hard rock band Scorpions.
• An old movie made by a sannyasin in 1979 of the then ashram (19.9 MB, no sound, just image).
• An account of how the atmosphere was in the Poona 1 Ashram during preparations for Enlightenment Day Celebration.
• A New York Times review of "Ashram", a controversial movie shot in Osho′s Ashram at the time.
• Osho′s account on how the Ashram was run.
• In 1979 Osho′s early evening darshans became "energy darshans" in which, rather than discussing issues with individuals, he would transmit energy to them (shaktipat) by pressing on their "third eye". A number of female sannyasins were chosen as mediums to transmit his energy more widely.
• Osho called the entrance to his Ashram in Poona The Gateless Gate.
• Osho gave many wooden boxes to sannyasins to help them cope with the challenging West and to assist in transcending bodily, emotional and mental problems, should these appear in the course of their meditation. These boxes contain Osho′s nail and hair clippings, which are saturated with the master's vibe; here′s a picture.
• At the beginning of Osho′s lecture Ma Taru sang a devotional intro.

  

  On this short video, with moving an still images, you can hear her sing. (Download video by right-clicking and opting for "save target (or link) as")

4. Rajneeshpuram: 1981 - 1985

After his initial work in India, Osho was invited to America where a bold communal experiment to translate his vision into a living reality began. Ma Anand Sheela, Osho′s private secretary at the time, and a few other women were in charge. Thousands of Osho′s disciples poured their love into a barren piece of land and began to transform it into a flowering oasis in the desert.
But Osho′s presence and the success of the commune revealed the hypocrisies inherent in the beliefs and prejudices of the current age, particularly in the religious and political establishment. The antagonism of these groups toward Osho and the commune mounted, and after only four years, after a short stay in an American prison, he was forced to leave America.
This is described in a book by Max Brecher called A Passage to America. Read more about it here.
The inhabitants of a nearby little town, called Antelope, were glad that Osho and his people were gone, as is clear from a plaque at the base of the Antelope post office flagpole, to mark that time.
The inscription reads:
"Dedicated to those of this community who, through the Rajneesh invasion and occupation of 1981-85, remained, resisted, and remembered."

During the Rajneeshpuram period, the gachchamis were introduced.

Notes:

• A closer look at Rajneeshpuram, Osho′s commune in America.
• Feelings After the Fall, perceptions of former Rajneeshpuram members after this commune collapsed.
• Another video giving a taste of what Rajneeshpuram was like: The Way of the Heart.
  Download this video (303MB, 352 x 288 VCD, right-click and ′save link as′)
• A rare video of Osho getting a guided tour of the Zorba store in Antelope, surrounded by sannyasins (.mp4 file, 40.2 MB, to download right-click link and opt for "save target as")
• In the Rajneeshpuram period many Rolls-Royce cars were given to Osho by his disciples. The Rolls-Royces were one reason why Osho became notorious. Towards the end of Rajneeshpuram Osho could choose between 93 Rolls-Royces and he had the intention to have at his disposal a fleet of 365, one for each day of the year. He has this to say about it.
  When Osho left the USA, his Rolls-Royces were up for sale, something which perturbed executives at the carmaker′s U.S. headquarters: article.
• Rajneeshpuram had its own airport.
• In connection with what happened in Rajneeshpuram
• Osho talked about the mismanagement in Rajneeshpuram in his lecture series From Bondage to Freedom.
• Samvado′s high definition pictures of Antelope and The Ranch in Oregon, USA as they are today (2007). (The Ranch, aka The Muddy Ranch, is another name for Rajneeshpuram)
• 
  

  Rajneeshpuram was legally incorporated on May 18, 1982 and survived the last attack on its legality (on land use grounds) in a 1987 Oregon Supreme Court decision. Ironically, by that time, the thousands of red-clad sannyasins who had transformed the once barren Big Muddy Ranch into a thriving city had long since deserted it after Osho′s controversial deportation on unproven minor immigration charges in 1985.
  In a taped interview, Charles Turner, the US Attorney for Oregon, finally admitted, "We were using the criminal process to solve what was really a political problem."
  So much for upholding constitutional freedoms of religion and speech.

