Outrageous, Outspoken The Unsurpassable Mystic

Swami Chaitanya Keerti

He is simply known as Osho. Earlier he was known as Acharya Shree Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and Beloved Master. But so often he reminded his disciples, devotees, lovers, and admirers that he is simply a friend:  "I am just a friend. I am here to explain to you how I have discovered the truth. Doubt has been my own process, my own way to reach to truth. And I would like you to become more and more sharp, intelligent. Doubt more scientifically. Just as in science doubt helps you to discover, it also helps in the inward journey.” ( the book "Theologica Mystica")

Now, one of his well-known disciples and a well-known ghostwriter of many books, Swami Anand Subhuti ( Journalist Peter Waight, who used to be a young political reporter for the Birmingham Post ) has written a book on Osho: Wild Wild Guru: An Insider’s Account of His Life with Bhagawan, the World’s Most Controversial Guru. And recently, there was an article published in The Times, London about this book, which says: This book is a fascinating social history, with many celebrities, from Diana Ross to Prince Charles. The prince was visiting near the Bhagwan ashram in India in 1980 and sent the guru a question. Waight says he did not know the prince’s question, but Bhagwan’s answer was: “England will never understand you.”

Peter Waight titles his book Wild Wild Guru, to encash the success of the Wild Wild Country on Netflix. It was a smart idea. Just like Subhuti, the whole world has been calling Osho a Guru, Sex-Guru, Richman's Guru, the Reluctant Guru etc, the young generation calls him Cool-Cool Guru, but Osho himself does not want to be called Guru or a Messiah or a Prophet. Osho says: I am not the last prophet, messiah or savior of a certain tradition. I am the beginning, not the end, of a totally new approach to life and its problems, inviting everything conceivable, inconceivable, to be my guest.

He adds: I am just a friend, a humble beginning, a living reality with everyday new excitement, new ecstasies, new spaces; and capable to absorb them all, not afraid of any progress. If anything is wrong, I am always ready to drop it, always to be on the side of truth. There are two kinds of people: those who want the truth to be always on their side — these are the egoists, arrogant. And there is another type of person who always wants to be on the side of truth, whatever the cost; if he has to lose everything, he is ready, but he cannot stop being on the side of truth. These are the humble ones, these are the true holy people of the earth — and there have been very few. [The Transmission of the Lamp, Chapter #23]During his lifetime (11 December 1931 to 19 January 1990) Osho shared his vision with thousands of people who gathered around him in his communes in Pune and Rajneesh Puram and millions of his lovers around the world. Inspired by him and his fascinating vision, these people created Osho centers, the ashrams, and the communes, with his guidance. The creation and administration of these centers and communes were coordinated and managed by his enthusiastic and dedicated disciples. In Pune, it was Ma Yoga Laxmi as his secretary and in Rajneeshpuram, USA, it was Ma Anand Sheela as his secretary, who were in-charge for the functioning of the commune. They were fully responsible to execute his vision effectively or badly. Osho was a guest everywhere, as he says: " I am just a guest in the commune, and of course you treat me like a guest – that’s perfectly right. A guest should be treated as a guest; you are my hosts. But I don’t have anything. That does not mean that I have to live like a beggar – that much intelligence I have. I need not live like a beggar; without having money I can live like an emperor. Is not that proof enough of enlightenment? I don’t earn, I don’t do a thing, I never leave my room. I can’t even count money properly – you know my counting. After the first question comes the third, after the third comes the second…"  ( Philosophia Ultima 12)

But now the time is certainly ripe for Osho to be understood, as Khushwant Singh wrote: "Within a few years from now his Osho's message will be heard all over the world. He was the most original thinker that India has produced: the most erudite, the most clear-headed and the most innovative. And in addition he had an inborn gift of words, spoken and written. The like of him we will not see for decades to come...He has to be judged as a thinker, and as a thinker he will rank amongst the giants." Osho calls himself the Blessed One: " The word Bhagwan means "the Blessed One." When people started feeling my blessing throbbing in their hearts, when they started feeling that something has happened to me of immense value which they would like to share, they started calling me Bhagwan. I could not deny it because it was a fact: I was the Blessed One." (Interview-- Ken Kashiwahara God Morning America and ABC Network USA)

Another Question: You said you didn't believe in controlling and have no control. But do you not have either control or tremendous influence over  350,000 of your followers?

Osho: I don't have any control. I don't give these half million people( Sannyasins)  who love me any discipline. I don't give them any commandments. I insistently emphasize that they are not my followers, but only fellow travelers. It is up to them to go a few miles with me or not to go. If they join with me, I'm happy; when they depart, I say goodbye.

Osho has been the most misunderstood mystic of all times. To sum it I would quote Tom Robbins, the celebrated American novelist, and author: "Osho is the most dangerous man since Jesus Christ... He's obviously a very effective man, otherwise, he wouldn't be such a threat. He's saying the same things that nobody else has the courage to say. A man who has all kinds of ideas, they're not only inflammatory--they also have a resonance of truth that scares the pants off the control freaks." ( Tom Robbins, author of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Still Life with Woodpecker and Jitterbug Perfume)

Another quote is from Wild Ducks Flying Backward: The Short Writings of Tom Robbins--Typhoon Bhagwan is not whistling Dixie. He is not peddling snake oil. He won’t sell you a mandala that will straighten your teeth or teach you a chant that will make you a millionaire. Although he definitely knows which side his bread is Buddha-ed on, he refuses to play by the rules of the spiritual marketplace, a refreshing attitude, in my opinion, and one that stations him in some pretty strong company.

He adds: Jesus had his parables, Buddha his sutras, Mohammed his fantasies of the Arabian night. Bhagwan has something more appropriate for a species crippled by greed, fear, ignorance, and superstition: he has cosmic comedy. What Bhagwan is out to do, it seems to me, is pierce our disguises, shatter our illusions, cure our addictions, and demonstrate the self-limiting and often tragic folly of taking ourselves too seriously. His pathway to ecstasy twist through the topsy-turvy landscape of the Ego as Joke.

Some of Osho quotes:

― Osho, Creativity: Unleashing the Forces Within

“With me, illusions are bound to be shattered. I am here to shatter all illusions. Yes, it will irritate you, it will annoy you - that's my way of functioning and working. I will sabotage you from your very roots! Unless you are totally destroyed as a mind, there is no hope for you.” ― Osho

A bit more about his wit and wisdom and the jokes:

"LET'S NOT CHANGE THE SUBJECT?" said Nasrudin.

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"GOOD," said Nasrudin rolling over. 'NOW GO GET YOUR OWN DAMN BLANKET."