Biography of Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh). Osho

Osho - Enlightened Master from India. He is better known throughout the world as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. More than 600 books have been published under this name in 30 languages. These books are records of his conversations that he had with his students over a period of 25 years. A year before his death, in January 1989, he announced that he was dropping the prefix “Bhagwan Sri” because for many it meant “God”. His disciples - sannyasins - decided to call him “Osho”, a name that first appeared in ancient japan. This is how the disciples addressed their spiritual teachers. “O” means “with great respect, love and gratitude,” as well as “synchronicity and harmony.” “Sho” means “expansion of consciousness in many dimensions” and “existence pouring out from all directions.”

Osho was born on December 11, 1931 in Kushwad (Central India). His family loved him very much, especially his grandfather, who gave him the name “Raja”, which means “king”. He spent his entire childhood in his grandfather's house. His father and mother took him in only after the death of his grandfather and grandmother. Before school, the boy was given a new name: Rajneesh Chandra Mohan.

His biographer writes: “The birth of Rajneesh was not an ordinary event. This was the birth of a man who had previously come to Earth in search of truth. He traveled innumerable ways, passed through many schools and systems. His last birth was 700 years ago in the mountains where his mystical school was located, which attracted many students of different traditions and beliefs from the most different countries. Then the Master lived 106 years. Before his death, he began a 21-day fast, which was supposed to lead him to enlightenment. But he had a choice - he could take one more birth before his final disappearance into eternity. He looked at his family of disciples: among them there were many who had stopped on their path and needed help. He also saw the great potential that was to arise from the synthesis of East and West, body and soul, materialism and spirituality. He saw the possibility of creating a new man - a man of the future, completely divorced from the past. He, who had come so close to the ultimate achievement, for which he had worked hard for many lifetimes, decided to incarnate again in a human body. Because of his pure love and compassion, he promised his disciples to return and share his truth with them, to help them bring their consciousness to a state of awakening.”

This promise determined his entire life. From early childhood he was interested in spiritual development, studied his body and its capabilities, and constantly experimented with different ways meditation. He did not follow any traditions and did not seek teachers. The basis of his spiritual search was experiment. He looked very closely at life, especially at its critical, extreme points. He did not believe in any theories or rules and always rebelled against the prejudices and vices of society. “Courage and fearlessness were the wonderful qualities of Rajneesh,” said his childhood friend. He loved the river very much and often stayed on it at night, swimming in the most dangerous places and diving into whirlpools. He later said: “If you fall into a whirlpool, you will be caught, you will be pulled to the bottom, and the deeper you go, the stronger the whirlpool will become. The natural tendency of the ego is to fight it, because the whirlpool looks like death. The ego tries to fight the whirlpool, and if you fight it in a rising river or near a waterfall, where there are many such whirlpools, you will inevitably disappear, because the whirlpool is very strong. You won't be able to overcome it.

But the whirlpool has one phenomenon: on the surface it is large, but the deeper you go, the narrower the whirlpool becomes - stronger, but narrower. And almost at the very bottom the funnel is so small that you can very easily get out of it without any struggle. In fact, near the bottom, the funnel itself will throw you out. But you will wait for the bottom. If you fight on the surface, if you do anything for it, you cannot survive. I have tried with many whirlpools: this experience is wonderful.”

The experience in the whirlpools was similar to the experience of death. Little Rajneesh had an early brush with death. When he was five years old, his younger sister died, and at the age of seven he experienced the death of his beloved grandfather. Astrologers predicted that he would face death every seven years: at seven, fourteen and twenty-one. And although he did not die physically, his experiences of death during these years were the deepest. This is what he experienced after the death of his grandfather: “When he died, I felt that it would be a betrayal to eat. Now I didn't want to live. It was childhood, but something very profound happened through it. For three days I lay and did not move. I couldn't get out of bed. I said: “If he died, I don’t want to live. I survived, but those three days were a death experience. I died then, and I came to understand (now I can talk about it, although at that time it was only a vague experience), I came to the feeling that death is impossible...”

At the age of 14, knowing about the astrologer's prediction, Rajneesh came to a small hidden temple and lay there awaiting his death. He did not want her, but he wanted to face his death consciously if it did come. Rajneesh asked the priest not to disturb him and to bring him some food and drink once a day. This extraordinary experience took place over the course of seven days. Actual death did not occur, but Rajneesh did everything possible to “become like a dead man.” He went through several scary and unusual experiences. From this experience he learned that once death is accepted as a reality, its acceptance immediately creates a distance, a point from which one can observe the flow of events in life as a spectator. This lifts him above the pain, sadness, anguish and despair that usually accompany this event. “If you accept death, then there is no fear. If you cling to life, fear will be with you.” Having gone through the experience of the deceased being intensely and meditatively, he says: “I died along the way, but I came to understand that there is still something immortal here. One day you will accept death totally and you will become conscious of it.”

The third time this happened was on March 21, 1953, when Rajneesh was 21 years old. On this day, enlightenment happened to him. It was like an explosion. “That night I died and 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.”

At this point, Rajneesh's story effectively ends. The man, whose name was Rajneesh Chandra Mohan, died at the age of 21, and at the same time a miracle happened: a new enlightened man was reborn, completely free of ego. (It should be noted that enlightenment is not a concept that can be explained in known logical terms. It is rather an experience that transcends any verbal description. The Buddha, the most famous Enlightened man on earth, called it “nirvana.”)

After this event, Rajneesh's external life did not change. He continued his studies at Jabalpur College in the philosophy department. In 1957 he graduated from Saugar University, receiving a diploma with honors, a gold medal and a Master of Philosophy degree. Two years later he became a lecturer in philosophy at Jabalpur University. Students loved him very much for his humor, sincerity and uncompromising desire for freedom and truth. During his 9-year university career, Osho traveled throughout India, often traveling 15 days a month. A passionate and skilled debater, he constantly challenged orthodox religious leaders. Addressing an audience of 100 thousand, Osho spoke with the authority emanating from his enlightenment, he destroyed blind faith to create true religiosity.

In 1966, Osho left the university department and devoted himself entirely to spreading the art of meditation and his vision of a new man - Zorba the Buddha, a man who synthesizes the best features of East and West, a man who is able to enjoy a full-blooded physical life and is able to simultaneously sit silently in meditation, achieving peaks of consciousness.

1968 Osho settled in Bombay and soon the first Western seekers of spiritual truth began to come to him. Among them were many specialists in the field of therapy, representatives of humanistic movements who wanted to do next step in its growth. The next step, as Osho said, was meditation.

Osho experienced his first glimpses of meditation as a child, when he jumped from a high bridge into a river, or walked along a narrow path over an abyss. There were a few moments when the mind stopped. This caused an unusually clear perception of everything around him, his presence in it, and complete clarity and separateness of consciousness. These experiences, experienced repeatedly, aroused Osho's interest in meditation and prompted him to look for more accessible methods. Subsequently, he not only tested all the meditations known since ancient times, but also came up with new, revolutionary techniques specifically designed for modern man. These meditations are commonly called “dynamic meditations” and are based on the use of music and movement. Osho brought together elements of yoga, Sufism and Tibetan traditions, which made it possible to use the principle of energy transformation through the awakening of activity and subsequent calm observation.

Osho first demonstrated his morning dynamic meditation in April 1970 at a meditation camp near Bombay. That day everyone was stunned and fascinated at the same time. Indian journalists were amazed to see the participants screaming, screaming and tearing off their clothes - the whole scene was fatal and very intense. But just as strong was the tension in the first, intense stage, just as deep was the relaxation in the second part, leading to complete peace, unattainable in ordinary life.

Osho explained: “For 10 years I continuously worked with the methods of Lao Tzu, that is, I continuously studied direct relaxation. It was very simple for me and so I decided that it would be simple for anyone. Then, time after time, I began to understand that this was impossible... I, of course, said “relax” to those whom I taught. They understood the meaning of this word, but could not relax. Then I decided to come up with new methods of meditation that first create tension - even more tension. They create such tension that you become simply crazy. And then I say “relax.”

What is “meditation”? Osho spoke a lot about meditation. Based on his conversations, many books have been compiled, in which all aspects of meditation are discussed in great detail, from the technique of execution to explanations of the subtlest internal nuances. Here is a short excerpt from the “Orange Book”.

“The first thing you need to know is what meditation is. Everything else will follow. I cannot tell you that you should do meditation, I can only tell you what it is. If you understand me, you will be in meditation and there is no should. If you don't understand me, you won't be in meditation.

Meditation is a state of “no-mind”. Meditation is a state of pure consciousness without content. Usually your mind is too full of nonsense, just like a mirror covered with dust. The mind is a constant bustle—thoughts move, desires move, memories move, ambitions move—it’s a constant bustle. The day comes, the day goes. Even when you are sleeping, the mind is functioning, it is dreaming. It's still thinking, it's still worrying and sadness. He prepares for the next day, continues his underground preparations.

This is the state of non-meditation. Just the opposite is meditation. When there is no crowd and thinking has stopped, no thought moves, no desire is held back, you are completely silent... such silence is meditation. And in this silence the truth is known, never again.

Meditation is a state of “no-mind”. And you will not be able to find meditation with the help of the mind, because the mind itself will move. You can find meditation only by putting the mind aside, becoming cold, indifferent, unidentified with the mind, seeing the mind passing by but not identifying with it, not thinking that “I am it.”

Meditation is the realization that “I am not the mind.” As this awareness goes deeper and deeper, little by little there appear moments-moments of silence, moments of pure space, moments of transparency, moments when nothing is held in you and everything is permanent. In these moments you will learn who you are, you will learn the secret of existence.

A day is coming, a day of great bliss, when meditation becomes your natural state.”

Elsewhere Osho says: “Only meditation can make humanity civilized, because meditation will release your creativity and remove your tendency to destroy.”

Being an enlightened person, Osho realized more clearly than others the fragility of the current existence of humanity on Earth. Constant wars, savage treatment of nature, when more than a thousand species of plants and animals die out every year, entire forests are cut down and seas are dried up, the presence of nuclear weapons of enormous destructive power - all this puts man on the line beyond which there is complete extinction.

“Life has brought us to a point where the choice is extremely simple: only two paths, two possibilities. Humanity will either commit suicide or decide to meditate, to be in peace, tranquility, humanity, love.

Live naturally, live peacefully, turn inward. Spend some time alone and silently observing the inner workings of your mind.

In this inner silence you will experience a new dimension of life. There is no greed, no anger, no violence in this dimension. Love will appear, and in such abundance that you will not be able to contain it, it will begin to pour out of you in all directions.” And meditation gives a person such a state.

In 1974, Osho moved to Pune, where, together with his sannyasin students, he opened an ashram in the beautiful Koregaon Park. Over the next 7 years, hundreds of thousands of seekers from all over the world come there to experience new Osho meditations and listen to his conversations. In his conversations, Osho touches on all aspects of human consciousness, shows the innermost essence of all existing religions and systems of spiritual development. Buddha and Buddhist teachers, Sufi masters, Jewish mystics, Indian classical philosophy, Christianity, yoga, tantra, Zen... Here are a few of his books: “The Mustard Seed. Conversations about the sayings of Jesus”, “Wisdom of the sand. Conversations about Sufism”, “Buddha: the emptiness of the heart”, “Parables of Zen”, “Tantra: the highest understanding”, “True sage. About Hasidic parables”, “Psychology of the esoteric”, “Book of secrets”, “Priests and politicians (mafia of the soul)”, “The new man is the only hope for the future”, “Meditation is the first and last freedom”, “Meditation: the art of inner ecstasy "

Osho says about his books: “My message is not a doctrine, not a philosophy. My message is a certain alchemy, the science of transformation, so only those who have the will to die as they are now and be born again into something so new that you can't even imagine it now... only a few such brave people will be ready to hear, because hearing will lead to risk, you will have to take the first step towards revival. This is not a philosophy that you can put on yourself and start bragging about it. This is not a doctrine with the help of which you can find answers to the questions that bother you... No, my message is not verbal contact. It's much more risky. It is nothing more or less than death and rebirth...”

Many people from all over the Earth felt this and found the strength and courage to touch this source and begin their own transformation. Those who are finally confirmed in this decision accept sannyas. The sannyas that Osho gives is different from the traditional one. This is neo-sannyas.

Former sannyasins - people who completely devoted themselves to spiritual practice, went to monasteries or secluded places and studied together with their Master, reducing contact with the outside world to a minimum. Neo-sannyas Osho does not require this. Neo-sannyas is not a renunciation of the world, but rather a renunciation of the madness of the modern mind that creates divisions between nations and races, drains the Earth's resources into weapons and wars, destroys the environment for profit, and teaches its children to fight and dominate others. Modern sannyasins Osho's students, are in the thick of life, doing the most ordinary things, but at the same time they regularly engage in spiritual practice and, first of all, meditation, combining material life with spiritual, synthesizing in themselves the love of life of the Greek Zorba and the height of the spiritual consciousness of the Buddha. This is how a new man is formed - Zorba the Buddha, a man who will be free from the madness of the modern mind. According to Osho, “a new man is the only hope for the future.”

One who becomes a sannyasin receives a new name as a symbol of commitment to meditation and a break with the past. The name, usually derived from Sanskrit or Indian words, contains indications of a person’s potential capabilities or a specific path. Women receive the prefix “Ma” - an indication of the highest qualities of female nature to cherish and take care of themselves and others. Men receive the prefix “Swami,” which Osho translates as “self-mastered.”

Osho met with his students every day, except for periods when he was ill. His conversations were very beautiful. This is how Swami Chaitanya Kabir describes his meeting with the Master:

“We sit quietly listening;

He enters with his hands folded in greeting.

The lecture starts sometime

With a simple stunning statement.

And the morning flows into us.

Energy flows around words

Ideas, stories, jokes, questions,

Weaving them into a grandiose symphony,

The container for everything.

Mocking, great, blasphemous, holy...-

And always in contact with our consciousness,

IN right moment leading us straight to the center.

Themes develop on their own

Taking an unexpected turn

Reflecting in clarity into something opposite

And going back.

He talks until

Until we no longer hear his words

In a deafeningly growing silence.

The surf is roaring everywhere.

"Enough for today!"

He comes out smiling

Folded hands send greetings to everyone

We are sitting".

1981 For many years Osho suffered from diabetes and asthma. In the spring his condition worsened and he plunged into a period of silence. On the recommendation of doctors, in June of this year he was taken to the United States for treatment.

Osho's American disciples bought a 64,000-acre ranch in Central Oregon and founded Rajneeshpuram there. Osho came there in August. During the 4 years that Osho lived there, Rajneeshpuram became the most daring experiment in creating a transnational spiritual commune. Every summer, 15,000 people from Europe, Asia, South America and Australia came to the festival held there. As a result, the commune became a prosperous city with a population of 5,000 people.

1984 Just as suddenly as he stopped speaking, Osho spoke again in October. He spoke about love, meditation and human unfreedom in a crazy, heavily conditioned world. He accused priests and politicians of corrupting human souls and destroying human freedom.

“I raise my hand against the past of all humanity. It was not civilized, it was not humane. It did not in any way contribute to the flourishing of people. It wasn't spring. This was a real disaster, a crime committed on such a huge scale that we renounce our past, we begin to live according to our own being and create our own future. ...The people gathered around me are learning how to be happier, more meditative, how to laugh more joyfully, live more actively, love deeper and bring love and laughter to the whole world. This is the only defense against nuclear weapons. We are not creating armies here to conquer the world. We are creating a commune of individuals who have their own spirituality, because I want these individuals to be free, responsible, vigilant and conscious people, not allowing anyone to dictate to them, but also not imposing anything on anyone.”

