I remember reading my first Osho book in the German library in Mumbai almost 30 years ago. From then on I have bought and read many Osho books. I do not accept him as a Guru but read his books for inspiration and entertainment.
Osho had a certain understanding that cannot be found only through reading of books. Try reading him and see for yourself. You can feel the fragrance. This experience is available to anyone who reads him.
Yet Osho was targeted and victimized by more than one country. The USA brought criminal charges against him and I think more than one country refused to welcome him when he wanted to settle there.
We can assume that people in these governments were not acting only out of malice. They perceived a threat from Osho and that is why they targeted him. For more on this subject please see the well made Netflix docuseries, Wild Wild Country. Login to your Netflix and do a search. It is worth watching.
After watching the series I have the following comments to make. These are I think the main mistakes of Osho:
- Firstly he did not respect the social mores of society. His followers acted in outrageous ways on a routine basis (for example having sex out in the open). This disgusted and outraged the local residents and powerful people in government turned hostile.
Osho should have respected this dictum from the Bible – When in Rome do as Romans do. It is one thing to not follow social mores when there is a point of principle involved. At all other times do what is expected of you by society including respecting all applicable laws. - But Osho’s main mistake was not acting with the understanding that this is the age of Kali – Kalyug. His very ambitious goal that he set himself was to change the consciousness of society. He actually wanted to change the consciousness and thought process of the entire human race.
This was doomed to failure right from the start. In addition to this being Kalyug there remains the fact that changing someone’s consciousness is something that can be done only by the person himself. I cannot do my thinking for you. I cannot do your spiritual practice for you. Making strides and growing as a person spiritually is no joke.
It takes about 20 to 25 years for a person to grow and become an adult and be capable of supporting himself. Why should the search for God be any different.
The Buddha knew and recognized this. He said – Work out your own salvation with diligence. He did not say work for the salvation of someone else.
Karl Marx said that religion is the opiate of the masses. This may very well be true. True religion requires sacrifice, renunciation and hard effort and only a few persons from each generation are capable of it. Not all of society.
Other than that we need not be surprised that Osho was victimized. Jesus was crucified, Socrates was poisoned, the Buddha faced many attempts on his life, Prophet Muhammad had to fight a war to establish his faith. Anybody out of the ordinary will face targeting by the masses and vested interests.
So I will end by asking you to read Osho and find out what he was like. Quite likely you will find a book by him that comments on your faith. Osho has given discourses (that were transcribed by his followers) on many different paths to the divine – the Buddha, Jesus, the Sufis, Zarathustra, Guru Nanak, the Upanishads and more.
Do not go simply by the controversies surrounding him. Read what he has to say.
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