  (from Osho Times International - July 1, 1990)
  
  
• Osho celebrating and dancing with his sannyasins (video, 27.4 MB, 352 x 288, right-click and ′save link as′). "Celebration is my message", says Osho.
• Another celebratory video from before one of Osho′s Last Testament lectures (.mp4 of 4.6 MB)
• Osho had several interviews with the World Press to expose and explain what had happened in Rajneeshpuram.
  Here′s a 30 seconds excerpt from an interview with Jim Gordon, journalist at The Atlantic Monthly Magazine, and The Washington Post (a .flv file).
  Excerpts from an interview with Mike Wolfe KBND Radio, Bend, Oregon. "I am destroying the whole idea of the separation, of a split between matter and mind, body and soul, materialism and spiritualism." - Osho
• Osho explains to Mike Wolfe how ignorant psychologists can be:

• ZorbaTheBuddha An interesting (and only slightly biased) view of the happenings at the end of the Ranch. The writer is Sarmad (aka Kent Welton), an established writer and musician. The Osho Story at ZorbaTheBuddha gives a good account of commune history.
• Sambodhi, Nura, Samarpan, and Felix visited what used to be Rajneeshpuram:
  1. Rajneeshpuram revisited video 1
  2. Rajneeshpuram revisited video 2
  3. Rajneeshpuram revisited video 3
  4. Rajneeshpuram revisited video 4
• Wow, I′m Still Alive Subhuti remembers and muses after seeing Wild Wild Country, the Netflix documentary.
• The Hilariously Incompetent Hit Squad a black comedy by Subhuti.

5. Worldtour: 1985 - 1986

Osho then began a World Tour. He is refused entry by 21 countries. In the midst of this campaign of worldwide persecution orchestrated by the US Government, Osho responds with characteristic humor and uncompromising honesty, publicly challenging his persecutors and at the same time showering his love unconditionally, giving some of his most intimate talks to disciples who gathered around him wherever he went.

Notes:

• While Osho went on a World Tour, many sannyasins left the USA and spread all over the world. A substantial part of them landed in Ibiza. Anthropologist Anthony d′Andrea, aka Techno Tony, has spent recent years investigating club/rave centres around the World, researching a PHD thesis on ′Club Cultures′. He writes in this pdf file that sannyasins became a crucial bridge between Ibiza′s 60s counterculture and the 90s electronic dance subculture.
• Osho was denied entry by the UK. Here′s a selection of 10 other ′controversial′ figures arbitrarily banned from this country. British humour arguably at its best.

6. Osho in Poona 2: 1986 - 1990

Finally, Osho returned to Poona, India, giving talks twice a day. Thousands of seekers from around the world came together again to be in the presence of this rare buddha and mystic, and a new commune grew around him. It was during this time that Osho announced that he did not want to be called Bhagwan again: "Enough is enough! The joke is over." In these years of his final discourses, Osho gradually began to withdraw from public activities. His fragile health often prevented him from giving discourses, and the periods of his absence grew longer. He introduced a new element into his discourses, guiding his audience into a three-stage meditation at the end of each sitting. Eventually he delivered his last discourse series, answering questions and commenting on Zen sutras.
After his failing health had caused him to stop giving discourses, a message came that the name Rajneesh was also being dropped. Many of his disciples had already collectively decided to call him Osho. He has explained that the word ′Osho′ is derived from William James′ expression ′oceanic experience′ which means dissolving into the ocean. "Oceanic describes the experience," says Osho, "but what about the experiencer? For that we use the word ′Osho′."
In the following months, whenever his health permitted, he would appear in the evening to sit with his disciples and friends in a meditation of music and silence, after which he would retire to his room while the assembly watched one of his videotaped discourses. These sittings together with Osho are called White Robe Brotherhood Meetings.
In the last year of his life, Osho organised an administration of his closest disciples to take care of his work after he had left his body. Osho himself chose the 21 members of this inner circle who could contribute in the administrative work and who had different areas of expertise. This committee was to make decisions unanimously. Members of the inner circle were for life, only to be replaced after death by the remaining members. After a while, the required unanimity making quick action impossible according to some, a group of 6 people formed within the inner circle, called "The Præsidium", which, over time, became decisive in policy making; this led to struggles within the inner circle whereupon many members left. Nowadays only three people take care of the management of Osho′s legacy, three people of non-Indian descent, which contributes to disagreements between leading Indian and non-Indian disciples.