From the very beginning of the experiment to create a commune, federal and local authorities tried to destroy it in any way possible. Subsequently, documents confirmed that the White House participated in these attempts.

In October 1985, the American government accused Osho of violating immigration laws and took him into custody without any warning. He was held in custody for 12 days in handcuffs and shackles and was denied bail. He suffered physical harm in prison. According to the following medical examination, in Oklahoma he was exposed to a life-threatening dose of radiation and was also poisoned with thalium. When a bomb was discovered in the Portland prison where Osho was being held, he was the only one who was not evacuated.

Concerned for Osho's life, his lawyers agreed to admit that he had violated immigration law, and Osho left America on November 14. The commune fell apart.

The US government was not content with violating its own constitution. When Osho went to other countries at the invitation of his disciples, the United States, using its influence in the world, tried to influence other countries so that Osho's work would be disrupted wherever he went. As a result of this policy, 21 countries banned Osho and his companions from entering their borders. And these countries consider themselves free and democratic!

In July 1986, Osho returned to Bombay and his disciples began to gather around him again. In January 1987, as the number of people coming to him grew rapidly, he returned to Pune, where by that time the International Osho Commune had been formed. Daily beautiful discourses, meditation weekends, and holidays began again. Osho creates several new meditations. He called one of them, “The Mystical Rose,” “the greatest breakthrough in meditation 2500 years after the Vipassana meditation of Gautama Buddha.” Thousands of people have taken part in the Mystic Rose Meditation, not only at the Pune commune, but also at Osho meditation centers around the world. “I have created many meditations, but this one may be the most essential and fundamental. It can reach the whole world.”

The meditation lasts 21 days as follows: one week participants laugh for 3 hours a day, the second week they cry for 3 hours a day, the third week they silently observe and witness for 3 hours a day. During the first two stages, those involved simply laugh and cry for no reason, passing through layers of stiffness, depression and pain. This clears the space in which silent witnessing will happen later. After cleansing with laughter and tears, it is easier not to identify or get lost in everything that happens: in thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations.

Osho explains: “All of humanity has gone a little “crazy” for the simple reason that no one laughs from the heart, completely. And you suppressed so much sadness, so much despair and anxiety, so many tears - they all remained, covering you, enveloping you and destroying your beauty, your grace, your joy. All you have to do is go through these two layers. Then, while witnessing, simply open clear skies.”

This meditation, like many others, is therapeutic in nature. Scientific research done during and after the Mystic Rose group meditation has shown that participants experience profound and permanent changes in many areas of their lives. They consist of deep inner relaxation, a decrease in psychosomatic illnesses and an increasing ability to feel and express one's emotions in everyday life and at the same time to be detached from these emotions - to become a witness to one's experiences.

Now there are many other therapeutic groups in the Osho International Commune. All of them are united into the Osho Multiversity. As part of the Multiversity: School of Centering, School of Creative Arts. International Academy of Health, Academy of Meditation, Center for Transformation, Institute of Tibetan Pulsations, etc. Each school offers its own program aimed at developing a person’s spiritual qualities. The leaders of the schools are people from different countries who share and support Osho’s views on man and his place in this world.

The Osho Times International magazine is published twice a month, which is distributed throughout the world and is published in nine languages ​​(except Russian). There is an international Osho connection - a computer network between meditation centers and Osho ashrams in different countries.

Osho left his body on January 19, 1990. He was often asked the question, what will happen when he dies? Here is Osho's response to Italian television, transmitted through his personal secretary:

“Osho relies and trusts existence. He never thinks about the next moment. If everything is good at this moment, then the next moment flows from this and will be even richer.

It doesn't want to become a prison like other religions do. He even dropped the word “Bhagwan”, just because one of the meanings of this word is “God”. The moment someone is God, then of course you are a slave, a created being. They can destroy you without asking. Even the stars disappear, but what about human life?

He doesn't want any of this to resemble religion in any way. His work focuses on the individual and his freedom, and in the end it is one world, without any restrictions of color, race or nationality.

You are asking what will happen when Osho dies. He is not God and he does not believe in any prophets, prophecies or messiah. They were all selfish people. Therefore, whatever he can do at this moment, he does. What happens after he leaves he leaves to the will of existence. His trust in existence is absolute. If there is any truth to what he says, it will survive. Therefore, he calls his sannyasins not followers, but travel companions.

He said clearly: “Don't cling to the past. Continue searching. You can find the right person because you have already had a taste.” And this question is strange. Nobody asked what would happen when Einstein died. Existence is so limitless and so inexhaustible that people grow as naturally as trees, unless they are mutilated by society. If they are not destroyed by people for their own purposes, then they will bloom on their own, Osho does not offer any program. On the contrary, he wants everyone to be deprogrammed. Christianity is a program. His job is to deprogram people and make their minds clear so they can grow on their own. Support is welcome, but no demands.

Absurd questions are always asked by people who think that they rule the world, Osho is simply part of the Universe. And everything will continue fine without him. It's not a problem. And he will be happy that there is no religion, and no one will proclaim himself a successor when he leaves. If anyone declares himself his successor, he must be avoided. Such people destroyed Buddha, Christ, Krishna.

Everything he can do, he does. There is no specific plan that needs to be implanted in your mind. This creates fanatics. Every individual is unique, so no program can make humanity happy, because then they wear other people's clothes and shoes that don't fit them. All humanity is like clowns.

The people who remain interested in his work will simply carry the torch. But they will not impose anything on anyone, neither with bread nor with sword. He will remain a source of inspiration. for us. And this is what most sannyasins will feel. He wants us to grow on our own...Qualities like love, which no church can be built around, like awareness, a quality that no one can monopolize, such as celebration, joy, a fresh childlike perspective. He wants people to know themselves, regardless of anyone else's opinion. And the path leads inward. There is no need for an outside organization or church.

Osho is for freedom, individuality, creativity, for making our Earth even more beautiful, for living in this moment, and not waiting for paradise. Do not be afraid of hell and do not be greedy for heaven. Just be here in silence and enjoy while you are. Osho’s whole philosophy is that he strives in any way to destroy everything that later becomes slavery: authorities, groups, leaders - all these are diseases that must be completely avoided.”

Osho did not write books. All published books are recordings of his conversations with his students. The energy of the listeners, their preparedness and interest determined the direction of the conversation. These conversations reflect the relationship between the Master and his students, their mutual penetration.

“These words are alive. They contain the beat of my heart. This is not a teaching. My words are a knock on your door so you can get home. Accept my gift."

Do you want to know yourself deeper? Then my new idea...

You preach trust, but your house is closed from others by an impenetrable wall - with towers and machine gunners. You call your students your favorite children, but you secretly bug their homes. You convince others that the main happiness is not outside, but inside a person, but you continue to replenish your collections with new Rolls-Royces and diamond watches. You proclaim yourself a saint, but you still sleep with your students and watch orgies.

So who are you really, Bhagwan Osho Rajneesh?

“People have become travelers. They are always on the go. They never achieve anything, but they always go somewhere: they simply escape from where they are. But everything remains the same. Nothing changes. Changing the place won't help here. You have created your hallucination and are living in it. Your heaven and your hell are all from the mind. Live HERE and NOW. Regretting the past or focusing your thoughts on the future, you miss your real life” - I first crossed paths with Osho during a not the best period of my life, and his books pulled me out of depression. Since then I have not returned to Osho.

It’s not surprising - many came to Osho precisely during a period of mental breakdown, - the Israeli writer and translator Uri Lotan, who lived in Osho’s commune for seven years and wrote a book about it called “Happiness and Punishment for It” (“Osher ve Onsho”), sums up my words. - And I went to India, not yet recovering from the divorce from my wife, whom I continued to love.

Monologue one “Approaching Osho”

“I am an absolute atheist,” Uri states categorically. - Besides, I am not one of those who look for idols and hate dictatorship. I came to Pune (the place where Osho's commune is located - Sh.Sh.) as an absolute nihilist. I heard about this place and about the freedom that reigns here - first of all, sexual freedom. India, exoticism, cheap drugs, beautiful girls - what else do you need when you are only 25, but you are already a star (Uri Lotan in the 1970s was a famous DJ at the Galei Tzahal radio station - it was he who told Israeli listeners about the breakup of the group " Beatles”, discovered Bob Dylan and other Western musicians for them - Sh.Sh.). At first I lived in a commune, just enjoying the atmosphere of this place. Having learned that I was from Israel and worked on the radio, I was offered to record Osho’s lectures on tape and translate them into Hebrew. When you sit next to the Master at lectures, it is considered a great honor, and all the girls in the commune want to sleep with you afterwards. Everything else was of little interest to me then.

Monologue two “Submission to Osho”

Now imagine a place, Uri continues, where Osho’s portraits hang everywhere you go: they’re even in the toilet and above the bed where you’re having sex with a girl. And on your chest there is also a small portrait of Osho on a wooden chain, which is forbidden to be removed even in the shower or during sex. First they convince you that with Osho on your neck, even sex will be of a different quality, then you yourself begin to think so.

I, unlike most members of the commune, was among those who personally communicated with Osho. And I’ll tell you that he is an incredibly smart, handsome and attractive person - with a mesmerizing deep voice, smooth hand movements... When I recorded Osho’s lectures, sitting at his feet, I was overcome by the feeling that I was next to a generator - such powerful energy came from him. Osho undoubtedly had hypnotic powers. Once, talking with him alone, I fell into such euphoria that I was carried out of his room in his arms, I laughed with happiness and could not stop for several hours. In a word, I myself did not notice how I found myself in the complete power of Osho. My dependence on him was akin to a drug addiction.

Monologue three “First doubts”

One day they brought me a letter in Hebrew and asked me to translate it into English for Osho, who received letters from all over the world. I started reading and saw that this letter was not addressed to Osho at all, but to an Israeli commune member from his girlfriend. I took the letter to this guy, and then they called me to the commune office: “Where is the letter?” - “I took it to so-and-so, you were mistaken, this letter is not for Osho.” What started here! They were ready to grind me into powder. I learned much later that all mail coming to the commune was monitored and all rooms were bugged.

Then there was the story with the Israeli woman, who stated that she became pregnant by Osho. She was immediately sent for an abortion and kicked out of the commune, defamed in every possible way for lying. I remember that I was also among those who attacked this girl: “How can you say such things about Osho? He is a Master, an Enlightened One, he is not interested in women.” I learned much later that many of his students passed through Osho’s bed. As for that girl, she returned to Israel and after some time committed suicide.

Monologue Four “Slaves of the 20th Century”

The main responsibility of the commune members was to raise money for Osho. People came here from all over the world, giving everything they had to the commune - money for sold houses, savings, cars. A relative of the Queen of Holland donated her inheritance - 250 thousand dollars - to the commune, but she did not even receive the room she was promised. I remember that when I was informed from Israel that my father had died, I was immediately called to the commune office. I thought: “They probably want to express their condolences.” And they asked me just one question: “How much money did you receive after your father’s death?” Many members of the commune were sent money by their parents in letters, but it never reached them.

We were constantly driven to earn money for Osho. The most the easy way money was obtained through prostitution, drug sales and various types of fraud with credit cards. During the seven years of living in the commune, I managed to be both a drug courier and a pimp. Including: he sold his second American wife, whom he met in the commune, to clients, and flew to Japan several times with three kilograms of hashish on his body.

I remember how in Bombay I approached a rich sheikh from Saudi Arabia, introduced himself as a Frenchman and asked if he wanted to fuck my beautiful sister for $1000 (in the commune we were all considered brothers and sisters). Most of the commune members worked in hard work - building houses, laying roads. There were no days off. They worked for the benefit of the community for free 12 hours a day. The commune could not accommodate everyone - many were forced to rent housing in Pune, which is why prices there jumped terribly and were no lower than European ones.

Osho divided the women of the commune into two types: beautiful and ugly. From the first he chose his concubines, and to the second he gave power, and they began to lead the commune, taking out their complexes on its members. One of these ugly women ran the commune’s medical center, was well versed in poisons and used them skillfully, which is why she received the nickname “Sister Mengele.”

In the OSHO commune, women chose men for sex, and not vice versa: every day the men had to line up in a line along which the women walked, choosing a partner for the night.

When the commune moved from India to America(Osho fled there, hiding from prison for failure to pay a 40 million debt to the Indian tax department, first on the private plane of his rich students from Hollywood, who bought a huge plot of land for him in Oregon for 7 million dollars). Then members of the commune moved to the United States, who first began to build a villa and a swimming pool for Osho (heating the pool subsequently cost several thousand dollars a month), and then houses for his entourage. The members of the commune themselves lived in caravans - six people in a room, without air conditioning.

Monologue fifth “Myths about Osho”

The condition for admission to the commune was participation in paid(from 200 to 400 and above dollars) seminars. At one there was a spiritual striptease, where everyone had to tell everything about themselves to a random partner, who changed every 15 minutes at the sound of a bell. The second seminar for the candidate was chosen by Osho himself - based on a photograph of the applicant and his handwritten request for admission to the commune. Without seeing the person, he decided what problem he had, an unfulfilled desire: to rape someone, or to be beaten, or to take part in an orgy. After such seminars, people came out with broken ribs and black eyes. There was even this joke in circulation: “Fell on the way to the Ashram” (ashram is the Indian name for the place where the commune was located - Sh.Sh.).

Osho assigned me to the isolation group. I had to sit in my room in front of his portrait for a week and not communicate with anyone. They were only allowed to go out for lunch. There was a “silence” sign hanging on my chest, and no one was supposed to talk to me. This test turned out to be beyond my strength - I spoke on the sixth day. Osho’s clairvoyant instructions on the distribution of seminar participants turned out to be another myth: people were assigned to those groups where there was a shortage.

Osho allegedly separated couples for the purpose of spiritual improvement, formed before joining the commune or formed in the commune itself. For the same purpose, he forbade us to engage in activities in which we showed great interest. For example, since my youth I dreamed of becoming a writer. Osho forbade me to write. In fact, the reason for such instructions was his desire to completely subjugate the members of the commune so that no one and nothing would overshadow Osho himself in our eyes.

As for other idols... Osho respected Hitler, said that Hitler was an extraordinary person. He liked to repeat his words that if you tell a lie many times, it will turn into the truth. However, Osho tried to de-legitimize anyone who could outshine Osho himself in the eyes of his listeners. According to the Master, John Lennon and Freud were idiots, Gandhi a liar, Mother Teresa a fool, Freud a maniac. As for others... Sometimes Osho began his speech with the words: “Personalities like me, Jesus and Buddha...”

When someone began to doubt Osho’s postulates, he was immediately told: “You are not a whole person if you doubt the words of the Master.”

We were told that Osho is sensitive to smell bad energy - for example, the energy of anger, and to noise. Before the start of the lecture, members of the commune were sniffed, and if they smelled sweat, they were not allowed into the room. Once they didn’t let me in, and I was ready to commit suicide because of this - such was my dependence on Osho at that time. If someone coughed during a lecture, they were immediately thrown out. In fact, the reason for Osho's sensitivity to smells and sounds had nothing to do with esotericism: Bhagwan had a drug addiction to Valium, laughing gas delivered to him in cylinders, and several others. medicines, on which he “sat” for many years, as a result of which he developed this intolerance to smells and noise. I have seen more than once how Osho swayed as if he were drunk when he walked. He moved very little, but once a week he made sure to go on a short trip in one of his Rolls-Royces to receive honors: members of the commune stood along the road and threw rose petals under the wheels of his car. This ritual was called the “road of flowers.”

