Osho’s ashes are brought to Osho Commune International two days later and placed in His samadhi in Chuang Tzu Auditorium with the inscription:
OSHO
Never Born
Never Died
Only Visited This Planet Earth Between
11 December 1931 – 19 January 1990
"I am an invitation for all those who are seeking, searching, and have a deep longing in their hearts, to find a home."
-Osho
Osho is born in Kuchwada, a small village in the state of Madhya Pradesh, central India. He is given the birth-name Rajneesh Chander Mohan. By the 1960s Osho is known as Acharya Rajneesh. By the 1970s he is Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and finally he is known as Osho by 1989 onwards.
Osho says of his parents: “I had chosen this couple for their love, their intimacy, their almost one-ness.”
Following the death of his paternal grandmother, Osho is sent to live with his maternal grandparents. They provide him with an extraordinary atmosphere of love, freedom, and respect. This by his own accounts, is a major influence in his development and his nature to boldly question and challenge everything for the sake of truth
When Osho is seven years old, his maternal grandfather dies with his head in Osho′s lap as they travel in the back of a bullock cart on the long journey to reach the nearest doctor. This has a profound effect on his inner life.
Osho and his grandmother both move to Gadarwada, the town where his parents live. There he is enrolled in school for the first time. Osho is both highly-rebellious and extraordinarily-gifted as a student. He also continues his often solitary approach to life that characterizes his early years.
At the age of fourteen, he undertakes a seven-day experiment, waiting for death, provoked by an unusual prediction by an astrologer, as quoted by Osho: “If this child survives after seven years, only then will I make the chart. It seems impossible that he can survive for more than seven years, so if the child is going to die it is useless to make the chart; it will be of no use. It is almost certain that this child is going to die at the age of twenty-one. Every seven year he will have to face death.”
21 March 1953: At the age of twenty-one, Osho attains Enlightenment. “For many lives I had been working on myself, struggling, doing whatsoever can be done – and nothing was happening. The very effort was a barrier… Not that one can reach without seeking. Seeking is needed, but then comes a point when seeking has to be dropped… And that day the search stopped… it started happening.”
Osho receives His M.A. from the University of Sagar with First Class Honors in Philosophy. He is also the All-India Debating Champion and Gold Medal winner, earning a formidable reputation for his public-speaking and debating across India.
Osho is appointed Professor of Philosophy at the University of Jabalpur, where he teaches until 1966, using often controversial methods that also make him highly popular. A powerful and passionate debater, He also travels frequently and widely across India, speaking to large audiences as Acharya Rajneesh, and challenging orthodox religious leaders in public debates.
In 1962 Osho opens his first Meditation Centres known as Jivan Jagruti Kendras (Life Awakening Centres), and names his movement Jivan Jagruti Andolan (Life Awakening Movement).
After nine years of teaching, He quits the university to devote Himself entirely to the raising of human consciousness. Osho begins to regularly address massive gatherings of 20,000 to 50,000 people, in the open-air grounds of India’s major cities. Four times a year He conducts intense ten-day meditation camps.
The discourses and talks delivered by Osho in Hindi start becoming available in English translations, further widening his impact and spreading his word abroad.
September 1969: At Pahalgam in Kashmir, followers of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi invite Osho to talk to them. This is his first occasion to speak publicly in English to a western audience. “When I started using English, for two or three months I was thinking in Hindi and speaking in English. It was a double trouble.”
14th April 1970: Osho introduces to the seekers His revolutionary meditation technique, Dynamic Meditation. He personally conducts the meditation amongst his earlier disciples, at various city gardens, beaches, and mountain-retreats across India.
On 27 June 1970, a send-off celebration is held for Osho in Jabalpur. On 1 July, Osho moves to Bombay, shifting soon to Woodland Apartments. Osho gives regular evening discourses to about 50 people, including his first set of western seekers. Evening talks often conclude with meditations, or kirtan, or shaktipat. Osho stays in Bombay till 1974.