Notes:

• Was Osho′s name change really inspired by William James′ word "oceanic"? There are good reasons to doubt it.
• A TV documentary was made by ′Channel Four′ in 1988 presenting a look at Osho′s pull on his disciples. It′s a 25 min. video, rm-file for real player, (42 MB), called: Bhagwan - My Dance is complete.
• The Osho Resort management replies to the Osho Resort sale rumours (October 2011).)

7. Poona 3: 1990 - ... I Leave You My Dream

On 19 January 1990 Osho leaves his body after a long sickness due to his poisoning by the US- Government in 1985. His body was brought to Buddha Hall the same evening so that his Sannyasins could give him a send off. Later on his body was carried to the burning ghat at the river near the ashram and cremated in a large celebration with all his Sannyasins.
Just a few weeks before his demise, Osho was asked what would happen to his work when he was gone.

He said:

"My trust in existence is absolute. If there is any truth in what I am saying, it will survive. The people who remain interested in my work will be simply carrying the torch, but not imposing anything on anyone. I will remain a source of inspiration to my people. I want them to grow on their own - qualities like love, around which no church can be created, like awareness, which is nobody′s monopoly; like celebration, rejoicing, and remaining fresh, childlike eyes. I want my people to know themselves, not to be according to someone else. And the way is in."

He also said:

"If you have loved me, I will live with you forever. In your love, I will live. If you have loved me, my body will disappear but I cannot die for you...
Even if I am gone I know you will search for me. Yes, I can trust you will hunt for me in every stone and flower, in every eye and star... And I can promise you one thing: if you hunt for me, you will find me - in every star and every eye - because if you have really loved a Master, you have moved into eternity with him. The relationship is not of time; it is timeless.
There is going to be no death. My body will disappear, your body will disappear - that will not make any change. If the disappearance of the body makes any change, it simply shows that love had not happened.
Love is something beyond the body. Bodies come and go, love remains. Love has eternity in it - timelessness, deathlessness."

(Osho - The Divine Melody #10)

• A very touching video, titled I Leave You My Dream, was made on the evening when Osho′s personal physician Amrito declared Osho′s death and announced his last words to his sannyasins.
  Download I Leave You My Dream (293 MB, 352 x 288 VCD, right-click and ′save link as′).
• A short video showing the burning of Osho′s body (4.6 MB, right-click and ′save link as′)
• A compilation of pictures taken after Osho left his body (16.8 MB, .mp4-file, right-click and ′save link as′)

Osho once mentioned in Nansen: The Point of Departure #10:

General Notes:

