The Glorious Rise & Scandalous Fall of ‘Sex Guru’ Osho

An explainer on how Osho created one of the most infamous cults in history, before the law caught up with him.

(This article has been republished from The Quint’s archives to mark Rajneesh’s death anniversary. It was originally published on April 2018.)

The internet has been all hyped up about Netflix’s Wild Wild Country, a documentary series explaining the rise and fall of spiritual guru Rajneesh or Osho and his ideology known as “Rajneeshism”. This has revived interest in the man who inspired thousands of believers from across the world to leave their homes and follow him into the unknown.

Who was Osho? India is certainly no stranger to the idea of the so called ‘god men’, but the kind of cult that he left behind, is commendable even by the country’s historical and spiritual standards. A firm believer of ‘free love’, Osho’s teachings stood out from both his contemporaries and his predecessors in the sense that he believed in a “materialistic spirituality”.

Who Was Osho and What is Rajneeshism?

Born in a small village in Bareli, Madhya Pradesh, as Chandra Mohan Jain, Osho’s transformation from a young man drawn to hypnosis led him to believe in a transcendental life. As a powerful leader, he managed to influence, control and secure a god-like devotion from billionaire heirs, celebrities, lawyers and farmers alike.

In Charisma and Control in Rajneeshpuram: A Community Without Shared Values, author Lewis F Carter mentions that in the years between 1960 and 1968, Osho held several academic positions, even teaching philosophy at a few universities such as Jabalpur University. However, through this period, he began to grow more disillusioned with existing philosophies propelled by Hinduism and even socialism, calling out their “hypocrisy”.

He began to cultivate his own philosophy — one that would later become enshrined in the pages of the Rajneeshee manifesto and would be followed for decades after his death in 1990. A simplified way to sum up Osho’s philosophy would be to refer to one of his most famous quotes:

To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.

Osho 

Carter mentions that by 1970, he had rounded up his first batch of disciples, the ‘Neo-Sannyasis’, and took under his wing, Laxmi Kuruwa. Later known as ‘Ma Yoga Laxmi’, she became his personal secretary and managed to procure funds strong enough for him to settle in Mumbai and receive visitors.

Four years and several hundred followers — who were now calling themselves ‘Rajneeshees’ — later, he moved to a property purchased in Koregaon Park, Pune, by one of his disciples who was a Greek heiress, which later became his core ashram from 1974-1981.

What Happened Inside the Koregaon Park Ashram?

A first person account written by Vikram Zutshi for DailyO, describes the kind of medication that Osho was famous (or infamous) for. It also goes into the seemingly extraordinary daily routines set up for the disciples residing there.

The core of Rajneesh’s philosophy emphasised that in order to know the truth one had to first satiate every repressed desire as it arose.

Vikram Zutshi 

The Rajneeshees were instructed to start their day with an hour-long “dynamic meditation”, which would be divided into five parts. This would include exhaling in a chaotic manner for ten minutes, following which there would be total catharsis. This is where they were asked to “release” feelings and emotions by singing, shouting, dancing, kicking and laughing.

Following this, they would have to jump up and down, and then stay frozen for several minutes to understand the depth of their emotions until the reality of their surroundings came back into focus. They would then break into dance.

Calling the atmosphere in the ashram “open and permissive”, Zutshi writes:

We were encouraged to shed our inhibitions and act spontaneously in all situations. Invariably a few people would end up crying after the session in throes of cathartic release.

Vikram Zutshi

Zutshi mentions that in the mid-1970s, a group of therapists from the Human Potential Movement (HPM) forayed into the ashram and would hold experimental “therapy groups” among the Rajneeshees. Some even encouraged the use of physical violence, along with sexual liberation. These therapy groups, he says, became a major source of income for the ashram.

What Was Osho's Influence on the Indian Masses and Bollywood?

While Osho is famed for having established a solid legacy overseas, he had already dug the roots of his philosophy deep into Indian soil. By the time the ashram in Koregaon Park had been established, he received dozens of disciples from across the world on an everyday basis.

According to Carter, by 1976, close to 30,000 foreigners were visiting the Ashram yearly, and the worldwide Rajneeshism movement included approximately 25,000 committed devotees.

Even more remarkable is the kind of talent that made up the movement. There were people with expertise in science, technology, medicine, politics and cinema at Osho’s doorstep.

Bollywood legends such as Vinod Khanna, Parveen Babi, and even Mahesh Bhatt were known followers of Osho’s philosophy. Vinod Khanna had reportedly turned his back on the industry at the peak of his career and throw himself in Rajneeshism. Calling himself “Swami Vinod Bharti”, he worked as a gardner at the commune.

The celebrity influx into Osho’s cult wasn’t limited to Bollywood. One of Osho’s most famous disciples, who later became his secretary, was none other than Francoise Ruddy. Later named “Ma Prem Hasya”, she was married to Academy Award-winning Albert Ruddy, the producer of The Godfather.

It was due to the patronage of such disciples that helped fill first the ashram’s, and later Rajneeshpuram’s, coffers.

Who Was Ma Anand Sheela?

Sheela Ambalal Patel’s journey as “Ma Anand Sheela” or “The First Lady” of Rajneeshism – as some would later call her – began when she met Osho at the age of 16.

Sheela soon became a favourite of the guru and he began to relay some of his most trusted advice, instructions and responsibilities in her direction. In her book Don’t Kill Him! The Story of My Life With Bhagwan Rajneesh, she mentions that she had become his closest confidante and it wasn’t long before she began unofficially running the functioning of the ashram in Pune.

Sheela’s real role, however, began when Osho gave her the responsibility to relocate the Rajneeshees to a new place, where he could teach them his philosophy without outside resistance. 