26th September to 5th October: Osho holds a meditation camp in Manali, Himachal Pradesh, among the Himalayan mountains. On 26th September he initiates his first group of disciples into neo-sannyas, pictured here. Discover more about Neo-Sannyas here.
21 March 1974: Osho celebrates his Enlightenment Day with friends in Mumbai in the morning, and then that afternoon in Poona, where his secretary, Ma Yog Laxmi buys for him #33 Koregaon Park. Soon a bustling Ashram that attracts people from all over the world grows around him, with over 100,000 people crossing its gate each year.
The discourses and talks delivered by Osho in Hindi start becoming available in English translations, further widening his impact and spreading his word abroad.
1974-1981: In the evenings, Osho answers individual questions on personal matters such as love, jealousy, meditation. These ‘darshans’ are compiled in 64 darshan diaries. Osho also gives Sannyas at these meetings, and also holds ‘Energy Darshan’ sessions (energy transmission to the disciples).
The Poona Ashram of Osho offers a wide variety of therapy groups which combine Eastern meditation techniques with Western psychotherapy. Therapists from all over the world are attracted and the international community gains a reputation as ‘the world’s finest growth and therapy center.’ Meanwhile, provoked by Osho’s controversial statements and methods, a Hindu fundamentalist hurls a knife at Osho during his discourse, but misses.
In March 1981, after giving daily discourses for nearly 15 years, Osho begins a three-year period of self-imposed public silence. In view of the possible need for emergency surgery for a degenerative back condition, and on the recommendation of His personal doctors, He travels to the U.S. This same year, His American disciples purchase a 64,000-acre ranch in Oregon and invite Him to visit. He eventually agrees to stay in the U.S. and allows an application for permanent residence to be filed on His behalf.
A model agricultural commune rises from the ruins of the central Oregonian high desert. Thousands of overgrazed and economically unviable acres are reclaimed. The city of Rajneeshpuram is incorporated and eventually provides services to 5,000 residents. Annual summer festivals are held which draw about 15,000 visitors from all over the world.
Osho gains further notoriety in the world with his growing collection of 93 Rolls Royce cars: The largest owner of these in the world at that time. These cars are gifts to him by his disciples who eventually want him to have 365, one for every day of the year. Until November 1984 he does not speak publicly, only driving by slowly in his Rolls Royce as disciples stand by on the road. Osho on why Rolls Royce cars.
July 1985: Osho ends his silence in October 1984, and by July 1985, resumes his public discourses each morning, to thousands of seekers gathered in Rajneesh Mandir, a two-acre meditation hall at Rajneeshpuram.
September 14: Osho’s personal secretary Ma Anand Sheela and several members of the commune’s management suddenly leave, and a whole pattern of illegal acts they have committed – including poisoning, arson, wiretapping, and attempted murder – are exposed. Osho invites law enforcement officials to investigate Sheela’s crimes. The authorities, however, see the investigation as a golden opportunity to destroy the commune entirely.
October 28: Without warrants, federal and local officials arrest at gun point Osho and his caretakers in Charlotte, North Carolina, on charges of immigration fraud. While the others are released, He is held without bail for twelve days.
November: A five-hour return plane trip to Oregon takes four days. En route, Osho is held incommunicado and forced to register under the pseudonym, David Washington, in the Oklahoma County jail.
November: Subsequent events indicate that it is probable that Osho is poisoned with the heavy metal thallium while in Oklahoma County Jail and the El Reno Federal Penitentiary.
November: Emotions and publicity swell around Osho’s immigration case. Fearing for His life and the well-being of sannyasins in volatile Oregon, attorneys agree to an Alford Plea on two out of 35 of the original charges against Him. According to the rules of the plea, the defendant maintains innocence while saying that the prosecution could have convicted him. Osho and His attorneys maintain His innocence in the court. He is fined $400,000 and is deported from America.
November 1985, Manali: On being deported from USA, Osho arrives in India where he heads straight to Manali in Himachal Pradesh.
January-February: He travels to Kathmandu, Nepal and speaks twice daily for the next two months. In February, the Nepalese government refuses visas for His international disciples and closest attendants. He leaves Nepal and embarks further on His world tour.
