Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
The mid-twentieth century witnessed the emergence of several spiritual movements that challenged both established Eastern religious institutions and Western secular thought. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, born on December 11, 1931, in Udaipura during the period of the British Raj, became a distinct figure within that broader spiritual landscape, working across religious, philosophical, and literary domains until his death on January 19, 1990, in Pune.
Educated at Dr. Hari Singh Gour University, Rajneesh worked as a writer, autobiographer, cleric, religious leader, mystic, guru, and philosopher. He operated in both English and Hindi, giving his teachings a presence across linguistic communities within India and beyond its borders. He is also known by the name Osho, a designation closely associated with his teachings and the movement he founded.
Rajneesh founded the Rajneesh movement, a spiritual organization that served as the institutional expression of his teachings. His approach to spiritual life was marked by a rejection of institutional religions and traditional ascetic practices, positions that set him apart from many contemporaries working within established religious frameworks. In their place, he advocated meditation as a central practice and taught a particular form he called dynamic meditation, which distinguished his method from more conventional contemplative traditions. These positions gave the Rajneesh movement a character that did not map neatly onto prior religious categories.
As a writer and autobiographer, Rajneesh produced work in both Hindi and English, and as a religious leader and godman he occupied a role that drew on philosophical as well as spiritual traditions. His rejection of institutional religion, his rejection of ascetic practice, and his advocacy of dynamic meditation together defined the public profile he maintained throughout his active years. He died in Pune on January 19, 1990, the city where he had lived and worked during a significant portion of his later life.
Quotes by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
There is a story told of one old wise man, whose name was Mencius. He was a follower of Confucius and he died when he was very, very old. Somebody asked him: If you were given life again, how will you start it? Said Mencius: I will pay more attention to my needs and less attention to my desires. And this realisation will come to you also. But it always comes very late and then life is no more in your hands. If you were given life again...
Your life is enough, don’t be concerned with others. And I tell you that if you can live unconcerned your life will flower, and then others can share in it. You would like to share, and you can give much to others, but first you must stop thinking about others and what they are thinking about you.
If you say, ’If those conditions are fulfilled then I will be blissful’, then these conditions are never going to be fulfilled. And, secondly, even if these conditions are fulfilled, by that time you will have lost the very capacity to celebrate and enjoy. And moreover, when these conditions are fulfilled – if ever, because they cannot be fulfilled – your mind will create further ideals.
Only that which is attained through effortlessness will never be a burden to you, and only that which is not a burden can be eternal. Only that which is not in any way unnatural can remain with you forever and forever.
Don’t be worried about the future. Live this moment so totally that the next moment comes out of it golden.
This is one of the subtle things to be understood. We are always wise if we have to advise others but when we are in the same trap, with the same problem, the same crisis, we are not so wise. If somebody else comes to you with a problem, you will give him good advice and the advice may be right. But if you have the same problem you will not be able to give yourself the same advice. Why? Because when it is somebody else’s problem you are detached.
A man of wisdom always looks at every problem from the other’s point of view also. You cannot be wise if you have only one point of view. Sometimes try to stand in others’ shoes and just look from there. And if you can understand the other, you will be able to understand yourself more. The other always sees that you are an egoist. You never see it, you are blind to yourself.
A man of wisdom always looks at every problem from the other’s point of view also. You cannot be wise if you have only one point of view. Sometimes try to stand in others’ shoes and just look from there.
In every relationship, you can always see the ego of the other, but you cannot see your own – and the other one goes on seeing your ego.