The period when Osho took a vow of silence and remained silent for four years, also turned out to be a myth. While in his chambers, he spoke without stopping. A member of the commune told me about this, who was the lover of one of the ugly women close to Osho who led the commune.

Another myth is associated with the statement that Osho did not know about the cruel orders, planted in the commune by his associates. Osho's former bodyguard wrote a book, "Dethroned God", in which he claims that Osho's secretary recorded all the conversations that Osho had in his personal apartments, and now these 3,000 tapes are in the hands of the FBI. The author of the book claims that most of the ideas implemented in the commune belonged to Osho.

I remember that when the leadership of the commune announced that its members should undergo sterilization, citing Osho, we did not believe that this was coming from the Master. But then, in one of his public speeches, he openly spoke about sterilization, arguing that having children is a loss of energy necessary for spiritual self-improvement.

I remember dissuading two girls I knew from this crazy idea, but they were sterilized. Now they, like me, are already over 50. It would be interesting to know what they think about all this now? When they first started talking about AIDS, the commune immediately issued instructions to have sex using a condom and wearing rubber gloves on your hands. “Sister Mengele” began to check who had AIDS and who did not. Actually, this was not a check, but her sole decision. Members of the commune, declared sick by "Sister Mengele", were sent to settle in the local gulag - an isolated area with caravans. I know at least two of them well - they are still alive to this day, and they do not have any AIDS, contrary to the diagnosis of the Mengele sisters.

Monologue six “Exile”

My American wife saw the light before me and left the commune. One day I called her and said that I felt like I was in a concentration camp with these machine gunners on the towers and the need to ask permission from the commune leadership for any step I took. Within half an hour, a Mercedes stopped in front of my caravan, from which one of the leaders of the commune, nicknamed “Lady Macbeth,” got out with two thugs behind her, armed with Uzis (there were a lot of weapons in the commune in general). She stated that Osho ordered me to be expelled from the commune and tore the chain with his portrait from my neck.

I still have the keys to my Ford., donated to the commune fund, and I took advantage of this by stealing my own car from Osho and driving it to Los Angeles.

It was easy to leave Osho, but to get rid of Osho inside yourself... If it weren't for the support of my friends... After being expelled from the commune, I felt like there was a black hole inside that there was nothing to fill. For a long time I was in severe depression, I was very vulnerable and involuntarily attracted misfortunes to myself: I was robbed, fired from my job, and one day unknown people (to this day I don’t know if they were connected with the commune, or if I accidentally met them on the road?) I was beaten so badly on the street that I needed several operations to get back on my feet. Of those who left the commune or were expelled from it, I know of at least five who committed suicide, unable to free themselves from the Osho within them.

Monologue seventh “Osho’s American Failure”

When Osho stepped off the plane in Oregon, the first words he uttered, not without pathos, were: “Hello, America! I am the Buddha you have been waiting for! However, Osho missed the mark with America. In those years, Americans were rather indifferent to esotericism and Eastern spiritual movements. Moreover, with their characteristic pragmatism, they could not understand how to connect Osho’s proclaimed non-profit commune, and therefore claiming tax exemption, with his constantly expanding collections of Rolls-Royces and diamond watches. And even more so, the Americans could not understand how they could force a person to work 12 hours a day without paying him a penny for it.

The rise of Osho in India is quite understandable: In terms of time, this period coincides with the period of the sexual revolution, freedom, emancipation, which took place in the world in the 1960s. Osho simply seized on this idea and gave sex a spiritual legitimation, which looked especially attractive in the eyes of the younger generation. I remember very well my feelings of that period in Pune: I am 25, I am a king, all the beautiful girls are mine, I am free, there are no restrictions. All over the world, group sex was considered an orgy, and only in Osho’s commune was it called “spiritual work.”

Monologue eight “Biological terror”

When the commune moved to Oregon, terrible things began to happen. Deciding to gain political power in district elections, the commune leadership sent a group to Dallas, where they were to be held, which sprayed liquid with salmonella in public places, which caused a massive epidemic: 750 people fell ill (later, in one of the books, this event was called the first bioterrorist attack in the United States).

In addition, to participate in elections, according to state laws, representatives were required who were natives of this place. The leadership of the commune bribed local homeless people for these purposes, most of whom subsequently (after the elections) disappeared, and one was found murdered. The matter has gone too far: the FBI has opened an investigation. The life of Charles Turner, who led the investigation, was attempted twice by members of the commune. I lived in the same room with the pilot who was supposed to fly a rented plane with explosives at Turner's house, having previously ejected. He fled the commune the day before the alleged terrorist attack.

Osho was arrested and spent two weeks in prison, and a group of 20 people close to him fled to Germany, where they were arrested and transported to the United States. These people were convicted and spent seven years in prison.

As for Osho, thanks to a compromise reached by his lawyers, he received a suspended sentence and paid a fine of half a million dollars, after which he left the United States on the private jet of his followers from Hollywood. For about a year, Osho wandered around the world in this way - not a single country wanted to accept him: in England he twice requested landing and was twice refused; in Ireland only a short landing to refuel the aircraft was allowed; deported from the island of Crete by police and soldiers. Osho was eventually forced to return to India, paying that country 40 million in taxes that he owed. Quite quickly, the Osho commune was revived in its old place - in Pune, and this time hundreds of young Israelis flocked to it (while there were no more than a dozen of them when I was there).

Monologue Nine “Dragon Seed”

Today I can already say that I have freed myself from Osho within myself. But for many years I suffered the consequences of living for seven years in a commune where the use of drugs like hashish and LSD was the norm. For example, there was a period in my life when I could not sleep for months - neither day nor night. Only a strong sleeping pill gave me several hours of oblivion. Then I fell ill with agrophobia - the fear of open spaces, and did not leave the house for months.

For everyone who came to the commune not for a month or two, but for years, it ended in severe mental trauma. What kept us there?

A lasting feeling of happiness, freedom, euphoria. It seemed to us that we belonged to the elite of the enlightened. The whole world has been divided for us into two concepts: “we” and “they”. “They” are all other people who are not related to the commune, who do not have access to what we were initiated into. Most of us were at an age when a person usually builds himself, his family, his career, his future. We gave the commune everything we had - our best years, money, unrealized abilities, and left without family, children, money, housing, work, profession... Osho died in 1990. According to one version, he died of AIDS, according to another - from many years of using narcotic drugs. There was no autopsy. Osho's body was burned according to Indian rites. A month before his death, the Englishwoman Vivek, who for 30 years was literally his shadow, and invariably sat at his feet at all lectures, committed suicide.

Osho Ashram in Pune still exists. And, as I said, there are a lot of Israelis there. I was lucky that I did not get AIDS or commit suicide after living in Osho's commune, so I consider myself responsible for telling as much as possible more people about the true face of Osho and his followers. I was naive, carried away by the ideas of a false leader and almost lost myself, my personality. It's a pity for wasted energy, lost years. I avoid people who are still influenced by Osho’s ideas, and I am ashamed to meet those who, like me, got rid of him, just as they are ashamed to meet me. We have nothing to remember.

A look at the charlatan Osho Rajneesh - from the perspective of the religion of Orthodoxy

Cult of Rajneesh(Osho) “Quinton hovered in the skies of the East, where it was more terrible than in the underworld of the West.”

(G.K. Chesterton)

According to the famous Orthodox researcher of sects, Mikhail Medvedev, “the cult of Rajneesh is one of the most destructive for the consciousness of adherents. The technique of internal growth in the cult lies in the fact that the spiritual growth of the adept is directly dependent on the approach and attachment to the personality of the guru. All this is associated with the idea of ​​supposed personal gain.”

Other names: "The only religion."

Management: The founder of the movement is Rajneesh (Osho).

One of the most active followers of Osho Rajneesh in Moscow - Popova Natalya Pavlovna (b. 1951).

In Russia, an organization called the Osho Movement is widely known.

Her followers study the teachings of the Indian philosopher Bhagavan Shri Rajneesh. The first organization appeared back in 1991 in Kiev, Ukraine, then it appeared in other cities of the CIS countries, including Russia. What do followers of this organization do? This is meditation according to the Osho system, treatment of various diseases and astrology.

The question immediately arises: what is “Osho”? Translated from Old Japanese: “o” - with great respect, love, gratitude, harmony; “sho” - expansion of consciousness and blessings, existence.

This organization is included in the list of religious groups and destructive religious organizations of Eastern orientation. You should be careful and thoroughly study the information about the activity and reviews of knowledgeable people.

This movement also appears under a different name " The only religion". Who called himself "oh founder of the only religion“Rajneesh was an enlightened master for some and a notorious destroyer of ancient Indian traditions and beliefs, a “spiritual terrorist” and “sex guru” for others.

In Moscow, one of the most active followers of Osho is Natalya Pavlovna Popova. Osho centers are usually headed by sannyasins dressed in red and orange clothes. These movements were formed in 22 countries, including the USA, India, England, France, Canada, Japan, Russia and other countries.
In Russia, in cities such as Moscow, St. Petersburg and Voronezh, they have been operating since 1996 under the name “ Tantra Yoga «.

It is reliably known that the cult (represented by Popova N.P.. and other members of the group) conducted classes at secondary school No. 984 in Moscow. There is no exact data on the number of followers in Russia. It is only known that there are about 35 followers of Rajneesh in Voronezh.

Location of centers

Headquarters of the Oshov movement - OSHO Commune International, 17 Koregaoh Park, Poona 411011 MS India.

Osho Centers, led by sannyasins dressed in red and orange robes, were formed in 22 countries, including the USA, India, England, France, Canada, Japan, Russia and other countries.

In Russia - in St. Petersburg, Voronezh (operates since 1996 under the name " Tantra Yoga") and Moscow.

It is known that the organization (represented by N.P. Popova and others) conducted classes at secondary school No. 984 in Moscow.

The number of followers of the fraudster Guru Osho Rajneesh

By 1984 Guru OSHO Rajneesh gathered about 350 thousand followers, average age who was 34 years old.

There are no exact data for Russia. It is only known that in Voronezh there are 30-35 followers of Rajneesh and their number throughout the country is growing steadily.

Osho's followers in Russia are now much larger than Orthodox Christians throughout India. Osho was a living Buddha who came to earth. Osho's teachings have always caused a storm of passions of love and acceptance, as well as attacks and rejection. In any case, there are no people indifferent to Osho.

People united by the same views often communicate with each other and hold joint events. A Russian Osho portal has even appeared in Russia. There's a lot in it interesting information about Osho’s system, about his history. People can communicate with each other via the Internet. Also there you can see announcements about new gatherings, trainings, various seminars or simply about relaxation for all like-minded people.

Even an ordinary person who does not share Osho's views, you can go in and see all the materials located there. If you are just interested, you can take part in one of the training camps Osho devotees and get to know the people and the teaching better.
There is also a dating service there, and there are many photo reports about ashrams and travel.

Dynamic meditation in India - modest without debauchery

Doctrine of Osho Rajneesh

Teachings of Rajneesh is a mixture of tantrism with homemade revelations and ravings of Rajneesh himself. , which occupies a special position in Hinduism, is the path of permissiveness. Before Christianity spread to India, Tantrism had reached levels of brutality, cruelty, witchcraft and superstition often incomprehensible to modern consciousness. In its crudest forms it includes .

Osho's teachings– the topic is complex and far from unambiguous. This teaching captivates both ordinary citizens (oh, who among us does not dream of love - huge and all-encompassing?) and famous people. So, for example, in the means mass media Please let me know that I am interested in the teachings of Osho Rajneesh. She stated at a press conference in Yaroslavl that she would learn from Osho slowness and a special view of the surrounding reality.

However, this is not surprising, because Osho Rajneesh, the founder of the doctrine of meditation as a universal method of understanding life, spoke many times in his speeches about homosexuality. These thoughts have transformed over time, and are currently most accurately reflected in lectures “About men: everything about the modern man «.

Works of Osho(books without a logical idea and meaning, as well as outright plagiarism and rewrites of old books) are actively purchased by gays and lesbians at retail outlets owned by the brand “ Indigo". So what is it after all: unbridled sex without restrictions or the great love of everyone for everyone and everything?

However, the followers and faithful students of Osho Rajneesh are fierce opponents of the point of view that this is a teaching about sexual tolerance and permissiveness; they believe that sex, correctly understood and accepted in the soul, is very, very far from promiscuity.

“Dynamic meditation” plays a central role in the teaching (three phases of intense movement and catharsis result in two phases of calm and relaxation).

« Founder of the only religion" urged his followers

“stop time by immersing yourself in the moment.”

He preached “liberation from one’s own self,” from conscience. He said that 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 as the only way to this, he pointed to his system, which included meditation, chants, and ritual dances, similar to the dances of the first hippies.

“I became my own universe,” Rajneesh explained.

After intense meditation, he was overcome by something like cosmic despair or a suicidal urge: to become a god or die! Over time, all the questions dissolved and went away, and a “great emptiness” was created in his brain. He says that on March 21, 1953, he fell into a faceless, bottomless abyss of emptiness. Obviously, that's exactly what happened. Rajneesh fell into the bottomless abyss of his manic pride and devilish seduction, under the influence of drugs and syphilis.

“I was becoming non-existent,” he admitted. “I felt a huge presence around me in my room... a strong vibration... a huge explosion of light... I was drowning in it... That night a door opened to another reality... the actual Reality... It was nameless... but it was there.”

At that moment, something completely alien took possession of Rajneesh.

He himself described it this way:

“This night I died and was born again. But the one who was born had nothing in common with the one who died... The one who died died completely, there was nothing left of him... After the explosion there was only emptiness. Whatever happened before, it wasn’t me and it wasn’t mine”;

“That night another reality opened its door, another dimension became accessible. This experience shakes you to your very roots. You will never be the same after such an experience, it will bring new visions into your life, new qualities" ;

“On that day, the twenty-first of March, a person who 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. That night I died and I was reborn. But the man who was reborn had nothing in common with the one who died... The man who died died totally; there was nothing left of him... not even a shadow."

Possessed demon

The experiences described by Bhagavan Rajneesh are very reminiscent of the process of possessing demons in a person. A person possessed by them truly becomes completely different. Clearly, Rajneesh had undergone a diabolical initiation that night. His family later admitted that he was no longer the same person he used to be.

Simply possessed by the Devil - Guru Osho Rajneesh

Researcher Tal Brook claims that Rajneesh is indeed possessed by the devil. He has a quality of complete obsession, a sort of Antichrist who is “really connected to the other side of the universe.”

Brooke tells the story of Ehart Floser, one of Rajneesh's loyal disciples, who recounted encounters - gang rapes, forced sex partner exchanges, forced homosexuality, abortions, countless deaths and suicides - in the Pune community. Women favorites like Laxmi, Rajneesh's number one witch, were thrown out on the streets of India penniless. Others tell stories about satanic societies, spiritual vampirism, how souls are deprived of the desire to live, about endless victims of countless suicides.

“She was crazy about him, crazy about this Rajneesh,” the old nun explained, speaking of Isabella, a Spanish girl from a noble family. “But Rajneesh used her and threw her away.” She was a fragile bird, and he crushed her... But she continued to believe in Rajneesh, repeating that it was just a test of her loyalty... She ended up in a madhouse in Pune... muttering all sorts of nonsense... God! I'm telling you, he's the devil! .

