I was in India when Rajneesh, or Osho, was ordered to leave. The government had opened investigations into multiple allegations of criminal behavior in connection to Osho. These included charges related to Osho-sanctioned prostitution, international drug trafficking, gold smuggling, money laundering, and tax evasion. It affected me because I had loved his earlier writings and felt he was pandering to the undisciplined party atmosphere Americans and some Europeans desired.
Ordered by the government, Osho had to pay back taxes, a major blow to his reputation that greatly angered the Rajneeshees. In 1981, the year he left for Oregon from India, more criminality took place. Referred to as one of the most terrible cases of a bio-terrorism attack in America, Osho’s followers reportedly poisoned half Wasco’s county’s voters (in an attempt to take over the county) by pouring or spraying Salmonella-tainted liquid on salad bars of ten popular restaurants. A total of 751 people were affected by the poisoning and hospital beds were full of patients in critical condition.
Obviously, there is nothing spiritual about killing people, or trying to kill people for the sake of power. Also, Osho’s goal of having 365 Rolls Royces for every day of the year did not denote a life of simplicity in the guru lineage. Furthermore, Osho’s ruthless deputy Sheela attempted to have his physician, Dr. Andrews, killed, ordering an accomplice to poison him with a shot of adrenaline to the buttocks. By this time, Osho was a regular Nitrous Oxide user (administered by Dr. Andrews) and it wouldn’t have looked good if word got out about this addiction.
Finally, for spiritual enlightenment or awakening, we don’t need to go into extended periods of ecstatic dance and indiscriminate sex to get there. This appealed to Americans, who wanted to party hearty and still have the trappings of spirtuality. Osho’s theory is that we must overcome our inhibitions to get into the deeper layers of our consciousness. But sitting quietly and centering on the Higher Self through conscious breathing is a much more effective method and truer to the yogic path. All that sweaty dancing around and orgiastic behavior may be fun, but it has nothing whatsoever to do with understanding the non-dual aspects of the Universe.
Hatred, killing, poisoning, and sexual exploitation are the paths to chaos, not to any kind of spiritual realization. At one time Osho spoke beautifully of love and I admired his way of expressing eternal truths.
“Love is a spiritual experience – nothing to do with sexes and nothing to do with bodies, but something to do with the innermost being.”
“I teach you to be more conscious. And love will come as you become more conscious: it is a guest that comes, that comes inevitably to those who are ready and prepared to receive it.”
But somewhere along the line, he got twisted, as so many “gurus” have. It then became all about ego, greed, power, sexual exploitation, addiction, and destruction. Osho’s ego-mind overcame and counterbalanced all the good he brought to the spirit-based life he had passionately proposed in his early practice.
Ordered by the government, Osho had to pay back taxes, a major blow to his reputation that greatly angered the Rajneeshees. In 1981, the year he left for Oregon from India, more criminality took place. Referred to as one of the most terrible cases of a bio-terrorism attack in America, Osho’s followers reportedly poisoned half Wasco’s county’s voters (in an attempt to take over the county) by pouring or spraying Salmonella-tainted liquid on salad bars of ten popular restaurants. A total of 751 people were affected by the poisoning and hospital beds were full of patients in critical condition.
Obviously, there is nothing spiritual about killing people, or trying to kill people for the sake of power. Also, Osho’s goal of having 365 Rolls Royces for every day of the year did not denote a life of simplicity in the guru lineage. Furthermore, Osho’s ruthless deputy Sheela attempted to have his physician, Dr. Andrews, killed, ordering an accomplice to poison him with a shot of adrenaline to the buttocks. By this time, Osho was a regular Nitrous Oxide user (administered by Dr. Andrews) and it wouldn’t have looked good if word got out about this addiction.
Finally, for spiritual enlightenment or awakening, we don’t need to go into extended periods of ecstatic dance and indiscriminate sex to get there. This appealed to Americans, who wanted to party hearty and still have the trappings of spirtuality. Osho’s theory is that we must overcome our inhibitions to get into the deeper layers of our consciousness. But sitting quietly and centering on the Higher Self through conscious breathing is a much more effective method and truer to the yogic path. All that sweaty dancing around and orgiastic behavior may be fun, but it has nothing whatsoever to do with understanding the non-dual aspects of the Universe.
Hatred, killing, poisoning, and sexual exploitation are the paths to chaos, not to any kind of spiritual realization. At one time Osho spoke beautifully of love and I admired his way of expressing eternal truths.
“Love is a spiritual experience – nothing to do with sexes and nothing to do with bodies, but something to do with the innermost being.”
“I teach you to be more conscious. And love will come as you become more conscious: it is a guest that comes, that comes inevitably to those who are ready and prepared to receive it.”
But somewhere along the line, he got twisted, as so many “gurus” have. It then became all about ego, greed, power, sexual exploitation, addiction, and destruction. Osho’s ego-mind overcame and counterbalanced all the good he brought to the spirit-based life he had passionately proposed in his early practice.
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