The Rajneesh movement is a new religious movement inspired by the Indian godman known as Rajneesh or Osho (1931–1990). They were formerly known as Rajneeshees, "neo-sanyassins" (or simply "sanyassins") or "Orange People" (because of the orange clothing they wore from 1970 until 1985). Members of the movement are sometimes called Oshoites in the Indian press.Abhay Vaidya (27 May 2005). Oshoites amused by American terrorism tag, The Times of India. Retrieved 15 July 2011.- Sunanda Mehta (27 April 2008). Maroon-clad Oshoites no longer endemic to city, The Indian Express. Retrieved 15 July 2011.- Chandran Iyer (10 June 2009). Osho Commune 'least interested in Indians', MiD DAY. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
The movement was controversial in the 1970s and 1980s, due to Osho's hostility first to Hindu morality in India and later to Christian morality in the United States. In the Soviet Union, the movement was banned as being contrary to "positive aspects of Indian culture and to the aims of the youth protest movement in Western countries".A. A. Tkacheva, Counter-culture Slogans in the System of Right Wing Radicalism in India (1986) English abstract
Rajneeshpuram, an intentional community founded by the group in Wasco County, Oregon, caused immediate tensions in the local community for its attempts to take over the nearby town of Antelope and later the county seat of The Dalles.
At the peak of these tensions, a circle of leading members of the Rajneeshpuram Oregon commune was arrested for crimes including a plot to assassinate U.S. Attorney Charles H. Turner and the United States's first recorded bio-terror attack calculated to influence the outcome of a local election in their favour; these efforts ultimately failed. In the bioterror attack, Salmonella bacteria were deployed to infect salad products in a variety of local establishments, which poisoned several hundred people. The Bhagwan, as Rajneesh was then called, was deported from the United States in 1985 as part of his Alford plea deal following the convictions of members of his staff and his former assistant Ma Anand Sheela, who were found guilty of the attack. After his deportation, 21 countries denied him entry. The movement's headquarters eventually returned to Pune, India. The Oregon commune was destroyed in September 1985.
The movement in India gradually received a more positive response from the surrounding society, especially after the founder's death in 1990. The Osho International Foundation (OIF), previously the Rajneesh International Foundation, is managed by an "Inner Circle" set up by Rajneesh before his death. They jointly administer Rajneesh's estate and operate the Osho International Meditation Resort in Pune.
In the late 1990s, former followers and affiliated groups challenged OIF's copyright holdings over Rajneesh's works and the validity of its royalty claims on publishing or reprinting of materials.Osho's Legacy; Royalty Ruckus originally published in India Today 3 July 2000. Retrieved 7 December 2009. In the United States, following a 10-year legal battle with Osho Friends International (OFI), the OIF (Osho International Foundation) lost its exclusive rights over the trademark OSHO in January 2009.(18 July 2009) Osho trademark:OIF appeal dismissed, The Indian Express. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
In 2017, the General Court of the European Union ruled in favour of the Osho International Foundation in a dispute concerning the "OSHO" trademark and upheld its registration in the European Union.
There are numerous centres of the movement in India and elsewhere, including in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.
History
Origins
Rajneesh began speaking in public in 1958, while still a lecturer (later professor) in philosophy at Jabalpur University. He lectured throughout India during the 1960s, promoting meditation and the ideals of free love, a social movement based on a civil libertarian philosophy that rejects state regulation and religious interference in personal relationships; he also denounced marriage as a form of social bondage, especially for women.McElroy, Wendy. "The Free Love Movement and Radical Individualism." Libertarian Enterprise .19 (1996): 1. He criticised socialism and Gandhi, but supported capitalism, science, technology and birth control,FitzGerald, Frances (29 September 1986), "Rajneeshpuram", The New Yorker, p. 77. warning against overpopulation and criticising religious teachings that he said promoted poverty and subjection.
He became known as Acharya Rajneesh, Acharya meaning "teacher or professor" and "Rajneesh" being a childhood nickname (from Sanskrit rajani, night and isha, lord). By 1964, a group of wealthy backers had initiated an educational trust to support Rajneesh and aid in the running of meditation retreats. The association formed at this time was known as Jivan Jagruti Andolan (Hindi for 'Life Awakening Movement'). As sociologist Marion Goldman puts it, his rapidly growing clientele suggested "that he was an unusually talented spiritual therapist". Around this time he "acquired a business manager" from the upper echelons of Indian society, Laxmi Thakarsi Kuruwa, a politically well-connected woman who would function as his personal secretary and organisational chief. She became Rajneesh's first sannyasin (, disciple), taking the name Ma Yoga Laxmi. Laxmi, the daughter of a key supporter of the Nationalist Congress Party, with close ties to Gandhi, Nehru and Morarji Desai, retained this role for almost 15 years.