Rajneesh said: “Meditation is a state of pure consciousness without any content.” To achieve it, he directly called on his followers to go wild - he advised them to jump every morning with their arms raised, shouting: “Hu! Hoo! Hu!”, recommended making faces in front of a mirror, imagining yourself without a head, humming through your nose, walking on all fours around the room and growling like a dog, sucking milk from a baby bottle and generally “being an astronaut of your inner space.”

In the stories about the cult of Rajneesh, they really talk about the kingdom of darkness. They are somewhat similar to the stories about the orgies of the ancient Druids in England, when a huge horned god, sitting on a throne, like the embodiment of evil, contemplated an altar covered with dirt. These people who exalt themselves as God are like little antichrists, and whose

“The coming will be according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception” (2 Thess. 2:9, 10).

Any traditional religion brings with it something bright and good, but Rajneesh, realizing to whom he sold his soul, associated himself exclusively with death. He later recalled:

“Loneliness has gripped me since I was 7 years old. Loneliness has become my nature. This death became for me the death of all attachments. Whenever my relationship with someone started to become intimate, that death stared back at me. From that day on, every moment of consciousness of life was invariably associated with the awareness of death.”

He conducted his gatherings in keeping with his inner nature. Meditation in Rajneesh ashrams includes specific dances when participants are blindfolded, undressed and put themselves into an ecstatic trance. Hundreds of thousands of residents of Madras, Bombay and Calcutta gathered for his lectures, ending with mass shaking and tearing of clothes. Many times such “dances” in Rajneesh groups, for example in the USA, ended in group sex.

Here are the words of Rajneesh adept Ma Pram Paras: “Once you begin to question the mind, then sooner or later you will fall into the abyss of meditation.” It is into the abyss of madness and the power of demons that the followers of Rajneesh fall.

Whatever the defenders of this kind of “spirituality” say, all this is very much reminiscent of the ritual rites of Satanists.

Those who did not accept his teachings were declared narrow-minded and stupid, while Rajneesh attributed to himself the aura of a “misunderstood genius”: “Many great mystics behaved like fools, and their contemporaries were at a complete loss: how to understand their lives - but the greatest wisdom was present in it. To be wise among you is indeed foolish. Nothing will come of this idea; you will only create a lot of trouble." This is a very convenient position in relation to critics. If you criticize me, it means that you have not yet grown to my level, it means that you are narrow-minded and unspiritual individuals. But this is pure fraud and delusions of grandeur!

False Teachings of Sex Guru Bhagawan Osho Rajneesh

The extent to which Rajneesh’s real teaching does not correspond to those false, sweet pictures of his life that his followers paint for us can be seen from his following passages:

"Easy life. Don't complicate it by pretending. Nobody urinates. That's only in textbooks. Everyone pees - that's life. Love blooms from the dirt of sex. Compassion comes from the mud of anger. And nirvana is from the dirt of this world";

“Considering yourself to be a rooster is crazy; but to consider yourself a human being is even greater madness, because you do not belong to any form... You belong to the formless... And until you become formless, nameless, you will never be mentally healthy";

"You came to me. You have taken a dangerous step. This is risky, because next to me you can get lost forever. Coming closer can only mean death and nothing else. I look like an abyss";

“I can only help you become a nobody. I can only push you into the abyss... into the abyss. You will not achieve anything, you will simply dissolve. You will fall and fall and dissolve, and the moment you dissolve your whole being will experience ecstasy."

"When I initiate you into sannyas, I initiate you into this nameless, homeless death" ;

“A real, perfect person... has no attachments.”

Like other sectarians, Rajneesh predicted a very rapid approach of a global catastrophe: “This crisis will begin in 1984 and end in 1999. All types of destruction will reign on the earth at this time - from natural disasters to suicide by the achievements of science. In other words, floods unprecedented since the time of Noah, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and nature will give us everything possible... There will be wars that bring humanity to the brink of nuclear war, but Noah’s Ark will not save it. Rajneeshism is Noah's Ark of consciousness, a corner of calm in the center of a typhoon... The catastrophe will be global and inevitable. It will not be possible to hide from only in my teaching.”

In early 1984, Rajneesh expanded his prediction of a supposedly coming catastrophe, noting that Nostradamus' prophecy would be fulfilled and AIDS would kill 2/3 of the world's population. At the same time, he declared to his followers: “I will not say that the Rajneeshites will survive the catastrophe, but I can say with absolute confidence that those who survive will be Rajneeshites, and the rest will be monkeys (that is, not grown to the level of Rajneesh’s “superman”, - author's note) or commit suicide. In the end, those who remain don't matter."

Unlike other gurus who preach self-denial, Rajneesh immediately became known as the sex guru of India, preaching complete renunciation of oneself through absolute indulgence in one's desires. He openly calls for premarital sexual relations, “open” marriages and the destruction of the family, free sex. “Suppression is not a word that should be in a sannyasin’s vocabulary,” was his advertisement in Time magazine. Rajneesh encouraged tantric (sexual) yoga, ecstatic dancing, stripping, and even drug use as a means of meditation. Sterilization of women as a means of preventing pregnancy is also a common practice. “The path to desirelessness is through desire,” Rajneesh instructed his followers.

“Develop your sexuality, don’t suppress yourself! - he urged. - Love is the beginning of everything. If you missed the beginning, you won't have the end... I don't encourage orgies, but I don't forbid them either. Everyone decides for themselves."

Rajneesh wrote: “When in meditation you have a moment of enlightenment, a glimpse of some kind of ecstasy, let it happen, let it penetrate the depths of you and go deeper into it yourself.” Usually, when Rajneesh's henchmen brought him to a state of ecstasy, people committed such obscenities that they were later afraid to remember. But they just believed Rajneesh and followed his advice.

The “love” preached by Rajneesh in practice turned out to be the most unbridled sex without any restrictions, including group sex. That is why he was nicknamed the “sex guru.”

However, Rajneesh's students and followers vehemently object to this view. Thus, Swami Satya Vedant wrote: “Bhagavan does not teach “free sex” or sexual tolerance, as it is misunderstood. On the contrary, he declares in unequivocal terms that sex, properly understood, has nothing to do with promiscuity."

The resolution of this dispute can be found in Osho’s quotation book on the topic of sex, where Rajneesh’s clear position on this issue is quite clearly and unambiguously reflected:

“Sex exists everywhere, it is nothing, it is not at all mysterious. If you want to understand sex, then it is enough to understand animal sex, and everything that applies to sex in animals also applies to humans. In this sense, a person is nothing more";

“There is nothing sinful in pure simple sex... There is no need to hide it behind the beautiful word “love.” There is no need to create a romantic fog around him” (p.5);

“It should be a pure phenomenon: two people at this moment feel that they would like to connect on a deeper level, that's all. No duty, no duty, no obligation in this. Sex should be full of play and prayer” (p.6);

“I give you complete freedom. My efforts here are only to help you go beyond this; thus, if you are a homosexual, you must go beyond homosexuality; if you are heterosexual, you must go beyond heterosexuality” (, p. 50);

“A child in a crib plays with his genitals, and the mother comes in and removes his hands. Now this is a shock for the child; he becomes afraid to touch his own genitals. And it’s so nice to touch them... it’s so relaxing. By touching them, the child achieves a non-sexual orgasm; it's just fun. The natural urge to touch the genitals, to play with them - it’s so wonderful” (p.55);

“When sex becomes connected, fused with meaning, a completely new energy is born - this energy is called Tantra... Real Tantra is not a technique, but love. This is not a technique, but a prayer... You can stay in a tantric connection for hours... The mantra is focused on a different type of orgasm... A tantric orgasm can be called a valley orgasm” (p. 70-74);

“An ordinary sexual orgasm looks like madness, a tantric orgasm is a deep, relaxed meditation... The tantric love act can be done as many times as you want... Just keep playing and don’t think about the sexual act at all. This may or may not happen” (p.76-77).

Rajneesh was attracted to him not only by preaching freedom of sexual life. “Every sannyasi,” he wrote, “has a great contribution to make, for we are trying to realize a great dream in which all religions can meet, in which the earth can be our home - not divided into nations, races and colors.” This dream will be realized by the followers of Rajneesh - the “enlightened” or those moving towards “enlightenment”.

Rajneesh's ashrams became nurseries and incubators for the "new people of the new world." And, of course, only Guru Bhagwan can show them the path to “enlightenment.” “Everyone has the potential to become God... God is a state of consciousness... it is a way of enjoying life right here and now.” “Enlightenment” is a leap into the unknown, and in order to make it, you need to surrender with all your soul to Bhagwan, remove mental barriers in front of him.

“When you become a disciple, when I initiate you... I am simply trying to help you find yourself.”

Osho propagated the ideal of the new man as a person capable of enjoying a full-blooded physical life and at the same time reaching the heights of the spirit. He called such a person Zorba-Buddha, choosing Buddha as a symbol of the soul, and Zorba as a symbol of the body (Zorba is the hero of one of the novels of the Greek writer Kazantzakis, endowed with enormous potential for love of life).

The pseudo-guru said: “Live the life of Zorba completely, and you will naturally enter the life of Buddha... Zorba is only the beginning... Zorba is an arrow. If followed faithfully, it will lead to the Buddha... Sooner or later, when you allow your Zorba to achieve complete self-expression, you will have no choice but to seek something higher, more perfect and majestic.

Osho taught his students not to suppress Zorba within themselves. Live intensely, he urged, reject nothing, accept and explore everything: matter and spirit, soul and body, love and meditation. “Go deeply into all the experiences of life,” said Osho.

Having given himself the strange title of “Man of the Planet,” Rajneesh has repeatedly spoken hostilely about traditional religions: “We are making a revolution... I am burning old scriptures, destroying traditions... Shoot me, but I will not convert to your faith.” He called all orthodox religions "anti-life."

“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."

Representatives of new religious movements in Russia are literally fixated on the demands of respect for their organizations and teachings. At the same time, in most cases, he himself considers it quite acceptable to offend the religious feelings of believers of traditional religions, who make up the majority of the Russian population.

What Rajneesh said and wrote could not be called respectful in any way. This is nothing more than insults and incitement to interreligious hatred:

“Any religion that views life as meaningless and teaches us to hate it is not a true religion. Religion is an art that shows how to experience life. But these shops, which have appropriated the name of religions, do not want the person to become truly religious, since then there will be no need for a priest";

“All religions of the past are for the sake of life, not one is for the sake of the living, not one is for the sake of laughter. No religion perceives a sense of humor as a property of religiosity. Therefore, I say that my religion is the first religion that considers man in his universality, in his naturalness, perceives man entirely, as he is. Holiness to me does not mean something sacred, but something accepted in its entirety... This is the first religion that does not reject anything from your life. She accepts you entirely as you are, and finds ways and methods to make the whole more harmonious...” ;

“All religions have turned into politics. They use religious terminology, but politics is hidden behind all this. What is Islam? What is Hinduism? What is Christianity? They are all political groups, political organizations, engaged in politics under the guise of religion... The temple no longer exists. The temple disappeared, it became politics”;

“Christian priests have been training for two thousand years, but not a single Jesus has come out of them, and not a single one will ever come out, because you cannot teach to be Jesus. You can't produce Jesus in a factory. And these are factories, these theological colleges. There you graduate priests, and if these priests are downright boring, dead, - burdensome - then it’s not difficult to understand that the whole religion will become the same... Of course, these Christian priests are dead, they have everything planned out”;

“A truly religious person cannot be a Christian, a Hindu, a Buddhist. Religion is absolutely useless. Well, what is the use of the temple? What good is a mosque? Why are churches needed? ;

“If this land ever achieves true religiosity, then we will stop teaching Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism - for this is one of the most serious sins in the world.”

He also had a bad relationship with Hinduism. In India, he is better known as "Ngariya" Rajneesh - a fierce teacher who destroyed ancient myths and beliefs, traditions and teachings. “I teach extreme rebellion,” he declared. “If we want to change society, we must be extremely honest and truthful, we must speak out against it.” Many years ago, at the Second Hindu Religious Congress, where the head of Hinduism, Shankaracharya, presided, Rajneesh’s views caused severe irritation among representatives of the main movements of official Hinduism, who then diligently dissociated themselves from him.

Characteristics of Pseudo-Guru Osho Rajneesh

The notorious destroyer of ancient Indian traditions and beliefs, “spiritual terrorist” and “sex guru” Rajneesh was born on December 11, 1931 in a family of Jains, adherents of one of the ancient religions of India, in the remote village of Kuchwada in the province of Madhya Pradesh, in Central India. His parents named him Rajneesh Chandra Mohan.

This man later became known as Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh (or Rajneesh), which translates as “that blessed one who is God,” or Osho (“oceanic,” “dissolved in the ocean”). His students called him: “acharya” (“teacher”) and “bhagvan” (which translated from Sanskrit means “holy man”).

Rajneesh was the eldest of his five sisters and seven brothers. His childhood was darkened by the fact that his father, unlucky in business, was often on the road. Rajneesh's father was replaced by his grandfather, to whom he was very attached.

He spent the first seven years of his life with his grandparents, who gave him complete freedom to be himself. The death of his grandfather, whom he loved very much, had a profound impact on his inner life.

From early childhood, Rajneesh, who said he came to enlightenment by completing a fast he began 700 years ago in another life, was obsessed with the idea of ​​death.

“Death stared at me before life began,” he reflects. “Loneliness has become my essence.”

A Hindu astrologer told Rajneesh's parents that the boy would "die" every 7 years until he turned 21. It is then that he will finally experience sudden enlightenment. When Rajneesh was 7 years old, his grandfather died; at 14 he almost drowned himself. He actively added his own stupidity to the vicissitudes of fate - he threw himself from high bridges into rapid whirlpools, where a rotating funnel of water sucked him in and then carried him back out. In such a strange way, he wanted to prove his theory of “cooperation with divine providence in all things.”

Osho Rajneesh - communes and communism

In his youth, his greatest passion was reading, but he read literature that was quite specific to the future guru. During this period, he was dubbed a communist (!) because he read Marx and Engels intensively. He even organized a circle of young people, where communist ideology was regularly discussed and opposition to religion was expressed. He and his friends believed that socialism would solve all of India's economic problems. At this time, he is an atheist, openly criticizing religious rituals and blind faith in the holy scriptures. But gradually disappointment in socialist ideas arose. Rajneesh realized that he would not receive any dividends here, and announced to his comrades in the Marxist circle:

“Only a revolution in consciousness, and not in politics, can bring peace and happiness.”

This transition from a fascination with communism to the birth of the idea of ​​​​creating one’s own religion occurred somewhere between 1945-1950.

Rajneesh was the son of relatively wealthy parents, so he could afford to get a good higher education. In 1957, he graduated from the university and received a diploma with honors, a gold medal and a Master of Philosophy degree. After this, he taught philosophy at two Indian universities from 1957 to 1966.

Later he tried himself in occult magic, telekinesis and breath control according to the yoga system. He began to travel a lot around India and preach. He wandered on foot and rode a donkey, telling everyone how they could change and transform themselves in order to survive. According to his student, who later found the strength to leave this sect, Eckart Floser in an interview with Forward magazine, Rajneesh’s sermons were not a great success, and by 1970 he was nothing more than a tired, poor man who, however, was very much mistaken, believing that he has a certain gift and power.

Since 1969, Rajneesh began to initiate his first students, giving them new names and a medallion with his image. In Bombay, he decided to create a group of people whom he could begin to teach. Little by little he acquired more of his students; the room where he lived could no longer accommodate them.

