A SHORT NOTE ON OSHO
Osho was known as an Indian mystic of rare international
fame. He was born Chandra Mohan Jain on 11th December 1931 at
Kuchwada, British period Bhopal State in Madhya Pradesh and died on 19th
January 1990 at Pune in Maharashtra.
Initially, he was addressed as Acharya Rajneesh or Bhagwan
Shri Rajneesh but finally as Osho, the Buddhist name. This word is said to be
derived from the Sanskrit “Upadhya” meaning ‘master’ or “teacher. But Osho explained
that his name was derived from the word oceanic of Wiiliam James , American
philosopher and psychologist (1842-1910) , who used it in the sense of dissolving
into the ocean. However, the word ‘Oceanic’ describes the experience, what
about the experiencer. For that the word to be used was “Osho”.
Osho spoke a lot, not imitatively, but originally and
demolished many existing concepts. He was against orthodoxy, conservatism, and
unscientific beliefs. The past was not of any significant use to him. “If we
cling to the past the only possibility is global suicide. If we drop the past the possibility arises of
writing a new destiny of man. He had no tolerance for repressionism. Life for
him was a celebration, not a mourning. Happiness, according to him, was not an
occasional but a perennial episode in the general drama of life. He regarded existence
as hilarious and life as a great cosmic laughter. “I do not ask you to do
prayer. I ask you to find moments, situations, in which you can laugh
whole-heartedly. “Laughter Is My Message” is the title of one of his books.
Osho’s innumerable discourses which later on became books
were provocative and to provoke his audience he had to be offensive.
Look at the following aphoristic statements all of which are
a good deal provocative
(i) A man without God is an authentic man. (ii) No woman is
anybody’s wife; every woman is a woman. (iii) The feeling of jealousy is a
bye-product of marriage. (iv) Friendship needs no marriage because friendship
is far higher. (v) The house of a bachelor is never a home,it is just a place
where he sleeps. (vi) You can be serious but your seriousness shows a sickness
of the soul. (vii) Existence makes no
distinctions, no discriminations between the sinners and the saints. (viii) Man,
free from priests, will have a beauty of his own. Priests have crushed and
crippled man from every direction. (ix) Nature is for freedom, not for any kind
of bondage. (x) The poets, the painters, the dancers, the musicians, the actors
are more loving but their love is not focused on individuals. (xii) Love is the
ultimate law; man is born with it. (xiii) Idiots don’t want to change anything
because change means they will have to learn something again. (xiv) The truth
is your own experience, whatever you believe about truth is only a belief. (xv)
All beliefs are lies, and all believers are blind.
Finally, there is much
to learn from Osho because he is so different from other mystics. He speaks what
he feels and thinks not as an imitator, but as creative scholar of life. He was
always learnt something new, which, according to him keeps us young. If one
keeps growing up in maturity and understanding, one never becomes old.
17th
September 2020 G.
R. Kanwal
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