DECEMBER 11, 1931
Osho is born in Kuchwada, the village where his maternal grandparents live, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
1932-1939, KUCHWADA
Following the death of his paternal grandmother, the care of her youngest children and of the family business falls to Osho's young parents. Osho goes to live with his maternal grandparents, who provide for him an extraordinary atmosphere of freedom and respect. According to his own accounts, and the accounts of others who knew him during his childhood, he was a daredevil and mischief-maker, never missing an opportunity to test his own physical limits and to challenge self-importance or hypocrisy wherever he found it.
1938-1951, GADARWARA
After the death of his maternal grandfather, Osho and his grandmother both move to Kuchwada, the town where his parents live. There he is enrolled in school for the first time. When he is not creating mischief and challenging his teachers, Osho continues the adventurous and often solitary approach to life that characterized his first years with his grandparents. In 1945, at the age of fourteen, he undertakes a seven-day experiment in waiting for death, provoked in part by an unusual prediction by an astrologer who was commissioned to calculate his birth chart.
MARCH 2.1, 1953: ENLIGHTENMENT 1951-1956. UNIVERSITY STUDENT
Osho majors in philosophy and wins numerous awards in debating competitions. He graduates with honors from Jain College and is invited by Professor S. S. Roy to do his postgraduate study at Sagar University.
1957-1970: PROFESSOR AND PUBLIC SPEAKER
Osho accepts a position first at Sanskrit College in Raipur and later at the University of Jabalpur, where he teaches philosophy. His unorthodox and challenging approach to teaching draws many students to his classes, regardless of whether they have actually enrolled for credit. As the years pass he begins to spend more and more time away from his teaching duties and begins traveling to public speaking engagements throughout India.
1962: THE FIRST MEDITATION CENTERS
During his travels and speaking engagements, Osho often conducts guided meditations at the end of his talks. The first meditation centers to emerge around his teachings are known as Jivan Jagruti Kendras (Life Awakening Centers), and his movement is called Jivan Jagruti Andolan (Life Awakening Movement).
With the help of meditation temples or centers, I would like to, in a scientific way, introduce the modern man to meditation—not only in an intellectual way but to introduce him to meditation in an experiential way. There are certain things that we can know of only by doing them.
The meditation centers are scientific places where a modern man can understand meditation through modern language and symbols. Not only that, he can actually meditate and get introduced to it. There are one hundred and twelve such methods in the world. I would like to give a detailed scientific basis for these methods in the meditation centers. So that not only can you understand, but also do them.
1962-1974: MEDITATION CAMPS
In addition to his speaking engagements, Osho begins to hold 3- to i 0-day "meditation camps" in the countryside, where he gives daily talks and personally guides the participants in meditation.
I used to talk to crowds of fifty thousand people or one hundred thousand people, and I knew that everything was going over their heads; they were just sitting there. These people loved me, not because they understood what I was saying but just because of the way I was saying it. They loved my presence— but they were not seekers.
Seeing the situation, that it is almost futile to talk to the crowd, I started gathering a few people. The only way was to drop speaking to the crowds. I would go to a mountain and I would inform people that whoever wanted to come to the mountain for ten days, or seven days, could come and be with me. Naturally, if somebody takes ten days out of his work, he has some interest; it cannot just be curiosity. If he leaves his wife and children and job for ten days, at least he shows a sign that he is not only curious but he really wants to know. That's how the meditation camps began.
JUNE 1964: RANAKPUR MEDITATION CAMP
Ranakpur Meditation Camp became a landmark in Osho's work because for the first time his discourses and meditations were recorded and published in a book, Path to Self-Realization, which was widely acclaimed in India. Osho later said that this book contains his whole teaching, which has never altered. The book is now in print under the title The Perfect Way (Rebel Publishing House, India). At the beginning of the camp, he gives three guidelines for participating:
The first maxim is: live in the present. Only the present is real and alive. And if the truth is to be known it can be known only through the present.