I am looking for spiritual students, seekers and rich people, please do not bother the poor!

Then in 1974, Rajneesh moved to the wealthy Indian city of Pune (120 miles south of Bombay). During the same period, he organized his own neo-sannyasin international movement. A commune began to take shape around him, attracting an increasing number of people from the West, “seeking spiritual truth.” By the mid-'70s, the pseudo-guru was hosting traveling VIPs, movie stars such as Diana Ross, and even Ruth Carter Stapleton, Jimmy Carter's sister. His sannyasin followers, dressed in scarlet robes, thronged the streets of Pune to the delight of local shopkeepers. Soon a rapidly growing community of 7 thousand people was formed. Vast numbers of others paid regular visits.

In 1981, Osho came to America, where his followers bought a huge ranch and founded the Rajneeshpuram commune.

Subsequently, Osho ashrams were formed in other places in India, as well as in 22 other countries, including the USA, England, Germany (Cologne, Munich, Hamburg), France, Canada, Japan, Russia and several other countries. Rajneesh's sermons found their addressees. Up to fifty thousand people a year passed through the school of chanting and meditation alone in Pune, where the headquarters of the movement was located (OSHO Commune International, 17 Koregaoh Park, Poona 411011 MS India). By 1984, Rajneesh had gathered about 350 thousand followers, whose average age was 34 years.

Rajneesh's tape-recorded speeches were published and replicated in the form of many books and brochures, which were then distributed throughout the world.

Centers of pseudo-guru Osho Rajneesh

Nowadays, more than 500 Rajneesh meditation centers operate throughout the world. The international meeting place for followers of this movement is the International Osho Commune in Pune, governed by an elected committee of 11 women and 10 men.

Owned by the Osho Commune, the Multiversity offers hundreds of seminars, groups and courses across its nine faculties:

• Osho School of Centering,
• Osho School of Creative Arts,
• Osho International Health Academy,
• Osho Meditation Academy,
• Osho School of Mysticism,
• Osho Institute of Tibetan Pulsations,
• Osho Transformation Center,
• Osho School of Zen Martial Arts,
• Osho Academy of Zen Games and Training.

Belonging to the Osho movement, at least until 1985, was symbolized by distinctive clothing (sunrise colors: red, orange, pink), a wooden chain on which hangs an amulet with the image of Osho and a new name.

Osho movements in the CIS and former USSR countries

In the CIS countries, groups on meditation, astrology, and psychotraining have been created in organizations of the Osho movement. In Belarus, Rajnishites operate in Minsk, in Ukraine - in Kyiv and Odessa, in Georgia - in Tbilisi, in Latvia - in Riga.

In Russia, Osho’s followers created their organizations in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Voronezh (operating since 1996 under the name “Tantra Yoga”, 30-40 followers), Nizhny Novgorod, Perm, Kaliningrad, Yekaterinburg, Krasnodar and other cities.

In Moscow, the Rajneesh “Meditation Center “ATMA” operates under the leadership of A.V. Soldatov. and Kosikhina V.S., Moscow Osho Center, “Eastern House” under the leadership of Marikhin and other groups of followers of Rajneesh.

Rajnishites are also actively intruding into Russian schools. It is known that some time ago the Rajnishites held their classes at secondary school No. 984 in Moscow.

The Osho Center conducts regular seminars. In May 1997, participants in the “Touching Tantra” seminar were offered the following programs: “practical tantra yoga, paired exercises, breathing techniques, various tantric techniques, working with chakras, working with the body, ... overcoming barriers in choosing partners, overcoming difficulties in communication between a man and a woman,... Tarot cards.”

Recently, the Moscow club “Yamskoye Pole” has been hosting a “meditation disco” every Sunday, where you can not only dance, but also roll on the floor, make grimaces, scream, jump, bark and whistle. The disco is hosted by the head of the Eastern House association, Swami Anand Toshan (in the world - Igor Marikhin). Toshan completed a course of study at the Multiversity in Pune and received spiritual initiation - sannyas. After which he returned to Russia and began translating Rajneesh’s books into Russian. Then, together with several friends, he traveled around the country, preaching the Master’s teachings at seminars and lectures. Toshan called his group “Osho Gypsies”, since he had to spend several years “on wheels”. Having gained followers, Toshan founded the “Oriental House” center, which includes an Indian dance school, an art studio, meditation training and an Osho disco.

Rajneesh assigned a large role to ecstatic dance - spontaneous movements without practiced steps and memorized positions.

“The body is forgotten, only movement remains. Feel like a tree in the rain in a strong wind.”

Therefore, at the Osho disco everything is allowed that does not disturb others. You can, for example, take everything off yourself. Or, conversely, wear the most exotic clothes. The role of DJ at the console is performed by Toshan himself. He looks at the dancers and, depending on their mood, plays certain music. He did not prohibit organizing sexual orgies during such “dances”.

As reported in the press at the time the center was founded in Pune, some visitors to the commune returned with stories of sex orgies and drug use in Osho's communities. Some researchers believe that the word “orgies” is hardly applicable to Osho’s practices, since Rajneesh does not divide the manifestations of life into positive and negative, like many Hindu cults; in Osho’s doctrine, the concepts of good and evil are blurred.

One of the spiritual practices widely used in the cult of Rajneesh is the so-called “dynamic meditation”. It is explained that supposedly with her help

“the consequences of previous life experiences are removed, energy is gained.”

Each session begins with chaotic breathing to the beat of a drum. Due to the hyperventilation of the lungs that accompanies such breathing, a person becomes drunk from excess oxygen. He is advised to scream, roll on the floor, and make any involuntary movements. The special state experienced by a person is explained as something mysterious, possible only thanks to a certain secret possessed by the guru. In fact, according to Professor Dr. Margaret Theiler Singer (University of California), this phenomenon has a clear physiological explanation and is nothing more than a trick.

In the Rajneesh cult, professional psychotherapists worked alongside the guru. Leaders convince people that the person himself is to blame for his previous painful state, since he was supposedly inadequate in his behavior. After a few days of “cure,” people lose the ability to think for themselves; they become people without their own biography, “existing here and now.” Now they are ready to accept the “new doctrine”. Female followers react especially emotionally to the gurus; they are the majority in the sect. A religious ceremony looks something like this. Rajneesh shouts the words: “Life! Death! Despair! Happiness!". They mix, and ultimately it means “nothing.” This muttering brings students into a trance, similar to meditation. In this state, a person has practically no rationality, the person is outside of reality.

Among the meditation practices developed by Osho offered to adepts is one called “Dying Consciously.”

Becoming a sannyasin (monk) in the cult of Rajneesh, a person is completely deprived of his own will. Therefore, sannyasins can only exist in groups, submitting to the will of the leader. The cult of Rajneesh, at least as far as his American followers are concerned, is characterized by a special fanatical devotion of its adherents, even compared to other destructive cults. For example, when Rajneesh hinted that a woman burdened with children could not achieve enlightenment, many female sannyasins were sterilized right there in the Laguna Beach cult center.

In his cult rituals, Rajneesh often introduced his adherents to a state of nirvana (translated from Sanskrit as “bliss”, “illumination”) with the help of drugs, and individual meditation sessions in the ashrams of the “holy man” ended in fights and stabbings. There were cases when sectarians, maddened by Bhagwan’s lamentations and drugs, broke each other’s arms and legs.

Psychiatry and psychics followers of Osho Rajneesh

Psychiatrist Betty Tilden(Great Britain) believes that without the help of medicine, adherents of the Rajneesh cult are not able to return to normal life. The therapists who worked for Rajneesh were cold, calculating and ruthless people. For Rajneesh, the life and health of his followers were worth nothing:

“I am not interested in your capabilities. If you feel bad, then that's how it should be. All this is done in the name of love...”

According to a journalist from Munich, he knows a dozen former followers of Rajneesh who were completely mentally destroyed after leaving the sect. Here are just two examples of such consequences.

Hamburg musician, 26 years old. He cannot find contact with reality, instantly forgets everything he just said, he says, “he has absolutely no energy.”

Nurse from Berlin, 29 years old. She suffered from “withdrawal.” After leaving the sect, she could not think consistently and committed suicide.

Those who have joined the destructive teachings and practices of Rajneesh eventually become a kind of zombie. A thirty-year-old Perm doctor, a follower of Rajneesh, once said: “My inner experience, the spiritual joy I have experienced, testify that the path to true freedom lies through the liberation of a person from the voice of conscience. The voice of conscience in a person is the voice of the devil,” which once again confirmed that this organization can be quite confidently classified as potentially the most dangerous in terms of possible participation in the organization of anti-social actions, including terrorist acts.

And this is not surprising, since Rajneesh strives to completely eliminate all doubts and the mind itself among his followers:

“The mind is like a disease... When there is a mind, you are always caught. The mind rapes, forces you, you are its prisoner... Meditation is throwing the mind out, it is freeing yourself from the burden. You don’t need to carry all your excrement with you, otherwise you will become dumber and dumber”;

“The mind is the deadest thing in you... The mind is the same dead part as the hair... The human mind is a monkey”;

“Both: hair and mind are dead, don’t carry them around. It will be wonderful! Make sure that dead particles do not accumulate in you... The mind is a dead part of you, it is excrement”;

“Meditation is nothing but devastation, becoming nothing. Emptiness should be your path, your goal, your everything. Starting tomorrow morning, start emptying yourself of everything you find inside... - everything you find, just throw it away. Everything that comes along, indiscriminately; Empty yourself" ;

“When the mind is needed, use it like a mechanical device; when you are not using it, put it aside and forget about it. Then become useless and do something useless - and you will begin to live a full, happy life" ;

“If you become aware, ugliness, ugliness appears.”

Many of his followers got hooked on the needle, becoming drug addicts. “Among my patients there were many people from the circle of Bhagwan, who was a doctor in Pune,” said Professor Claude Olivenstein, director of the Marmotan drug treatment center in Paris. As Time magazine claimed from the words of a former ward of the guru, there were cases when sectarians, maddened by the rituals of the sect and from drugs, broke each other’s legs and arms.

Mikhail Medvedev and Tatyana Kalashnikova, researchers of the harm of meditative practices for human health, wrote: “In Hindu-occult immersions in the supersensible and in Christian spiritual life we ​​have, according to the remarkable researcher of the history of religions L.A. Tikhomirov, “two completely different psychospiritual processes that from beginning to end they follow different paths.”

A person following the path of yogic-occult practice first plunges himself into somnambulistic passivity and causes the soul to disintegrate into separate parts. Having brought himself into a state in which no action is possible, he imagines, through the effort of his disintegrated will, to force the secrets of its content from the supersensible. This is the practice of false images and visions, in which the human spirit becomes even more blinded and drawn into the trap of unusual sensations, from which it itself cannot free itself. All occult-yogic paths, despite their external diversity, are united in their spiritual essence. Tel Brook, a former initiate of another neo-Hindu guru Sathya Sai Baba, after visiting Pune, described his impressions as follows:

“The subject of horror and adoration in the media, Rajneesh created the image of the “new man”, rejecting all norms and traditions. Man, according to Rajneesh, is a hedonistic god who does not depend on anything (except on Rajneesh’s inner voice) and is free to give the cosmos any shape depending on his desire. This is the dominant pleasure seeker, existing in himself, owing nothing to anyone. The family is cursed, children are a burden. Bye " neosannyasin“has money, he has wild fun. Then interest in him disappears. Murders, rapes, mysterious disappearances of people, threats, arson, explosions, abandoned children " Ashram members", begging on the streets of Pune, drugs - all this is the order of the day for the marvelous hybrids in red, who consider themselves the daring discoverers of a new meaning of "love".

Christians working in the Pune psychiatric hospital will confirm all of this, not forgetting to mention the high level of mental disorders associated with the fact that the ashram has taken political power into its own hands and there is no one to complain about it.”

In early 1981, reports emerged of a threat to Rajneesh's life. A strict regime was introduced in the ashram; everyone entering was searched for weapons. A store was set on fire, and not far from medical center there was an explosion in the ashram. According to cult representatives, the assassination attempt on the guru in February forced the ashram administration to speed up the process of searching for a new headquarters, which had already begun.

India Today

According to India Today magazine, “police and Pune city authorities are unanimous in their belief that the incidents were instigated by followers of Rajneesh” because “the last two weeks of investigation have revealed that the Rajneesh Foundation is up to its neck in unpaid taxes, misappropriation of donations for charitable purposes , thefts and criminal cases against members of the sect, the investigation of which was not completed by the time she left the city.”

In 1981, the government of Indira Gandhi deprived the Bhagwan Ashram of the right to be considered a religious organization. The US Consulate in Bombay issued Rajneesh a visa, and on June 1, 1981, having sold off the ashram's property and taking with him 17 of his most devoted students, he secretly flew to New York. After Rajneesh left Pune, his followers spread throughout the West, setting out to establish “sacred cities” throughout Europe, which were planned to be self-sustaining and which were supposed to become an alternative to society, being examples of “sannyas”. In the United States, efforts were made to create a model of a "holy city" governed by the "teacher" himself. On July 10, 1981, the Chidvilas Rajneesh meditation center in Montclair (New Jersey) purchased the Big Magdy Ranch from an investment company from Amarillo (Texas) for $6 million (of which $1.5 million in cash). Its territory near Madras, Oregon, covers more than 100 square miles. The center also managed to lease 14,889 acres in the same area from the American Bureau of Land Management.

Soon two hundred followers of Rajneesh from 16 European countries gathered in Big Magdi to enthusiastically welcome the teacher to his new home in September. After some time, plans were made public to build “the first enlightened city in America” called Rajneeshpuram (city of Rajneesh). On November 4, 1981, the Wasco County Commission voted by double margins to hold a referendum in May 1982 on whether Big Magdy could be considered a city. In such cases, only local residents vote, and in this case, followers of Rajneesh, and the result was not difficult to predict: 154 votes for the emergence of the city of Rajneeshpuram and not a single one against.

Big Magdy Ranch

In a short time, in the dusty steppe of Oregon, not far from the provincial town of Entelope, on the abandoned Big Magdy Ranch, an oasis of Western civilization was created: an airfield, a comfortable hotel with a casino, shopping streets, restaurants. There were roads with special buses plying along the routes indicated by the “holy man.” This “miracle” was created by the labor of 6,000 Rajneesh adherents, as well as with the money of 500 thousand so-called touring adepts who lived far from the guru, but regularly came to Oregon to communicate with their leader and transferred impressive sums to his account.

From the very beginning, the cult's attempts to create a paradise in the Oregon desert met with fierce resistance. The legality of the new city was questioned for two reasons: first, the separation of state and church clause of the Constitution was violated, and second, the Wasco County Commission's decision to call for a referendum violated state land use laws. There was a threat of dismantling most of the buildings. As a precaution against the decision to dismantle Rajneeshpuram and to show that the organization had influence among municipal services and authorities, the Rajneeshites officially occupied the nearby township, deciding to rename it from Entelope to Rajneesh.

Taking advantage of the fact that, according to local law, it is enough to live in the state for 22 days to gain the right to vote in local elections, the guru decided to increase the number of voters in Entelope at the expense of his followers. In New York, San Francisco and other large cities of the United States, Bhagwan's supporters began to invite alcoholics, tramps, and drug addicts to the ashram. All this continued until the election of the town mayor. The operation “share your home with your neighbor,” carried out by Rajneesh, thus gathered 3,500 people in the city of Rajneesh. Bhagwan's followers voted for the right person to guru, and Entelope was renamed Rajneesh.

