In the month of March, 1976 I arrived at the front gate of the Shree Rajneesh Ashram. On that particular day I actually thought I was going to a Satya Sai Baba center. But when I arrived at the front gate I heard myself say, “I don’t think I am where I was going, but I know that I’m in the right place.” This tale is related in From Meher Baba to Osho with Love. -purushottama
From his earliest childhood in India, Osho was a rebellious and independent spirit, challenging all accepted religious, social and political traditions and insisting on experiencing the truth for himself rather than acquiring knowledge and beliefs given by others.
At the age of twenty-one, on March 21, 1953, Osho realized his enlightenment. He says about Himself, “I am no longer seeking, searching for anything. Existence has opened all its doors to me. I cannot even say that I belong to existence, because I am just a part of it…. When a flower blossoms, I blossom with it. When the sun rises, I rise with it. The ego in me, which keeps people separate, is no longer there. My body is part of nature, my being is part of the whole. I am not a separate entity.”
He graduated from the University of Sagar with First Class Honors in philosophy. While a student he was All-India Debating Champion and the Gold Medal winner. After a nine-year stint as professor of philosophy at the University of Jabalpur, he left to travel around the country giving talks, challenging orthodox religious leaders in public debate, upsetting traditional beliefs, and shocking the status quo.
In the course of his work, Osho has spoken on virtually every aspect of the development of human consciousness. From Sigmund Freud to Chuang Tzu, from George Gurdjieff to Gautam Buddha from Jesus Christ to Rabindranath Tagore…. He has distilled from each the essence of all that is significant to the spiritual quest of contemporary man, based not on intellectual understanding but tested against his own existential experience.
He belongs to no tradition—“I am the beginning of a totally new religious consciousness,” he says. “Please don’t connect me with the past—it is not even worth remembering.”
His talks to disciples and other seekers from all over the world have been published in more than six hundred and fifty volumes, and translated into over thirty languages. He says, “My message is not a doctrine, not a philosophy. My message is a certain alchemy, a science of transformation, so only those willing to die as they are and be born again into something so new that they cannot even imagine it right now—only those few courageous people will be ready to listen, because listening is going to be risky. Listening, you have taken the first step towards being reborn. So it is not a philosophy that you can just make an overcoat of and go bragging about. It is not a doctrine when you can find consolation for harassing questions…. No, my message is not some verbal communication. It is far more risky. It is nothing less than death and rebirth.”
Osho left his body on January 19, 1990. Just a few weeks before, he 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. And that’s what most sannyasins will feel. 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 maintain fresh, childlike eyes….
“I want people to know themselves, not to be according to someone else. And the way is in.”
In accordance with his guidance, the commune which grew up around him still thrives in Pune, India, where thousands of disciples and seekers gather throughout the year to participate in the unique meditations and other personal growth and creative programs offered there.
About Osho was published in Tantra: The Supreme Understanding, Third Edition, Rebel Publishing House, Cologne, Germany.
Copyright© OSHO International Foundation
Meditations
One of the unique contributions of Osho are the active meditations including OSHO Dynamic Meditation, OSHO Kundalini Meditation, and OSHO Nadabrahma Meditation which have been created specifically for “modern man.”
Books
Many of Osho’s books are available in the U.S. online from Amazon.com and Viha Osho Book Distributors. In India they are available from Amazon.in and Oshoworld.com.
There are hundreds of books by Osho, below are a few personal favorites.
Tantra: The Supreme Understanding
Meditation: The First and Last Freedom
Videos
Many of Osho’s discourses are on video and some of those can be seen on the OSHO International channel on Youtube.
Osho shares his vision of the ultimate meditation in 5 minutes on this video.
Links
Osho’s Enlightenment in His Own Words.
Osho Meets with Followers of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Osho Meets with Hare Krishna people.
16th Karmapa speaks to Govind Siddharth about Osho.
Osho’s “Books I Have Loved.”
Here is an excellent biographical site with lots of resources.
Here you will find all of the posts concerning Osho.
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will ko jano
My unique and great guide in life.
…..Floweing of Existence as Osho and it happened at least a lot lot before time, but Existence has its own way and timings, as Higher Intelligence, which we may know it again when It wants humans to know and are ready for it, and receptive and thirsty as well
You can not compare stones to diamonds.
osho lectures & speech has given me a new way of thoughts about life. we cannot ignore him. he is a challenges to all past religious theories & produced a vibration in my mind. of course his speeches will ever remain attraction to my mind, my ear & keep a ray of hope alive to look life from different angle.
The master
Refreshing because he says things that have never been said but we have all had in the back of our mind