Rajneesh was an Indian godman, mystic, and founder of the Rajneesh movement. During his lifetime, he was viewed as a controversial new religious movement leader and mystic. In advocating a more open attitude to human sexuality he caused controversy in India during the late 1960s. His teachings have had an impact on Western New Age thought, and their popularity has reportedly increased since his death.
About Rajneesh in brief
Rajneesh was an Indian godman, mystic, and founder of the Rajneesh movement. During his lifetime, he was viewed as a controversial new religious movement leader and mystic. In advocating a more open attitude to human sexuality he caused controversy in India during the late 1960s. In 1985, in the wake of a series of serious crimes by his followers, including a mass food poisoning attack with salmonella bacteria and an aborted assassination plot to murder U.S. Attorney Charles H. Turner, he alleged that his personal secretary Ma Anand Sheela and her close supporters had been responsible. He was later deported from the United States in accordance with an Alford plea bargain. After his deportation, 21 countries denied him entry. He ultimately returned to India and revived the Pune ashram, where he died in 1990. His teachings have had an impact on Western New Age thought, and their popularity has reportedly increased since his death. He became critical of traditional religion, took an interest in hypnosis, breath control, yogic exercises, meditation, fasting, the occult, and hypnosis. He also became a vocal critic of socialism and two Indian nationalist organisations: The Indian National Army and the Rashtriya Samsevak Sangh. In 1951, aged 19, he began his studies at Hitkarini College in Jabalpur, India. He later transferred to Nalpur Nain Jain College, Nain, India, and later to Dpurpur College in Nain. In 1970, he spent time in Mumbai initiating followers known as \”neo-sannyasins\”.
During this period he expanded his spiritual teachings and commented extensively in discourses on the writings of religious traditions, mystics, bhakti poets, and philosophers from around the world. In 1974, he relocated to Pune, where an ashram was established and a variety of therapies, incorporating methods first developed by the Human Potential Movement, were offered to a growing Western following. By the late 1970s, the tension between the ruling Janata Party government of Morarji Desai and the movement led to a curbing of the ashram’s development and a back tax claim estimated at USD 5 million. In 1981, the movement’s efforts refocused on activities in the US and Rajneesh relocated to Wasco County, Oregon. His ashram is now known as OSHO International Meditation Resort, and all associated intellectual property, is managed by the registered Osho International Foundation. He died of a heart attack in 1990 at the age of 49. He is survived by his wife, Shashi, and two children, Ravi and Ravi Jain, who were born in Kuchwada, Madhya Pradesh state in India. His parents, Babulal and Saraswati Jain,. who were Taranpanthi Jains, let him live with his maternal grandparents until he was seven years old. By his own account, this was a major influence on his development because his grandmother gave him the utmost freedom, leaving him carefree.
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This page is based on the article Rajneesh published in Wikipedia (as of Jan. 04, 2021) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