Growth
University of Jabalpur officials forced Rajneesh to resign his position in 1966. He developed his role as a spiritual teacher, supporting himself through lectures, meditation camps and individual meetings (, Darshan or darśana—meaning "sight") for his wealthier followers. In 1971 he initiated six sannyasins, the emergence of the Neo-Sannyas International Movement. Rajneesh differentiated his sannyas from the traditional practice, admitting women and viewing renunciation as a process of renouncing ego rather than the world. Disciples still adopted the traditional mala, and ochre robe, and change of name. At this time, Rajneesh adopted the title "Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh".
By 1972, he had initiated 3,800 sannyasins in India. The total for the rest of the world at that time was 134, including 56 from the United States, 16 each from Britain and Germany, 12 each from Italy and the Philippines, 8 in Canada, 4 in Kenya, 2 in Denmark and 1 each from France, the Netherlands, Australia, Greece, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland.Yoga Chinmaya, Neo-sannyas International: Visions and Activities, Life Awakening Movement Publications, Bombay 1972. After a house was purchased for Rajneesh in Poona in 1974, he founded an ashram, and membership of the movement grew. More seekers began to visit from western nations, including therapists from the Human Potential Movement. They began to run group therapy at the ashram.
Rajneesh became the first Eastern guru to embrace modern psychotherapy. He discoursed daily upon religious scriptures, combining elements of Western philosophy, jokes and personal anecdotes. He commented on Hinduism, Zen and other religious sources, and Western psychotherapeutic approaches.
Swami Prem Amitabh (Robert Birnbaum), one of the therapists in the Poona ashram, estimates that there were about 100,000 sannyasins by 1979. Bob Mullan, a sociologist from the University of East Anglia, states that "at any one time there were about 6,000 Rajneeshees in Poona, some visiting for weeks or months to do groups or meditations, with about two thousand working and living on a permanent basis in and around the ashram." Lewis F. Carter, a sociologist from the Washington State University, estimates that 2,000 sannyasins resided at Rajneeshpuram, Oregon at its height.
A long drawn-out fight with land use non-profit organisation 1000 Friends of Oregon hurt the organisation. This took the form of both organisations pursuing legal interventions against each other. 1000 Friends objected to Rajneesh's proposed building plans in Antelope, near Rajneeshpuram. The fight lasted for several years and attracted the attention of various media outlets.
1984 bio-terror attack and subsequent decline
Several incidents that led to a decline of the movement occurred in The Dalles, the county seat and largest city of Wasco County, Oregon.
In 1984, Rajneeshee teams engaged in a bioterror attack in which they purposely contaminated salad products with salmonella at local restaurants and shops. Their actions resulted in the non-lethal poisoning of 751 people. The motivation behind the attack was to rig the local election allowing the Rajneeshees to gain political power in the city and county. According to scholar Syed Adrian Ali Shah, the attack was an act of Hindu terrorism.
The Rajneeshees were also discovered to have been running what was called "the longest wiretapping operation ever uncovered".
These revelations brought criminal charges against several Rajneeshee leaders, including Ma Anand Sheela, personal secretary to Rajneesh, who pleaded guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault.
The convictions would eventually lead to the deportation of the leader of the movement, Rajneesh, along with a 10-year suspended sentence and $400,000 fine, in 1985.- - Professor of Religious Studies at Ohio State University, Hugh B. Urban, has commented that the most surprising feature of the Osho phenomenon lies in Rajneesh's "remarkable apotheosis upon his return to India", which resulted in his achieving even more success in his homeland than before. According to Urban, Rajneesh's followers had succeeded in portraying him as a martyr, promoting the view that the Ranch "was crushed from within by the Attorney General's office ... like the marines in Lebanon, the Ranch was hit by hardball opposition and driven out."
In 1986, after being deported from the U.S., and before arriving at India, Rajneesh wandered throughout Europe with his jet, going from country to country. He flew to Greece but was arrested by "scores of armed police" and was then deported again. He then flew to Ireland, where he stayed for awhile in a luxury hotel, but eventually decided to leave for Spain. Eventually, he reached India, although he traveled to a variety of other places before arriving in India, including Uruguay, Canada and Nepal, among many others.
In 1990, Rajneesh died and was cremated at the ashram in Poona; which became the Osho International Meditation Resort. Identifying as the Esalen of the East, the resort has classes in a variety of spiritual techniques from a broad range of traditions and markets the facility as a spiritual oasis, a "sacred space" for discovering one's self, and uniting the desires of body and mind in a resort environment. According to press reports, it attracts some 200,000 people from all over the world each year; prominent visitors have included politicians, media personalities and the Dalai Lama.
After Rajneesh's death, various disagreements ensued concerning his wishes and his legacy. This led to the formation of a number of rival collectives. One of the central disagreements related to OIF's copyright control over his works. One group, Osho Friends International, spent 10 years challenging the OIF's use of the title OSHO as an exclusive trademark.
The movement continued after Rajneesh's death. The Osho International Foundation (OIF), the successor to the Neo-Sannyas International Foundation, now propagates his views, operating once more out of the Pune ashram in India. The organisation ran a pre-web, global computer network called "OSHONET" in the 1990s, before communicating on the Internet. Current leaders of Pune have allegedly downplayed early controversies in Oregon in an effort to appeal to a wider audience.