February-March: On his world tour in his private jet, Osho’s next stop is Greece, where He is granted a 30-day tourist visa. But after only 18 days, on March 5, Greek police forcibly break into the house where He is staying, arrest Him at gun point, and deport him. Greek media reports indicate government and church pressure provoke the police intervention.
March 2006: After being deported from Greece, Osho visits or asks permission to visit 17 countries in Europe and the Americas. All of these countries either refuse to grant Him a visitor’s visa or revoke His visa upon His arrival, and force Him to leave. Some refuse even landing permission for His plane.
March-June: On March 19 Osho travels to Uruguay. On May 14th the government has scheduled a press conference to announce that Osho will be granted permanent residence. Uruguay’s President Sanguinetti later admits that he received a telephone call from Washington, D.C. the night before. He is told that if Osho is allowed to stay, the six billion dollar debt Uruguay owes to the U.S. will be due immediately and no further loans will be granted. Osho is ordered to leave Uruguay on June 18th. Read about the uncertain times in Uruguay with Osho.
June-July: After being forced to leave Uruguay, Osho is deported from Jamaica and compelled to leave Portugal. In all, 21 countries deny Him entry or else deport Him after arrival. On 29 July 1986, Osho returns to Mumbai, India.
July 1986: When Osho returned to India after his World Tour Osho stayed for a few months in Suraj Prakash’s house ‘Sumila’ near Juhu Beach, Mumbai. During that time daily discourses were held in the large living room of his house.
January 1987: Osho returns to the ashram in Pune, India, which is initially renamed Rajneeshdham. He starts delivering discourses twice a day. Thousands of seekers from around the world come together again to be in the presence of Osho, and a new commune grows around him.
July 1988: Osho begins, for the first time in 14 years, to personally lead the meditation at the end of each evening’s discourse. He also introduces a revolutionary new meditation technique called The Mystic Rose.
January 1989: He stops using the name “Bhagwan”. Later His disciples ask to call Him ‘Osho’ and He accepts to be addressed as Osho Rajneesh. Osho explains that His name is derived from William James’ word ‘oceanic’ which means dissolving into the ocean. “Oceanic describes the experience,” He says, “but what about the experiencer? For that we use the word ‘Osho.’” He also discovers that historically in the Far East, ‘Osho’ means “The Blessed One, on Whom the Sky Showers Flowers.” Also see ‘The Joke is Over‘ as well as ‘What Is An “Osho”‘.
March-June 1989: Osho is resting to recover from the effects of the poisoning, which by now are strongly influencing His health. On April 10, 1989, He stops giving His public discourses, concluding with His last discourse on Zen. And His last words are: ‘Remember that you are a Buddha – Sammasati’.
July 1989: His health is getting better and He makes two appearances for silent darshans during the Guru Purnima Festival, now renamed Osho Full Moon Celebration.
July 1989: His health is getting better and He makes two appearances for silent darshans during the Guru Purnima Festival, now renamed Osho Full Moon Celebration.
July 1989: Osho begins to make daily appearances in Gautama the Buddha Auditorium for evening darshan. He inaugurates a special group of white-robed sannyasins called the “Osho White Robe Brotherhood.” All sannyasins and non-sannyasins attending the evening darshans are asked to wear white robes.
September 1989: Osho drops the name “Rajneesh,” signifying His complete discontinuity from the past. He is known simply as “Osho,” and the ashram is renamed “Osho Commune International.”
January 1990: During the second week in January, Osho’s body becomes noticeably weaker. On January 17 he arrives at Gautam the Buddha Auditorium, folds his hands in his last Namaste, and leaves. On January 18, He is physically too weak to come to the auditorium.
19 January: Osho’s pulse becomes irregular. When His doctor inquires whether they should prepare for cardiac resuscitation, Osho says, “No, just let me go. Existence decides its timing.” He then leaves His body. At 7 p.m. His body is brought to Gautama the Buddha Auditorium for a celebration, and is then carried to the burning ghats for cremation.