Most of the forty original inhabitants of Entelope, mostly aged people, were subjected to constant surveillance by the police forces of sannyasins, were taxed in favor of the sect and were forced to contemplate a nudist beach in the city park established by the city council full of Rajnishites. They chose to give up and leave the city. The city grew as Rajneesh's followers bought existing houses and built new ones.

Rajneesh Foundation International

Meanwhile, the US Immigration Service continued to investigate suspicions of violations of immigration laws and related criminal standards by members of the organization. Rajneesh Foundation International" More than 30 Rajneeshists, including the leadership, were suspected of fictitious marriages of US citizens with foreign citizens. By the way, Rajneesh’s residency qualification was also in great doubt, and the American Immigration Service hoped to prove that he received a visa by exaggerating the severity of his illness.

The homeless and alcoholics, having done their job, could leave. The order to disperse the suspicious company was given to the guru’s personal guard, and he was guarded by a whole detachment of specially trained militants armed not only with small arms, but also with helicopters (there was even at least one combat helicopter with missiles).

Osho at the head of the killers or living nightmares - the messiah of Rajneesh

However, the tramps were in no hurry to leave the city of Rajneesh, which they themselves had proclaimed. They also had no intention of working as a laborer for the guru. Reluctantly, the guru was forced to agree for them to remain among his flock. But soon strange events began to occur in the vicinity of the newly-made Rajneeshpuram-Rajneesh. Several times the state police had to investigate crimes that were very similar in style: people seemed to fall asleep, killed by an unknown poison. Moreover, all the victims were from among the recently emerging followers of Osho who took part in the voting. Their corpses were found in different places, but not in the actual Rajneeshpuram e.

The police were understandably suspicious of the guru and his associates. Sensing danger, Rajneesh did not find anything more witty than to withdraw from secular affairs and take a vow of silence. It must be said that he was not particularly involved in “secular affairs” anyway, for that he had an army of sectarian slaves.

While Rajneesh withdrew from the affairs of the commune, taking a vow of silence, a group of his closest assistants committed lawlessness. Major financial scandals in the organization's leadership became known.

Sheila Silverman

For four years the pseudo-saint was silent. The mediator of his communication with the world was his faithful follower Sheila Silverman. She effectively ran the ashram with a strong hand, regularly collected tribute from the sectarians and, of course, provided advertising for the reluctantly silent man, who continued to publish brochures calling for “freedom through sexuality.”

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Sheela personally led the ashram army, numbering about 100 people in its ranks. When the surrounding farmers tried to call on the inhabitants of Rajneeshpuram to observe Christian morality or at least the basic norms of human coexistence, Sheela threatened to kill fifteen farmers for every one follower of Rajneesh, declaring that soon the whole of Oregon would be called Rajneeshpuram: “To achieve this, I am ready with every bulldozer , going to demolish this world, stain with your blood! . Under influence public opinion the police and then the FBI filed a case against Bhagwan's sect. Rajneesh decided to speak, but it was too late.

About four dozen FBI investigators were directly investigating Rajneeshpuram. They discovered weapons warehouses and laboratories for the production of drugs, which were regularly added to the sectarians' food. During the searches, they found a carefully camouflaged underground passage for the guru to escape in case of emergency.

On October 27, 1985, the FBI arrested Rajneesh at the airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Bhagwan's own plane landed for refueling. Rajneesh and eight of his associates were allegedly flying to Bermuda.

Exposing Osho's Chief Priestess - Sheela Silverman

Shortly before the revelation of the "high priestess" Sheila Silverman, who sensed that clouds were gathering over her, considered it best to move with her personal guard and her next husband to Western Europe. While the pseudo-saint sounded the alarm and gathered his thinned ranks, Sheela withdrew $55 million from the ashram's Swiss bank account and disappeared. What accusations did Bhagwan make against his recent like-minded partner? He screamed that Sheela tried to poison the life of the “saint’s” personal physician, attempted the life of the guru himself, killed vagabonds whose bodies the police found in the surrounding fields... The “High Priestess” was also not idle. When Interpol tracked down Sheela and her gang in Stuttgart, Silverman willingly told about all the ins and outs of Rajneesh's actual activities.

The short trial of Osho and his sect

The short trial, held in Portland, Oregon, ended on November 14, 1985. Rajneesh was found guilty on two counts in the federal indictment. The US government decided to deport Rajneesh from the country, so he received a purely symbolic punishment: ten years of suspended imprisonment plus a $300 thousand fine. The criminal pseudo-guru was ordered to collect all his belongings within five days and leave the territory of the United States. The FBI monitored his departure.

In mid-1986, Rajneesh returned to India. Within a few months, the Pune commune renewed and expanded its psychotherapeutic and meditation programs, as reflected in the word "Multi-Versity" that Rajneesh chose as the general name for its teachings and practices.

By the end of the 1980s, Rajneesh's health had deteriorated significantly. In the last months before his death, if his health allowed, Rajneesh went out to his students for “meditations of music and silence,” and then they watched videos of his previous conversations.

Religions of the world. Encyclopedia for children. T.6., Part 2. - M.: Avanta+, 1996.

Religious habitat: Assessing threats and seeking protection measures. - M.: Publication State Duma RF, 1998. - 176 p.

New religious organizations in Russia of a destructive, occult and neo-pagan nature: Directory. - Third edition, expanded and revised. - Volume 4. Eastern mystical groups. Part 1 / Auto-stat. I. Kulikov. - Moscow: “Pilgrim”, 2000.

"There were also false prophets among the people, like
and you will have false teachers who
will introduce destructive heresies and, rejecting
the Lord who bought them, they will bring
self-inflicted death"
2 Peter 2:1

1. "Love yourself and do what you want"

The story of Rajneesh (Osho) and his cult is the story of the rise and fall of one of the adventurers of our time. Rajneesh deeply despised humanity and did not consider it necessary to hide his aspirations; perhaps even more than in the stories of other sects, here the reasons that motivated the newly-minted guru - greed, lust, vanity and thirst for power - are brought to the surface with undisguised cynicism. It is worth adding that the cult of Rajneesh is difficult to attribute even to pseudo-Hindu new formations - it is absolutely an “author’s work” operating in the area of ​​the New Age movement.

Rajneesh Chandra Mohan (1931-1990) born in Kushwad (Central India, modern Madhya Pradesh) into a Jain family. Jainism arose around the end of the 6th - beginning of the 5th century. BC This religion recognizes the existence of an individual soul - jiva, but denies the existence of a supreme God. Like adherents of other Indian religions, Jains see salvation in the liberation of the jiva from the chain of rebirths.

He who has achieved liberation becomes, as it were, a living god and an object of worship. This Jain idea had a significant influence on Rajneesh, although in general his teaching is extremely eclectic.

Rajneesh was the eldest of his five sisters and seven brothers. Until the age of seven, Rajneesh lived with his grandparents. Rajneesh recalled that issues of spiritual liberation occupied him from a very early age. In his youth, he began to experience various meditative techniques; At the same time, he tried not to follow any traditions and did not look for teachers, always relying only on himself. One of Rajneesh's main childhood experiences was the experience of death. In his diary of 1979, he writes that in his childhood he followed funeral processions, like other children followed a traveling circus. In 1953, while Rajneesh was studying at the philosophy department of Jabalpur College, he, in his words, experienced “enlightenment” - his last experience of death, after which it was as if he was reborn. As a student, Rajneesh led a life that was far from conforming to the strict ascetic norms of Jainism. But they entered his soul so deeply as a child that, for example, he vomited all night when he ate with his friends after sunset (eating in the dark is strictly prohibited for Jains - you can swallow it without noticing what... someday small insect

In 1957, Rajneesh graduated from Saugar University with a gold medal in the All India Debating Competition and a Master of Philosophy degree, then taught philosophy at Jabalpur University for nine years. During this time, he travels around India, meeting and holding debates with various religious and public figures.

Speaking to audiences of thousands, he gradually gains fame as a polemicist and rebel. In 1966, Rajneesh left the university and began to preach his own teaching, which was a paradoxical mixture of bits of Jainism, Tantrism, Zen Buddhism, Taoism, Sufism, Hasidism, Nietzscheanism, psychoanalysis, popular “psycho-spiritual” therapies and the teachings of Krishnamurti and Gurdjieff. Having no initiation into any of the mystical traditions, he reinterpreted everything in his own way, adapting it to his own needs.

At this time, Rajneesh called himself Acharya ("teacher"). He wandered on foot and rode a donkey around India, calling for inner transformation in order to survive the coming nuclear holocaust and preaching a kind of new nonconformist religiosity, opposition to traditional religions, which Rajneesh sharply attacked at every opportunity: “We are making a revolution... I am burning old scriptures, destroying traditions..." ; "I am the founder of the only religion, other religions are deceptions. Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha simply seduced people..." ; “Faith is pure poison” and so on in the same spirit. More than once he said that he did not believe in any prophets or in the Messiah and that they were all selfish people. Rajneesh saw the main mistake of traditional religious doctrines and meditative techniques in the fact that they call on a person to give up a “full-blooded” physiological life, offering “spiritual enlightenment” in return.

The main postulate of Rajneesh's “only religion” can be expressed by paraphrasing the famous patristic saying: “Love God and do what you want.” When applied to the teachings of Rajneesh, it turns out: “Love yourself and do what you want.” According to Rajneesh, there is no god except man, and this is a hedonistic god: “Everyone has the potential to become God... God is a state of consciousness... it is a way of enjoying life right here and now”; “The first thing you need to understand,” Rajneesh taught, “is that you are perfect. If someone tells you that you need to become even more perfect, then that person is your enemy, beware of him.” “You can be Christ, so why should you become a Christian?”

If you follow Buddha you will be in trouble - millions have already been. If you follow Christ, you will also get into trouble. Look at any followers - they inevitably get into trouble, because life changes every minute, and they adhere to dead principles. Remember the only thing Golden Rule: "There are no golden rules!"

To achieve a spiritually and physically fulfilling life “here and now,” you need to “be spontaneous,” because “life is spontaneous.” Rajneesh saw the main obstacle preventing a person from being a god and enjoying every moment of life in the division of the mind into two warring principles: the conscious and the unconscious. A person identifies himself only with his conscious mind, and this does not allow him to achieve inner integrity. Only when the potential, the unconscious, is allowed to blossom can a person experience the “bliss of being.” Passions and unconscious impulses should not be suppressed or overcome, but intensely and exhaustively lived.

Following one's passions and lusts is, according to Rajneesh, the path to achieving divine freedom.

You are crazy and you need to do something about it.

Old traditions say: -Suppress your madness. Don't let it come out, otherwise your actions will become crazy," but I say, "Let your madness come out.

Become aware of it. This is the only path to health." Release it! Inside it will become poisonous. Throw it out, completely free your system from it. But this catharsis must be approached systematically, methodically, because it means going crazy with the method, becoming consciously crazy.

Schizophrenia goes away after deep awareness. Don't fight yourself. Always remember that the winner is wrong. When conflict arises, follow nature.

The nature that Rajneesh proposes to follow is fallen: “If a conflict arises between love and celibacy, follow love and surrender to it entirely”; “...if it happens that you choose anger, give yourself entirely to it” and the like.

Traditional teachings cannot cure a person from the conflict in his mind, because they themselves are the culprits of this division.

“Religions gave rise to schizophrenia” by binding the unconscious with their law and commandments. But Rajneesh opposes the insufficiency of the law not with the freedom of grace-filled transformation, which he had never heard of, but with the permissiveness of lawlessness:

There are no sinners. Even if you have reached the very bottom in this life, you are as divine as before, you cannot lose this divinity. I tell you: salvation is not needed, it is in you.

Rajneesh's preaching did not have much success in India until he settled in Bombay in 1968, where he soon had his first students from the West. These were mainly Americans and British, most of whom had gone through various new religious movements, the craze for “narco-spirituality,” the hippie movement, occult psychotherapeutic groups, etc. In this audience, Rajneesh’s illogical and immoral “non-teaching” about man-theology found a warm response . Rajneesh adds to his name, instead of Dcharya, the epithet Bhagwan Sri - “God the Lord”. From the beginning of the 70s, he began to regularly conduct so-called meditation camps, mainly in mountainous areas.

Rajneesh opposed the purposeful and utilitarian activity of the conscious mind to “celebration” or “play,” that is, activity for the sake of enjoying the activity itself, and not its final result. Such activity, in his opinion, can rightfully be called meditation.

Meditation is a state of no-mind.

Meditation is a state of pure consciousness without content... You can find meditation only by putting the mind aside, becoming cold, indifferent, not identified with the mind, seeing the mind passing by but not identifying with it, not thinking that " I am him."

Rajneesh's meditation is similar in description to the dhyana of classical yoga, but achieving samadhi required enormous ascetic efforts, and Rajneesh's methods were even simpler and more effective than Sri Aurobindo's "integral yoga"; they fully corresponded to the superficiality and relaxation of his audience, offering an easy path to “enlightenment” as a kind of acute “spiritual” pleasure. At the same time, Rajneesh did not stop speculating on the fears of his flock, generated by the Cold War and the emerging environmental crisis, presenting meditation as the only way to solve these problems.

Stage 1: 10 minutes of deep, rapid breathing through the nose. Let your body be as relaxed as possible... If the body wants to move during this breath, allow it... Stage 2: 10 minutes of catharsis, full cooperation with whatever energy the breath has generated... Do not suppress anything.

If you want to cry, cry, if you want to dance, dance. Laugh, scream, yell, jump, twitch: whatever you want to do, do it! Stage 3: 10 minutes of shouting “Hoo-hoo-hoo.” Raise your arms above your head and jump up and down while shouting, “Hoo-hoo-hoo.”

When jumping, land firmly on the soles of your feet so that the sound penetrates deep into the sexual center. Exhaust yourself completely.

Stage 4: 10 minutes of complete stop, frozen stay in the position in which you are. Through breathing, the energy was awakened, purified by catharsis and raised by the Sufi mantra "Hu". And now let it work deep within you. Energy means movement. If you no longer throw it out, it starts working inside. Stage 5: 10 to 15 minutes of dancing, celebrating, giving thanks for the deep bliss you have experienced., up the “energy channel”, simultaneously opening all other chakras. Rajneesh did not hide the fact that this method is very dangerous for the physical body and that many outstanding yogis who practiced this method died before reaching old age from severe and painful diseases. However, at the same time, he believed that the use of kundalini was the most effective method of opening the chakras and that further help from a guru could reduce its negative effects. The main benefit that the ascending movement of kundalini brings, in his opinion, is that it allows “cosmic energy” to descend into a person and circulate in all his bodies, including the physical. Two final stages Chaotic meditation gives you the opportunity to feel this circulation and enjoy it.

In addition to “dynamic meditation,” Rajneesh also introduced “kundalini meditation,” which he developed, during which the sectarians shook violently in order to “disperse the clamps of the body” and danced “so that the newly found flowing vitality would manifest itself.” In order for meditation to be most effective, Rajneesh recommended doing it for 21 days in a row, combining it with yogic breathing exercises, in complete isolation and silence, or blindfolded.