The second maxim is: live naturally. Just as actors in a play remove their costumes and makeup and put them aside after the performance, in these five days [of the Ranakpur Meditation Camp], you must remove your false masks and set them aside. Let that which is fundamental and natural in you come out— and live in it.
The third maxim is: live alone. Inside, do not allow things to crowd in on you. And the same is true for the outside—live by yourself as if you are all alone at this camp. You don't have to maintain relations with anyone else.
JUNE 1966: JYOTI S1KHA (LIFE AWAKENING) MAGAZINE
A quarterly magazine in Hindi is published by Jivan Jagruti Kendra of Bombay, which also becomes the official publisher of books transcribed from Osho's talks. By this time, he is widely known as "Acharya Rajneesh."
For me, religion is also a scientific process, so I have in my mind a complete scientific technique for it. As people become ready, the scientific technique will be passed on to them. With the help of that technique, they wil work upon thousands of people. My presence is not needed for that. I was required only to find such people who could carry out that purpose.
I970: DYNAMIC MEDITATION INTRODUCED
In April 1970, Osho introduces a revolutionary cathartic meditation technique, which he calls Dynamic Meditation. In May at the Nargol Meditation Camp, he leads experiments in this meditation, which he continues to fine-tune over the next three years. Dynamic Meditation becomes his most famous and widely practiced meditation technique.
A friend has asked, "In your earlier teaching of meditation you always asked us to be relaxed, still, silent, and aware. And now in the course of intense breathing and asking 'Who am I?' you exhort us to bring all our efforts into it. So which of the two techniques would be good?"
There is no question of good and bad here. I understand your point but it is not a question of good and bad. You have only to find out which of the techniques gives you more peace and adds to the momentum of your meditation. It cannot be the same for everybody; they will experience it differently. There are people who attain relaxation only after they have run themselves into the ground. And there are others who can go into relaxation instantly; but they are few and far between. It is difficult to move straight into silence; only a handful of people can do it. For the majority of people it is necessary to go through a lot of exertion and tension before they can relax. But the purpose in both cases is the same, the final objective is the same. It is relaxation.
197O: A NEW DEFINITION OF SANNYAS
From September 26 to October 5, 1970, Osho holds a meditation camp in Kulu Man-all, in the foothills of the Himalayas. On September 26, he initiates his first group of disciples, which he calls "neo-sannyasins." His version of this ancient Hindu institution is radically different from tradition, where the seeker renounces all possessions and relationships, is celibate, and lives on what he or she is given by those who remain engaged in society. As Osho begins to define "neo-sannyas," his challenge to the tradition becomes increasingly clear.
I am going to separate the sannyas of the future from the sannyas of the past. And I think that the institution of sannyas, as it has been up to now. is its deathbed; it is as good as dead. It has no future whatsoever. But sannyas its essence has to be preserved. It is such a precious attainment of mankind that we cannot afford to lose it. Sannyas is that rarest of flowers that blooms once in a great while. But it is likely that it will wither away for want of proper caring—and it will certainly die if it remains tied to its old patten
THE ANCIENT MEANING OF SANNYAS IS RENOUNCING THE WORLD.
I am against it.
But I have still used the word sannyas because 1 can see another meaning far more significant than the old one. 1 mean renouncing all the condition that the world has given to you—your religion, your caste, your Brahmin Jainism, your Christianity; your God, your holy book.
To me, sannyas means a commitment that "I am going to clean myself completely of all those things that have been imposed upon me, and I will start living on my own—fresh, young, pure, unpolluted." So sannyas is an initiation
BEGINNING IN I970 AND CONTINUING TILL 1985. OSHO'S SANNYASINS arc asked to wear shades of red and orange. They also receive a necklace from Osho, known as a mala, which consists of one hundred and eight beads plus a locket until Osho's picture. In addition, Osho gives each sannyasins a new name. The new name includes a prefix common to all—the prefix "swami" for men and "ma" for women.