She suggested Oregon, a small town in the US. She recalls in her book that he favoured her with a smile, named her his new secretary and asked her to make all the arrangements.

Soon after making this decision, Osho took on an oath of silence. It was left to Sheela to procure passports for the guru, herself, as well as some of their most trusted and important disciples. Successfully managing to arrange for these, Sheela, Osho and a few others left India for Oregon in June 1981.

Why Did Osho Leave India?

While Osho had been gaining momentum within the Indian masses, the government (under the rule of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi) was not fond of the guru, his cult or his ashram.

According to a report by WRSP, the government had opened investigations into multiple allegations of criminal behaviour in connection to Osho. These included charges related to Osho-sanctioned prostitution, international drug trafficking, gold smuggling, money laundering, and tax evasion.

As ordered by the government, he had to pay back his taxes, a major blow to his reputation that greatly angered the Rajneeshees. In 1981, the year he left for Oregon, a Hindu fundamentalist had reportedly tried to assassinate him.

In a self-written post published after his return to India in 1987, Osho had expressed his anger at the Indian Parliament, saying they had issued explicit orders to not allow the Rajneeshees from across the world to enter India.

The Indian government has informed all the embassies that no sannyasins should be given entry into India, so sannyasins are going there without the mala, without orange clothes, but somehow they are caught. Now letters have started reaching me: What is the matter?

Osho 

“The Indian parliament has urged Indian journalists and news media people not to give any space to my ideas. The American government has been pressuring the Indian government so that no news media people from the West should be allowed to take my interview,” Osho said in his post.

Charges Against Rajneeshees in Oregon: Bio-Terror Attack & Voter Fraud

As shown in Wild Wild Country, the influx of Rajneeshees into Oregon and the establishment of Rajneeshpuram was met with great resistance from the local families of the region.

These were people who belonged to conservative, Christian families. So when the Rajneeshees began to pour into what they considered “their land”, with their free sex, open marriages and alien concepts, the locals began to turn hostile.

Over the next couple of months, what emerged was a kind of civil-war like struggle between the Rajneeshees and the Oregonions. While tensions had been budding for a while, the crisis reached its peak in 1984, when the Rajneeshees realised that the only way they could secure Rajneeshpuram was by taking over Wasco county in the November elections.

Although the Rajneeshees were determined to win these elections, they only made up about 10 percent of the county’s population. As a result, they undertook two drastic measures which would later prove fatal for them in a court of law.

Bio-Terror Attack

Referred to as one of the most terrible cases of a bio-terror attack in America, in an article by The Atlantic, the Rajneeshees allegedly poisoned half the county’s voters by pouring Salmonella-tainted liquid on items in the salad bars of ten popular restaurants. Salmonella, a kind of bacteria, if contacted with food, can cause one of the worst forms of food poisoning.

A total of 751 people were affected by the poisoning and hospital beds were full of patients in critical conditions, although no one died.

Voter-Fraud

The second method by which they tried to win the elections was by launching a humanitarian “Share-a-Home” program. Here, they bussed dozens of homeless people to Rajneeshpuram, promised them food, clothing, and shelter if they came to the compound and voted for their candidates. The Atlantic report mentions that state officials soon caught wind of this development and the then Secretary of State, Norma Paulus, soon halted voter registration in Wasco County by calling an emergency rule, a month before the November elections. This required anyone registering to vote in the county to personally appear at a local eligibility hearing.

Were Osho and Sheela Finally Convicted?

The antics of the Rajneeshees had caught the eye of the US federal authorities long before the November Wasco county elections. As shown in the documentary, tensions had begin to mount between Osho and Sheela, who up until then was still widely considered the public face of the Rajneesh campaign.

Following an assassination attempt on Osho’s personal physician, Sheela and a small group of her followers abruptly left Rajneeshpuram. This greatly angered Osho and turned him against her.

Meanwhile, charge after charge involving tax evasions, voter-fraud, immigration fraud and even an attempt to murder were building up against the Rajneeshees, Osho and Sheela in particular. While Sheela took refuge in Germany, Osho broke his vow of silence and laid the blame for all the charges pointed his way on “Sheela and her group of fascists”.

The authorities, meanwhile, were waiting for the perfect moment to apprehend both Osho and Sheela. Opportunity struck when, in an abrupt move, Osho and a few of his disciples took off from Rajneeshpuram. According to a UPI article from 1985, when the plane stopped to refuel at Charlottesville, at 2 am, on 28 October, Osho and 13 others travelling with him were instantly arrested.

The 1985 report says: “The indictment charged Rajneesh with making false statements to the US Immigration and Naturalisation Service and conspiring to defraud the government.”

Meanwhile, an LA Times report from 1985 stated that Sheela and two others were arrested in West Germany. They were charged with degree assault, attempted murder and conspiracy in an alleged attempt to poison Swami Devaraj, Osho’s personal doctor.

Although Sheela was sentenced to 20 years in prison, she served only 29 months. She was let go on account of good behaviour. Osho, on the other hand, was paraded in chains through a series of prisons, until he was finally taken to the Oregon county jail. On the advice of his lawyer, he pleaded guilty to two of the charges regarding immigration fraud that were pressed against him.

According to UCA News, Osho also agreed to pay a $400,000 fine, following which he was given a 10 year suspended sentence and ordered to leave the country and not return for a minimum of 5 years.

Osho returned briefly to India, where he was greeted devotionally by the rest of his followers in the country. Taking off to Kathmandu, he started a “world tour” of sorts, where he was rejected by 13 different countries. He finally returned to his homeland again. In 1989, he took yet another vow of silence.

His health started to deteriorate and he began to make fewer public appearances. In January 1990, Osho breathed his last, with his final words "remember that you are all Buddhas”— leaving behind thousands of grieving Rajneeshees, determined to carry on his legacy forever.