3. Pune Commune

In the early 70s, Rajneesh began to initiate everyone into “sannyasins”, who, however, did not necessarily have to leave the “world”; only the most fanatical of them later began to settle in Rajneesh's ashrams. And, of course, these “sannyasins” did not take any vows and did not lead an ascetic life; on the contrary, Rajneesh called on them to abandon all “conventions.” The only thing that was required of them was to completely “open up” to Rajneesh and surrender to him in everything. Sannyasins received new Sanskrit names "as a symbol of commitment to meditation and a break with the past." Women received the obligatory prefix “Ma” (mother), and men received the prefix “Swami”. They had to wear bright orange robes and wooden rosaries with a portrait of Rajneesh on their necks, and also always carry a nut with a “piece of the body” of their guru (usually clippings of his hair or nails).

In 1974, Rajneesh moved to Pune (India), where he opened his first ashram commune in Koregaons Park. The ashram could accommodate up to 2 thousand people at a time, and up to 50 thousand people passed through it per year. Over the course of seven years, the Pune center was visited by hundreds of thousands of “spiritual seekers” from the West. By the end of the 70s, about 10 thousand fans of Bhagavan lived in the ashram, and about 6 thousand more pilgrims, whom the ashram could no longer accommodate, settled in Pune. Every day, Rajneesh delivered sermons in broken English, richly seasoned with all kinds of stories, jokes, ridicule and blasphemy. These sermons and lectures were recorded on tape and published in the form of separate books (the guru himself wrote nothing except diaries), the number of which currently exceeds six and a half hundred. In addition to books translated into more than 30 languages, Rajneesh's followers distribute audio and video recordings of his speeches. To organize the production and sale of these products, Rajneesh's favorite student and personal secretary, Indian adventuress with an American passport, Ma Ananda Sheela (Sheela Silverman), created the Rajneesh Foundation Limited company in New Jersey, the turnover of which soon amounted to millions of dollars.

According to one of the Rajneeshists, “the organization has long understood the power of money.”

Pilgrims returning from Pune, initiated into neo-sannyas, began to open subsidiary ashrams and become their leaders. By the beginning of the 80s, 500 such centers had already been created - in other places in India, as well as in another 22 countries, including the USA, England, France, Canada and Japan.

At the ashram in Pune there were “therapy groups”, in which professional psychotherapists worked.

This crisis will begin in 1984 and end in 1999. All types of destruction will reign on earth at this time - from natural disasters to suicide by scientific achievements. In other words, floods unprecedented since the time of Noah, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and nature will give us everything possible... There will be wars that bring humanity to the brink of nuclear war, but Noah’s Ark will not save it. Rajneeshism is a Noah's Ark of consciousness, a corner of calm in the center of a typhoon... Tokyo, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Bombay - all these cities will perish in a worldwide catastrophe, which will not be limited to local destruction. It will be global and inevitable.

It will be possible to hide from it only in my teaching.

In early 1984, Rajneesh expanded his prediction of a coming catastrophe, saying that a certain Nostradamus prophecy would be fulfilled and AIDS would kill two-thirds of the world's population. When asked whether the Rajneeshites would survive the coming nuclear holocaust, Bhagavan replied:

The monkeys made the leap and became humans, but not all of them. Some of them are still monkeys to this day... I will not say that the Rajneeshites will survive the catastrophe, but I can say with absolute confidence that those who survive will be Rajneeshites, and the rest will be monkeys or commit suicide. In the end, the remaining ones don't matter.

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... No duty, no duty, no obligation in it. Sex should be full of play and prayer.

Develop your sexuality, don’t suppress yourself!.. I don’t inspire orgies, but I don’t forbid them either.

Murders, rapes, mysterious disappearances of people, threats, arson, explosions, abandoned children of "ashram residents" begging on the streets of Pune, drugs - all this is the order of the day [here]... Christians working in the mental hospital of Pune will confirm everything that has been said , 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.

The scandals associated with Rajneesh and his shocking statements attracted Western journalists. In addition, shaven-headed, bearded, wearing a “Sufi” cap and loose-fitting “spiritual” vestments, Rajneesh was distinguished by his photogenic personality. He first appeared in the American press in early 1978, when Time magazine published an article about him under the headline “The Lord God from the East.” The magazine reported that this gifted guru stood out among the early apostles of the various New Age "human potential" movements. Later, Rajneesh remained in the spotlight Western press and in the first half of the 80s he became the most fashionable guru in the West, eclipsing the Maharishi.

4. "I am the guru of the rich"

In 1980 and early 1981, Hindu traditionalists made two unsuccessful assassination attempts on Rajneesh. At the same time, in 1981, an investigation was launched, which showed that “Rajnish Foundation Limited was up to its neck in tax evasion, misappropriation of donations for charitable purposes, theft and criminal cases against sect members.” That same year, the government of Indira Gandhi deprived the Rajneesh Ashram of the status of a religious organization, and he had to pay huge taxes. Rajneesh, without waiting for the end of the investigation, stopped giving lectures and generally speaking in public on May 1, 1981. From that time on, Rajneesh’s intermediary in communicating with the world became his “right hand” Sheila Silverman. Having sold off the ashram's property in the early summer of 1981, withdrawing money from his Indian accounts and taking with him 17 of his most devoted students, Rajneesh went to the United States on a tourist visa, ostensibly for treatment, and some Rajneesh sources indicate that he was going to be treated for a spinal disease, and others - that from diabetes and asthma.

With the money of Rajneesh's American students and mainly the second American husband, Ananda Sheela, a huge Big Magdi ranch was purchased in the desert part of Central Oregon, in Wasco County. Here, on dry, infertile lands, the agricultural commune of the Rajneeshites initially settled, and later a city of five thousand called Rajneeshpuram arose, which had an airfield, a comfortable hotel with a casino, shopping streets, restaurants, parks, gardens, greenhouses, roads and regular buses. All this was created by about 2000 followers of Rajneesh.

They worked for free, seven days a week, under the scorching sun for 12 hours a day, slept in barracks and all the time listened through loudspeakers to Rajneesh's sermons, in which they were taught that exhausting work is a holiday, meditation, so to speak, a feast of the spirit.

He dealt with them quite successfully for his own pocket. By the end of 1982, his net worth had reached $200 million tax-free. He owned 4 aircraft, a combat helicopter and 91 Rolls-Royces.

In fact, he expected to have 365 of these most expensive cars in the world, a new car for every day of the year. In the Rolls-Royce, Rajneesh made his daily tour of the flock. The Guru himself drove the car, moving slowly and solemnly, accompanied by machine gunners, along the living orange wall of his adherents, who stood along the edges of the so-called “road of nirvana” and threw pink petals under the wheels of the car. For them it was a rare opportunity to see their idol.

As Rajneeshpuram grew in all major Western countries, “sacred cities” built by Rajneeshists in his model began to emerge - communes trying to lead an autonomous existence and should become an alternative to the “society of unfreedom.” Amid talk of freedom, Rajneesh's sect gradually turned into a "totalitarian organization with a strict control system." It was with these words that even such a pro-sectarian researcher of new religious movements as Professor Eileen Barker described the commune in Rajneeshpuram.

In Oregon, the Rajneeshites occupied the nearby provincial town of Entelope, won a majority of seats on the city council and renamed it Rajneesh. Most of the original inhabitants of Entelope, mostly elderly people, found themselves under constant surveillance by the sannyasin police forces, were subject to taxes in favor of the sect and were forced to see a nudist beach established by the city council in a local park. They chose to give up and leave the city. The city grew as Rajneesh's followers bought existing houses and built new ones. Meanwhile, the election deadline for the county legislative assembly approached and the Rajnishites decided to achieve a majority in it too. According to local law, it was enough to live in the state for 22 days to get the right to vote in local elections. passed a law increasing the period of residence required to participate in elections. The vagrants who gathered in Rajneeshpuram, therefore, did not bring any benefit to the sect. On the contrary, the semi-criminal homeless behaved arrogantly and defiantly, did not want to work for the guru and, on top of everything else, worsened the already not brilliant relations of the communards with the local residents. In Rajneeshpuram, Sheela put together an armed detachment of one hundred militants, but even he was unable to disperse the annoying “neighbors,” and soon their corpses began to be found in the vicinity of the “holy city,” but not in Rajneeshpuram itself. The police established that they were all killed with an unknown poison, and, for obvious reasons, suspected Rajneesh and company.

At the same time, the sect's political ambitions continued to grow. Since the trick with the homeless did not work, now in order to win the elections, the Rajnishites decided to ensure that those who do not support their candidates were not able to take part in the vote. Continuing to be the "tongue" of the silent guru, Sheila Silverman came up with an idea to do this: agents assigned to her sprayed salmonella bacteria on the salad bars of most restaurants in the county, causing many of their customers to get sick. True, this did not help the Rajnishites achieve the desired power in the county.

In October 1984, Rajneesh suddenly spoke. He again accused priests and politicians of corrupting human souls, again asserted that Rajneeshism was “the only defense against nuclear weapons,” and again preached renunciation of the “old world,” setting an example of “spiritual revolutionism”: “I raise my hand against the past of everything humanity."

His speeches became increasingly anti-Christian:

Messiahs are, as a rule, insane. He [Jesus] was absolutely sure that the crucifixion would prove him right, and that is why I see his actions as simply a disguised suicide attempt. If anyone was to blame for his crucifixion, it was himself. He asked for it himself. And not a single source - Jewish or historical - confirms that he was resurrected. Only the New Testament. Fiction. There was no Resurrection.

Rajneesh himself wanted to be his fans instead of Christ: “Let me be your death and resurrection.”

. And they sang to him with adoration: “I entrust my heart into your hands.”

The devil tempted Eve with the argument that God wanted her to remain ignorant. .. He is envious. And this seems to be true, for the God of the Jews is very envious. He doesn't want people to become equal to him. He is not a loving father... Knowledge is not a sin... I advise you to eat from the tree of knowledge..." .

By 1984, the number of Rajneesh's followers exceeded 350 thousand, with their average age being 34 years. Despite the failure in the elections in Vasco, the Rajnishites in the same 1984, in connection with the elections to the Oregon Legislative Assembly, gave reason to fear that the sect was striving to political power already at the state level.

Sheela added fuel to the fire by declaring that, if necessary, Rajneesh's people would turn all of Oregon into Rajneeshpuram. The surrounding farmers, driven to the point by the immoral behavior of the Rajneeshists that they were ready to call them to order by force, Sheela threatened to kill fifteen people for each follower of Rajneesh.

Rajneesh also managed to escape, but on October 29, 1985, he was arrested at the airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Bhagwan's own plane landed for refueling. Rajneesh and eight of his associates were allegedly flying to Bermuda on vacation.

Rajneesh's trial, held in Portland, Oregon, ended on November 14, 1985. The state authorities, who had already suffered colossal losses due to Rajneesh’s activities, feared that they simply would not be able to endure the extremely expensive, months-long trial. Moreover, according to state Attorney General Charles Turner, they did not want to make a martyr out of Rajneesh. As a result of difficult negotiations with Rajneesh's lawyers, a compromise was reached - Bhagwan pleaded guilty to only 2 of the 34 charges brought against him. Thus, he received a symbolic punishment for violating immigration laws and related criminal norms: ten years of suspended imprisonment plus a $400,000 fine. In addition, Rajneesh was ordered to leave the United States forever within five days. Sheela was found guilty of illegal use of listening devices, arson, beatings and intimidation, attempted murder and infecting 750 people with batulism, for which she was sentenced to prison and a heavy fine. After spending only 29 months in prison, at the end of 1988 she left for Switzerland and married again - to the Swiss Urs Birnstiel, who died in 1992 from AIDS. Sheela reconciled with Rajneesh, but she was never his follower and accomplice. Now 52-year-old Sheela Birnstiel owns two homes for the disabled and elderly near Basel. The contingent of its establishments are people with mental disorders, mainly patients with Alzheimer's syndrome, that is, a memory disorder. In the US, Schiele is again charged in old cases, this time with conspiracy to murder Oregon Attorney General Charles Turner, but her status as a Swiss citizen protects her from extradition. Of Sheela's $469,000 debt to the state of Oregon and Wasco County, an anonymous person recently paid $200,000 (one can assume that this was one of her less than adequate patients).

Rajneesh disbanded the Oregon ashram, burned five thousand copies of his pamphlets and publicly declared that he was not a god. After being deported from the United States, Rajneesh tried to stay in any country where he had followers, but 21 countries either banned him from entering or expelled him without any particular explanation (such as Greece). From this time on, the Rajneesh movement began to increasingly lose its mass character. Crowded communes fall apart, and the degree of influence of the cult on its followers decreases.

The majority of those who deal with the problems of new religious movements speak about the inadmissibility of using repressive measures against extremist totalitarian sects, justifying this by the fact that the banned sect will go underground and become even more dangerous. But a well-executed police operation to liquidate the community in Rajneeshpuram indicates otherwise. It turns out that in exchange for guarantees of personal safety, the cult leader, who values ​​his own person most of all, is ready to dissolve the sect. But just a few months before the events described, even a competent researcher of cults, a Christian apologist, holder of four doctoral degrees, Walter Martin, who, moreover, had a sharply negative attitude towards the Rajneesh sect, wrote: “Rajneesh and his followers attach great importance to the experiment with Rajneeshpuram, which led It would be tragic if the government intervened and ended their dream."

5. "The population needs to be reduced"

In July 1986, Rajneesh was finally able to return to India (he was expelled from there in December 1985). He settled in Bombay, where the few remaining disciples began to gather around him. In the last days of 1986, Rajneesh made two speeches, later published under the general title “The Rights of the New Man.”

In these keynote speeches, Rajneesh expresses his resentment at being kicked out of all Western countries, expressing both general indignation at all priests, rich people and white politicians, and surprisingly petty complaints. In particular, he inherited the Declaration of Human Rights. The old Declaration must be replaced by a Declaration of the Rights of a new man, whose “only fundamental right” is “to become a god.” Revealing in detail the ten points of his Declaration, Rajneesh paints a picture of the world in which his “new people” will live. The right to life in this world will mean the right to, in which there will be no suffering, but only joy and pleasure. It is clear that as the human population increases, there will not be enough resources for a good life for everyone. Therefore, Rajneesh says that “the population must be reduced if a person wants to live with dignity, joy, and not drag out a miserable existence.” To do this, Rajneesh proposes to limit the birth rate by any means, using not only contraception and abortion, but also the destruction of children with congenital defects. In addition, it is necessary to introduce and promote euthanasia in every possible way and recognize the rights of homosexuals.

In the future world, “there should be no nations, no state borders. There should be no religions.” Rajneesh hopes that religions will "dissolve on their own. The best thing about different religions, will remain in the “only religion” of Rajneesh. In a world of absolute freedom, the main cause of slavery must be eliminated, which, according to Rajneesh, is Christian anthropology, based on the belief that God created man in His image and likeness. Marriage in the society of “new people” must disappear, since it is “a counterfeit of love.” “New people” will freely come together and disperse, and it is better if the partners belong to different nations, and even better - to different races. Children should be separated from their parents and raised in communities. And not even to be brought up, since Rajneesh considers any upbringing, especially religious, a violation of children's freedom.

IN one world there will, of course, be a one world government. What will be the style of his reign? Rajneesh hates the monarchy. Democracy is also not good, because it is a cover for the manipulations of the powerful. In addition, when voting, the “ignorant masses” are guided by random criteria: some of the candidates look better, others speak better. In the new world, elections will be carried out by professional corporations: for example, “only teachers should choose the Minister of Education.” Only those who have received higher education will have the right to vote. The world government will be functional, but will not have power.

When a person, using Rajneesh methods, eliminates division in himself, divisions in the world will also disappear. The new world will be different from the current one, like heaven from hell.