• Osho in a nutshell (short .flv video).
• What is Osho′s Message?
• This autobiography of Osho′s has not been written by himself.
  Here′s the reason why.
• Development of Osho′s Teaching (compiled by sannyasins from his books).
• Interview with Garimo about the development of the Multiversity.
• Sociological study of the development of Osho′s sannyas-movement in Nepal (a .pdf file).
• Osho Rajneesh A study in contemporary religion by Judith M. Fox. An excerpt. And a review by Swami Rammurthi.
• Architect Hafeez describes how the black Pyramids in Osho′s Ashram came to be (search for Osho)
  The great pyramid in Osho′s Ashram has drawn attention of the Great Pyramid of Giza Reasearch Association: see this website.
  A picture of the Pyramids (with cleaners and peacocks).
• People who want to take Osho′s neo-sannyas should read this.
• Meanwhile most members have left the inner circle; the few remaining people are in charge of an administrative body called Osho International Foundation, that manages Osho′s Ashram in Pune (the Ashram is also called ′Osho International Meditation Resort′). A conflict has arisen between Osho International Foundation and a few Indian disciples - like Arun, Keerti and Neelam, who have organised themselves in Osho Friends International. The core reason of the conflict lies in that the resort management wants to avoid Osho′s sannyas movement to turn into a formal religion. Devotional practices are discouraged; Osho′s birthday isn′t even celebrated anymore in the Poona Ashram.
• 
  

  Traveling to and living in Poona

  • If you travel to India and want to recover from your trip and acclimatise before moving on to Osho′s Ashram in Poona, you can do so at Anamika Music and Meditation Center, located in Goa.
  • To book for rooms close to the Osho International Meditation Resort, write to Abhipsa and Ekanta.
    email: shopladhani@hotmail.com
  • If ever you travel to Pune (India), there′s one food lane where you won′t have to look far to find a restaurant to your taste... and that′s ′Koregaon Park Road′. Koregaon Park, synonymous with the ′Osho International Commune′, is one of the major tourist attractions in Pune. And with well established and reputed eateries and restaurants, as well as new ones popping up everyday, Koregaon Park or KP as it′s called by locals, has become a major hot spot for dinning and eating out.
    One of the oldest and best known in sannyas circles is the German Bakery.
    

    Sadly the German Bakery has been completely destroyed in a bomb blast on February 13th 2010, with 15 people killed and 50+ injured: Photogallery.
    

    Osho on Terrorism

    The German Bakery in better times:
    pic 1  pic 2  pic 3  pic 4  pic 5  pic 6  pic 7

    Video-tribute to the German bakery.

---

Osho and Astrology

• A Vedic astrological analysis of Osho′s birthchart, by swami Jivan Jashna (Roeland de Looff)

Another name for Vedic, Hindu or Indian astrology is Jyotish. "Jyoti" means light or flame and "Ish" means God. Jyotish thus means Lord of the light.

Thanks to satellite images of Kuchwada on the internet it is now possible to determine the exact co-ordinates of this little village. Before the internet, one had to locate Kuchwada on a map and had therefore only approximate co-ordinates to calculate Osho′s horoscope.

Osho′s horoscope in Sannyas-Magazin of 5/1980 was calculated with a time of birth of 17:13 hrs, with Gadarwara as birthplace and co-ordinates of Bhopal. Prasad, a sannyasin-astrologer, once mentioned that at first he had used 17:30 hrs as time of birth, this according to what Osho′s mother remembered. Osho′s time of birth has never been officially recorded. At the Ranch, Prasad once asked Osho′s mother again, urging her to try and be as precise as possible. She then said Osho′s birthtime to be 17:08 hrs.

So, we now accurately have: Osho, 11.12.1931, 17:08 hrs (LMT = GMT+5:13:24)
Kuchwada / Madhya Pradesh, India, 23N09, 78E21

The left Vedic horoscope is shown with a diamond-like design typical for present North-Indian astrology (a design also prominent in medieval astrology in the West, by the way). The rising sign is Taurus and signs are counted counterclockwise. Note the cluster of planets in the eighth house in Sagittarius.

The right horoscope is Osho′s Burmese horoscope, also called Mahabote. Osho was born "Mohan Chandra Rajneesh". "Mohan Chandra" means "Full Moon"; "Rajneesh" means "Lord of the Night" from Sanskrit "rajani" "night" and "isha" "lord, ruler". This may be reflected in the Moon of Osho′s Mahabote horoscope being on top in the "leader house".

More on Mahabote (Burmese astrology)

• Obama′s Mahabote chart
• Myanmar-Burmese Zodiac Animal Signs