Now there is no need to even describe what hell is. Just look around: here he is... But we can change everything. This earth can be turned into paradise. And then all need for paradise in heaven will disappear, there it will be empty. If we remember Rajneeshpuram, it will become clear what will be done with those who do not want to live in this paradise of radical hedonistic godless humanism.

6. Osho apparently died of AIDS

In January 1987, Rajneesh moved to Pune again. Here he comes up with a new meaningful name for himself - “Osho”, that is, “ocean”, which, apparently, should be associated with vastness, depth, chaos, abyss.

For his followers, Osho abolishes the mandatory wearing of orange clothes and sandalwood beads with his own portrait on them. True, during meditation and in the presence of Osho, sannyasins were ordered to wear white clothes. In addition, maroon robes must be worn at the meditation camps, which are held for three days every month.

Psychotherapeutic programs are being renewed and expanded, and new meditative techniques are being created. One of them, “The Mystical Rose,” Osho modestly considered “the greatest breakthrough in meditation 2500 years after the meditation of Gautama Buddha.” This meditation lasts 21 days; one week the participants laugh for 3 hours a day, the second week they cry for 3 hours a day, the third week they “silently observe” and “testify” how they feel better for 3 hours a day.

Following the example of his longtime competitor in the neo-guru market, the Maharishi, whom Rajneesh had previously criticized in every possible way, Osho is now trying to prove the benefits of his meditation therapy with the help of “scientific research.”

The various therapeutic groups in the Osho International Community were united into the "Osho Multiversity", which in the first half of the 90s included the following non-degree "colleges": School of Centering, School of Creative Arts, International Academy of Health, Academy of Meditation. The Center for Transformation, the Institute of Tibetan Pulsations and others are a completely typical New Age set.

By the end of the 80s, Osho's health had deteriorated significantly. In the last months before his death, if his health allowed, Osho went out to his students for “meditations of music and silence,” and then they watched videos of his previous conversations. Osho died in 1990, apparently from AIDS. When he passed away, he did not leave a full-fledged organization, believing that there was no need for it, and did not appoint an heir. Moreover, he made it clear that if anyone declared themselves to be his successor, he should be avoided. As a result, after the death of the guru, several independent movements formed within the movement. Among them are the “International Academy of Meditation” by Paul Lowe, the “Huma University”, headed by the Dutch sannyasin Verisch, and others.

There are now about 200 Osho meditation centers in the world. The center of the cult is still Pune. A group of 21 sannyasins led by Amrito, Osho's former personal physician, formed the leadership of the ashram after the latter's death. They turned a commune in Pune into a commercial enterprise - an exotic park of "esoteric" recreation, designed for wealthy Western tourists 35-40 years old.

On the territory of the former Soviet Union there are Osho centers in St. Petersburg, Voronezh (operating since 1996 under the name "Tantra Yoga"), Odessa, Krasnodar, Minsk, Tbilisi, Riga and Moscow, where, in addition to the Osho Rajneesh center, there are There is also the “Eastern House” center, created by a young Russian Igor. In the early 90s, he completed a course of study in Pune and returned from there as a sannyasin, Swami Anand Toshan. In addition to meditation training, sending “to study” in Pune and other programs, the “Eastern House” conducts Sunday “Osho Discos”, where “everything is allowed”.

OshoTime International magazine is published twice a month, which is distributed worldwide and published in nine languages. Websites of Osho fans from different countries are abundantly represented on the Internet. But Rajneesh's popularity is not commensurate with the presence of organizations associated with his name - elements of Rajneesh's ideology are an integral part of the New Age movement. Osho's books are sold in all New Age stores and are abundantly presented at any occult literature store.

179. Joachim Keden and others. Sects, spirits, miracle healers. Germany, 1999. -S. 28.

180. Amrit Swami Pres. Decree. op. -P.14.

Photo - Osho (Bhagavan Shri Rajneesh); cover of one of Osho's books; dynamic meditation; Russia - Belly dance lessons with Erasmia - the enlightened dancer Osho - www.oshoforum.ru &www.orientdance.ru

We welcome you, our dear visitors and subscribers to our website updates. Would you be interested to know how a man born in a small Indian village became famous throughout the world, became famous for his unconventional views on religion and the universe, achieved the highest degree of freedom and spiritual enlightenment, organized an entire commune, acquired a fleet of Rolls Royces and other interesting facts?

If yes, then read on, we will tell you about the great Indian leader, the mystical inspirer who comprehended the highest secrets of life, the founder of a qualitatively new religious and cultural movement, Osho. The biography of this person deserves special attention. Although the great sage himself said that he had no biography, and over the past thirty-two years he was an absolute nothing. In the article you will read the most outstanding, interesting and surprising facts from the life of the great mentor.

In the small Indian village of Kuchvade, in the state of Madhya Predesh, on December 11, 1931, a boy was born, who was named Chandra Mohan Jain. This is the official name of the future spiritual leader. His father was a textile trader. And over the next few years, ten more children were born into their family in succession. Chadra Mohan Jain was the eldest.

In his book “Glimpses of a Golden Childhood” Osho describes his village as a place where there was no post office and railway. He writes that there was a beautiful lake and small hills, the houses were covered with thatch. And the only brick house in the entire village was the one where Rajneesh himself was born, but this house was also small. There was not even a school in the village, for this reason Osho did not study until he was nine years old. And these years were the most valuable. Fifty years later, this village has not changed, there is no hospital or police, but no one gets sick there. Some people from these places have never seen a train or even a car in their lives, but they live quietly, blissfully and happily.

Your first seven years of life Osho lived with his dearly beloved maternal grandfather and grandmother. He was so attached to them that he called his grandmother mom. And he called his real mother “babi”, this term means “older brother’s wife.” His family belonged to the Jain religious community. The Jainism religion preaches non-violence, non-harm to all living things in the world, the main thing is the self-improvement of the soul to achieve omniscience and eternal bliss. It was the relatives who came up with the nickname Rajneesh or Raja for the boy, which means king.

When the boy was seven years old, death took away a very close and beloved person - his grandfather. It was a hard blow. Osho lay motionless on the sofa for three days, hoping to die. When this did not happen, he concluded for himself that death was impossible. The boy began to follow funeral processions in order to understand the essence of death, but this brought him nothing.

And at the age of fifteen he lost his girlfriend ( cousin Shashi), she died of abdominal type. These deaths successively had a very strong impact on Rajneesh's mental state. He suffered from depression, headaches, melancholy, and tortured himself by running twenty kilometers a day and long meditations.

Osho studied well at school, but often clashed with teachers, skipped classes, disobeyed and provoked his classmates in every possible way.

Later in his literary works, Osho openly writes that he hates teachers, at least in the old sense. He even beat his teachers. In his youth, he was distinguished by arrogance and selfishness, daring views, and denial of all social norms and rules.

Education and work.

• Osho went to school at the age of 9.
• At the age of 19, Rajneesh began his studies in philosophy at Hitkarine College, but as a result of a conflict with one of the teachers, he left this educational institution, continuing his studies at Jain College.
• At the age of 24, Osho graduated from college, and a couple of years later, having received a diploma with honors, he emerged from the gates of Sagar University with a Master of Philosophy.
• Until 1966, Rajneesh taught philosophy to students, at the same time traveling around the world and giving speeches, preaching his views. There were conflicts with the leadership because of its too free atheistic views, denying any conventions, traditions and requirements of social norms.
• After 1966, Osho began to actively present the art of meditation to the world, preaching the full joy of physical life and enlightenment through meditation.

Meditation and absolute enlightenment.

From early childhood, Chandra conducted experiments on his own body, studying its endurance and other capabilities. He dived into the whirlpool funnel, reached its source and swam to the surface. I walked along a thin path over the abyss. He claimed that during such experiences his mind stops, and then complete clarity and awakening sets in.

In addition, he practiced various types. And so, as a result of these researches, at the age of 21, the young man first experienced “satori” (a state of absolute enlightenment, happiness). This is an experience that cannot be described in words. Buddha called this state “nirvana.” Osho himself believed that he died that night, and then was reborn again, and now he is a completely different person than he lived before.

Rajneesh experienced the effects of all possible meditations and created a new technique, “dynamic meditation,” which involves the use of loud music and random movements.

Osho first organized such a meditation in 1970 near Bombay. It was an incredible, shocking sight. People ran, jumped, shouted, screamed, and tore off their clothes. The point of this technique was relaxation, that is, in order to completely relax and free your mind, you first had to get a lot of tension, so that in the second part of the meditation, complete relaxation would be an intoxicating contrast.

The connection between sex and superconsciousness.

In 1968, Osho moved to Bombay and was invited to hold a conference on the theme of love. There, the sage proclaims his views on sexuality, explaining that sexual energy, when transformed, develops into meditation and love. And sexual satisfaction contributes to the release of kundalini energy. This is energy “coiled into a snake” that “lives” at the base of the spine in the area of ​​the coccyx.

Osho denies the need to suppress sexual desires, because, in his opinion, during forced abstinence, love and meditation are not possible. And accordingly, it is not possible to achieve superconsciousness and personal inner freedom.

He had a negative attitude towards marriage and having children, but preached free love and loneliness. He was loyal to drugs and alcohol.
With such views, he provokes anger and indignation of the public, and conversations on the topic of “love” have to be held in a narrower circle in the central park of Mumbai. Subsequently, based on these conversations, Osho’s most popular book, “From Sex to Superconsciousness,” was published. They even began to secretly call him “Sex Guru.”

In 1970, the guru held his meditation camps and initiated the first group of selected people into “neo-sansyan”. They must completely renounce the world, all their property and personal life, and take a vow of celibacy. They wear red clothes, beads and medallions with the image of the mentor himself.

Moving to Pune

In 1974, the great sage moved to live in the city of Pune. There he organizes an ashram (a refuge for his followers). Hundreds of people from all over the world come there to listen to Osho's talks. He touches on the themes of human consciousness, spiritual development, enlightenment, and explains the essence and meaning of the religions of the world. Based on his conversations, more than a thousand books have been published by authors from different countries.

Osho followed the path of forming a new man, Zorba the Buddha. This is the one who, accepting and enjoying all the gifts of life (Zorba), cultivated in himself a higher spiritual consciousness (Buddha). Every day the master held very beautiful conversations with his students and followers.

American commune.

For several years, Osho suffered from asthma and diabetes, his condition worsened significantly in 1981. Then he was taken to the USA for treatment. The great sage fell into silence. Rajneesh's followers organized the Rancho Rajneeshpuram commune on the territory they purchased. Osho lived there for four years with his students.

Gradually, Rajneeshpuram grew to a whole city of about five thousand people. And the desert area has turned into a real green oasis. Every summer, admirers of Osho’s philosophy from all over the world came there. It was a daring, unprecedented attempt to create a transnational communist society. During the five years of its existence, not a single child was born in the commune.

Researchers of the biography of Osho Rajneesh note that by the end of 1982, his fortune reached two hundred million dollars (due to various seminars, meditation practices, conferences and lectures), which were not subject to taxes (Osho hated taxes. There was a case when he was still working professor, he was offered a salary increase, but the sage refused, citing the fact that he did not want to pay taxes). In addition, his fleet consisted of about one hundred Rolls Royces; his followers wanted to increase their number to three hundred and sixty-five, one for each day of the year. The mentor owned four more airplanes and one helicopter.

During the period of silence of the great teacher, the assistant to his personal secretary, Ma Ananda Shila, took over the management of the commune. Osho himself lived as a guest, practically never leaving home and not participating in the management of the commune. In addition, he begins to have more and more health problems.

During Sheela's reign, disagreements and contradictions arise in the commune, causing some students to leave Rajneeshpuram. And the top management, led by Sheela, use illegal methods: drugs, poison, weapons, bioterrorism.

In 1984, Osho suddenly ended his vow of silence and began to talk.

According to one version, Osho himself claims Shila as other followers who disappeared from Rajnipuram. The FBI begins an investigation, finds a cache of weapons, drugs and even a secret passage at the ranch in case of need to escape. According to the testimony of the residents of the commune, all this was arranged by Sheela and her assistants. They were detained in 1985 and later convicted.

Opponents of Rajneesh's teachings adhered to the version that the teacher himself was the organizer of all the chaos that was happening in the commune, and Sheela was his accomplice.

Rajneesh himself is facing 34 charges, of which he admits only two - illegal emigration (he entered America on a tourist visa). Moreover, they are detaining him without a warrant and without an indictment.

In his conversations, the educator was sincerely perplexed as to how the US authorities could bring 34 charges against a man who spent four years in captivity, in complete silence. The mentor is sentenced to 10 years of suspended imprisonment, a fine and is required to leave the United States as soon as possible. During the 12 days Osho spent in American prisons, in his opinion, he significantly undermined his health and they even tried to poison him with thallium (a highly toxic heavy metal).

Osho's reputation was ruined, especially in the west. As a result, twenty-one states refused entry to the educator. Rajneesh's organization was classified as a destructive sect. In the USSR, his movement was strictly prohibited.

Trip around the world.

In 1986, the mystic goes on a journey around the world. Having visited the countries of Greece, Switzerland, England, Ireland, Canada, Holland, Uruguay, from most of which he was expelled (except Uruguay), he returns to Bombay. There his followers again began to gather around him in large numbers, and the master returned to Pune, where he organized the International Osho Commune. Conversations, celebrations, and the creation of new meditation practices began again.

Death of Osho

Rajneesh loved the Himalayas, he believed that this was the best place to die. It's wonderful to live there, but it's the best place on earth to die. He sincerely believed that death for him would not be a complete stop, death would be a holiday, a new birth.

Osho left his bodily shell in 1990 in Pune.

According to eyewitnesses, on January 19 he became ill, he refused medical help, his intuition told him that the Universe itself knew when and who should leave. He knew that he was about to die, quietly closed his eyes and left this world.

There are several versions of his death. Some believe that he died of a heart attack, others say that from AIDS, oncology or drugs.
But this is not the main thing, the main thing is that after the death of Rajneesh, the attitude towards his philosophy changed in India and throughout the world. He has come to be considered a very important spiritual teacher, and his teachings are revered and studied in many countries.

The Osho Times International magazine is published twice a month; it is published in nine languages ​​(Russian is not among them). Osho meditation centers and ashrams continue to operate in many countries around the world. In Moscow there are several Osho meditation centers (for example, the “Winds” center), founded by his followers.

Names during life.

During his life, the great mentor changed his names several times.

Basic commandments of Osho.

During his lifetime, Osho was against any rules or postulates. Once, when asked by a journalist about the Ten Commandments, the sage formulated the following for fun:

1. Never follow any commandments unless they come from yourself.
2. Life is the only god, and there are no other gods.
3. The truth is within you, there is no need to look for it in the outside world.
4. Love is nothing more than prayer.
5. The path to realizing the truth is to become nothing. Nothingness is the goal of enlightenment.
6. You need to live here and now.
7. Wake up. Live consciously.
8. There is no need to swim - you need to float.
9. Try to die in every moment, so that in every moment you can be new.
10. There is no need to look for anything. You need to stop and see. It is what it is.

The main ideas of his movement are the third, seventh, ninth and tenth commandments. It’s worth thinking about; they really have a deep meaning.

This is just a brief description of the main stages of the life and spiritual activity of the great Osho. He died, but his works and the works of his followers around the world continue to exist and attract more and more people with their magical texts. If you are interested in his life path, his teachings or commandments, then you can purchase the books of the great enlightener in the “Magic Book” online store:

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May peace and goodness be with you!